How Konami Cleverly BYPASSED Nintendo (without Punishment) 

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

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.

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?!😂

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Now I want "DMV Line: The Game"

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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_ .

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

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.

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

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 (!)

What a great review .. I’ll subscribe

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

This guy look like the "joker" from "batman"

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Thank You.

Another great video dude

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

i love it, great work Pojr!

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.

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

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

great video. Thanks!

A great description of an interesting era!

Great video. 😎

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 !!!

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

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

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

I love this style of video essay

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.

Great content!!!

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.

Where are the X Men and the Simpson Arcade games?

Excellent video!

3:10 I think you meant "almost never worth", not "almost worth never"

how the hell did LJN ever pass the quality check?

Good video this is a cool explanation

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

Then why does it feel like LJN produced more then 5 games a year?

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