UNLICENSED GAMES ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Becoming a licensed NES publisher was not an easy thing to do. Nintendo was very protective of their brand, very concerned about the quality of the games, and equally concerned about making money. Not too many companies making games at that time had the resources to meet Nintendo's requirements, and the NES lockout chip system did a pretty good job of preventing unlicensed and knock-off games from being produced. Whether or not Nintendo's business practices were fair (or legal), they were right to be concerned because most of the unlicensed games that did ultimately get made were pretty awful when compared to the quality of the licensed NES catalog. This page features companies that released unlicensed NES games in the USA. The only one to also release official licensed games was Tengen (a division of Atari). Unlicensed games produced a lot of variants, that are all pictured and detailed here.
TENGEN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tengen was founded in 1987 as a division of Atari to specifically focus on developing console games (as opposed to arcade games). The history of Tengen and Nintendo could easily fill a book and some of what transpired between the two companies in the late 1980's changed laws and laid the foundation for the gaming industry that exists today. Identical versions of Gauntlet, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Pac-Man, and R.B.I. Baseball were also released by Tengen/Mindscape as licensed NES games. Tengen Tetris and Nintendo Tetris are not the exact same game.
After Burner
Alien Syndrome
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Klax
Pac-Mania
R.B.I. Baseball
Fantasy Zone
Gauntlet
Ms. Pac-Man
Pac-Man
R.B.I. Baseball 2
R.B.I. Baseball 3
Road Runner
Rolling Thunder
Shinobi
Skull & Crossbones
Super Sprint
Tetris
Toobin'
Vindicators
There are three different back label variants for Tengen games.
TENGEN 1
with
Manufactured
By Tengen
TENGEN 2
without
Manufactured
By Tengen
TENGEN 3
no back label
molded plastic
CAMERICA -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Camerica was founded in Canada in 1988 and released 13 game cartridges, including 3 multi-game carts, for the NES. Some Camerica games appear in silver cartridges, and some in gold. There are no variants, each game is either one color or the other. Just as the company was going out of business at the end of 1992, it created a new product called the Aladdin Deck Enhancer that supposedly offered superior processing and graphics and worked with smaller proprietary game cartridges. The only new game developed for this device was Dizzy the Adventurer, their 14th title. The other 6 games made for the ADE (Big Nose Freaks Out, The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy, Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade, Micro Machines, Quattro Adventrue, & Quattro Sports) were re-issues of existing Camerica games. It turned out that this device did absolutely nothing and the games were identical to the original releases. It is unclear if the ADE was ever officially released by Camerica, or if the inventory made its way into circulation through wholesalers after the company went out of business.
Bee 52
Big Nose Freaks Out
Big Nose the Caveman
The Fantastic Adventures
of Dizzy
Firehawk
Linus Spacehead's Cosmic Crusade
Micro Machines
Mig 29 Soviet Fighter
Quattro Adventure
Quattro Arcade
Quattro Sports
Stunt Kids
The Ultimate Stuntman
Dizzy The Adventurer
with Aladdin Deck Enhancer
Dizzy The Adventurer & Aladdin Deck Enhancer
Disassembled
COLOR DREAMS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Color Dreams was founded in California in 1988 and released 15 games for the NES in the USA before rebranding itself as Wisdom Tree (below) in 1991. The company also had a subsidiary called Bunch Games (below) that released an additional 5 games. Color Dreams released 13 of their games in a blue and a black cartridge. RoboDemons only came in the blue cart, and Operation Secret Storm only came in the black cart.
Baby Boomer
Captain Comic: The Adventure
Challenge of the Dragon
Crystal Mines
King Neptune's Adventure
Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu
Menace Beach
Metal Fighter
Operation Secret Storm
P'Radikus Conflict
Pesterminator: The Western Exterminator
Raid 2020
RoboDemons
Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise
Silent Assault
There are five different back label variants for Color Dreams / Bunch Games / Wisdom Tree games. CD 4 refers to an in-game contest where players could locate a pot of gold within the game to win cash & prizes.
CD 1
blue label & white text
CD 2
black label & white text
CD 3
gray label & white text
CD 4
blue label & black text
in-game contest rules
Color Dreams in-game
contest ad sticker from
King Neptune's
Adventure box
CD 5
no back label
molded plastic
2 screws, GameBit 4.5mm
BUNCH GAMES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bunch Games was a subsidiary of Color Dreams that was started in 1990 and was intended to serve as an additional revenue steam for the company. They only released 5 games before Color Dreams changed direction and rebranded itself as Wisdom Tree. Castle of Deceit, Galactic Crusader, and Moon Ranger were released in the blue and black cartridges. Mission Cobra and Tagin' Dragon were only released in the blue cartridge.
