How Konami Cleverly BYPASSED Nintendo (without Punishment)

You might have heard of the company Ultra Games. They made Ninja Turtles on the NES, and numerous other games. The company was in fact Konami under an alias. They were releasing games under both brands around the same time. Why would they do this?
Merch:
shop.pojr.net/
Our Discord Server:
/ discord
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:53 Nintendo of America
2:38 Unlicensed Games
3:22 Ultra Games
4:36 TMNT 1 and 2
5:52 Rollergames
7:17 TMNT: Fall of the Foot Clan
8:22 Nemesis
9:10 Quarth
9:47 Operation C
11:08 Nintendo’s Response
11:58 Conclusion
12:39 Outtro
Special thanks to the following users from pexels.com for the stock footage:
84LENS, 霍天赐, A frame in motion, Ahmet Akpolat, Andrew Hanson, Anna Hinckel, Anvar Tushakov, Artem Podrez, Caleb Oquendo, Cottonbro, Cristian Dina, Curtis Adams, DAV Grup 1, David McBee, Distill, Drones Scot, Edward Jenner, EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA, Ekrulila, Evgenia Kirpichnikova, Free Videos, George Morina, Glen McBride, Hirsh Philippe, Hugh Mitton, Jack Sparrow, Jose Carlos, Joseph Redfield, Kampus Production, Kamrul Chowdhury, Karolina Grabowska, Kelly, Kindel Media, Ksenia Chernaya, MART PRODUCTION, Mikhail Nilov, Miguel Á. Padriñán, Mike B, Monstera, Nazim Zafri, Nicole Michalou, olia danilevich, Pavel Danilyuk, Pete Wales, pickarick, Pixabay, Polina Tankilevitch, Pressmaster, RDNE Stock project, Ricky Esquivel, RODNAE Productions, Ron Lach, Ruvim Miksanskiy, Sam Lastres, Sora Shimazaki, Steve B, Thirdman,Tiger Lily, Tima Miroshnichenko, Timo Volz, Tom Fisk, Tony Schnagl, Vlada Karpovich, Yan Krukov, Yaroslav Shuraev
Special thanks to streambeats.com for the music used in this video.

[@TheSpideyGuyMurph]

Fun fact: inputting the "Konami Code" on the title screen of TMNT II: The Arcade Game will give you 30 extra lives just like it did for Contra, and LifeForce. But it wouldn't do anything special if used on TMNT or TMNT III: The Manhattan Project

[@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan]

Pretty sure that it only gave you 10 turtles, not 30. How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh? 10 10 tickles Tentacles

[@Loader2K1]

@@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan: Also, the cheat codes for _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game_ were entirely different in the Japanese version of the game, which is simply called _TMNT_ because _TMNT1_ on the Famicom was released as _Gekikame Ninja Den_ .

[@AndSaveAsManyAsYouCan]

@@Loader2K1 It was called Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some countries of the PAL region.

[@pepeshadilay]

Lol cheat codes were literally just dev tools lol

[@Loader2K1]

@@pepeshadilay: I'm well aware of that. ;)

[@Ruudos]

In Europe Konami didn't use the Ultra brand but the Palcom brand instead. What's strange is that in Europe Castlevania and Castlevania II were published under the Konami label but Castlevania III under the Palcom label.

[@geovani60624]

pr9bably they published too many games as konami that year in europe

[@andyc6542]

By Europe, do you mean mainland Europe? Here in the UK, i'm 99% sure TMNT was released under Ultra...I've still got my cart upstairs and could check this, but too lazy to..!

[@Megster_3000]

​@@andyc6542not from uk, but there's no such things as ultra games in europe (uk as well)

[@andyc6542]

@@Megster_3000 the NES cart for TMNT is definitely branded with Ultra games / the in game logo before the game starts is also Ultra here in the UK..

[@Megster_3000]

@@andyc6542 i looked up and it doesn't have the ultra label, though unchanged in-game

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

There's this European company Palcom Software which is quite similar. They operated from 1989 to 1993. Palcom Software had released games on the SNES. Just like Ultra Games, Palcom Software was also created by Konami to allow more than 5 games per year. Acclaim Entertainment created the Flying Edge and Arena Entertainment labels in order to release games on Sega consoles as a loophole to Nintendo's exclusivity deal.

[@JimHawkwind03411]

Other video game companies also launched divisions for releasing games on non-Nintendo consoles, including the following: Sage’s Creation: A division of Hot-B USA Treco: A division of Sammy Speaking of Arena Entertainment, before it was acquired by Acclaim in 1992, Arena was the US division of the England-based Mirrorsoft.

