How Game Remakes Skew Perceptions

When you play a remake of a game, then progress to the next game in the series, which has not been remade, often you can feel a sense of disappointment.  This is because you have not really progressed through the series as the developer intended over the years.  You are getting only a skewed impression of a game when you do not play the original.  In this post I will profile a couple of well-known series in which the first game was remade at a later point and dramatically changed expectations for the next games in the series.

Ultima to Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness

Ultima - Title 1

Ultima - Title 2

Ultima - Demo 1 

Ultima - Demo 2

Ultima - Main Menu

Ultima - Character Generation

When Richard Garriott was programming Ultima on his Apple II Plus with 48KB of RAM, he programmed the game using Applesoft BASIC for the most part.  He released the game in a ziplock bag with a crude manual through an early distributor of computer software called California Pacific Computer in 1981.  The game was a comparative success, selling about 50,000 copies at the time, in the nascent computer game market. However, Temple of Apshai and Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord were much more successful at this point.

Five years later, Garriott was publishing his own games through his own company, Origin Systems.  Sierra On-Line released a port of the game for the Atari 8-bit computers after California Pacific Computer went bust in 1983.  Sierra also released Ultima II: Revenge of the Enchantress across almost every major computing platform of the mid-1980s.  Origin had already had considerable success with Ultima III: Exodus and Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, publishing both games on most major computing platforms.  Feeling the original Ultima was a bit clunky and rather hard to find, Origin decided to give it an assembly-language makeover.

Ultima 1 - Title 1

Ultima 1 - Title 2

Ultima 1 - Title 3

Ultima 1 - Title 4

Ultima 1 - Main Menu

Ultima 1 - Character Generation

Even though both Ultima and Ultima I were developed on the Apple II and fit on one double-sided disk, the differences are quite profound.  Ultima gives you an intro with crude outline drawings.  Ultima I gives you a colorfully animated intro with an Eagle and a sword being thrust up out of the water, Excalibur-style.  Ultima uses the Apple II text mode and mixed text/high res-graphics mode, Ultima I uses graphics mode everywhere.  Screenshots of the two versions look similar, but the differences in gameplay are quite drastic.

Ultima - Castle

Ultima - Town

Ultima - Outside 1

Ultima - Outside 2

Ultima I is a lot less frustrating to play.  You move over the overworld quickly, and can see your enemies coming.  Ultima has a slow shifting overworld and you do not see enemies until you are on top of them. There are more than one town and one castle map in Ultima I and you move much more quickly across them.  In the dungeons, Ultima I gives rapid movement while Ultima redraws the screen every turn.  Finally, when there is dialogue, you see it overlaid on the main graphics area rather than on the four lines of text.

Ultima - Dungeon 1

Ultima - Dungeon 2

Ultima - Death

While there are many more differences between the two versions, you can get a sense that the remake went through a lot more polish.  The presentation was also vastly upgraded in the remake, with a large cardboard box and a manual that gives detail about the world and feelies in the form of Sosarian coins.   There are also cardboard maps of each of the four continents in the game.  The original (non-Progame) manual does not even give you your goal, you have to learn that via the pub in game.  The manual illustrations also got a huge boost in quality.

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 1

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 2

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 3

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 4

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 5

Ultima 1 - Dungeon 6

When you go from Ultima I to Ultima II, you may be disappointed.  In Ultima I, you could shoot with some weapons more than one tile but you can't in Ultima II.  Your stats in Ultima II will roll over if they go above the maximum, they do not in Ultima I.  Ultima II has some nasty saving rules (essentially whenever you enter or exit a town or dungeon on any Earth time period).  Death in Ultima II requires a reboot.  While death in Ultima did allow for resurrection, the pathetic stats you continue with and the possibility that you may respawn on a mountain or ocean time make it useless.  Ultima I is sufficiently lenient with death and respawning to make it worth considering.  Ultima II has vast and mostly empty overworlds and the dungeons are not particularly useful.  Ultima II does not have custom text fonts (with the exception of the Apple II update in the Ultima Collection) and the PC version does not have an animated intro.

