Tell me about Sega distribution and packaging in Canada during the early days

[BocoDragon]

I've been collecting Genny games recently here in B.C., and I've run into the delightful fact that most early Genesis games were released with PAL boxart in Canada, instead of the U.S. version. I guess I never noticed this back in the day because I got into Sega after Canada adopted U.S. boxart.



Notice that even though there is the cool North American Genesis logo, it still says "FOR USE WITH THE SEGA MEGA DRIVE VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM" on the bottom of the front art I guess it's a typo, in a way.



So what gives? Was there an actual "Sega of Canada" that just decided to use the PAL boxart... or were the PAL + Canada regions both controlled by the same branch of Sega? (as opposed to the U.S. branch)


I suppose someone has done the work in finding out which games were in Canadian variants? What other Sega game packaging on various consoles did this? Master System/Game Gear?


Just out of curiosity... were both variants of a game sold in Canada?


And lastly.... when did Canada adopt the U.S. art? I know that Sonic 1 and 2 both had "PAL" boxart (except for the Sega Classics re-release of Sonic 1 and the Genesis 2 'not for resale' Sonic 2 pack-in version), but we definitely had the cross-platform "colored bar" packaging of the later Genesis/Game Gear/Sega CD and 32X era. Didn't Canada get quite a few U.S. black Genesis boxes? I'm sure we did.

[skaar]

Actually I remember noticing that myself. I got my Sonic 1 + 2 "bundle" Genesis (they came seperately) from Consumers Distributing at the local mall. Genesis games weren't as available as Nintendo - I remember that.

But yeah, my copy of Sonic says the same thing.

[BocoDragon]

Actually I remember noticing that myself. I got my Sonic 1 + 2 "bundle" Genesis (they came seperately) from Consumers Distributing at the local mall. Genesis games weren't as available as Nintendo - I remember that.

But yeah, my copy of Sonic says the same thing.

Yeah, it seems to be the common version here. I've fished two out of thrift stores downtown in the last couple months (same town judging from your location Nice weather today )

One of them is even labeled with a "not for resale" sticker on the box and cart, meaning there were official bundles with Sonic 1 PAL art/Genesis logo as well.

Also Consumer's Distributing... that brings back memories. The catalogs were the place to drool over games

[Lady Jaye]

Well, the Sega Master System was distributed in Canada by Irwin (while it was Tonka in the US) and the Canadian SMS releases were basically the Euro game (no biggie since NR and no PAL/NTSC issue). Maybe the early Canadian Genny releases weren't distributed by Sega but Irwin? It's possible that their distribution contract ended after the Genny was released, hence the discripancy between early and later Genny boxarts being used in Canada.

Can anyone confirm this?

[Azraelscross]

hmm. interesting. i never knew about this.

[anagrama]

Maybe the early Canadian Genny releases weren't distributed by Sega but Irwin?
Can anyone confirm this?

Yeah, Irwin initially distributed the Genesis in Canada (Canadian copies of the Altered Beast pack-in credit Irwin on the cover), but I've no idea how long the arrangement lasted - Euro-style covers w/ a Genesis logo only seem to exist for the earliest black-box games (there's about 20-30 of them listed at VGR).