Castle of Deceit
Galactic Crusader
Mission Cobra
Moon Ranger
Tagin' Dragon
WISDOM TREE -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1991 Color Dreams decided to tap into a new market by releasing Christian-themed games under the name Wisdom Tree. Color Dreams had struggled getting their previous games into major retailers that didn't want to jeopardize their relationships with Nintendo, so these games were primarily sold in Christian book stores. All 7 Wisdom Tree games exist in the black Color Dreams cartridge. The only one to also exist in the blue cart is Bible Adventures. Sunday Funday: The Ride, released in 1995, was one of the very last games released for the NES.
Bible Adventures
Bible Buffet
Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land
Joshua & The Battle of Jericho
King of Kings: The Early Years
Spiritual Warfare
Sunday Funday: The Ride
AMERICAN GAME CARTRIDGES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Game Cartridges, Inc. (AGCI) was founded in Arizona in 1990 and was headed up by a former employee of Tengen/Atari. They licensed technology from fellow unlicensed NES game manufacturer Color Dreams to defeat the NES lockout chip system and released only 3 games before going out of business in 1991.
Chiller
Death Race
Shockwave
AMERICAN VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AVE was founded in California in 1990 and released 18 games before going bankrupt in 1992 and suing Nintendo for having an alleged monopoly due to their lockout chip technology. One of the founders of AVE was the same executive that had previously worked for Tengen and headed up American Game Cartridges. They released most of their games in two cartridge designs, one that is completely square, and one that has the upper-left corner cut at a 45-degree angle. Maxi 15 only exists in the square cart, and Rad Racket: Deluxe Tennis II and Venice Beach Volleyball only exist in the angle cart.
Blackjack
F-15 City War
Mermaids of Atlantis: The Riddle of the Magic Bubble
Solitaire
Venice Beach Volleyball
DeathBots
Double Strike
Impossible Mission II
Krazy Kreatures
Puzzle
Pyramid
Tiles of Fate
Trolls on Treasure Island
Wally Bear and the NO! Gang
Dudes with Attitude
Maxi 15
Rad Racket: Deluxe Tennis II
Ultimate League Soccer
SHAREDATA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Based in California, ShareData was the parent company of American Game Carts (above), and sold games for platforms like Commodore 64 and PC. Before AGCI was formed this obscure version of Chiller appeared. Where AGCI licensed Color Dream's chip technology, ShareData licensed the cartridge design from Color Dreams too, which is why this looks like a Color Dreams release. Very little is known about this game, including whether or not it was ever sold in stores, or if it was only a prototype. It was advertised for sale by phone in a few issues of GamePro magazine, but it is possible that if you ordered one you would have received the AGCI version above. Needless to say this game is extremely rare.
Advertisement for ShareData Chiller
GamePro Magazine Volume 8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chiller
ACTIVE ENTERPRISES --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Active Enterprises was founded in Florida in 1989 by two entrepreneurs who wanted to cash in on the success of the bootleg multi-game NES carts that had made their way into the US. The only NES game they ever officially produced was Action 52 featuring 52 original games which, individually and collectively, are widely regarded as some of the worst NES titles ever released. The flagship game was The Cheetahmen, a not-too-subtle clone of TMNT. Before getting out of the video game business the company did produce a second game, Cheetahmen II, which was never released and remained unknown until the mid-1990's when 1500 copies were found in a warehouse and made their way into circulation. Cheetahmen II is loaded onto an Action 52 cartridge and features a gold sticker with the title misspelled as "Cheetamen".
Action 52
Cheetahmen II
CALTRON / NTDEC & MYRIAD -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trying to identify all of the unlicensed games released in Asia and Europe by NTDEC (Nintendo Electronic Co.) of Taiwan, under all of its different subsidiary publishers, is fun and challenging to say the least. Despite its massive reach overseas, NTDEC only released one cartridge in the USA via its subsidiary Caltron: The infamous Caltron 6-In-1. This cart features six games that were all previously released in Asia and Europe under the Caltron and Mega Soft brands by NTDEC. Apparently naming their company "Nintendo" was one thing, but crossing the line into the USA market was a step too far, and not long after the release of 6-in-1 NTDEC lost a multi-million-dollar lawsuit to the real Nintendo and went out of business. How and when Myriad Games of Texas got the remaining 6-In-1 inventory from NTDEC is unclear, but the result of that occurrence was the Myriad Six-In-One cart, the rarest unlicensed NES game released in the USA. Myriad repackaged the games with new individually-numbered labels and boxes. The labels were placed directly over the original Caltron labels, which coincidentally is exactly what Gluk Video of Spain did when they repackaged and sold Caltron games. The number of Myriad carts produced is unclear, but it is believed to be under 1000, as the highest-numbered cart found to date is 000888.
