How Konami Cleverly BYPASSED Nintendo in Europe

[@battra92]

Thanks for defending TMNT. Those of us who grew up with it loved it but knew how it was frustrating at times. The AVGN video was funny if you already knew the game. Too many people missed the joke and thought his criticisms should be taken seriously

[@redstone0234]

yeah "Joueur du grenier" a french equivalent to AVGN (but with a differnct humor style) video jokes on how the game is cruel and the PTSD he got from it

[@pojr]

The AVGN had some good points, but you're right about the intention being humor.

[@ShadowAngel-lt8nw]

The game is objectively not very good

[@fr33bird7891]

Na, I was there. That game sucked when I rented it from Blockbuster and it still sucked when I played it a few years ago.

[@demgutts]

​@@fr33bird7891 yeah, I was definitely there and it was bad 😂. Tmnt 2 was the best

[@Larry]

Ultra Games are also the reason why Nintendo had to rebrand the Ultra 64 to the Nintendo 64... Trademark issues.

[@cupkakeman3000]

Well….helloooo yooouuuu

[@tractorman287]

A theory I’ve heard is Palcom had more name recognition in Europe than Konami did. Large in part to the release of Ninja Turtles under the Palcom label. The release of the Turtles in Europe was huge and led to tons of nes’s being sold in Europe. It was even bundled with the nes there at one point. So Palcom after that had a lot of name recognition, even more so than Konami.

[@PhilipMarcYT]

Where exactly? Europe is a continent, not a country.

[@tractorman287]

@@PhilipMarcYT I understand Europe is a continent. The way nintendo handled distribution in Europe, they essentially treated as they would for a singular country. There were of course sub-offices throughout European countries. However, with the exception of Scandinavian and most communist countries in Europe at the time. Distribution was the same for the whole continent. Albeit language changes, but the same products were available essentially through the whole continent.

[@tractorman287]

@@PhilipMarcYT many games were not even translated for different regions in Europe. Largely due in part to the limited text in most NES games. Nintendo really didn’t put their full efforts into the European side of the business during the NES era. But to answer your question. The bundle was released all throughout Capitalist countries in Europe at the time.

[@eightcoins4401]

@@tractorman287 This sadly hasnt changed a single bit in other hobbies nowadays. Alot of US distirbutors for i.e Vinyl records treat the Uk as if its "Europe, the country" which has become very annoying due to taxes ever since they stopped being part of the Eu

[@huldu]

We rented TMNT several times(in Sweden) and had a blast with it despite it being so very hard. We never beat it, not sure we even got past the water level. Still super fun! Had no idea it was Palcom but as a kid I don't remember ever paying attention to the company behind the game it was mostly the game name we talked about in school.

[@PhilipMarcYT]

If you notice PAL games running slow, that's because they were 50Hz than 60Hz.

[@eightcoins4401]

The powerline voltage in Europe in general is 50hz, while the US has 60hz, which lead to TVs and game consoles having the same speed.

[@DELTARYZ]

Most games didn't bother adjusting the timing for this, so games made in Europe would run abnormally fast in the US/Japan, and games made in the US/Japan would run abnormally slow in Europe. A notable exception is the WipEout series. If I'm not mistaken, they actually coded their games' physics to be framerate-independent, so the game feels the same regardless of which region.

[@KopperNeoman]

Despite PAL's longer vBlank interval and higher resolution making it objectively a better standard for making games than NTSC, the proliferation of development studios in NTSC territories for home consoles spelled the death knell for most PAL versions of their titles. The opposite is also true for those relatively few games that were in fact PAL-developed though, running too fast on NTSC systems. Games like Worms and Medievil were notorious for this. Home computers of the era were and remain the opposite in this - games were made for PAL that outright couldn't be converted to NTSC due to insufficient vBlank. Specifically worth noting is the Commodore 64 port of the Master System version of Sonic 1, which can only run on non-upgraded PAL hardware. The NTSC version NEEDS expanded system capabilities to work properly.

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

@@DELTARYZ Right, which explains why the first PAL release of Super Mario Bros. from 1987 was slow, which led to Nintendo of Europe re-releasing the game in 1990 that had some speed corrections and bugfixes. However, the PALCOM releases of Teenage Mutant Ninja (Hero) Turtles and Skate Or Die!, gameplay-wise, were unchanged from their original U.S. NES releases. In the former case, this means that the player physics, especially in the swimming level, are even worse than in the original NTSC release.

[@nexhep]

"the game can be very troll-y at times" brotha, it's easier to name NES-era games that *weren't* troll-y than ones that were 😂 (but that's part of that NES charm)

[@pojr]

Well, you're not wrong lol.