[@TheBlueArcher]

palcom? PAL company? at least they tried a LITTLE bit with the name for "ultra games" rofl. I wonder if that was established afterwards and konami already knew that nintendo didn't care. Now I can't stop picturing a game company called NTSCcom

[@captaincid6488]

I was gaming as a child when the NES was current. Everybody knew, at the time, that Ultra was actually Konami. The pause jingle sound is the same for both "brands". And Konami was the absolute best NES publisher, better than Nintendo. Their games still hold up.

[@Loader2K1]

Also, the games were always copyrighted to Konami and never Ultra (except of those simply published by Ultra and not made in-house by Konami), whose full company name was Ultra Software Corporation.

[@stripedrajang3571]

I don't know about being better than Nintendo, but they were awesome back then.

[@paulinekong1830]

Capcom, Konami, Nintendo, and Tecmo were the ones I remember most

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

I never actually knew this. Mind you, I was a _very young_ child when the NES was current... 3 years old when the NES hit American store shelves in '86, 6 years old when my family got our NES in '89, and 8 years old when the SNES hit American store shelves in '91. I never had a clue about things like this until quite a while later. I only had the vaguest idea that even Tengen were doing anything cheeky.

[@jasonbrown4239]

Same here I'm 45 I had the Atari from my cousin s then that nes was a game changer

[@FeralInferno]

Now I want "DMV Line: The Game"

[@jeffb.6642]

The only game to make you wait for 2 hours before you're able to do anything.

[@IntegerOfDoom]

*Fires up Unity* *cracks beer*

[@phattjohnson]

@@IntegerOfDoom Unity might be overdoing it? "Look". 'The line ahead of you could stretch forever, but you can't see around the rotund gentleman who smells faintly of french fries who has also found a way to consume most of your field of view.'

[@goatbone]

I think Konami had a good relationship with Nintendo and it was all probably a formality so other companies didn't feel like they were the only company getting special treatment. You should have mentioned that in PAL regions the alternative company was called Palcom and they released some games like Parodius and Road Fighter which weren't released in the US as well as Crackout which was a Famicom Disc System game in Japan.

[@stevemelo]

Great video Pojr. Fun Fact: Konami wasn't the only company to do this. Acclaim used LJN. Would love to see a future video about Tengen. Great title could be: How Atari Made The First UNLICENSED Games For The NES.

[@bildo1977]

Acclaim took this even further by releasing games on the Sega Genesis under the labels of Arena and Flying Edge.

[@Mrshoujo]

Atari Games' beef with Nintendo's illegal restrictive & anticompetitive practices actually created the gaslighting Nintendo Seal of Approval. They claimed "unlicensed" games would actually Damage the NES while all the end user needed to do was clip Pin 4 of the 10NES chip.

[@ZanyCat]

When I read the title I thought this would be a video about how Konami bypassed the lockout to secretly publish unlicensed games, but I was very wrong! Forming a 2nd company to release more games honestly was a genius move!

[@MattyIcecubes]

No, it was Atari who did that.

[@mattalan6618]

the answer is simple. back then Nintendo would only allow 5 games a year from developers so that they wouldnt be just sole company putting out games

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Yep, that's right. Barebone reason to not watch the video

[@goatbone]

What do you mean?

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

@@goatbone who, Matt or me

[@pinio5132]

Watch the video goober

[@goatbone]

Sorry, Matt. I clicked reply but it doesn't tag them like it does for you.

[@hammersampson]

I’m surprised Nintendo approved Ultra Games as a third party developer. Didn’t anyone at Nintendo noticed the address and phone number of Ultra Games is the same as Konami?!😂

[@drowningin]

It didn’t matter. A lot of companies did this. They had to pay for a separate license, and kits, and it restricted junk releases still because it was not cheap to do this. Not to mention the legal fees to setup another company with the country. Idk how much that is in Japan, but it’s a lot of work in US

[@billyj.causeyvideoguy7361]

They probably thought ultra was just licensing and localizing these games.

[@garou1911]

It was Nintendo's response to all the shovelware that killed gaming in America during Atari's day. It seems draconian today, but back then there really was a need to ensure quality so consumers in America didn't feel burned again like they did during the video game crash of the 80s

[@DarDarBinks1986]

And yet the Nintendo Seal of Quality and 10NES lockout chip did fuck all to stop shovelware from appearing on the NES. Even without factoring in the unlicensed games and Taiwanese bootlegs, there was still a ton of shovelware on the NES (i.e., anything LJN did). But the 10NES chip also prevented even LICENSED games from working. This was a problem for import gamers, as the Japanese Famicom didn't have the chip. Even licensed North American games would be locked out no thanks to the lockout chip. So retro gamers who play NES games on original hardware simply open up their consoles and cut one of the pins on the 10NES chip--problem solved.

