Spring+2009+Lecture+19+Notes

= __Spring 2009 Lecture 19 Notes__ =


 


 * Third-party developers also released great games – pushed NES sales
 * 1987 – one of Nintendo's top licensees – Konami – wisely used its 5-game allocation
 * Released two good arcade translations in 1987 – first Double Dribble – basketball game
 * 2nd Castlevania – side-scrolling adventure – whip-toting vampire hunter Simon Belmont
 * Castlevania has since become one of Konami's biggest franchises
 * Castlevania games can be found on almost every video-game console post 1987
 * Biggest non-arcade-translated game from Konami in 1987 – Gradius
 * Side-scrolling space-shooter – contained first use of famous code
 * Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start
 * Code game players' ships advanced weapons upgrades
 * Code later used in many Konami cames, earning the name of “The Konami Code”
 * Perhaps most well-known use of code in 1988 game Contra
 * Military/Alien Invasion side-scrolling game – Konami Code game players 30 lives
 * 1988 – Nintendo couldn't ship enough NES units to meet demands for holiday season
 * Orders for 8.4 million consoles placed by stores – Nintendo only able to deliver 7 million
 * Nintendo executives preferred smaller manufacturing runs to prevent over-stocking
 * Kept costs low – also prevented situations like WOW's overproduction of Teddy Ruxpin
 * Also caused false sense of demand – causing product shortages at stores
 * Shortages became somewhat of Nintendo holiday tradition
 * 1988 started another Nintendo tradition – blockbuster franchise sequels
 * 1988 Nintendo announced sequels to Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda
 * Both sequels were to be released at holiday season – anticipation for games very high
 * Large excitement over games – stores took pre-orders – ensured customers got games
 * Finally released – both games radical departures from original – took most by surprise
 * Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link – extended story of original
 * Game-play drastically different – no longer over-head view for most of game
 * Most of game was side-scrolling – deemphasized exploration – focused more on action
 * Map-screens with Link traveling between locations were over-head – very different style
 * Still a great game but disappointed many fans – seen as “black sheep” of Zelda series
 * 2nd Nintendo sequel of 1988 – Super Mario Bros. 2 – even more different than Zelda II
 * Mario and Luigi as playable characters remained the same
 * Quirky sense of humor also very similar – rest of game totally different
 * Original featured fast-paced game-play with precision jumping
 * Mario 2 much slower-paced – much precise jumping removed in favor of exploration
 * Secrets in original found through hitting blocks and going down pipes
 * Sequel had players find secrets by pulling out grass from the ground
 * Main villain of Bowser not in game – new villain giant toad-king named Wart
 * Reason game so different – not a true sequel
 * Game released in US as Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally released in Japan as Doki Doki Panic
 * Doki Doki Panic featured Arabian lead-character – changed to Mario for American game
 * Rest of game remain almost unchanged from original Doki Doki Panic
 * Miyamoto had little to do with Doki Doki Panic
 * Miyamoto actually did create direct sequel to Super Mario Bros in Japan
 * Was decided that game had too many elements American players would find annoying
 * Japanese Mario 2 added in poisonous mushrooms
 * One of 1st things players did was hit block that mushroom came out of
 * Would get mushroom – only good things came out of blocks in 1st game
 * In Miyamoto's Super Mario Bros. 2, this first mushroom was poisonous and would make Mario die
 * Also added in wind and rain – sped up or slowed down character – affected jumping
 * Wind and rain completely random – no way to time precise jumps due to randomness
 * Two additions very un-Miyamoto-like – were out of the player's control
 * Made for very frustrating game-play – non-typical of Miyamoto games
 * American Super Mario Bros. 2 (based on Doki Doki Panic) quite popular – sold 6.76 million copies world-wide
 * Original Japanese Mario 2 can be found on later Super Nintendo game Mario All Stars
 * Lots of video-game law-suits during dominance of NES – many Nintendo law-suits
 * Law suit between Nintendo and Atari Games
 * 1985 – Steve Ross – president Warner Communications – sold Atari
 * Consumer division sold to Jack Tramiel – founder and former CEO of Commodore
 * Ross kept coin-op division of Atari – named Atari Games
 * Only kept about 40% of Atari Games – sold rest to Namco founder Masaya Nakamura
