The Unlicensed Collection | NES Collector

UNLICENSED GAMES
Dont ever fall for the description BLACK CARTRIDGE RARE!!! Beginner
collectors tend to get sucked in because they think theyve seen it all, so when
something new comes along, they quickly act. You need to study up a little bit
before you just start throwing your money around for third-party games.
And should you even bother? Nobodys going to call you out for not having the
translucent cartridge with the label printed on pink tin foil, and these companies
often produced simply terrible games. The licensed games were developed by
experienced programmers with a great deal of funding, while unlicensed
cartridges were made in a basement and generally have next to no replay value.
(Am I collecting Nintendo games or games that play on my Nintendo?)
Now youre probably going to scoop some up along the way anyway, but try and
look at the unlicensed carts as additional enhancements to your collection, not as
a requirement. Your licensed collection is simple. Its time-consuming and
expensive, but simple. The titles are well-documented and the list is official.
There wont ever be another gray NES cartridge released with Nintendos Seal of
Approval. But be careful with unlicensed titles new games could be produced
tomorrow and you wouldnt have any idea they werent made in 1989. Dont let a
deal trap you into wasting your money and discipline yourself to stay away
from anything shady, which is exceedingly difficult as it is because youre dealing
with back-alley third-party corporations out of Taiwan.
So where do you begin? Well, rather than jumping back and forth between
software and publishing companies, making different checklists for each one will
save you the stress of juggling. Some published their own games, and some
turned them over to others for production, so it gets confusing. Start by splitting
these into six separate categories:
tengentetris#1 Tengen:
Ataris software branch was one of the most active and certainly the most
popular, primarily because of all the open litigation between Tengen and
Nintendo. Fortunately, the programming actually stands up to the official games
of the era. This wasnt a nerd making his own version of Kaboom! on his little
brothers Commodore 64 this is Atari. The carts themselves are uniform and
very distinct, black with two front finger grips, and the labels bear the company
logo vertically on the left side.
tetrisscreenshotTengen is also different from the rest, producing licensed
cartridges. Four games will match the programming of licensed duplicates in your
library. The Tengen collection, aside from their version of Tetris, is cheap. Dont
get suckered there are tons of copies available for this 20-game list:
RBI Baseball *

Gauntlet *
Pac-Man *
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom *

Ms. Pac-Man **

Tetris **

RBI Baseball 2

RBI Baseball 3

Pac-Mania

Rolling Thunder

Skull & Crossbones

Klax

Toobin

After Burner

Alien Syndrome

Fantasy Zone

Road Runner

Shinobi

Super Sprint

Vindicators

* Has a licensed counterpart

** Different programming than licensed version

Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Mania will run you up to about $15 each and the Tetris is on
the valuable side. You should be able to complete your Tengen collection in a
relatively short period of time for way under $100.

#2 Color Dreams, Bunch Games, Wisdom Tree:

Heres the timeline: Color Dreams releases crappy games, changes name to
Bunch Games because nobody wants their crappy games anymore, releases
more crappy games, finds God and alters games to include religious overtones,
and thenreleases more crappy games. Well I suppose theres something to be
said about consistency. But in all honesty, I secretly dig Baby Boomer.

Now heres where you need to make your decision about what type of collector
you want to be. Both black and baby-blue cases for identical games exist that
differ in availability and price, and watch for a game called Captain Comic that
shows up from time to time with an inverted label. Its not my thing, but youre
not collecting for me its your call.

The before Christ Color Dreams and Bunch Games cartridges are much more
valuable than those from Wisdom Tree, as the Bible games were actually good
sellers. The first twenty can all be categorized as valuable, ranging from $20 to

$80. Still sure you want to take on an unlicensed collection? Because it gets
worse.

