Holy Grails - Rise and Fall

[SoulBlazer]

 

Let's clarify this a bit. The black Tengen cartridges - and they are black because they are referencing the color of Atari 2600 cartridges due to Tengen being Atari Games and all - are the un-licensed cartridges whereas the gray standard carts [for Gauntlet and Ms. Pac-Man] were officially licensed.

 

Nintendo eff'ed over Atari Games over their allotment of cartridges and strictly maintained the agreement to annual title limits while allowing Konami to skate the rules by claiming their Ultra sub-brand was a separate company and thus had a separate allotment is the main reason why Atari Games went rogue. They also hated Nintendo too for being upstarts who had no right to dominate the industry Atari created. Remember, Atari Games always maintained that they were the Real Atari.

 

RBI Baseball also got a licenced gray release, and Konami/Ultra wasn't the only case of that happening, it also happened with Acclaim/LJN.

 

Tengen games also went through some unusual....and illegial, as it turns out...ways to get the information on the lockout system used on the NES and how to get around it, which cost them big time in the court cases that followed.

 

Not to mention Capcom and everyone else followed the limits set by Nintendo for the NES and they could have made a seperate label also but didn't.