Does that mean that unoriginal car spare parts aren't real spare parts either?

Kickass topic by the way, can't wait to read people's thoughts of it.

My understanding is that Tengen made Gauntlet and RBI Baseball and Pac Man in licensed format, then decided they were getting ripped off and so they went the unlicensed route.  (Didnt the licensing/endorsing/approving cost a lot of money?)

Those 3 unlicensed games would have originally been licensed/endorsed/approved by Nintendo.  Does that make their "unlicensed" version an exception to the mini-rant?


Al

Fun topic

Rant Begins
I disagree though.  Yes, they aren't officially licensed products that Nintendo didn't want us to have, FACT.  Most of them sucks balls, FACT.  BUT... They are part of the Big N's history like it or not.  These unlicensed companies help shape the video game market to what it is today.  They forced Nintendo to take actions againist them.  Then Nintendo vs. Tengen lawsuit was big time stuff back in the day.  From a gaming standpoint I could see why someone would not want to play them, but from a collection standpoint I can't see why somemone woudln't want to collect them.  Collecting is about preserving the items you love so you can enjoy them for yours to come.  To me at least part of the allure of Nintendo is there long history and journey.  They are an interesting company, but have been greatly influenced by the unllicensed companies.

Most people that I find don't collect unlicensed stuff are people who simply don't want to invest more time and money into there collection.  As we all know there is BIG money in them.  The Panesians, King Neptune, Moon Ranger, the Sachens...your talking 50+ a pop for each one of them with the porn games bringing in 600+ anymore.  

If you you are going to saw unlicensed games aren't Nintendo games were do you draw the line then?  Repros aren't licensed and we aren't suppose to have them, so they are out I guess.  Same with protos, they were never supposed to see the light of day other that for developers.  Then no clones or pirates are worth collecting either, most of them are illegal anyways.  Same with test stuff, they weren't supposed to be used by the general public only licensed stores were supposed to have them cause they paid out the nose to get that license.  Then if you really want to get down to it, we shouldn't have Stadium Events either.  It was a licensed product but the license got sold back to Nintendo when they bought out the rights to it.  All those games were meant to be destroyed and long forgotten.  So why collect that then cause it was licensed at one time.  Where is the line drawn?  Each person needs to collect what they like and enjoy bottomline, but when people say they have a full collection they need to put stipulations on it then.  A full collection is defined in so many different ways by so many different people.  To me a full collection is impossible to obtain cause no one can get every single varaint from every single region across the globe and that is my end game.  Some say I am crazy, but aren't we all a little crazy for spending 1000's on peices of plastic?  Unlicsened is ok in my book, fun and challenging stuff to collect.
End rant!.  

I would say that the unlicensed companies played a big part...

Where would the NES history be with out Color Dreams and their friggin bad games, who later were endorsed by the man above.... well maybe not, but that's history right there and they had great success making those damned Wisdom Tree games eventhough they all hated it and went on to make webcameras.

American Game Carts Inc, uhh okay so maybe they don't have much space in history but they did make a game about a bear that said no to drugs, I'm sure Nintendo would've loved it.

Tengen, Tetris... lawsuit, licensed then unlicensed... a big part of the NES History...

American Video Entertainment, probably the worst bunch of them all... I know Art V. Cestaro of Odyssey Software hates AVE for driving him out of business (ooops I wasn't supposed to quote him on that one), but seriously they fought Big N all they could before finally giving up... oh and you gotta love their Maxi30 (yes 30) infomercial and the many many statements about Nintendo given by Richard Frick.

Sachen games weren't NES games to begin with, they were intended for Asian gamers. I believe Color Dreams, American Video Entertainment and Sachen all were connected in some way or another (why does Color Dreams carts say "manufactured in Taiwan?) and I believe somewhere along the way Sachen decided to made 72pin versions of the Famicom carts, they had nothing to loose but didn't have a great distribution network and their games were released in small quantities... question is if you actually can say that all their games were released and not just available from their warehouse in Taiwan (I doubt all 35+ ever were distributed anywhere).

Codemasters/Camerica.... Aladdin Deck Enhancer, the worst scam of all time, the ADE does absolutely nothing to enhance graphics or anything like that. The games are just updated versions which is why they run faster and smoother. Game Genie, isn't that NES history?

Datel.... Pro Action Replay, AFAIK only available in Europe though not as widely available as the GameGenie (damn I wish I had asked if I could have had the infomercial tape we had back when I worked at SuperLeg (Super Play) ... now Toys R Us. Datel's Action replay has made Datel what it is today.... a UK outlet bringing the world a lot of useless crap.