Color Dreams cartridges:

Baby Boomer

Captain Comic

Challenge of the Dragon

Crystal Mines

King Neptunes Adventure

Master Chu and the Drunkard Hu

Menace Beach

Metal Fighter

Operation Secret Storm

Pradikus Conflict

Pesterminator

Raid 2020

Robodemons

Secret Scout in the Temple of Demise

Silent Assault

Bunch Games cartridges:

Castle of Deceit

Galactic Crusader

Mission Cobra

Moon Ranger

Tagin Dragon

Wisdom Tree cartridges:

Bible Adventures

Bible Buffet

Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

King of Kings: The Early Years

Spiritual Warfare

Sunday Funday

#3 American Game Cartridges:

chillerThis is an easy one, albeit a little pricey. Based in Arizona, these guys would
pump out just three cartridges before going bust-o. They stand out for two
reasons: They most closely resemble licensed games physically and Chiller is the
goriest thing youll ever see on the NES.

Chiller

Death Race

Shock Wave

ave #4 American Video Entertainment:

After American Game Cartridges went under, the vice president (also formerly of
Tengen) moved on to form his own company, where he enjoyed some notable
success. Some of these come cheap and some are a little valuable nothing you
cant handle. But just before it was all over for A.V.E., they released Maxivision
15-in-1 (Maxi 15), which is specifically designed to drain you dry. The most suck
part about this game is its just a compilation of A.V.E. and American Game
Cartridges games, so when you get to it, decide if adding a pretty cartridge to
your shelf that youll never play is really that important. But I suppose thats the
short definition of Unlicensed Collection.

Blackjackmaxi15

Deathbots

Double Strike

Dudes with Attitude

F-15 City Wars

Impossible Mission II

Krazy Kreatures

Maxi 15

Mermaids of Atlantis

Puzzle

Pyramid

Rad Racket

Solitaire

Tiles of Fate

Trolls on Treasure Island

Ultimate League Soccer

Venice Beach Volleyball

Wally Bear and the NO! Gang

deckenhancer#5 Camerica:

What sets Camerica apart from the rest? They made some pretty awesome
games! But whats tricky is they made stand-alone cartridges as well as games
requiring a piece of piggy-back hardware known as the Aladdin Deck Enhancer,
which was similar to the Game Genie (another of their products).

The idea was that a lot of repeating expensive hardware was included on every
games motherboard. By creating a universal component including these
necessary electronics, cheaper games could be produced. A user could buy the
enhancer for one initial fee, and then enjoy economical games forever. And if it
hadnt come out so late, it probably would have worked, but the SNES was
already killing the market.

quattrosportsThey also manufactured nifty little cartridges that had a PAL/NTSC

switch so the games would work around the globe. And some games were
produced both with these switching cases and as the Aladdin carts requiring the
Enhancer, and to top it off, the stand-alone cartridges are available in silver and
gold! So its yet another time you need to decide whether games or cartridges
are more important for you.

Bee 52

Big Nose Freaks Out *

Dizzy the Adventurer **

FireHawk

Linus Spaceheads Cosmic Adventure *

Micro Machines *

Mig 29 Soviet Fighter

Quattro Adventure *

Quattro Arcade

Quattro Sports *

Stunt Kids

The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy *

Ultimate Stuntman

* Available as both Aladdin and stand-alone cartridges

** Available only as Aladdin cartridge

#6 Other:

Now, in my humble opinion, heres where it just gets stupid, including unreleased
and unfinished prototypes from a Midwest warehouse, 1000-in-1 cartridges, and
8-bit pornography. Some games were reproductions with different casings,
making it impossible to know how many types of cartridges are floating around.

There are countless variations at ridiculous prices, but theres one thing that
brings all of these games into one big steaming pile they ALL suck.

But its up to you. Just know that for the price of this list, you can easily get
another licensed collection and it could take years before many of these are even
available again. So good luck.

Caltron 6-in-1 *

Myriad 6-in-1 *

Action 52

Hot Slots

Peek-a-Boo Poker

Bubble Bath Babes

Cheetahmen II (Unreleased)

* Duplicate programming

The list goes on, especially once you travel abroad, but by the time you get
these, youll be too broke for anything else anyway.

In effect, after you get your licensed collection, all this may seem appealing, and
sure itll give you something to do. But it wont be as rewarding as completing the
official NES collection and youre in for a lot of hassle. The labels are usually
made from flimsy paper, so expect some games damaged beyond repair, the
programming is so poorly designed sometimes with abnormal glitches you cant

even complete the game, and theyre really hard to squeeze in with the rest of
your games because the carts themselves are so funky looking.