We have all seen unlicensed Nintendo games...believe it or not. They're everywhere. Maybe it was that copy of Klax you played at your friends house. And then there was the pale blue cart which looked really odd. Anyway, unlicensed Nintendo games tend to be slightly rarer to obtain than regular NES carts are. Why? Unlicensed Nintendo games were released in smaller quantities.

There were several unlicensed game companies around...and most of them were based in America! That's really cool for me cuz these games were produced on my home turf. In the following section, there is a list of the main unlicensed companies and specific information is available about each company.

Active Enterprises Andrew Harris's research revealed another story about Active Enterprises, much more believable then my old Active Enterprises article. Here is his complete article. (I did not write this)

American Game Cartridges Inc A subsidary of Share Data (budget computer game company) was formed, known as American Game Cartridges. Several titles were released, including Chiller, Deathrace, and Shockwave, though there were also a few unreleased games in the batch. Ever hear rumors about Crossbow?

American Video Entertainment American Video Entertainment was formed in 1990 by mainly three guys. They had a fairly good relationship with retailers.

Caltron Little known, Caltron had produced one game for the Nintendo, a multicart containing 6 different games.

Camerica Codemasters, a UK based software company, produced numerous games for the NES. They sold the rights to Camerica, a Canadian and New York based software publisher, to bring the games out in the states.

Color Dreams Dan Lawton figures out what makes the NES 'tick' and starts making NES carts. Numerous people join along the way, the California based company had tons of US-only games.

Home Entertainment Suppliers (HES) HES is the unlicensed Nintendo company from down under. Since the Atari days, HES has been churning out unlicensed products. Suppliers published many of the American games, from Color Dreams, American Game Cartridges, and Tengen.

Odyssey Software Odyssey Software was a company that was formed in 1990 by Art V. Cestaro III, a man who was living in the Boston area. With the help of a few others, Odyssey managed to put out several Amiga/Nintendo games and a few business database programs. Several other things were planned, such as a PC version of Mad Dog McCree and a few Atari Jaguar games, though they all were canned.

S.E.I. S.E.I. obtained the rights from Epyx to the game Impossible Mission ][. After a release that went unnoticed, S.E.I. went out completly unknown.

Tengen Many of us remember Tengen, they were a subsidary of Atari games so they remade alot of their arcade classics for the NES. They also obtained the rights to a few of Sega's games, such as Fantasy Zone, they released them as well. Probably the most popular unlicensed NES company.

Wisdom Tree In 1991, someone at Color Dreams had made the suggestion to make bible games. Although many of the programmers took the idea as a joke, Roger Deforest said that "it was a concept that had never been explored in video games before...scenarios from the Bible turned into challenging and educational video games. It was quite revolutionary in that aspect. I remember when the owner presented us with the idea of making religious games. He was so excited with his idea. And he convinced us it'd be BIG..."