[@garou1911]

@@DarDarBinks1986 I mean sure, you're not going to stop everything. But it really can't be overstated how saturated Atari was with clones and poorly produced games. Consumers at the time didn't have anything but magazines and maybe the recommendation of a store clerk in order to research. So while it was an imperfect solution in hindsight, at the time limiting production really was the best way to ensure quality. If you're only allowed to put out 5 games a year, sure you can make them all shovelware, but they won't sell (unless like LJN you license a popular property), so at the end of it all, they accomplished the goal by making sure there was more Mario, Megaman, and Contra then there was garbage and ensuring that while crap existed, it was by percentages more likely the blind consumer would end up with a decent-to-good quality game

[@denim3367]

They still have hundreds if not thousands of shovelware on their storefront. It made sense then, and it wouldn't hurt to re-implement it again every now and then.

[@BURRITO44]

But - there were lots of bad games. !!!

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

@@DarDarBinks1986 I mean, it definitely helped. The NES didn't have as large of a proportion of awful games as preceding computers and consoles did. For the most part, "bad" NES games were, on the surface, just unfairly difficult, which most of the time was just because they were fairly faithful ports of arcade quarter-eaters. Or, because they had odd gameplay mechanics that weren't explained in-game, and people played them as rentals or secondhand purchases without the luxury of a user manual. They _weren't_ ever bad for being clunky, barely-playable, or barely-recognizable multi-platform cash-grab messes. For examples of arcade quarter eaters: Contra, Double Dragon, Battletoads, Karnov, 1942, and 1943. For examples of games with unclear mechanics for lack of tutorials: Little Nemo, RoboCop, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. As much as it's a trope how modern games really hold your hand through early levels, it's kinda understandable, given how earlier games just threw you to the wolves assuming that you had either (a) played the game a few _dozen_ times at the arcade or (b) studied a user manual. "Bad" NES games mostly weren't bad on their own merits, they were "bad" for their learning curves.

[@anonamatron]

Rollergames didn't have characters exactly, it had teams. I'm not sure the team member ever changes, but it was supposed to represent teams from the show.

[@robintst]

Seeing as Konami had the TMNT license, the expenses for setting up Ultra Games were negligible, they made their money back in spades.

[@beauwalker9820]

Helped the TMNT games were huge sellers, and one was even a pack in bundle game in some European countries.

[@rionthemagnificent2971]

What Nintendo did back then is illegal today. They basically monopolized the devs with really strict contracts, which is why the other 8 bit competition did do so well (outside of the Gaming computers of the EU which in the UK outsold the Nintendo Entertainment System, as the NES was seen as a "Rich kid's toy" due to the prices.) Imagine if they, Microsoft, Sony did that today.. [Metaphorical] heads would be rolling in the legal battlegrounds.

[@goatbone]

Don't forget Sega tried to implement restrictions where they would be the publisher of all games on their new console. Needless to say that backfired hard.

[@mresturk9336]

It was illegal back then too. The only reason Nintendo dropped those policies was because they were the court systems eventually caught up with them. Forced them to quit.

[@PeperonyChease]

What was illegal? We still have console exclusivity today...

[@rsmith02]

It was illegal then and Nintendo settled with the US DOJ. The ridiculously weak settlement was just a coupon off a Nintendo game though ($10).

[@rionthemagnificent2971]

@@PeperonyChease no, forced exclusivity by third party devs. Nintendo forced anyone who made games for them, they could NOT make games for any other system. Which is why the Turbografix and Mastersystem had very small 3rd party development. Basically it was "Make games for us, and nobody else if you want games on our console." it was incredibly unfair for competitors and extremely unethical for Nintendo to pull that stunt.

[@CSanykdotCom]

Hey POJR, I was a kid in the 80s and I remember this pretty well. I could be wrong, but as a kid the perception that I had was that Ultra was like a prestige brand of Konami. You could kind of tell that Ultra and Konami had a relationship, somehow. There were telltale signs in the art direction and in particular the music. It felt to me like Ultra's branding was reserved the the special titles that were extra-good. Games like TMNT, it wasn't that Konami thought that the TMNT brand was powerful enough by itself that it didn't "need" the Konami name behind it in order for it to sell; it was that they were signifying that TMNT was SO special that it was getting published under the Ultra Games label. Think of it like Lexus and Toyota, or Lincoln and Ford. The 5 games/year limit was a real thing, though. But I didn't learn about that until sometime after. I think that came out during the anti-trust lawsuit against Nintendo for their monopoly practices during the NES era.