Ultima 1 - Town 1

Ultima 1 - Town 2

Ultima 1 - Outside 1

Ultima 1 - Outside 2

Ultima 1 - Castle 1

Ultima 1 - Castle 2

However, when you compare Ultima to Ultima II, there are many, many improvements.  First, the towns, castles and the overworld all use the same tiles.  Second, the world is far larger and exploring it is no longer a chore.  Third, you can explore planets and do not have to engage in space combat.  Fourth, the dungeons can be mapped, they are no longer randomly generated each time you start a new game.  Fifth, there are many, many more items to acquire from killing enemies.  Sixth, you can warp to different time periods in Earth with Time Doors instead of needing a boat.  Seventh, you can talk to people in towns and castles, some of whom will provide you clues without payment.  Eighth, water now animates, giving a more lively feel to the world. Ninth, there was a proper manual, box and cloth map.

King's Quest to King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown SCI

The original King's Quest was released for the IBM PCjr. as a showcase for that system's graphical capabilities.  It came on one floppy disk and that disk was copy protected and cannot be installed to a hard drive.  Sierra released versions for the IBM PC and Tandy 1000 when it discovered that PCjr. sales were not going to break any home computer sales records.  Eventually it ported King's Quest and its other games to many platforms.  In late 1986 or early 1987, Sierra revised King's Quest for the PC to support hard drives and improved the music and sound effects, added support for EGA, MCGA, VGA and Hercules graphics and added drop down menus.  This brought the game to parity with King's Quest II and King's Quest III in terms of presentation at the cost of an extra disk. Even with improved 3-voice PCjr./Tandy music support, things sounded a little sparse.

King's Quest - Title

King's Quest 1 SCI - Title

In 1990, Sierra decided to remake King's Quest I and the other inaugural games in its Quest series (Police Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, Leisure Suit Larry) with its new SCI engine.  King's Quest came first and still used 16-color graphics and a text parser.  However, these graphics were far more detailed because they were in 320x200 instead of 160x200.  A musical soundtrack was added supporting the popular sound devices of the day, Adlib, Game Blaster, MT-32, Tandy 1000.  It even supported the DACs found in the later Tandy 1000s and the Sound Blaster for sound effects.

King's Quest - Castle of King Edward

King's Quest - King Edward's Throne Room

King' Quest - King Edward's Quest

King's Quest I SCI - King Edward's Castle

King's Quest I SCI - King Edward's Throne Room and Quest

Of course, Sierra did not leave everything in place exactly the way it was.  The Sorcerer's spell can leave you vulnerable to other monsters now (death by Ogre, theft by Dwarf) and different monsters can appear on the monster screen.  The most infamous puzzle (involving the Gnome) now has a different solution.  One item has to be found in a different place.  The castle takes up three screens instead of two and the screen scrolls rather than redraws.  Instead of playing the introduction, you watch it.  The game is now linear, you have to complete the quests in a certain order.  The Magic Shield, which could shield you from almost any enemy, must be found last.  Essentially, the changes allowed Sierra to keep people who played through the original version (and may have kept their hint book) from breezing through the game as well as give a more cinematic flair to the original game.

King's Quest - Golden Egg

King's Quest - Dragon's Lair

King's Quest - Stairway

King's Quest - Gnome

King's Quest - Witch's House

King's Quest - Woodcutter's Hut

Sierra eventually dropped its plans to remake all their old games in each quest series.  Remakes took a long time to make, were not cheap and did not sell as well as original games.  When Sierra began to release CD compilations of its Quest series games, it would release both the original game and the remake.  If you played the remake, you would be disappointed when you played the next games.  From King's Quest I SCI, the next two games would appear to be inferior because they are still using the AGI engine.  With other Quest series games, the contrast would be even starker because their remakes were using 256 color VGA graphics.

However, in August, 2001 a group of fans remade the SCI remake with 256-color graphics and support for then-modern computing platforms.  King's Quest I "VGA" was released and received major upgrades in version 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0.  The game was last updated in September, 2010.  King's Quest I VGA followed in the footsteps of Sierra's other SCI remakes by using an icon based interaction system.  Graphically it is on-par with King's Quests V and VI and takes a few assets from the former. It essentially follows the Sierra SCI remake in terms of quests and solutions.  Music was originally General MIDI based (the MT-32 was supported directly) but was later digitized.  Support for digital speech came as an option in 2.0, which in those days was a hefty-sized download.  Eventually speech became integrated into the main download, and they got Josh Mandel to voice King Graham as he did in the CD versions of KQ5 and KQ6.  The portraits were given a graphical overhaul in 4.0, making them look more professionally done.

