History
The Dendy first appeared on the market in late 1992, selling at the price of 3900 rubles ($94). The console had its own animated Russian television commercial with the phrase "Dendy, Dendy! We love Dendy! Dendy -- everyone plays it!" Demand for the console was very high. By April 1993, Steepler had four regional distributors and had generated 500 million rubles in revenue.
The Dendy elephant logo was designed by Russian animator Ivan Maksimov.
Though Steepler quickly filled a nearly empty niche, the Western gaming market still was not interested in Russia at the time. For a while, the Dendy's main competitors were similar products from China. It was not until 1994 that a competitor, the Sega console produced by Nisho Iwai and Forrus, was introduced to the market.
Steepler reorganized in early 1994, resulting in the separation and creation of the Lamport company.
By mid-1994, Steepler had already sold 1 million Dendy consoles and was selling between 100,000 and 125,000 more per month with a revenue of $5 million. At this time, the price of the consoles had dropped to roughly $30–$35.
In August 1994, Incombank and Steepler announced plans to start up a joint business venture called Dendy, in which Incombank would contribute capital and receive 30% of profits. At the end of 1994, two more Dendy rivals (also NES clones) appeared: the Kenga, manufactured in Taiwan by Lamport, and the Bitman, distributed by R-Style.
In November 1994, the newly-created Dendy company signed an agreement with Nintendo, in which they are forbidden from promoting Sega products and given exclusive distribution rights to the Super Nintendo in Russia.
Modern Dendy consoles, which can still be found alongside Chinese products in many markets, are manufactured in China and have no relation to the Steepler company, which discontinued operations in 1996. According to another variant, Steepler signed a contract with Nintendo agreeing to sell not only consoles, but game cartridges as well. Given that licensed cartridges cost several times more than pirated ones, Steepler soon found that it was unable to sell them profitably, resulting in the company's demise.
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