Caltron 6-In-1
Myriad Six-In-One
PANESIAN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Panesian was a Taiwanese company that released three adult-themed games for the NES in the USA. These titles were modified versions of games that already existed in Taiwan, where these types of games were actually pretty common. All three Panesian games were released in limited numbers and are extremely rare. Some copies of Hot Slots have an upside-down label, and some copies of Bubble Bath Babes do not have the "Press Here" tab molded into the cart.
Bubble Bath Babes
Hot Slots
Peek-A-Boo Poker
S.E.I. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S.E.I. was started in North Carolina in 1989 and only released this one game before going out of business. The founder was related to the president of Epyx, the company that developed Impossible Mission II. There is an alternate version of the game with a black-and-white label.
Impossible Mission II
RACERMATE ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one is an NES game cartridge, but it's not really a game. Therefore some collectors don't count it as part of the NES cartridge catalog, and others do. RacerMate Challenge II was part of the CompuTrainer Pro which, at the time, was a pretty cutting-edge indoor training system that turned your bicycle into a stationary bike and simulated different courses and conditions. Think of it as a prehistoric Peloton.
The CompuTrainer system came with a modified NES console that had its lockout chip disabled, and there are a lot of variants of this thing. The very first systems featured the RacerMate Challenge II game in a Tengen-style cartridge, had a silver sticker with red writing on the door of an NES-001 console describing the lockout chip modification, and a sticker on the bottom of the console with a hand-written serial number. These versions of the game cartridge and the NES deck are extremely rare.
RacerMate Challenge II
Tengen-style cartridge (front)
RacerMate Challenge II
Tengen-style cartridge (back)
Serial Number Sticker
NES-001 Door Sticker
Before long RacerMate starting using their own original cartridge design which, among many other labels on the cart, featured a unique serial number sticker for each game. The door and serial number stickers on the NES-001 console went away, and the deck was simply marked with a round color sticker that matched a sticker on the game cartridge. Later releases used the NES-101 top-loader console which didn't have a lockout chip. The fact that there are two console options is refenced on a sticker on the RacerMate II OEM cartridge, and also in the CompuTrainer owner's manual (see below). Some copies of the cartridge have been found with the stickers put on upside down, but these were pretty obviously assembled by hand and I personally don't think that really counts as an official variant. The CompuTrainer Pro was also sold in PAL countries, so it's logical to assume that there are PAL versions of the game cart, but I haven't actually seen one. If you really want to drill into it there are also a few versions of the RacerMate ROM software that can vary between cartridges.
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RacerMate Challenge II
OEM cartridge front
.jpg)
RacerMate Challenge II
OEM cartridge back
CompuTrainer NES-001 console
with disabled lockout chip
excerpt from CompuTrainer Pro owner's manual referencing both NES consoles models
According to the owner's manual, a complete CompuTrainer Pro system includes 19 things:
1) RacerMate Challenge II cartridge, 2) NES console, 3) NES power supply, 4) NES RF Adapter, 5) Interface Module that plugs into both NES controller ports, 6) Right-angle 1/8in TRS Cable that connects the Interface Module to the PRO Handlebar Control, 7) PRO Handlebar Control interface, 8) Handlebar Bracket to mount the Pro Handlebar Control to the bike, 9) PRO Trainer Stand for the bike's rear tire, 10) PRO Load Generator (attached to the Pro Trainer Stand, driven by rear bike tire), 11) SpinScan Cadence (RPM) Sensor with Magnet that connects to the Pro Handlebar Control, 12) Ear Clip Heartrate Monitor that connects to the PRO Handlebar Control, 13) Power Supply, 14) 8-pin DIN Cable that connects the PRO Load Generator to the Power Supply, 15) VHS Instructional Video, 16) 1-page NES Operation Instructions, 17) CompuTrainer Pro Operating Manual, 18) CompuTrainer Workout Manual, 19) 6mm Allen Wrench.