King's Quest I SCI - Witch's House

King's Quest I SCI - Woodcutter's Hut

King's Quest I SCI - Suspended Walkway

King's Quest I SCI 0 - Golden Egg

King's Quest I SCI - Gnome

King's Quest I SCI - Dragon's Lair

KQ1 VGA was well-received, and encouraged Tierra Entertainment, later known as AGD Interactive, to remake more games.  They released King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones, Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire, and later King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Redux.  Infamous Adventures also released a KQ3 remake and a Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge remake.  Eventually, even Sierra developers got into the act, Al Lowe released Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards in 2013 as Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded.  Of course, in LSL's case, that game was sold for profit received a license from Activision, which owns the Sierra IP.  The other games were fan remakes are freeware and are tolerated by Activision with a fan license.

Educational Games

However, if you want to get really nutty about remakes, no article can go without mentioning Sierra's Mixed Up Mother Goose.  Sierra originally released the game as an AGI game in 1987, then an SCI 16-color remake in 1990, a 256-color SCI remake on floppy and CD-ROM in 1991 and finally a Deluxe SVGA remake in 1995.  This continual cycle of remaking the game was important to try and capture each new generation of preschoolers with a game with graphics and features they would appreciate.

It is not uncommon for educational/edutainment games to nearly-continually reinvent themselves to keep up to date with new technology.  Math Blaster began on the Apple II and the last game in the series was released for Windows 7.  The Oregon Trail has been around for 40 years, beginning on an HP2100 minicomputer, a beast the size of a large dresser, but the latest edition has been released for mobile devices far smaller and more powerful.  Despite vastly different technologies that have come in that time, the basic game is still the same.

What about R.O.B.? - The NES's First Mascot

R.O.B. with all Gyromite Accessories (missing Cartridge)

Nintendo originally released R.O.B. as the Family Computer Robot for the Famicom in Japan on July 26, 1985.  In this form, the Family Computer Robot uses off-white plastic for its body and red plastic for its arms and the bottom half of his hexagonal base.  This corresponds to the colors of the Famicom.  The Robot had to be purchased separately, it did not come bundled with games.  It cost 9,800 Yen.  In 1985, $1 USD was worth an average of 238 Yen.

The first game for it, released alongside the Robot itself, was called Robot Block and retailed for 4,800 Yen.  This game came with five different Colored Blocks (white, red, yellow, green and blue), five Block Trays for the Blocks to be stacked onto and a pair of Block Hands for the Robot with rubber ends.  Robot Block directs the Robot to move and stack the Colored Blocks onto the various stands while the player usually hops around.  It relies on the honor system.  Interestingly, it is one of the few Nintendo games from the pre-Disk System and "black box" eras that reproduces something like recognizable human speech.

Robot Block Box

The second game, Robot Gyro, followed on August 13, 1985 and retailed for 5,800 Yen.  This game came with larger pieces, two Gyros, a Gyro Spinner, a Gyro Holder and a Gyro Tray for the Controller.  It also has a pair of Gyro Hands to grab the Gyros.  Oddly enough, the box for Robot Gyro shows a different type of spinner that is taller.  Robot Gyro requires both controllers and the second controller sits in the Gyro Tray.  The Gyros, when sitting on the red and blue platforms, depress the buttons on the second controller.  A player can still play Gryomite without R.O.B., but most of the challenge is lost.

Robot Gyro Box

Nintendo introduced the NES in the United States in New York City as a test market on October 18, 1985. The console originally retailed for $249.00 and came with the Control Deck, two Controllers, the Zapper Light Gun, the R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), and the games Gyromite and Duck Hunt, fully boxed. When introduced nationally, Nintendo also released the Control Deck and two Controllers as the Basic Set with ($99.99) and without Super Mario Bros. ($89.99) as a more budget friendly option.  The set with R.O.B. was now called the Deluxe Set.  By 1988, Nintendo was pretty much just selling the Action Set with a Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge and a Zapper for $149.99.  Eventually, the Power Pad would replace R.O.B. in the Power Set as the fad peripheral of choice.

R.O.B. was available for purchase separately, as was Gyromite with a large box that came with its accessories.  Both are rare to find today.  Gyromite was the same exact game as Robot Gyro.  Stack-Up was the same exact game as Robot Block and was available to purchase at the initial launch.  In fact, Nintendo did not even bother to change the title screens for these games, because the Gyromite and Stack-Up cartridges boot up as Robot Gyro and Robot Block, respectively.  Also, some Gyromite and all Stack-Up cartridges use Famicom PCBs and a converter that converts the 60 pins of a Famicom connector to the 72 pins of a NES connector.  This extra converter board also adds the lockout chip for the NES.  While not the only games that have these converters, they are often sought after for them.

