Jump to content
IGNORED

Hyundai's Mini Comboy (Korean release of the DMG Game Boy)


goonhoon

Recommended Posts

I have seen a few topics regarding the Korean Game Boy release rebranded in Korea as Hyundai's Mini Comboy (미니컴보이) but I found very little information regarding some of these details below and usually scattered all around the place. I'd ideally like to collect all the information you guys have or know about and put it in this post. Below is the little bit I myself gathered.

 6.png?type=w800

source: Gamer LaFan's blog

1. What is it?

The Mini Comboy (or Hyundai Mini Comboy) was a Korean release of the Game Boy by Hyundai Electronic Industrial Co (now SK Hynix, the world’s 2nd largest chipmaker). For decades prior to the release, Korea has imposed various forms of embargo on the import of Japanese goods (still an ongoing issue). This news article, although from 1994, talks about a ban on import or distribution of Japanese-subbed games. Since Nintendo had no way to distribute these games in Korea, they did it through Hyundai (after the N64 release, Nintendo ditched Hyundai and partnered with Daewon instead - no consoles were ever locally branded after this). I assume that Nintendo agreed to this because the console market in Korea at the time was booming, but that may also be the reason why the Mini Comboy wasn't that big of a hit - there were too many other consoles and knock-offs. The fact that the first PC Rooms (PC방) opened in the early 90s is definitely also one of the reasons.

 

2. Releases, variations

The DMG-01 with the silkscreen printed 미니컴보이 on the front is the 1st Korean release, where as the second had nothing printed on it. These variations can be also differentiated by their boxes (image).

  •  1st release with a box code DMG-S-GATR-(KOR) [1990 - 1993?]
    • Made in Japan
    • The first release apparently cost 119000 Korean Won at launch (approx. USD 119) - source

image.png.5b1a93a7868f98176a71670827546e95.pngimage.png.9af5c88c6613ba94472b0b437215297f.png

- Serial run for the silkscreen variation: G11 - G21 (?)  - album

- The G11758589 I have at hand was manufactured in Oct 1990.

- The earlier serial numbers on the back usually start with G11, G12 or G13 and the latest I found is a G21 on cata-wiki. These serials were not specifically numbered for the Mini Comboy: G01 is the first release in Japan and when it got to G11 they started releasing the Korean variations. I assume the G11 is the earliest, or at least one of the earliest Mini Comboy's serials. 

- Here is a picture of a 1st release MiniComboy speaker

  • 2nd release DMG-S-GB-KOR or Japan DMG-S-GB(KOR)-1 (source) [1993 - ?]
    • Up to around G38 serials 'Made in Japan', after that 'Made in China'

image.png.32767e6dc8e418a92d137eceac04ac0e.pngimage.png.45d9156fd35bcbae7391810e47b28c90.png

G3xxxxxxx, GMxxxxxxx, GHxxxxxxx (?). The G3 serials were made between 1993 - 1995, after which they switched to H and then the M serial, which were made until late 90s. I.e. the above pictured GM58xxxxxx was most likely made in 1998 or early 1999.

Some of the 2nd releases Mini Comboys also had a black stamped ‘Made in China’ above the sticker (example)

How many were released: The magazine Game world (게임월드) in 1994 published multiple sale numbers (source) regarding the sale of the Super Comboy (SNES) and Comboy (NES) but not the Mini Comboy. Does anyone have any other numbers from any year regarding the Mini Comboy specifically?

Colours: [??]

 

 

 

3. Games

image.png.e3a6417b5249a88e3bc994a9f44fe998.png

There is physical evidence of the following games released for the Mini Comboy:

There may be more, as I saw mentioned a few times on the internet, but I believe there’s no trace of them actually existing in physical form.