[@KaneAndTheHumanRace]

Can I ask what software you use to make these videos? Do you have a blog or anything talking about it?

[@gitgeronimo9375]

Dude, you must be researching day and night. Nice work, my man!!

[@DE-GEN-ART]

konami and nintendo were so tight knit by the time the NES released in america im pretty sure nintendo advised them to open up a seperate publishing house shell company.

[@ironhell813]

They were both Japanese, likely why it didn’t matter. There is tons of bias and racism in Japanese business.

[@beauwalker9820]

I think Nintendo was closer to Hudson Soft actually.

[@poethefallen1333]

Even tho I already knew this, it still bothers me that I have a copy of Nemesis for gameboy with the Ultra label while my Nemesis 2 copy has the Konami label. I know there is a release of the first game under the Konami label that was released in Germany tho, so I might have to grab it because of my stupid OCD.

[@Typical.Anomaly]

5:59 _"Hot Flash"_ sounds like a menopausal super-villain who really _really_ needs to see the manager

[@KarmaKazi666]

Get a pop filter, jeeeeezus

[@jeenkzk5919]

Great to see yet another post! It looks like you’re gaining a pretty good following.

[@nekomorph17]

I like your content! Consider yourself subscribed and I'm looking forward to more videos in the future 😅 I do have a question though. What music was used in the outro? It sounds like it's from a snes game, but I can't figure it out for the life of me

[@cantprocess]

Charging 40$ for a pair of flip flops from an unknown channel is pretty crazy.

[@dary0097]

Buying a $40 pair of Flip-flops from ANY Channel is Crazy

[@teewhy2747]

Wearing flip flops are insane

[@yermongo]

I'm so excited to have found this channel. Great watch! Subscribed.

[@Riz2336]

I'm glad Nintendo chilled out after the NES, I mean come on dude you can only make games for our console and that's it. That's messed up

[@andrewcarlton6196]

That was because other there was so much crap being put out and Nintendo was a far better system at the time.

[@zeroomicron4821]

It was just after the video game crash. They did it to control the quality of the games on the NES. People didn't trust video games anymore after the vast number of garbage that was released on Atari, this was their solation. As well as the NES seal of quality.

[@ChibiKami]

that was actually a misunderstanding of the policy; you weren't allowed to release the same game for another console for, I think, 2 years. It prevented multiplats meanwhile, Sega did not have such a policy and as a result got a bunch of exclusives simply because Nintendo had already blocked them

[@Sly88Frye]

8:24 I think I might know the reason. If I'm not mistaken on the NES itself the game was released by Konami so they changed the name back to Nemesis when they released it under their other company name ultra on the Game Boy to try to make it look more distinct and maybe prevent Nintendo from noticing

[@paulinekong1830]

Nintendo knew about it before the company was formed. Konami received Nintendos blessing before Ultragames got off the ground. There wasn’t any dishonesty involved

[@PrincessOzaline]

The other theory I've heard for the Ultra Games branding is they're generally games that appeal to American sensibilities already. Metal Gear, Ninja Turtles, Skate or Die, and even stuff like Defender of the Crown and Pirates, whereas games that were core Konami, or a bit 'weirder' to Americans were Konami. But I don't even think that's perfect either.

[@Loader2K1]

I kinda thought that, too, in hindsight. The OG _Metal Gear_ on NES was pretty different at the time as well because it went against the grain of such action-oriented games on the NES like _Contra_ , _Jackal_ , _Commando_ , the _194X_ series, and _Bionic Commando_ , to name a few.

[@stonent]

I wonder how Nintendo didn't get wise to this? I mean it's glaringly obvious what they did.

[@rionthemagnificent2971]

It probably was bc Ultra may have been Konami's US divison acting as a seperate developer. international game devs have been doing this for years.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

@@rionthemagnificent2971 not to mention I'm sure nintendo loved the extra money coming in and Konami was for the most part known for making good games

[@jarvindriftwood]

I imagine Nintendo knew and didn't care since Konami was making good games. I think the rule was more for companies like LJN.

[@cj694x2]

​@@jarvindriftwoodNo, because LJN is literally another example of this situation. Acclaim purchased LJN as a means of bypassing the 5-game limit. I'm pretty sure all Nintendo cared about was that both entities paid their licensing fees.