Stack-Up was never bundled with a console and could only be purchased separately.  On account of this, it is far rarer than Robot Block.  More Japanese consumers bought Robot Block because it was cheaper than Robot Gyro.  Of course, Nintendo bundled R.O.B. with Gyromite with each Deluxe Set sold, and the Deluxe Set probably sold at least a million units, so Gyromite and its parts are far more common than Robot Gyro or anything else.

Physically and functionally, the parts for Robot Block and Stack-Up are identical.  Cosmetically, the Block Hands for Robot Block are red and the Block Hands for Stack-Up are dark gray.  The Block Trays are off-white for Robot Block and light gray for Stack-Up.  Many times on auctions for Stack-Up you will see white Block Trays and red Block Hands, and they came from Robot Block.  

Stack-Up Box

Physically and functionally, the parts for Robot Gyro and Gyromite are identical, with one exception.  That exception is the Gyro Tray.  The Gyro Tray for Robot Gyro is shaped for the rounder, smaller Famicom Controller with the bump in the middle of the edges.  The Gyro Tray for Gyromite is larger and squarer, shaped for the NES Controller.  Here is another example of region locking :)  Cosmetically, all parts use off-white plastic for Robot Gyro and the Gyro Hands, the base of the Gyro Spinner and the top rails of the Gyro Tray are red.  Gyromite uses light gray plastic for its parts except the Gyro Hands, Gryo Spinner base and top Gyro Tray rails, which are dark gray.  The off-white plastic of the Robot and its peripherals are much more prone to yellowing than the light gray plastic of R.O.B. and its peripherals.

R.O.B. works similarly to a Zapper light gun in that it receives information from the TV screen.  The TV screen will strobe green light when it wants to issue a command to R.O.B.  The photo-receptors inside R.O.B.'s head will receive the light stream and send it to a microcontroller for processing.  R.O.B. can accept six commands : Move Torso Up, Move Torso Down, Rotate Shaft Left, Rotate Shaft Right, Open Arms and Close Arms.  The microcontroller sends electricity to motors in R.O.B's Torso and Base which control the movement via gears and grooved tracks.

R.O.B. moves his Torso Up and Down in a shorter distance for Stack-Up than Gyromite because of the way the blocks stack. Stack-Up allows you to stack blocks up to five blocks high, so R.O.B. will move five times up or down the shaft from his head to his base.  Gyromite will only allow you to move three times up or down the shaft, and you really only need to move him up or down one position.  He has five positions to move left or right and his arms either are fully open or fully closed.  He has five numbered slots to insert the accessories for each game which correspond to the positions he can move.

Family Computer Robot box, hands not included

Unfortunately, R.O.B. relies on the speed and intensity of the light being pulsed by the TV screen and will not respond to the strobing on an LCD TV.  In fact, Nintendo included a filter strip for R.O.B.'s eyes should the light of the screen or the ambient light be so intense that R.O.B. would not function correctly.  R.O.B. was later released in the PAL territories.  Because PAL screens refresh slower than NTSC screens, the microcontroller in R.O.B. may have had to be adjusted.  The ROMs for Gyromite and Stack-Up are identical around the world.  The early Zapper and R.O.B. games use the same ROMs regardless of region.  The European R.O.B. and Zappers may not compatible with NTSC TVs.

R.O.B.'s communicates with the robot via a pattern of alternating green and black screens.  When the game issues a command to R.O.B., it always turns the screen black for three frames.  Then comes a green frame followed by a black frame and followed by a green frame.  For every command, this sequence is the same.  Then the sequence of green and black screens alternates in a different pattern for seven frames.  Here is how the commands are encoded :

Up (Short)	Down (Short)	Left	Right	Open	Close	Up (Long)	Down (Long)
b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
g	b	b	g	g	b	b	g
g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
g	b	g	b	b	g	g	g
g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
b	g	b	b	g	g	b	b
g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
b	b	b	b	b	b	g	g

b = black screen, g = green screen.

