Tengen (company)
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Parent Atari Games | | |
Subsidiaries | Tengen Ltd. |
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Tengen Inc. was an American video game publisher and developer that was created by the arcade game manufacturer Atari Games for publishing computer and console games. It had a Japanese subsidiary named Tengen Ltd. (株式会社テンゲン, Kabushiki-gaisha Tengen).
History
By 1984,
At the time,
Meanwhile, Tengen secretly worked to bypass Nintendo's
With time running short, Tengen turned to the United States Copyright Office. Its lawyers contacted the government office to request a copy of the Nintendo lock-out program, claiming that the company needed it for potential litigation against Nintendo. Once obtained, it used the program to create its own chip that would unlock the NES.[4] Tengen announced that they were going to release their own cartridges in December 1988.[5] When Tengen launched the unlicensed versions of its games, Nintendo immediately sued Tengen for copyright and patent infringement. This began a series of lawsuits between the companies which would not be settled until 1994.[6][7][8][9]
Tengen faced another court challenge with Nintendo in 1989 in copyright controversy over the two companies' NES versions of Tetris. Tengen lost this suit as well, and was forced to recall what was estimated to be hundreds and thousands of unsold cartridges of its version of Tetris (having sold only about 50,000 copies).[10]
Tengen went on to produce games for other systems, including the
NES games
Tengen manufactured both licensed and unlicensed versions of three of their NES games (R.B.I. Baseball, Gauntlet, and Pac-Man). The cartridges for their unlicensed games did not come in the gray, semi-square shape that licensed NES games came in; instead, they are rounded and matte-black, and resemble the original Atari cartridges.
- Licensed and unlicensed
- Pro Yakyū Family Stadium by Namco)
- Gauntlet (released July 1988[14])
- Pac-Man (released October 1988;[15] based on Namco's 1984 Famicom port)
- Unlicensed only
- Tetris: The Soviet Mind Game (released May 1989[16])
- Super Sprint (released July 1989;[17] licensed version released in Japan by Altron)
- in Japan)
- Road Runner (released November 1989[19])
- Vindicators (released November 1989[19])
- After Burner II)
- Alien Syndrome (released December 1989;[20] released as a licensed game by Sunsoft in Japan)
- Shinobi (released December 1989[20])
- Toobin' (released December 1989[20])
- Fantasy Zone (not related to the version released by Sunsoft in Japan)
- Mindscape)
- Klax (released as a licensed game by Hudson Softin Japan)
- Ms. Pac-Man (an original port released in 1990; unrelated to Namco's 1993 port)
- Westwood Associates)
- R.B.I. Baseball 2
- R.B.I. Baseball 3
- Skull & Crossbones
See also
References
- ^ "Happy 30th anniversary, Tengen! Your anti-DRM NES chip fought the law, and the law won". The Register.
- ^ "Articles of Incorporation of Tengen Inc". California Secretary of State. 1987-12-21.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2020-11-19. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "How Third-Party Game Devs Reverse-Engineered Their Way Onto Your Consoles (And into Your Heart)". 18 March 2017.
- ^ "Tengen Making Its Own Video Game Cartridges". United Press International. 1988-12-12.
- ^ "Claims Japanese Rival Monopolizes Market: Atari Games Sues Nintendo for $100 Million". Los Angeles Times. 1988-12-13.
- ^ "Atari Games Gets Zapped by Nintendo Countersuit". Los Angeles Times. 1989-01-06.
- The Los Angeles Times. 1991-03-29. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
- ^ "Atari's Full-Court Press". GamePro. No. 59. IDG. June 1994. p. 184.
- ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Atari Is Blocked From Selling Game". The New York Times. June 22, 1989.
- ^ "Certificate of Amendment of Articles of Incorporation: Tengen Inc". California Secretary of State. 1994-06-28.
- ^ "Time Warner's Family Reunion". GamePro. No. 60. IDG. July 1994. p. 170.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 7, no. 4. Computer Entertainer. July 1988. p. 13.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 7, no. 5. Computer Entertainer. August 1988. p. 12.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 7, no. 7. Computer Entertainer. October 1988. p. 8.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 3. Computer Entertainer. May 1989. p. 14.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 5. Computer Entertainer. August 1989. p. 14.
- ^ "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 8. Computer Entertainer. November 1989. p. 14.
- ^ a b "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 9. Computer Entertainer. December 1989. p. 14.
- ^ a b c d "Availability Update". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 10. Computer Entertainer. January 1990. p. 22.
- ^ "Tengen Announces New Games for NES". Computer Entertainer. Vol. 8, no. 7. Computer Entertainer. October 1989. p. 10.