Retro Bloginator

Welcome back to the Retro Bloginator. Last year, I came to learn about a knock-off Nintendo Famicom (or NES - Nintendo Entertainment System for those of us outside of Japan) released primarily in Eastern Europe in the 90’s called "Terminator 2". Naturally being “Terminator” titled I needed to know more, so I began researching. In the early 90’s, the 8-bit NES was starting to wain in developed countries and Nintendo had released the far superior 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). However, in many developing countries, Nintendo didn’t have an official presence. The price of an authentic console would have been far too expensive for the general public in those countries. The Iron Curtain had fallen and a lot of countries in Eastern Europe were no longer restricted to the communism imposed on them. New markets were opening. Quick to jump on this opportunity were the Chinese, who had cloned the Nintendo Famicom to create “Famiclones”. These were manufactured cheapl...

Welcome back to the Retro Bloginator. Have you ever heard of VHD? A quick Google search states it stands for Virtual Hard Disk. What if I told you the V stands for Video? Video HD. High Definition? Like Blu Ray or the less popular HD-DVD? Well like HD-DVD, this is a failed video format, but the HD has nothing to do with High Definition. In fact it was available in the mid 80’s, before High Definition was even a thing. VHD actually stands for Video High Density. So what is VHD? You’ve probably never heard of it and that’s not a surprise. Maybe unless you’re Japanese. It was mainly released in Japan and is very similar to the CED (Capacitance Electronic Disc) system which was released in the USA and briefly for a short time in the UK. Its main competition in Japan was Laserdisc and was relatively competitive for a few years, primarily due to the cost of the VHD players being a lot cheaper than Laserdisc players. By all accounts, VHD is technically a superior format compared to RCA’s fail...