CLONES & BOOTLEGS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once you start to expand your collection beyond the licensed NES games, things can get confusing pretty fast - especially if you're collecting games from outside of the USA. When organizing your collection in terms of the game cartridges there are two basic categories: Licensed and Unlicensed. Licensed games are officially approved for release and play on the NES by Nintendo, published either by Nintendo itself or by a legally licensed publisher. They only exist in the NES cartridge. Unlicensed games can be one of three things:
1. Unlicensed NES Game: Games manufactured and marketed to be played on the NES, where the software is legally licensed by the publisher from the software company that developed it, for distribution and sale in a particular country or territory. The software isn't stolen, the cartridge design is original (kind of), and the legality of making a game for Nintendo's hardware without their consent and without compensating them for it is debatable at best. All the games detailed above on this page fall into this category. Whether Nintendo liked it or not, these are NES games.
Box Art from Bee 52
by Camerica
2. Clone: The NES and Famicom systems weren't sold everywhere, for a variety of reasons, and as with any other successful product there were companies cashing in on their success by making imitations. These 8-bit 60/72-pin home video game consoles are known as clones (or sometimes Famiclones). Some of these systems are illegal direct copies, no different than the fake Rolex watch you can buy on a street corner in Times Square. Others were completely legal, despite the fact that they were obvious copies, because they were developed and sold where Nintendo was not doing business. Either way it is important to make the distinction between a clone console and a clone game. Clone games (as opposed to bootleg games, below) were legally licensed and sold to go along with their corresponding legal clone systems. The companies making these clone systems and games couldn't manufacture the titles Nintendo owned the software for, like Super Mario Bros., but they could license the same games offered on the NES by Nintendo's approved publishers, and produce them for their own systems in the territories where Nintendo did not hold the exclusive rights. Therefore just like the Unlicensed category of games above, Clone game cartridges aren't guilty of software piracy, they were legally licensed and produced in their particular markets. Also, you'll find that a lot of the unlicensed USA games on this page exist as Clone system cartridges in other countries too. The software companies that developed these games either took the opportunity to get their games into other markets on the clone systems, or games that originated outside the USA for the NES that weren't approved found a home with unlicensed manufacturers in the USA.
One very successful legal NES clone console was the Phantom System by electronics giant Gradiente in Brazil. It came packaged with Ghostbusters by Activision (the exact same game you could buy for the NES) and used copied design elements from other Atari/Sega systems, a company Gradiente was already doing business with in Brazil.
Phantom System by Gradiente with Ghostbusters
Some games were only ever made for an NES clone system, and this creates a major gray-area for collectors. Crime Busters, for example, was made by Gradiente for the Phantom System. It was never an NES game, licensed, unlicensed, or otherwise. So it's an 8-bit 72-pin video game that will play on an NES (and it's a Zapper game), but it's not an NES game. Clearly it's a cool part of your video game collection, but is it really part of an NES collection? Like I said on the home page of the site - whatever makes you happy is the right answer.
Crime Busters
Phantom System Game Cartridge
3. Bootleg: Bootleg games are illegal in every way. They are unlicensed copies manufactured without any legal approval or anyone's consent. Therefore learning about them and collecting them can be tough. Some companies that were making bootleg games were also making the illegal clone consoles and were passing everything off as a separate, different system. Other bootleg games were intended to be used on actual NES/Famicom systems, and were even marketed that way. It is very common for a bootleg game to have a 60-pin PCB with a 72-pin adapter inside the cart. A company called Hydron made games with a 60-pin connector on one end, and a 72-pin connector on the other. So whether you had an NES clone or a Famicom clone you could use the same cartridge - pretty cool actually. To further complicate things, there are bootleg copies of some of the more successful clone games too! A great example of how confusing bootleg games can be comes from Gradiente in Brazil. Not only did they develop a legal clone system and license the same games developed for the NES from Nintendo's partners, but they were also making illegal bootleg games of the Nintendo-published NES catalog (like Super Mario Bros.) for their own Phantom System console under a shell company called Falcon Soft! Wow.
Bootleg copy of Hogan's Alley titled Shooting In The Alley, released by Falcon Soft (which was actually Gradiente), for play on the Phantom System NES clone in Brazil.
Bootleg copy of Galaga produced for play on the NES by Supervision. It says Japan all over the cartridge, but Supervision was actually from Taiwan. Supervision bootleg games use the same style and light-gray color cartridge as the Asian Version and Hong Kong Version licensed NES carts.
Choplifter was originally released in 1982 for play on the Apple II computer and was eventually released for 18 different platforms, including the Famicom, but never for the NES. Unless of course you count this bootleg copy that was made for the "Entertainment Computer System" NES clone by a company called NASA from Taiwan.
Tetris anyone? This bootleg copy of Tengen Tetris from Dimasa in Spain features a screenshot on the label that at first glance is unrecognizable as Tetris when you're picturing the licensed NES version.