 * Nakamura wanted the two companies to work together – found agreement unsatisfactory
 * Decided to sell back his part of Atari Games – purchased by Hideyuki Nakajima
 * Nakajima hired by Nakamura to run his portion of Atari Games
 * Nakajima strong ties to both Atari and Namco
 * Ran Atari's Japanese branch when Bushnell first started it
 * Continued to run branch after Bushnell sold it to Namco
 * 1987 – Nakajima officially owned Atari Games – formerly coin-op division of Atari
 * Decided to enter consumer market – couldn't use Atari name
 * Atari Corporation – company owned by Tramiel – owned Atari name in consumer arena
 * Nakajima made subsidiary of Atari Games for consumer products – Tengen
 * Name followed Bushnell's naming tradition – Tengen from “Go” – means center of board
 * Tengen formed – only viable place in consumer market was on NES console
 * Sega didn't want others making games for Master System
 * Atari 7800 dead in marketplace – NES controlled most of American home market
 * Nakajima met with Arakawa and Lincoln of Nintendo in 1987 to discuss licensing deal
 * Wanted special treatment – wanted Nintendo to remove 2 parts of licensing agreement
 * 1) Let Atari Games/Tengen make more than 5 games a year
 * 2) Let Atari Games/Tengen release games for other systems within 2 years of release
 * Felt Atari's arcade properties made them strong player – Arakawa disagreed with him
 * Said all licensees should follow same rules – Nakajima signed unaltered agreement
 * Probably had no intention of honoring agreement
 * Year before agreement signed – Atari Games engineers working to crack NES security
 * NES security chip used special program – called 10NES
 * 10NES code, located in all official NES games, communicated directly with NES to allow games to work
 * Cartridge without 10NES code would be ignored by NES systems
 * 10NES did not exist in Japanese Famicom – made specifically for NES consoles
 * Atari Games engineers could not crack 10NES code
 * 1988 Tengen agreed to release 3 licensed games – Pac-Man, RBI Baseball, and Gauntlet
 * By this time Nakajima's lawyers – not engineers – found way to crack 10NES code
 * They illegally acquired documents containing 10NES code housed in US Copyright Office
 * Did this by signing fraudulent affidavit that Atari Games needed code due to law suit from Nintendo
 * No law suit existed – yet – Atari Games lied on affidavit – got materials illegally
 * Using documents Atari Games engineers created their version of 10NES – called Rabbit
 * Rabbit created signal identical to 10NES code – let Tengen games work as unlicensed
 * December 12, 1988 – Atari Games filed suit against Nintendo – asked for $100 million
 * Claimed Nintendo was abusing its power – attempting to monopolize market
 * Tengen already had 3 licensed games on market – got into retailers via Nintendo
 * Ready to produce unlicensed games using Rabbit
 * Law-suit preemptive strike in expectation of suit for copyright infringement
 * Preemptive law-suit unusually aggressive – Atari Games had a lot to lose
 * Since Donkey Kong law-suit with Universal, Nintendo had reputation for winning legally
 * Arakawa remained uncharacteristically patient – waited 11 months before responding
 * November 1989 Nintendo filed counter-suit against Atari Games
 * Accused them of patent infringement, breach of contract, and unfair competition
 * Sent letters to retailers – said they would be sued and cut off if they sold Tengen products
 * NES was best-selling product in toy-industry – sold consoles and games steadily all year
 * Many retailers could face bankruptcy if Nintendo cut them off – let alone sued
 * Strategy caught Atari Games off-guard – now had expensive inventory of Tengen games
 * Atari Games asked courts to stop Nintendo from threatening customers
 * Judge responded by preventing both Atari and Nintendo from interfering with each other
 * Both appealed and overturned – Nintendo could keep scaring retailers who sold Tengen
 * Case finally went to court – Atari games argued security chip didn't fall under copyright
 * Law only protected programming in software – not data transmitted – technically true
 * Nintendo suing over patent infringement, though – not copyright infringement
 * Tengen also argued Nintendo's security lock-out gave company unfair advantage in market
 * Claimed duplicating code was only way for others to break into market
 * Case came down to 2 points - Atari Games never disputed Nintendo ownership of 10NES
 * 1) First – if Atari had copied 10NES (illegal) or reverse-engineered it (which would be legal)
 * 2) Second – if a direct-copy was necessary for a company to compete in market
