NES Tengen: licenced/unlicenced differences

[christhegamer]

Due to personal choice, I've decided that I will make it my goal to collect every Tengen game for the NES. I do have issues, however, with the "unlicenced" and "licensed" versions of it's games. I recently went to one of my favorite sites, tsr's NES archive, to see if I could find any difference between both versions of Tengen Pac-man. Now, the sikte master could of been lazy, but the pics for both versions were exactly the same!!! Could anyone possibly provide a rarity list with pictures, detailing all of the Tengen games, lisenced or not? (Note: I might consider to collect all of the black-cartridge Tengen games instead of all of them period, so there's no pressure :))

[PapaStu]

Thats because they are the same.
Tengen figured out how to override the NES lockout chip and started to make and release the games without Nintendo's approval. This included the re-release of the handfull of games that had licensed releases as well. They are going to look the same because their roms are.

[LocalH]

Well, I don't know if the ROMs would be the same or not, I mean, the licensed games would most likely have "LICENSED BY NINTENDO" text somewhere, and I'd be surprised if the unlicensed carts did, since that would have opened them up for an even bigger lawsuit than they got.

As for carts, just look for the official N seal on the box and the lack of a "gold" border on the left and bottom - and that picture on tsr's archive of a licensed Pacman is wrong, as I'm 99% sure that the licensed Tengen releases were standard grey carts. I'm sure that Pacman, Gauntlet, and RBI Baseball had licensed releases, but I'm not sure of any others.

[pseudonym]

RBI Baseball, Gauntlet, and Pacman were the only licensed games by Tengen. The rest are the black unlicensed variety.

[AlanD]

Those three have identical roms. I have dumped both versions of them and unless there are later revisions I haven't seen there are no differences between the unlicensed and licensed versions of those three.
Alan

[christhegamer]

Okay, after a LONG night of study, I have concluded that there are a total of 22 unlicensed NES Tengen games. Here's the breakdown; and please correct me if I'm wrong:

- 19 unlicensed tengen games (black cart)
- 3 licensed tengen games (gray cart)

btw, the three licensed carts WERE gauntlet, pac-man, and R.B.I. Baseball ;)


Also, does anyone know about the Tengen game Skull and Crossbones? I've never heard of it before, and wonder if it even exists.

thanx!!! :)

[p.u.p.u]

Yep, I have one with box+manual and one with just box:
http://tuskan.huuto.net/auctionimages/3/68/4265fb68f055068121cf3a17fd522-orig.jpg

And btw, it's 20+3 games says this site:
http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/tengen.html

[kainemaxwell]

Due to personal choice, I've decided that I will make it my goal to collect every Tengen game for the NES. I do have issues, however, with the "unlicenced" and "licensed" versions of it's games. I recently went to one of my favorite sites, tsr's NES archive, to see if I could find any difference between both versions of Tengen Pac-man. Now, the sikte master could of been lazy, but the pics for both versions were exactly the same!!! Could anyone possibly provide a rarity list with pictures, detailing all of the Tengen games, lisenced or not? (Note: I might consider to collect all of the black-cartridge Tengen games instead of all of them period, so there's no pressure :))

Good luck on that goal. I already have all the unlicenced titles, including a complete Tengen Tetris, gotta just get the 3 licenced ones and find the remaining boxes and manuals.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/kainemaxwell/gamecollection/tengencollection1.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/kainemaxwell/gamecollection/tengencollection2.jpg

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Due to personal choice, I've decided that I will make it my goal to collect every Tengen game for the NES. I do have issues, however, with the "unlicenced" and "licensed" versions of it's games. I recently went to one of my favorite sites, tsr's NES archive, to see if I could find any difference between both versions of Tengen Pac-man. Now, the sikte master could of been lazy, but the pics for both versions were exactly the same!!! Could anyone possibly provide a rarity list with pictures, detailing all of the Tengen games, lisenced or not? (Note: I might consider to collect all of the black-cartridge Tengen games instead of all of them period, so there's no pressure :))
Well, good luck with that goal, it´s not easy, but you are in USA...easier than here.

christhegamer: thanks for the info buddy!

Matías

[christhegamer]

Yep, I have one with box+manual and one with just box:
http://tuskan.huuto.net/auctionimages/3/68/4265fb68f055068121cf3a17fd522-orig.jpg

And btw, it's 20+3 games says this site:
http://www.planetnintendo.com/thewarpzone/tengen.html

Yeah, I just reread my resources; turns out that there's 23 games total (just like the number of charactors in the US version of Soul Calibur 2!!). I em dum :monkey:. Thanx for the S&C info!!! I'll have to put that site in my favorites file :)...

[kainemaxwell]

If ya need suggestions or advice, just ask!

[Dr. Morbis]

Those three have identical roms. I have dumped both versions of them and unless there are later revisions I haven't seen there are no differences between the unlicensed and licensed versions of those three.
Alan
...except for the "Licensed by Nintendo" text which I would assume to be present on the title screens of the licensed ROMs, but absent from the title screens of the unlicensed ROMs.