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AnimusCorpus t1_j5lxbrq wrote

Reply to comment by l4derman in Pet fish commits credit card fraud on owner using a Nintendo Switch by GoatsesWeddingRing

So funny anecdote. I live in New Zealand.

For whatever reason, back in the 90s, Nintendo products were crazy hard to get. I had to order most of my N64 games from the states and wait 6 months to a year for them to arrive. PS games were a dime a dozen though.

As a result, PlayStation was EVERYWHERE.

This meant every electronic was a "playstation".

I just find it amusing, because it's the exact same phenomenon just a different brand.

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9Lives_ t1_j5n6eej wrote

I remember that. PlayStation became synonymous with gaming console the same the word xerox became synonyms with photocopier.

There’s heaps of examples, another one is yo-yo , the corporations HATE it because when brands become integrated into modern day vernacular it fucks with their copyrights and patents.

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Kelpsie t1_j5n7b9a wrote

> copyrights and patents

Amusingly, you named the two types of intellectual property that it doesn't mess with. Trademark is the one you wanted. Trademark genericization is the relevant term.

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9Lives_ t1_j5n7grk wrote

Lol thanks. You’re right it’s Trademark.

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Suicicoo t1_j5nsnml wrote

to be honest, it's a not so far fetched to call a play station a playstation ;)

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Here_Forthe_Comment t1_j5ncudz wrote

I think the worst one might be bandaids, but I love hearing more examples

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Karkava t1_j5o6v34 wrote

I think Jell-O has been the catch-all term for fruit flavored gelitan products.

The official product name is Lego Bricks, but just about everyone seems to call them Legos. Even if they're a knockoff brand.

Kool-aid is so commonly used, "Drinking the Kool-aid" was used to refer to the Jonestown incident. Even though they used "Flavor-aid" the name.

The internet age also brought in the terms "Google it" and "Photoshopped".

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calibraka t1_j5o2hb9 wrote

In Turkey it's ATARI instead. Every game console was called ATARI for a long time.

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Karkava t1_j5o7vzl wrote

They seem old-fashioned. Atari hasn't been in the console wars for decades.

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Xwayds t1_j5nqwbu wrote

The distributor for the Nes in Turkey was Atari so still to this day people call electronics Atari

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Corka t1_j5nuphs wrote

?? I'm also from NZ and grew up with an N64. You could buy N64 games locally for sure, though they were way more expensive than playstation ones. But our N64s were PAL and not compatible with American NTSC cartridges.

My guess is that you probably got a NTSC N64 somehow, and so you HAD to then import them from the US.

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AnimusCorpus t1_j5nzkoh wrote

Ah crap, my bad. No I definitely have a PAL N64, it must have been ordering from Europe. I was a kid, I just remember it was coming from very far away and taking absolutely FOREVER to arrive.

For whatever reason, all of the local stores near me stocked an extremely limited range of N64 games.

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Corka t1_j5o0h1o wrote

Oh well that was partly because the N64 didn't exactly have the widest range. I think the catalogue was literally one tenth of what was released on ps1. The PAL region was a bit more limited as well. Also for some reason Starfox 64 was called Lylat Wars.

But that's okay, we got Golden Eye.

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