[@RadikAlice]

I gotta disagree, but for a different reason. Ninja Gaiden is a better example of a game that messes with you, just look at the enemy placement TMNT is more a case of a tough game with tighter platforming than the controls can handle

[@mydadsacop123]

@@RadikAlicethat tmnt troll pizza tho

[@Ruudos]

Road Fighter is such a weird release. A Famicom game from 1985 that got released in Europe in 1991.

[@ThunderFist1978]

I don’t know if this is the case with Palcom, but Ultra Games had a different address than Konami in the late 80s, so it was easy to think that they could be different companies, whereas by 1990, both were using the same address, so the secret was pretty much over by then. By the way, I have visited all of Konami’s Illinois locations, and the one in Wood Dale is one of the larger buildings today. Ultra’s address back then was in a plaza directly behind Konami’s building. Gerry Drive, where Ultra’s address was, runs perpendicular to Mittel Drive, where Konami’s office was. Their address in Buffalo Grove is immediately outside Wheeling. You get there less than a mile after you enter Buffalo Grove.

[@KenHauptfleisch]

It probably has to do with release dates, they may have already released their allotment under Konami before Castlevania 3s release in Europe

[@pojr]

This is probably true. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this was Konami's thought process, to use the main branding until they ran out.

[@Uopra]

I'm guessing whenever they wanted to release a game they just released the game under the label that hasn't reached it's limit yet

[@pojr]

It's possible, and probably likely, that this was their strategy

[@_metro_790]

I think it's because of the name. PALCOM sounds like a western company, like Escom or Commodore. Japanese companies have long had the reputation of selling cheap junk here in Germany. Cars from Mitsubishi or Toyota were only bought by those who couldn't afford a "real" one, and televisions were bought from Schneider or Phillips, not Toshiba. In any case, they wanted to get rid of the name PALCOM in 1992, and that's when the imprint "Distributed by Konami" was added. I suspect they were allowed to sell it as Konami, but didn't do it for marketing reasons.

[@FeralInferno]

Still makes me sad that the US never got Gradius 2

[@pojr]

Indeed. It seems like it should have been. It was in English and everything.

[@kevin12567]

@@pojr Gradius II had a helper chip designed by Konami in the cartridge which let the NES handle more sprites, which is why it has no slowdown. That chip is also why Konami couldn't bring it to the US since NOA didn't allow third-party chips in their cartridges - only Nintendo's memory mapper chips could be used.

[@daviddyer3543]

@@kevin12567 Nintendo was being a total dick to Konami.

[@kevin12567]

@@daviddyer3543 Nintendo was fine with it in its home country of Japan; it was Nintendo of AMERICA (with a different set of executives) that was being a dick.

[@Syragar]

What? You mention the watered down Grant in Castlevania 3 (which could throw daggers as a regular attack in the Japanese version but was nerfed to only stabbing in the US) and Alucard (who we all know is awesome... yes), but didn't mention Sypha? She could absolutely MELT bosses if you brought the right spell book! 😂

[@pojr]

Honest confession, Sypha was the only character I didn't have any footage of. This video was the first time I ever went the Alucard path, so I decided to put the spotlight on him. Someday I plan on playing as everyone.

[@Syragar]

@@pojr LOL! I was just joking with you anyway. But yeah, I've played through the game using all characters... many years ago. The ending is a little different depending on who you end the game with. There's even an ending if you don't join up with anyone (although that's the least fun way to play). Sypha is a physically weak character that has no movement abilities that will help with platforming (unless you count her ice magic which allows you to use frozen enemies as platforms like the ice beam in Metroid)... but she has, IMO, the most powerful subweapons (elemental spell books) in the game.

[@mydadsacop123]

Grants infinite throwing dagger is cool but the ntsc version kills things way faster

[@dougawesomecities]

I was all in with Grant DaNasty. Climbing walls was overpowered and amazing

[@PikangsFutaba]

TMNT1... yup, it may got some bad reviews but the AVGN video is fun as long as you don't take it too seriously, is weird that Palcom label in Europe, but hey... it was the Ultra Games in Europe and it went pretty solid as well.

[@pojr]

100% true. I do think the AVGN made some good points about the game. With that said TMNT on the NES is a timeless classic.

[@DELTARYZ]

AVGN was always meant to be an exaggerated character for entertainment purposes and not necessarily objective critique. It's the same reason I don't get why people care so much about CinemaSins "ruining media criticism". That's not the point. It's supposed to be stupid.