 * Was shown that Rabbit contained exact code of 10NES – even non-functional parts
 * Quickly proved that Rabbit was not reverse-engineered product of 10NES
 * Nintendo then showed ways around security chip – didn't require illegally getting info
 * Judge ruled in Nintendo's favor – Nintendo and Atari settled outside of court, however
 * Few details on deal – Atari allowed to continue selling Tengen NES games
 * Court ruling mainly served as legalization of Nintendo's licensing policies
 * October 1990 Nintendo did decide to remove policies on its own
 * Let anyone make games for Nintendo consoles and let games appear on other consoles
 * Biggest lost for Atari and Tengen came outside of case – Tengen version of Tetris
 * Tetris – puzzle game created by Soviet mathematician Alexey Pajitnov
 * Game had players organize 2D blocks – rotated and moved as the blocks fell
 * If solid line created, blocks disappeared – if not, blocks stayed – more piled on top
 * Game ended when stacked blocks filled the screen – Pajitnov called game Tetris
 * Pajitnov made game on Electronica 60 – ancient computer
 * Russian clone of PDP defense computers by Digital Equipment
 * Steve Russel's Spacewar – 1st computer game – made on PDP-1
 * Electronica 60 roughly equivalent to PDP-11 – much more powerful than PDP-1
 * Still an ancient and underpowered computer by mid-80's when Tetris was made
 * Could only display alphanumeric characters – Pajitnov wanted better display
 * Teamed up with who had access to PC to make better-looking version of Tetris
 * 1986 – other friend sent game to Institute of Computer Science in Budapest, Hungary
 * Here Robert Stein – president of London software company Andromeda – saw Tetris
 * Contacted Moscow Academy of Science – where Pajitnov worked when he made game
 * Assumed Pajitnov was authorized to make deal with game – discussed rights to Tetris
 * Stein began offering licenses to various software companies while talking to Pajitnov
 * Sold European rights to Tetris to Mirrorsoft (NOT Microsoft) – American rights to Spectrum Holobyte
 * Both companies backed by British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell
 * Stein didn't realize Pajitnov needed higher-approval to sell rights to game
 * Month later Soviets signed contract with Stein
 * Onlygave him control over PC versions of Tetris in Western markets
 * More confusion – Spectrum Holobyte sold Japanese computer and coin-op rights
 * Sold to Henk Rogers – man with strong ties to Nintendo
 * At same time Mirrorsoft sold exact same Japanese rights to Atari Games
 * Mirrorsoft had more pull in Maxwell's organization – rights ended up at Atari Games
 * Atari Games turned around and sold Japanese coin-op rights to Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
 * Sold Japanese console and PC rights to Henk Rogers
 * None of these companies had any idea that Stein never had rights to make initial deals
 * Rogers looked through various agreements – saw no one had hand-held rights to Tetris
 * Flew to Moscow to meet with Electronorgtechnica (ELORG) who represented Soviets
 * Hoped he could represent Nintendo and secure rights to hand-held version of Tetris
 * Nintendo had new hand-held gaming device ready to come out
 * Arakawa thought Tetris perfect game to drive system – let Rogers make deal for Nintendo
 * Soviets offered Rogers worldwide Tetris rights in any video-game medium
 * Rogers surprised – he, like everyone else, thought Atari and Mirrorsoft had those rights
 * Did not know how to respond – feared legal battle – called Nintendo to enter negotiations
 * March 22, 1988 – Arakawa and Lincoln signed contract with ELORG
 * Nintendo gained worldwide home video-game rights to Tetris
 * Atari Games had already begun working on Tengen version of Tetris for NES
 * March 31 – Nintendo sent fax to Nakajima of Atari to tell him they had rights to Tetris
 * Two weeks later Atari Games filed copyright for Tetris in America
 * May 1989 – Atari games released Tengen version of Tetris for NES
 * One month later Nintendo released its own version of Tetris for NES
 * Many feel Tengen's version superior – had two-player option – Nintendo's only one-player
 * Nintendo knew it had sole home-rights to Tetris – again sued Atari Games
 * Same Judge who presided over 10NES case presided over Tetris case
 * Nintendo able to show clear documentation that it bought rights from Soviets
 * Also able to show that Stein agreement only applied to personal computers
 * Stein himself had defined PC's as having monitor and keyboard – among other things
 * Judge confident Nintendo would win – let Nintendo force Atari to recall Tengen Tetris
