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?

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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

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[captaincid]

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.

[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

[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.

[PKMNwww_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.

[mattalan]

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

[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.

[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!

[FeralInferno]

Now I want "DMV Line: The Game"

[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.

[Treevors]

5:57 the Manhattan Project why do I not remember that game. To be fair though back in the day I don't think I knew what the Manhattan Project was

[Typical.Anomaly]

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

[robintst]

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

[rionthemagnificent]

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.

[Treevors]

3:32 I wonder if that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game is on the Cowabunga collection I think there's like 15 games on there again I could be wrong but there is a lot of old games on there

[bananajoe]

This is funny considering that Nintendo STOLE Donkey Kong and then went to court to remove the rights from the original creator. This was one of Nintendo's first moves in the video game space. Nintendo knew what they were willing to do to other creators to maintain their rights, and I think that's why they are overprotective of their brands and characters.

[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?!😂

[-eye-willy]

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.

[TobyDeshane]

TMNT receives harsh criticism because it has platforming issues (and literal bugs in the case of the underwater section) that make it much more frustrating and unforgiving to play than it needs to be. Not "angry reviewers".

[garou]

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

[pabulum]

Back when I was a kid I used to think that Ultra games were just like the "extreme" line of games by Konami, just like how back in the 1990s there were always "extreme" versions of snacks. Or kind of like how Lexus is upgraded Toyota and Genesis is upgraded Hyundai...in my idiotic adolescence I thought that Ultra was like the luxury line of Konami titles.