[@PikangsFutaba]

@@DELTARYZ Indeed, I remember when things started with AVGN and I was like very naïve overall, but not naïve enough to know that it was just for having fun, sure, some games he has showed are genuely bad, but the purpose regardless if a game is really bad or not is just to have fun with it and not take it too seriously.

[@Gryphsolion]

I legit just got finished watching another of your videos, checked if i was subscribed or not and suddenly, new video

[@pojr]

Nice! I appreciate you being here.

[@TheDarkThunder]

I can’t shake the feeling nes TMNT was another game planned, but got a Ninja Turtle makeover.

[@MikeRox83]

The bit most people don't realise with Europe is that the NES didn't actually do gangbusters here like it did in the US. The Master System was pretty much ahead of it for most of the generation until heavy discounting, and even that paled in comparison to the hold Micro computers like the Spectrum, CPC464, C64, Atari ST and Amiga had on the market. It was initially the Mega Drive and SNES that started to drive consoles to the forefront of European gaming, but ultimately the Sony PlayStation that made consoles king.

[@mchenrynick]

The fact it didn't come out until 1989 over there hurt its overall sales.

[@MikeRox83]

@@mchenrynick it released in the UK in 1986. It was more likely £50 games when the competition was £5 that killed it. But Europe in general was just a very different game market to the US.

[@KopperNeoman]

@@MikeRox83 That and the fact that we never suffered the North American market crash, because that killed the momentum of home computers in NA as well as consoles. Even South America more closely echoes Europe than it does NA. It's likely the North American market crash was the single biggest reason Nintendo made it big.

[@f.k.b.16]

Maybe it had something to do with profits. Taxes are weird. It may have been Konami made too much that year and was going to be blasted with taxes so they used the off brand to avoid them.

[@Laynel8]

I believe the exclusivity deal was that your game had to be an NES exclusive for at least two years first before you could then release your game on other competitors' platforms.

[@goatbone]

I can't stand it when people say things like they couldn't make games for other companies when there are so many examples of companies making games for other companies at the time.

[@antoniomancilla2235]

I think we all though that the first TMNT wasn't made by Konami despise the sound being exactly like a Konami game.

[@williamosborne2208]

No we didn't all think that. It was actually in magazines back then that Ultra was owned by Konami and the games per year limit was known back then as well. Castlevania 2 and Jackal both even came with a mini ad poster advertising Ultra games.

[@antoniomancilla2235]

@@williamosborne2208 then I think I was too little

[@war3zlod3r]

TMNT the arcade game was already published under Konami for the arcade since it was just a port to NES it made more sense to leave it on the Konami branding maybe even legally required.

[@Andres33AU]

It's nice to see Probotector mentioned here; this was my Contra in Australia, I didn't learn about Contra until much later on the internet, and felt like my whole world turned upside down, haha. It's cool to see the robots as a playable character in the new game!

[@DELTARYZ]

I bet Europe had the same experience with Starwing / Star Fox.

[@KopperNeoman]

@@DELTARYZ North America should have been made to feel the same way about the Mega Drive. "No, it was never the Genesis, we had to call it that in your area because of trademarking. It was always the Mega Drive."

[@RadikAlice]

While I can give it a pass, still gonna explain some things. But first, gonna commend you for actually talking about TMNT with honesty and not riding the AVGN bandwagon TMNT got its name change due to UK politicians using it as a scapegoat, as some gangs at the time used weapons like nunchakus. Hence why in the TV show and even some games. Poor Mikey got his scenes cut, and weapons edited out entirely. As for Contra becoming Probotector, that one's on Germany. Basically, the media board was very strict about things like human on human violence. But video games caught the most flak as one would expect back then

[@rotcivgaleano3704]

Great video keep up the good work and look forward to many more

[@pojr]

Thank you so much!

[@goatbone]

Would have like to see mention of Road Fighter being an early Famicom title that got released in Europe and Australia years later by Konami, as well as Crackout which was a FDS game. Also they published Noah's Ark as a PAL exclusive even though it was not developed by them.

[@itsjustagamechannel]

So much new information here for me. Thank you for the education!

[@BlueMSX.]

Just goes to show you there's always more things out there that people don't know about, great video Pojr!

[@pojr]

Indeed. And thank you!

[@Embargoman]

Well it seems that even Turtles in Time got the Palcom label it is part of Konami of UK to say the British division of Konami based in London used the Palcom label.

[@MLBlue30]

"Not even Nintendo will be that petty." Lol, oh they will make up for that in other areas...

[@pojr]

You're right lol.

