Tengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created after the video game crash of 1983-1984 by Atari Games. (Atari Games was formed when Warner Communications sold the consumer side of Atari Inc. to Jack Tramiel, resulting in two companies: Atari Games and Atari Corp.). After Nintendo nearly single-handedly revived the market, Atari Games realized that there was still money to be made in home video games after all. Since Atari Corp. was already involved in the home video game market with the 2600 Jr., 7800, and XEGS consoles, Atari Games chose to create a new brand name to market their games under. They also chose to make games for the market-leading Nintendo Entertainment System rather than introduce a new home console of their own. The new subsidiary was dubbed "Tengen", which in the Japanese game Go refers to the center of the board. (The word "Atari" comes from the same game.) Video game publishers are companies that publish video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ... Screenshot of E.T. (Atari 2600 version) The video game crash of 1983 was the sudden crash of the video game business and the bankruptcy of a number of companies producing home computers and video game consoles in North America in late 1983 and early 1984. ... Atari Games was an American producer of arcade games, originally part of Atari. ... Jack Tramiel (born 1928) is famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore 64 and Commodore Amiga home computers. ... For the concept Atari (当たり) in the board game of Go, see Atari (go term). ... Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂; TSE: NTDOY) was originally founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Atari 2600 (four-switch version). ... Atari 7800 System The Atari 7800 is a video game console released by Atari. ... The Nintendo Entertainment System (North America, Europe, and Australia) The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe and Australia. ... Go is a strategic, two-player board game originating in ancient China between 2000 BC and 200 BC. Go is a popular game in East Asia. ...

Tengen unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with Nintendo for a less restrictive license that would allow them to release more than five games per year and that their games would not have to stay NES-exclusive for two years. Nintendo was not interested, so Tengen agreed to their standard license in December of 1987. In 1988, Tengen released their first (and only) three cartridges licensed through Nintendo - RBI Baseball, Pac-Man and Gauntlet. Meanwhile, Tengen secretly worked to bypass Nintendo's lock-out chip called 10NES that gave them control over which games were published for the NES. While numerous manufacturers managed to override this chip by zapping it with a voltage spike, Tengen engineers feared this could potentially damage NES consoles and expose them to unnecessary liability. Instead they chose to reverse engineer the chip and decipher the code required to unlock it. However, the engineers were unable to do so, and the launch date for their first batch of games was rapidly approaching. RBI Baseball (Run Batted In Baseball) is a baseball video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. ... Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution by Midway Games in 1979. ... Gauntlet is a 1985 arcade game by Atari Games. ... In a general sense, a lock-out chip is a chip within an electronic device to prevent other manufacturers from using a companys device to perform certain functions. ... The RAMBO-1, a version of Tengens Rabbit lockout chip 10NES was the authentication code for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game console. ... Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...

In desperation, Tengen turned to the US Copyright Office. Their lawyers contacted the government office to request a copy of the Nintendo lock-out program, claiming they needed it for potential litigation against Nintendo. Once obtained, they used the program to create their own chip that would unlock the NES. When Tengen launched the unlicensed versions of their games, Nintendo immediately sued Tengen for breach of contract. Eventually Tengen was forced to admit its duplicity and pay damages to Nintendo. The United States Copyright Office, a division of the Library of Congress, is the official US government body that maintains records of copyright registration in the United States. ...

Tengen faced another court challenge with Nintendo in 1989 in copyright controversy over Tetris. Tengen lost this suit as well and was forced to recall what was estimated to be hundreds of thousands of unsold cartridges (having sold only about 50,000). (See Tetris for more.) Later on, Tengen received the seal of approval from Sega, and they began to make games for their Game Gear and Genesis. But this wasn't enough to save them. Tengen, depleted by the costly court battles and defeats, faded into the history books by the mid 1990s. The refusal of many retaillers to sell Tengen's game (due to Nintendo's threat to stop supplying any retailler that would carry Tengen's products) also largely contributed to the company's demise. Tetris is a computer puzzle game invented by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985, while he was working for the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. ... Tetris is a computer puzzle game invented by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985, while he was working for the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. ... This article is about the video game company. ... The Sega Game Gear was Segas first portable gaming system. ... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Tengen's unlicensed NES game cartridges do not come in the universally recognizable semi-square grey shape regular Nintendo licensed games come in, but instead are rounded and matte-black, more resembling the original Atari catridges.

External links

• Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. (from Harvard's Openlaw site)
• NES Player's overview of Tengen v. Nintendo