 

4.  Promotion

5. Trivia, random facts

  • This is apparently the only known CIB of the Korean Gameboy Pocket (not a Comboy, but thought this was interesting)
  • This article from 1993 mentions that Hyundai Electronic Industrial Co. violated the local free competition laws by imposing its own sanctions on stores who sell Nintendo consoles under the recommended retail price. It mentions that Hyundai was already found to act anti-competitively five times.
  • The Gameboy Color was not rebranded as Comboy, but had two Korean game variations: Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver, and one Korea-exclusive GBC game: Bomberman Selection (The compilation is similar to Bomberman Collection, but includes only two titles instead of three and doesn't offer compatibility with the Super Game Boy - source)
  • Here's a person selling decals of the Mini Comboy logo (site cannot be accessed without Naver account)
  • Interesting clear Mini Comboy case
  • [...]

 

Some extra sources:

 

Edited by goonhoon
  • Like 3
  • Wow! 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sp1nz said:

Well here's my Korean GB 2nd release (pretty sure it's missing some paperwork):

image.jpeg.7abfa6e7795421d755b5801b550ea7f8.jpeg

image.jpeg.901b124f8104ba0f1d76709d37402660.jpeg

image.jpeg.3a89285be099be88ec58ad6ae9a99a9a.jpeg

image.jpeg.76b8fe1d89ec3878e035b9743589365b.jpeg

image.jpeg.f7080f46c589c229819d7df7b3d657f1.jpeg

image.jpeg.515102e4219163eb995c54d28924413c.jpeg

Got a CIB Alleyway, Golf and QIX too but haven't taken a picture of them.

Thanks for sharing! Love to see these holo stickers. I have been trying to find a nice CIB copy of the 1st release but had no luck so far sadly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
33 minutes ago, sp1nz said:

@goonhoon spotted Donkey Kong for Mini Comboy in this fresh thread: 

Oval seal, different color on the on the Mini Comboy text and a green sticker. I assume the differences are due to being a late release. The green sticker reminds me of some Super Comboy releases.

 

Hi Guys, 
Very nice topic ! We love korean versions. 

Soon we will publish a picture of the mini comboy set that  we own. 

About that donkey kong, this is an "unlicensed" game. Like it exists actually for comboy. 
This one has been distributed by Hyundai (sticker on the back). 

Cartridge is JPN. rest is made in korea. 

There are possibly some others, but never seen except in some advertise. So maybe just jpn or usa importations (like we have already seen for GBC, SFC..) with green improtation stickers by local distributors. 

Cheers 🙂 

Edited by VideoGameGalaxy
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, VideoGameGalaxy said:

Hi Guys, 
Very nice topic ! We love korean versions. 

Soon we will publish a picture of the mini comboy set that  we own. 

About that donkey kong, this is an "unlicensed" game. Like it exists actually for comboy. 
This one has been distributed by Hyundai (sticker on the back). 

Cartridge is JPN. rest i made in korea. 

There are possibly some others, but never seen except in some advertise. So maybe just jpn or usa importations (like we have already seen for GBC, SFC..) with green improtation stickers by local distributors. 

Cheers 🙂 

Korean market also has weird unlicensed/pirate (?) Genesis games with Genesis text red spines with similar green sticker on box and JPN cart shells.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@sp1nz thanks for the mention!

@VideoGameGalaxy this is crazy! I had no idea the DK existed. It is one of the games that was featured in this advert, for example, which perhaps suggests that those indeed were titles that were all planned to be released in Korea. The cart is JAP, not KOR then?

Thanks for sharing this. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only known CIB (probably not, but it also doesn't sound too crazy).

Would you mind sharing where you picked this up?

Edited by goonhoon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, goonhoon said:

@sp1nz thanks for the mention!

@VideoGameGalaxy this is crazy! I had no idea the DK existed. It is one of the games that was featured in this advert, for example, which perhaps suggests that those indeed were titles that were all planned to be released in Korea. The cart is JAP, not KOR then?

Thanks for sharing this. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only known CIB (probably not, but it also doesn't sound too crazy).

Would you mind sharing where you picked this up?

Yes this is one of the game of this advert. I never saw the other ones in any collection pictures. 

As i said cart is JPN ues. 

Your welcome.

No actually this is not the only one, i have seen another one from Korea. 

Mine also come from Korea. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...