The last two frames seem to indicate only whether an up or down movement by R.O.B. is a short (Stack-Up) or a long (Gyromite) movement.  The test feature for both Gyromite and Stack-Up continuously alternates black and green screens in a 1:1 ratio after the first three black frames.  Given that the code is at least five bits (32 possibilities), there could be up to 24 other commands that R.O.B. could recognize by timing the screen flashing appropriately.

R.O.B. takes 4 x AA batteries.  The LED on top of its head lights up to tell the user that it is functioning.  It is not on all the time.  It will turn on when you use the Test mode correctly in either game.  It also turns on when R.O.B. is not moving, indicating that R.O.B. can accept a command.  R.O.B. should be situated as directly in front of a TV screen as possible.  The manual indicates that he should be no further than 45 degrees from the center of the screen and works best within 3 feet of the screen.  More than 6 feet is not recommended.

The gyro spinner additionally takes 1 x D battery.  The spinner is not active until a gyro or other object depresses the black piece.  R.O.B. should keep his hands on the gryo when in the spinner to avoid slowing down the spinning speed.  When you turn on R.O.B., you should notice one thing immediately, he is loud.  The next thing you will notice is that he is slow.  The spinner makes noise as well.  Playing either game as intended is a real challenge because you have to think several moves ahead so R.O.B. can catch up with you.  Once the novelty wore off, and it usually did pretty quickly, then R.O.B. typically got put back in the box or on the shelf.  Children would often ask their parents why they did not get them Super Mario Bros. instead.

The bundling of R.O.B. signaled a shift in Nintendo's strategy.  Nintendo's first attempt at bringing the Famicom to western markets, the Advanced Video System, failed to excite buyers when it was previewed at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Shows.  The AVS included the hardware of the Famicom with a built in keyboard, essentially the Family Computer Keyboard merged with the Famicom.  It also came with a westernized version of Family BASIC built in or bundled with it.  It also had a resdesigned version of the Family Computer Data Recorder and wireless gamepads, zapper and joystick.

Considering the video game crash taking place, Nintendo initially had a good thought to "computerize" its console.  However, the market for cheap home computers was dominated by the $300 Commodore 64.  Retailers were not impressed, perhaps because the Nintendo AVS had a few too many features in common with other failed home computers like the Coleco Adam and TI/99 4A.  (Cassette-based storage was seen as cheap in 1984).  Fortunately, the video game crash had eviscerated the home console market in North America, leading to opportunity in the lower end of the market.  Nintendo took a dual approach.  It went to lengths to distinguish its system from other systems by designing it to look like a Hi-Fi "Entertainment System."  However, it also marketed its product as a toy to toy stores.  Of course, it had to include a toy to make the pitch plausible, so R.O.B. was the "face" of Nintendo at first.

Ultimately, while video game histories may point to Nintendo's marketing of the NES as a toy rather than a video game console, I doubt any consumer was fooled into thinking that the NES was substantially different than the Atari and other systems.  The system used cartridges and hand-held controllers like its predecessors. The Famicom looked more like a toy than the NES, the NES looked like a electronic entertainment device.  Nintendo avoided using previous terms like console and cartridge and joystick, using Control Deck and Game Pak and Controller respectively.  Ultimately, it was the overall quality of the games that sold kids and their parents on the system, it was too expensive for a novelty toy.

Does R.O.B. have character?  Nintendo thought so, because it included him as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS and Wii U and gave him many cameo appearances before then.  Both color variations now have Amibos.  R.O.B. was released a year before a robot with a similar design appeared in in the film Short Circuit and twenty-three years before another similar robot was introduced in WALL-E.  These design successors demonstrate that R.O.B. does have character in and of himself.  He represents a 1980s version of an electronic toy, sleek lines and minimalist function.  Unlike earlier toys, he relies on micro computing technology instead of pure electro-mechanical functioning.  However, despite his empty, soulless eyes. he has a humanoid shape and makes natural noises.  Moreover, he does not suffer from the uncanny valley effect like another 1980s popular toy, Teddy Ruxpin.  So yes, I would conclude that R.O.B. has a good deal of character and deserved more games than he got.  If nothing else, he is always a conversation piece.

Number of Unique NES Games

The NES, according to NintendoAge, has 678 licensed US games and 91 unlicensed games.  NintendoAge is a collector-oriented site, and it considers a unique cartridge as a game.  Of course, many of those cartridges have major and minor label variations.  Major variations include cartridges with old and new Nintendo Seals of Quality.  Minor variations include things like Rev-A or Rev-B on the box.