[@JasonChapmanwoofdog]

What does POJR mean/stand for? Additionally, great work in choice of topics and execution. Cheers!

[@Zlenny]

I could be wrong but it seems like the only possible answer. The reason why Konami released some “top tier” games under the Ultra brand was to boost quarterly earnings for the company. Konami and Ultra might have been “separate” companies so to help finance their operations, Konami would send a great game to Ultra so that both companies could be financially independent.

[@Badspot]

Something to consider for gameboy games is that when you were playing on a real gameboy back in the day, you were limited by battery life, lighting, and whatever situation you were able to play in as a kid. You really needed a game that you could potentially beat on a car ride to grandma's house. And the early games did not have battery backed up save, just passwords which could be annoying. I had both TMNT and Nemesis as a kid and I liked being able to jump into any level without entering a password.

[@ASMRPeople]

Only one question did any ultra games use the Konami code?

[@DanEsterlineMusic]

Good vid my dude, you'll hit 100k by the end of the year for sure.

[@ShanetheFreestyler]

It's worth mentioning that RollerGames, the TV show, was way different from the video game. There was no skating through jungles or jumping over pits, it was just a souped-up roller derby with a figure eight track instead of an oval. There _was_ an alligator pit in the first episode though. Still has theatrics though as the show had a sort of wrestling style kayfabe to it. There was an arcade version of RollerGames that emulated the show's format better. Fitting considering, like any arcade game, it was designed to be played for a few minutes at a time while the NES version was made to be more of an adventure. Considering the show only lasted for one season, it got quite a bit of merchandising. Besides the two games, there was also a pinball table, a CD album containing the theme songs used in the show, a magazine, and action figures!

[@chrusader5134]

Entertaining and informative video. 👍 Some of these things I already knew but thanks to this video I know even more.

[@mkendall8393]

Legally Konami met the Rules setting up a new company. If Nintendo had sued, they would have to admit unfair contracts and being questioned in court. That something the big N didn’t want to happen

[@paulinekong1830]

It didn’t stop Nintendo from their business practices being questioned. Nintendo actually won nearly all those cases.

[@ostiariusalpha]

It really was mostly that Nintendo simply knew Konami made good games, so they shrugged their shoulders at Konami stretching the rules.

[@VOAN]

Fun fact: Konami using the Ultra Games branding as a trademark in the USA not only loophole Nintendo's policy, it also prevent Nintendo from trademarking that name for their 64-Bit console. For those who don't know before the N64 was a thing worldwide, it originally was going to be called the Nintendo Ultra 64 for NA and EU and the Famicom Ultra 64 for Japan but because Nintendo can't use the Ultra name in NA due to Konami's holding a trademark of that they just change it to the vaguely named N64 for all regions.

[@agentmith]

Are you sure that’s what happened? Common words, like “Ultra”, can’t be trademarked but “Nintendo Ultra 64” could be trademarked. I doubt a company like Konami, dependent on the Nintendo platform for their product, would rub them the wrong way. Plus, I’m sure Nintendo would have no problem taking Konami to court if they needed to.

[@taemien9219]

This would imply that Konami knew Nintendo was working on a 64-bit 'Ultra' console as early as 1988. When Project Reality didn't start until 1993, maybe 1992 at the earliest. Where would have Konami gotten such insider information? Potentially subconscious information the developers didn't even know they were thinking of at that time?

[@RacerX-]

That wasn't a fact, that was a rumor that Nintendo actually denied. They said that it was not renamed because of a trademark issue but for the sole purpose to use the same brand and logo for the world, unlike what they did with previous consoles by naming them something different in Japan.

[@andrewcarlton6196]

That is not how copyright works. You cannot copyright common words or phrases. Second it is based of what you are selling. Ultra games would be different from Ultra bakery.

[@ironhell813]

It wasn’t renamed cause of Konami, it was named ultra cause it was its code name, like katana was for Dreamcast. It was named Nintendo 64 to be consistent with all Nintendo consoles of the time. (Aside from the handhelds)

[@76_SPZL]

I used to think the 5 games a year rule was a bit harsh on Nintendos side but I now know that coming out of the video game crash of the 80s that they were looking after their product and making sure only quality was being released and not quantity. Konami had to work around it because they were producing hit after hit. Not every publisher can say the same during this time period.

[@dangrcat]

Very well done. I always wanted to know the background of Ultra.

[@MortimurGrimm]

Thanks for putting in the research! I was always interested in why this was the case and now I know! Awesome! Great work!