[@MungkaeX]

I figured that with few exceptions, most of the Ultra and PalCom games were released under each based on how many other games were already released by Konami that year. I wouldn’t expect it to be a nice clean break of the first half of the year Konami, and the second half of the year Ultra/PalCom because game development back then went at a snail’s pace. Then you get into the bureaucratic red tape with getting approval from Nintendo and then getting in line to get the cartridges, it was probably a bit of a mess honestly.

[@blitzerblazinoah6838]

Nintendo of Europe relaxed their game publishing policy in the fall of 1993 by increasing the maximum number of games a publisher could release in a year from six to ten. This was reported briefly in Issue 11 of the legendary Super Play magazine.

[@sirgouki6207]

"The controls are excellent" I have NEVER heard anyone say that about TMNT on the NES. The controls are one of the reasons that game is so notoriously difficult (and when combined with the nonsensical respawning... especially when the game just randomly decides to change the enemies that spawn to more difficult to handle ones mid zone turns this game into an absolute nightmare in some areas). It is the only NES game other than Snake Rattle n Roll I have owned and not beaten. Also, the Operation C contra game is a watered down version of the SNES Contra, not the NES one. The evidence is in the games themselves - The turtle boss and the overhead maps (including their layouts) are pulled straight from the SNES Contra.

[@jasonz7788]

Thanks pojr

[@pojr]

You're welcome. And thank you for being here!

[@mysector6020]

jfc STOP overstressing the SSSS sound at the end of every word that ends with an S... this is the last video i watch from u because it drives me insane. wtf is your problem

[@billy6427]

That guitar piece in the Beginning of the Video .Where is that from ?

[@ErdrickHero]

Mario doesn't look almost the same on NES as in arcades, it looks exactly the same. This is because the arcade version (VS. Super Mario Bros.) was essentially an NES with a coin slot. The game ROM is nearly identical, with the same graphics and gameplay.

[@eDoc2020]

The original 1983 game in the series was the arcade game Mario Bros, then there was Super Mario Bros on the NES, then the VS arcade version came last.

[@eightcoins4401]

Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros aren't the same game.

[@mchenrynick]

@@eightcoins4401 On the original Mario Bros arcade game, you knocked out the enemies by bumping the floor underneath them. Landing on them got you killed. This game was also released on the NES.

[@braillynn]

What's going on? Currently at work. Love the vids man 😁

[@pojr]

Thank you so much! Hope work is going well.

[@SoulforSale]

POJR videos rock

[@mushra50]

The only reason they relax their limit of how many games a company can release is because when the Sega Genesis came out they were trying to compete with them that's all

[@yoshi18super]

Amazing video, new subscriber

[@guillermos8447]

Another interesting video. Question, is the music in your outtro from a game?

[@pojr]

It's from Pac-Man Arrangement, the first stage.

[@guillermos8447]

@@pojr Thank you!

[@fattomandeibu]

I take it that the exclusivity deals were only for consoles? I have the C64 releases of the Turtles games, as they're clearly ports of the NES versions that had been modified to fit the C64s slower CPU and 16 colour palette.

[@goatbone]

Bucky O Hare is far from being one of the last games released on the NES.

[@poil8351]

now nintendo if you can get your game to work on our sytem and it is not banned/censored in a region your game can be on our eshop.

[@Gambit771]

Back then Nintendo didn't know Europe existed. They were almost nonexistent so konami probably could've just released all of their games under their main company's name.

[@PixelsNcreatureS]

Is your background from Playstation Home?

[@PhilipMarcYT]

4:38 In Europe? No, that was just for Britain.

[@TheDarkQueen89]

We called it Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in Sweden as well.

[@goatbone]

I think the TMNT NES games carried the 'Hero' branding for all European releases. I think the Australian release (ITA coded, weirdly) was the only PAL version that retained the 'Ninja' in the title.

[@ravensmadhouse75]

Well Done.

[@markula_4040]

I'd like to know what Nintendo thought of this at the time. It's obvious what Konami was doing. There is no way they fooled Nintendo even at first. I wonder if they just accepted or even admired that they got loopholed or maybe Konami was so good, Nintendo would have made an exception for them on the 5 game limit if they had applied for one.

[@Gojiro7]

5:15 ya know Pojr, you can just say AVGN or James Rolfe, the man doesn't swat down anyone, not even his detractors. In all honesty, I do think TMNT NES deserves the scrutiny it gets since its a very poorly thought out game in both design & programing; and is really only fun played with an emulator where you can rewind the many mistakes you'll make while playing or turn off the constant sprite flicker

[@jimbox114]

Even though as a kid I played Ninja Turtles it wasn't a very good game. The 2nd and 3rd one was great though. I remember getting the game for Christmas. I played the arcade version of TMNT and using kid logic I thought the game on the NES would be like the arcade. Obviously I was wrong. Very frustrating game. I was able to beat it a couple of times but the final stage was awful.