However, not all cartridges contain unique games.  Nintendo re-released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! as Punch-Out!! when their license to use Mike Tyson's name and likeness expired.  They removed the opening screen where there is an image of Mike Tyson with the caption "Mike Tyson is awaiting your challenge!", adjusted the title screen and replaced Mike Tyson in the game with Mr. Dream.  The game plays exactly the same.

If you owned Mike Tyson's Punch-Out and saw Punch-Out on a World of Nintendo M82 Display Demo machine, you might say "Hey, where is Mike Tyson?"  You would understand that both cartridges had the same game.  Similarly, if you were one of the lucky people who purchased Stadium Events, you would see little difference between it and World Class Track Meet.  The only difference between the three releases of Pac-Man, in software, is the copyright text on the title screen.  However, the Namco licensed release of Ms. Pac-Man is very different from the Tengen version.  The former is little more than an improvement on Namco's Pac-Man.  The latter has new mazes, more two player modes, a speed boost, more difficulty selections and a starting level selection.  The Namco version keeps all the action on one screen, but the Tengen version scrolls the screen.  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the title for two very different games, both based on the movie, released by Ubi Soft and Taito.

No multi-cart game is a unique game unless it contains something substantially more than the standalone cartridges, and this requires more than a game selection menu. Maxi-15 is a good example of a multi-cart game that does have something unique.  While it contains fourteen games released by AVE or Color Dreams, Stakk'm was not released as a standalone cartridge.  The only way to play that game in the United States was to buy Maxi-15.  It was released in Taiwan as Poke Ball.  Additionally, while Sunday Funday: The Ride had been previously released as Menace Beach, Sunday Funday is a multi-cart that adds two additional programs.

One should still count games that use the same engine as unique even if little beyond the levels have been changed.  Thus the Adventures of Lolo 2 offers almost nothing beyond the Adventures of Lolo, but the levels are different.  Additionally, Crystal Mines and Exodus use the same engine but have different levels, as do Dudes with Attitude and Trolls on Treasure Island.

Some games had a very limited release.  Stadium Events was released very briefly and then recalled when Nintendo licensed the Power Pad from Bandai.  Flinstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy may have been available only at Blockbuster Video as a rental, but this is debatable.  1,500 copies of Cheetamen II was discovered in a warehouse in 1996 and sold unofficially.  The game is as buggy as a prototype and cannot be finished but exists in numbers far exceeding any prototype.  There may only be 6,000 copies of Action 52, another very buggy collection of games from the same company.  So it appears that Active Enterprises was prepared to ship Cheetamen II to unwitting buyers as a last cash grab but business failure thwarted its plans.  Even though the NES was discontinued the year prior, it would be nine years before somebody else released a cartridge for it.  One can only row so far against the accepted wisdom.  However, unlike Nintendo World Championships 1990, all these games were made available to the public for purchase at some point in time.  NWC 1990 was only given to finalists of that particular contest and winners of a Nintendo Power Contest.  So NWC 1990 is not here or at NintendoAge.

So, according to NintendoAge, there were 678 licensed US NES games.  We have to subtract the following 8 to get to the true number of unique games :

- Pac-Man (Namco re-release)
- Punch-Out!! (re-release of MK's Punch-Out!!)
- World Class Track Meet (re-release of Stadium Events)
- Donkey Kong Classics
- Sesame Street ABC & 123
- Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt
- Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet
- Super Spike V'Ball / Nintendo World Cup

Again, NintendoAge says there were 91 unlicensed games released in the US during the NES's lifespan. However, due to the above we have to subtract these 7:

- 6 in 1 by Myriad (Caltron 6-in-1 with a new label sloppily slapped over the old label)
- Bubble Bath Babes (The adult version of Mermaids of Atlantis)
- Gauntlet (licensed version exists)
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (licensed version exists)
- Impossible Mission II (AVE is same board in a different shell)
- Pac-Man (licensed versions exist)
- R.B.I. Baseball (licensed version exists)

Therefore 678 + 91 - 8 - 7 = 754.   While there are relatively few duplicates across the Nintendo library, there are many across the Atari 2600 library.  The number of unique games released during the Atari 2600's long 15-year official lifespan only numbered 436 as I had explained in this post : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/12/atari-2600-just-how-many-games.html.  Yet when you see the release lists for various companies it appears to be a lot more.