[@thegameczar]

I don't watch much VG content. But when I do, it's POJR! Your content is good, well-edited, and well-narrated.

[@SoushinSen]

5:10 "But sometimes it gets some hates because of angry reviewers" I understood that reference.

[@ErdrickHero]

You know, I've seen the Ultra Games logo but I never picked up on it before. All the games under that brand I have played, I already knew were Konami so it never even occurred to me that they had been rebranded.

[@PlayJAKPlays]

Part of Gameboy TMNT's Replay value comes from trying to find the "Mini-Games/Special-Stages" without a Strategy guide or magazine.

[@Loader2K1]

Are you familiar with the NES Konami game _Laser Invasion_ ? Hidden in the game's code is legal info that reveals that Konami of America was originally going to release the game under their Ultra subsidiary. Anyway, good video. I do wish that you could have went into more detail of the other games developed by Konami but published by Ultra Games like _Metal Gear_ , _Snake's Revenge_ , and _Mission: Impossible_ .

[@daviddyer3543]

I would have liked to see an animated TV special or novel based on the TMNT The Arcade Game (on NES). It could flesh out the story and might explain why Shredder decided to lure the Turtles in by staging an arson attack on Channel 6, to try to score a media victory against them and having one of his mutants kidnap April O'Neil. PS. I wondered why the TMNT don't have other TV stations in New York to turn to. April is not the only reporter the Turtles can befriend to help them against the Shredder and Dimension X and earn the city's trust.

[@taemien9219]

By today's standards, the practices of limiting games the way Nintendo did on the NES seems overly strict and abusive. But given the quality of games on consoles before the NES, it was very much needed. Companies had to bring their best 5 games. Rather than flood the market with cheap games. I would point out that despite the limits, the NES Library was the most extensive of any console, even those that came after. Its not something I would agree with a console company doing today, since the market doesn't require it now. But it was a necessary evil that encouraged video game companies to up their game, if you'll forgive the pun.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Not that it prevented Acclaim to make shovelware. They even did the same tactic as Konami, just buying up LJN & using them as another way to release a bunch of licensed games. Oddly enough, their LJN-published titles were usually of higher quality than Acclaim-published ones.

[@GeekGameCulture]

A reason that 5 game rule was abolished is that by that time, Sega came out with the Genesis/Mega Drive, which became the first real competition that Nintendo had. Sega began getting more aggressive, and had some of their own good games in Sonic and Echo. Something else Sega did was to allow devs to create games with more mature themes and content, something Nintendo wasn't doing and continued to restrict even after they relaxed the 5 game rule. That meant that third parties just could go to Sega and have just as much success as they would have with Nintendo's consoles. Thus, Nintendo seemly had to make sure devs were happy now instead of trying to get a monopoly.

[@4PieceOriginal]

As a child, thinking I was buying the actual arcade version of Ninja Turtles and receiving that BS generic NES side scroller was heart wrenching.

[@design1of470]

Konami wasn't the only company to do this. Acclaim published games under LJN, a toy company they owned.

[@ironhell813]

Amazing that acclaim got away with it.

[@banesbox]

Side note: can we take second to appreciate how developers pushed the Gameboy graphics wise? The difference between Super Mario Land and Contra Operation C is night and day.

[@CoolWave01]

Thumbs up to Konami for figuring out how to bypass Nintendo's nonsense policy.. 👍

[@Dee_Just_Dee]

Nice video composition, and nice distillation of the story of why Nintendo went the way they did with game licensing for the NES. And this is the first time I've heard of the 5 game per year publishing limit, so thanks for that! Also, yeah, Fall Of The Foot Clan was outrageously easy considering how brutal the original TMNT NES game was. Playing Fall Of The Foot Clan feels like playing a modern game on Very Easy mode: You just get into the rhythm and go through the motions and you'll beat it in less than an hour. And maybe that was even intentional: While NES games were meant to keep you engaged for hours and hours on your couch honing your skills, maybe even way back in the late '80s and early '90s, developers felt that pocket games were best enjoyed for shorter bursts on your lunch break or while waiting for a bus or train.

[@edaniels240]

Konami wouldn't be the only company to do that. Acclaim did same when they released some of their NES game under the LJN brand

[@sypherthe297th2]

They must have dumped all their terrible games into Laughing Joking Numbnuts. Except Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety. Those were great.

