Black, unlicensed Tengen NES games

[+atari2600land]

How many different titles are there? So far I have:

 

After Burner (with box)

Gauntlet (CIB)

Indiana Jones

Klax

RBI Baseball

RBI Baseball 2

Skull & Crossbones

Super Sprint

Toobin'

Vindicators

Edited May 25, 2007 by atari2600land

[orangest]

tetris

rolling thunder

ms. pac-man

 

i'm sure i'm forgetting some others...

[Uzumaki]

Pac Man

Pac Mania (I have CIB and no it's not for sale)

 

AFAIK Pac Man, RBI Baseball, and Gauntlet were the only 3 Tengen carts that was released as "licensed" before Tengen made their own lockout chip. All other Tengen releases were only in black carts.

 

Namco re-released Pacman and Ms. Pacman as licensed carts but the game is virtually the same as Tengen version. Indiana Jones were also reissued through another company.

[Jess Ragan]

Not true! Namco's version of Ms. Pac-Man is entirely different from the Tengen version. It's a straight port, unlike the Tengen game which has better graphics and more mazes.

 

JR

[opeygon]

Don't forget Road Runner.

 

This game drove me crazy growing up! Don't have it right now but playing it on my emulator reminded me of why I don't have it anymore

[Dr. Morbis]

Courtesy of Nintendoage.com

 

I think that's all of them.

[Video]

I believe there was an RBI baseball 3 (could be mistaken, or maybe a different system, I got RBI 95 for Genesis)

[Room 34]

The only ones I have are Gauntlet and Super Sprint. Great games! They really take me back to high school...

[CHIP72]

Not true! Namco's version of Ms. Pac-Man is entirely different from the Tengen version. It's a straight port, unlike the Tengen game which has better graphics and more mazes.

 

JR

 

Not to mention a Pac Booster option!

[Jess Ragan]

Not true! Namco's version of Ms. Pac-Man is entirely different from the Tengen version. It's a straight port, unlike the Tengen game which has better graphics and more mazes.

 

JR

 

Not to mention a Pac Booster option!

 

Right you are! And boy does it improve the game. There are also the two player cooperative and competitive modes, but it gets really annoying bumping into the second player all the time.

 

JR

[BrianC]

Not true! Namco's version of Ms. Pac-Man is entirely different from the Tengen version. It's a straight port, unlike the Tengen game which has better graphics and more mazes.

 

JR

 

Namco's Ms. Pac-Man was a blatant reuse of their NES Pac-Man engine. It's not even as accurate as the Tengen version port wise. It's cool how the Tengen version can be played with just the arcade levels and has a ton of new levels too. The extra difficulties, modes, and booster totally rock too.

 

Here is a list of my black cart Tengen NES games:

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Shinobi

Rolling Thunder

Ms. Pac-Man

R.B.I. Baseball

Pac-Man

 

The interesting thing is that all of the Tengen games I have work on the top loading model 2 NES. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom actually has a licensed version published by Mindscape, which is the same as the black Tengen version. I find it interesting how a few of Tengen's games like the Namco ones and even a couple of their SEGA games were actually licensed in Japan. Oddly enough, their Fantasy Zone is different from the Japanese Sunsoft version, Afterburner uses the same engine as the JP version, but has some differences, Shinobi seems to be a US only release, but their Alien Syndrome is the same as the JP one.

Edited May 28, 2007 by BrianC

[Atariman]

So... do those of you who have a good number of these Tengen games keep your eye out for them (like me)? I've been trying to collect them all. The next time I have my NES games out, I'll have to post the ones I have.

[shadow460]

Keeping an eye out wasn't enough to score me a Tetris. I asked questions here and there, and one was offered to me for $25. I wasn't going to buy it at first, then I gave in. I'm glad I did now, as I've not seen another one in the wild since.

[Mockduck]

Well, what do you know? I just now read up on the history of Tengen and NES.

 

Guess what - last summer I picked up a Tengen Ms. Pac Man at a pawn shop for two dollars! Guess I didn't realize that it had a "history". Interesting to read up on it, and glad I picked up the "cooler-looking black one" rather than the other, drab grey NES cart they were also selling for two bucks. It's also one of my favorite NES games.