[@JohnMartin-ll9cw]

Funnily enough, the European version of the NES was bundled not with Super Mario Bros., but with Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in the fittingly named "Mutant Machine" bundle. And I have @TheCartoonGamer8000 and DidYouKnowGaming? to thank for that bit of information via the latter's video on TMNT games.

[@DonnieTheGuy]

I love Parodius and a lot of its sequels exactly because it trolls the player, it's a fun twist on the Gradius formula imo

[@pojr]

True. It's a cute-em-up version of the game with nice and colorful graphics.

[@prizegotti]

Honestly, I think the Bucky O'Hare thing was entirely because it was a licensed game.

[@retrojoe85]

The only letdown about Konami & Palcom games in Europe was the total absence of any form of optimization: in fact, PALCOM games were slower and less responsive than the ULTRA counterparts. PALCOM games were so poorly optimized at the point that if you put a PAL release into a modified NTSC system, it runs perfectly at 60HZ without any extra speed as typically happens with PAL games running on modified NTSC hardware. I've always prefered Probotector to Contra, robots were way much cooler for my taste.

[@Dethneko]

That SNES game you showed has both Konami and Palcom on it, so what was the point of that?

[@Angels-Haven]

that pronunciation of gradius though

[@2beJT]

5:19 - No, the kids hated TMNT 1 NES game. It was too hard and not fun for us. We universally hated it until we got to replay it as adults and saw it actually wasn't so bad.

[@mchenrynick]

Remember that the TMNT Arcade game was already out, and that's what everyone was expecting. That NES game was a sore disappointment!

[@anon_y_mousse]

I've still never finished TMNT. I could never make it past the dam but one time and that one time I was almost immediately run over after coming out the other side. Maybe I just wasn't very good at games, but I rage quit and never played it again. I may go back and try again though, since UCBVG put out a guide for it.

[@mchenrynick]

use the Game Genie if you had enough!

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@mchenrynick I don't have a Game Genie, so I'd have to use an emulator to get cheat codes, which would probably be better for me anyhow due to save states. But I will definitely try it vanilla first and see if I can't follow UCBVG's guide.

[@VXA1PSTART]

Konami is probably the best 3rd party company for the nes

[@PhilipMarcYT]

* was

[@pojr]

Definitely one of the best. Might even be the best.

[@EvaFull]

Capcom & Hudson Soft come to mind too… 🤔

[@billgates3699]

‼️IDK but all I think is “it’s so easy, even a caveman can do it” when I see this guy 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@metal_kitsune]

Yeah lol It would hurt Nintendo if they stopped Konami from releasing games under a different company name. Konami was on fire and making Nintendo a lot of money. Hence why they relaxed their policy in the long run. Who would turn down all that money?

[@dj9volt]

Parodius was released in the US/Europe on the snes hence why the NES version was not released in the US and got the palcom branding

[@goatbone]

That doesn't explain why it wasn't released on the NES in the US or why it got the Palcom branding. Was Parodius even released on the SNES in the US?

[@RedDev1l757]

Nintendo sht on us Europeans for decades. It's the main reason that the Master system and Mega Drive did so well here

[@JayJayXL2]

POJRRRRR!!!!

[@pojr]

Sup

[@halozxz5770]

im trying to think of something smart to say

[@PhilipMarcYT]

Don't try, you'll give your brain a headache.

[@greenmachine5487]

After reading the other comments on this video you're not alone.

[@raygunpyle]

Since PAL regions had Palcom, Konami should have called Ultra Games NTSCcom in the US.....but that name wouldn't mean much to most consumers in the US and the name doesn't flow as well as Palcom or Ultra. Only those interested in A/V tech would understand....it would have made me laugh in an instant since I would get the "joke" 🤣

[@Mrshoujo]

The Atari 7800 was an upgrade from the 2600. Bad consoles you should have shown include the Emerson Arcadia & Intellivision. Nintendo had monopolistic practices which are illegal in the USA.

[@williamosborne2208]

The nes cartridges looked nothing like video tapes. The restriction or limit on games per year got repeated so many times in the first couple of mins that I almost gave up then. But when you said the Turtles game had excellent controls.... yeah I couldn't keep watching. Not your best work.

[@fr33bird7891]

For real. Maybe he couldn’t make it that far but the under water level is near impossible.

[@PhilipMarcYT]

Maybe oversized music tapes.