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Tag Archives: Tengen

Nintendo’s Iron Grip: The Dark History of Licensing Rules, Lockouts, and Censorship

Nintendo licensing history cover featuring Hiroshi Yamauchi, Howard Lincoln, Minoru Arakawa, the NES, and Tengen Tetris

A gold seal on the box. A lock inside the console. Five games a year, and a contract that could keep those games away from the competition. Nintendo’s happiest era had a remarkably ugly business side. In 1989, two very different versions of Tetris became part of Nintendo Entertainment System history. One came from Nintendo. The other came from Tengen, in a black cartridge that looked slightly wrong beside the familiar gray… Read more