 * November 13, 1989 – Judge ruled outside of court – Nintendo owned rights
 * Atari Games forced to remove all Tengen Tetris games from shelves – never sold again
 * Had to lock away all Tengen Tetris cartridges – made game instant collector's item
 * Sold for over $300 after recalled if one could find it
 * Nintendo ended up selling more than 3 million copies of its NES Tetris game
 * Alexey Pajitnov did not make any royalties on Tetris sales of the time
 * Was able to emigrate to US due to his association with Tetris
 * 1996 – all Tetris rights sold by ELORG expired – revered back to creator, Pajitnov
 * Henk Rogers hoped to help Pajitnov finally make money from his creation
 * Helped Pajitnov set up Tetris Company, Llc. – controls all rights to Tetris
 * Anyone wanting to make game based on Tetris now has to purchase rights from Pajitnov
 * Nintendo sold 3 million NES Tetris – sales eclipsed by another Nintendo version of Tetris
 * GameBoy – hand-held gaming system made by veteran Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi
 * Yokoi and his R&D1 team – no strangers to hand-held market
 * Created successful Game and Watch hand-held games
 * Yokoi's GameBoy incredibly efficient – size of calculator, light-weight
 * Stereo sound, black and white LCD display – most importantly, very power-efficient
 * Able to run for over 30 hours on 4 AA batteries in most cases, though even if it dropped to 10 hours, it was still far more than competitors (roughly 5 hours max for Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear - discussed below)
 * Used interchangeable cartridges – not the first hand-held to do so
 * Last hand-held to use interchangeable cartridges – obscure Milton Bradley system
 * Microvision – 1979 – also used black and white LCD display
 * GameBoy's LCD – though primitive – far better quality than Microvision of 1979
 * GameBoy itself far more powerful – used 8-bit processor like NES
 * Cartridges obviously modeled off of NES – same basic shape and grey color
 * Were far smaller – each about the size of a matchbook
 * GameBoy released in 1989 – came packaged with version of Tetris
 * Game perfect match for console – simple graphics easily produced on GameBoy screen
 * Ideal game to play on travel or during quick breaks
 * Later years – Nintendo found GameBoy more appealing to adults than NES was
 * Due to Tetris – Nintendo focused entire ad-campaigns around Tetris for GameBoy
 * When debuted GameBoy cost roughly $100 with Tetris game
 * 3 other games available at launch – Baseball, Breakout, and Golf - $20 a piece
 * Few weeks later Nintendo released Super Mario Land for GameBoy
 * Took Mario to strange worlds – flied spaceships and drove submarines in parts of game
 * Had look and feel of other Mario games – Shigeru Miyamoto did not create it
 * Gunpei Yokoi created game himself specifically to support his GameBoy system
 * GameBoy immediate success – sold out all 1 million units sent to US
 * Time Magazine article stated that the million sold was only half of the demand for system
 * Only 1 million actually shipped in typical Nintendo fashion
 * GameBoy sales continued unimpeded in face of new technological superior products
 * Atari Lynx and Sega GameGear later released – both had color screens and better graphics
 * Lacked GameBoy's 10 hour battery-life – Both ran on 6 batteries (rather than the 4 of GameBoy) and still only lasted about 5 hours max
 * Also lacked Nintendo's line-up of games and ads
 * Also prices well above GameBoy – Lynx sold for $200 - over double price of GameBoy
 * Nintendo sold 40 million GameBoy units and Tetris games
 * Original GameBoy technology lasted through 1998, when technology was given an overhaul
 * GameBoy Color - added color and played existing GameBoy games - even added color to older titles
 * GameBoy Color was essentially the same technology as original GameBoy, and thus is more of a "redesign" than an entirely new system
 * GameBoy line (including GameBoy Color) is one of the longest-lasting console in history (availability in stores), lasting from 1989-2002 (13 years)
 * Only Atari 2600 (and its various redesigns) lasted longer (sold from 1977-1992, or 15 years)
 * GameBoy line (including GameBoy Color) is the second-best-selling game console in history (approx. 118.6-million units, behind the PlayStation 2 which has sold approx. 140-million units as of early 2009)
 * Factoring in the GameBoy Advance (approx. 81.5-million units sold), the GameBoy line is far and away the best selling game console in history (approx. 200-million units)
 * GameBoy line has sold more than the Playstation 2, XBox, and GameCube home consoles combined


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