[@Nelsea7190]

I never got past the swimming stage on NES TMNT stage. Me and brother couldnt get further than that point. Mightve survived with 1 turtle on very low health but not much overworld play

[@Jexel999]

What a great review .. I’ll subscribe

[@jonethbamondate388]

Awesome video, never new about this. I was familiar with Ultra Games and that it was from Konami, but didn't know why. Thanks.

[@AntoKyuuketsuki]

Konami also produced under PALCOM in Europe, which saw games like Contra (with the name Probotector - and literally being Robocop) being released under Konami for the NES and PALCOM on the GameBoy. So theoretically, if Konami wanted to, they could have released at least 15 games in one year if they really wanted to, because Konami released their five games in both the U.S. and Europe under Konami, but used ULTRA in the U.S. and PALCOM in Europe, where they could have flooded the market.

[@nappa0582]

Ultra Games was created by Konami to bypass Nintendo's license rule. 13 minutes reduced to however long it takes you to read.

[@JamesWilliams-fj8vf]

YEAH KONAMI USED ULTRA AS ANOTHER NAME BACK IN THE 1980s and 1990s

[@kargaroc386]

Bypassing regulations using shell companies: a tale as old as time.

[@Lachlant1984]

I remember Rollergames. I don't remember the PAL version bearing the Ultra Games logo.

[@MrClawt]

Fall of the foot clan was the first Gameboy game I got! I played the crap out of it. Gyruss was one of my favorite NES games.

[@Vorticron]

I remember when Konami was starting to get ready to move from Illinois to California and they gave us all a heap of unopened games from the warehouse including a giant stack of whatever Ultra games were wanted. I thought it was Christmas.

[@bildo1977]

Acclaim/LJN did this as well. They took it further by creating the Arena and Flying Edge labels and released games on the Sega Genesis under those names.

[@prizegotti]

Konami did release the Gradius parody game, Parodius, on the Game Boy. Probably my favourite in the Gradius series.

[@KairuHakubi]

it's amazing how corporations are largely just an imaginary concept applied to different actions a group of people take.

[@WarioSaysSo]

Back in the middle 1980's to early 1990's = from the NES to the SNES, in order for ALL publishers that desired to develop and publish games for Nintendo's systems, Nintendo held strict publishing rules for ALL game publishers, in what Nintendo refered to as "quality assurance control". That included in the license program that- ONLY allowing 5 game titles PER YEAR from the PUBLISHING BRAND on there platforms. This was of course not sitting well with the big publishers, even the ones who had great relations with Nintendo, but there was little they could do about it (at the time that is anyway). HOWEVER there existed a loophole that publishers could exploit - and Nintendo was aware of it and of some reason was fine with it (as they even RECOMENDED it themselves for Acclaim Entertainment in order to go-around the limitation) ande that was aquiring a 2nd publishing brand and use that to get out 5 more titles each year. So a few of the big publishers did this: # Konami founded Ultra Games (For NA and Palcom (for EU & AU), # Acclaim founded Arena Entertainment & Flying Edge (for Sega to go around the exclusive deal) and bought LJN (for Nintendo) # Namco founded Namcot Oh and not to forget mentioning, after Nintendo had approved the games for a "ready-to-go" publishing that featured there "Nintendo Seal of Approval" witch included; bug tests, graphic violance checks, religion, nudity, faul language, licenses, endorsments etc. then came the obligatory amount of copies that would be required = The minimum amount of copies was for any title 10.000 cartridges that had to be ordered to Nintendo's exclusive right to manufacture & distribute the game titles AND all paid upfront (!). And if the game would sell bad? that would all be on the publishers table.... And the time it took could be several months so this had to be very exactly calculated by all publishers if they wanted there games to be done and delivered at requested time schedule like Christmas seasons etc. Not only this but add. that if the game title sold great and there was demand for another sales + print-run, that could take another couple of months to arrange (!)

[@PeperonyChease]

How could it be 1 million? Do you think they produced 1 million copies of Little Samson?

[@WarioSaysSo]

@@PeperonyChease Yeah I mixed that up with another number related to another subject, it was way less, it was 10.000 minimum.

[@BlueMSX.]

i love it, great work Pojr!

[@rgx420s]

The Ultra Games version of Gyruss should have gotten some love.

[@mafiacity9078]

Thank You.

[@WhiskeyNixon]

What I want to know is how this all went down. Was Nintendo seriously like, oh! you got us! you can make ten games, now! Everyone knows what Konami did. No one knows how. Tell us how.

[@RetroJack]

A great description of an interesting era!

[@Ldysith84]

They also had those weird black cartridges I thought too, which I think they bypassed Nintendo's copy protection there to make their own if I remember correctly

[@paulinekong1830]

That was Tengen, a company created by Atari with the sole purpose of circumventing Nintendo licensing agreements

[@Bobby8451]

The games that are coming out on switch nowadays surely doesn't have any seal of quality whatsoever.

[@Bad_pun]

Another great video dude

[@barryallen1035]

*_Hot Flash_* from *_Roller Games_* is thick AF

[@waverazor]

its crazy how ultra konami games had such robust soundtracks/bgms. they were so good on the nes

[@MikeRavia-xp5ig]

Roller games feels al little slippery in the controls because you're on roller skates.

[@MichaelTaylor-qp2xf]

Ultra Games published a lot of good stuff! In addition to Metal Gear and Ninja Turtles, one of the most memorable Ultra games to me was Base Wars, and I always wished that it had gotten a SNES sequel! Also, I'm sure Konami wasn't the only 3rd party who wanted to release more than 5 games a year in America. I wonder why Capcom or Namco didn't follow suit, whether out of fear or difficulty. Either way, it was Konami's gain for a few years.

[@Laynel8]

I could be wrong on this, but I believe that the exclusivity deal Nintendo was offering was a minimum of 2 years before you could then publish your games onto the other competitors' consoles.

[@ssaxamaphone]

cool video but you need to put a de-esser on your dialogue track. the sibilance is painful!

[@mrmurdock6994]

Nemesis is the correct, original name. it was changed to Gradius when released to NES.

[@wtechdude]

Nintendo probably advised Konami to set up Ultra to bypass their restrictions, because Konami makes great games then. and if they strictly implemented their rules, it would be detrimental to the nes. but it would be a loophole that others like LJN would exploit to release their shovelwares toward the end of the platform's life.

[@madnesdoes]

I had no clue about this and have been a fan of several of these games for years.

[@indieeric6530]

Great video. 😎

[@joesshows6793]

Lived through this and we all figured this is what was going on. Always did wonder how they chose who gets what and I think it’s a mix of your though process here

[@Lachlant1984]

Did the 5 games per year limit apply to other Western nations other than North America? I'm speaking specifically about countries that use the PAL video system, such as Australia.

[@paulinekong1830]

Not sure about Australia but by the time Nintendo gained a foothold in Europe the 5 games a year thing no longer existed

[@MrMJaster]

Very cool vid. I didn't know about this.

[@otakubullfrog1665]

It is strange that Nintendo didn't impose the same release cap on developers in Japan that it did in other markets. I know that the flood of Atari games didn't really crush the Japanese market the way it did the American one, but I'm not sure why they considered it to be a problem that couldn't happen there.

[@GuiOmania]

Another compagnie Acclaim in the 90’s where using 3 compagnie name at the same time :Acclaim ,LJN and Arena just look Mortal Kombat snes Acclaim ,Genesis Arena ,Super Wrestlemania snes LJN ,Genesis arena all the same compagnie that was always odd to me !!!

[@Bad_pun]

I love this style of video essay

[@poil8351]

Well gradius,Nemesis, slamander, life force kind of had a lot of diffent names it is kind of hard to keep up.

[@Arz2003]

I've always wondered why TMNT was by Ultra Games and now I know why. Good video

[@mynamehere-cd8zg]

The Konami box art was pretty cool. I always liked the gray frame of the picture they put out

[@HaakonAnderson]

They paid for all the licenses and bought tons of cartridges. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo helped them with this workaround.

[@HaakonAnderson]

They were known for putting out high quality stuff, the policy was to prevent shovelware

[@Zooby19]

The developers who got fired from Konami probably went to work at LJN

[@AndDeathForAll82]

Konami was among the best developers of the era. I’m sure Nintendo had no issue with the loophole because of that. Also, I’m not sure what the standard was to get licensed with the Seal of Quality. They approved some absolute garbage.

[@jackofallgamesTV]

Not only did they approve absolute garbage they we're trying to stop Beeshu from releasing a higher quality joystick than the NES Advantage. First Beeshu released the jazz which was a right-handed controller, and that was refused licensing. So they made the super stick which was ambidextrous, and that got refused. Beeshu what's challenging Nintendo's seal of quality and questioned why would ambidexterity, a feature that is good for everybody, be a reason to refuse a license? Apparently an FTC decision or threats of an FTC decision caused Nintendo to license the Beeshu Superstick as well as other sticks of Beeshu that qualified as quality of life improvements.

[@adion24]

That little gold Nintendo seal is a major major reason that gaming in the US revived after atari had almost entirely killed it.