From Atari to Playstation - Five Times Developers Screwed Over Console Manufacturers

We have all heard the rumors. Such and such game developer is planning to jump ship to the competing platform. Or, this got cut from the game, that would have been such a big “F-You” to the console manufacturer had they included that! Well, I am here to tell you, back in the day, game developers were not nearly as scared to do things that pissed off the console manufacturer. Back then, developers had back bone, we were in the wild west of gaming and everyone knew it. Here are five times game developers screwed over console manufacturers – some are a quite a doozy and WOULD NEVER HAPPEN TODAY!

PO’ed by Any Channel for the 3DO

Arguably an early success story of the Internet, Any Channel developed PO’ed to near completion without most of the team having ever met each other. This historic meeting took place at Electronic Entertainment Expo where the team finally met for the first time. Their game involved a cook on a badly damaged space ship that has had to crash land on an alien planet. Unfortunately, the denizens of the planet are not exactly friendly to say the least.

How did PO’ed happen?
Well, this is a funny story about how the team behind Any Channel were upset at the 3DO company over various things (depends on who you ask and what day of the week it is). Anyhow, to get back at 3DO Any Channel inserted a character that is, quite honestly, is the lower half of a person walking backwards towards you. Forget getting me to describe the brown projectiles he shoots your way.

Warren Robinette and Adventure for Atari 2600

Way back in the early days of gaming, the programmers of the games were not celebrated in any way to fans. Atari felt that if the programmers were celebrated then they would jump ship, or worse – demand more money for their work. Since games were new, programmers were trying to one up each other. What was interesting about Adventure was that this was about as anti-Atari as you could possibly make a game be. No aliens. No spaceships. No guns. No cars. There was literally nothing like Adventure on the Atari 2600. Then Warren Robinette one upped all his fellow programmers with one little secret in the game. The world’s first Easter Egg was born.

He did what?
When we think of a secret that is going to help us in the game. Whether it be the 30-man code in Contra or the finding the Minus World in Super Mario Bros, Easter Eggs in gaming are common. There was a time when this was not the norm. Warren Robinette did something that was completely against corporate policy here, he didn’t include codes for more men, no, he included his name in the game itself. Now, think about how rebellious this is. This was a time when programmers were not to be known to fans or celebrated in any way. He put his career on the line with this stunt. Worse of all, he had no tangible way to tell fans how to find the Easter Egg, at least not without ousting himself. Thankfully the Easter Egg was discovered after too many copies had shipped so Atari could not exactly remove it, or afford to recall cartridges in the wild.

Tengen puts Nintendo’s legal department to work

It is no secret that Nintendo had a tight grip on what games outside developers could release on their Nintendo Entertainment System. There have been legal battles over this, there have been books written, there have been interviews covering these events. That is why Tengen stands out so much when you look back on the NES library. Tengen was once a 3rd party licensee, like everyone else, then they weren’t. This was the start of the screwjob that was almost on the level of the Montreal Screwjob (who knows the story behind that one? A prize awaits the first correct answer).

Corporate shenanigans and legal wrangling
Tengen became an unlicensed developer that could still work their magic on the NES by some legal wrangling. They illegally obtained information about the lock-out chip the NES contained. Then to rub salt in the wound, Tengen licensed Sega’s arcade games such as Shinobi, Afterburner, etc. They also tied up the Tetris negotiations with the Russians. Tengen seemed dead set on being a thorn in Nintendo’s side, a feat they accomplished even though they lost a few court battles along the way.

Accolade shows Sega that they are no Nintendo

Two of the founders of Accolade are former Activision founders (Activision was the first developer to give a console manufacturer the finger). It is only fitting that they repeat their actions with the Sega Genesis console. Previously, Accolade saw over half a decade of success on personal computers, with the rise of more powerful consoles their eye was easily swayed. Accolade held licenses for games like Double Dragon, homegrown games like Hardball III and more which made them an iconic publisher on Genesis almost from day one.

Hint, don’t build a console with off the shelf parts. Someone will hack it
Considering Sega simply used off the shelf parts to create the Sega Genesis (Motorola 68000 CPU for instance) they left it quite open for non-licensees to create games for it. This is exactly what Accolade did. Well, Sega seeing the money that Nintendo was raking in hand over fist was too enticing to ignore. They could not let Accolade run wild like Tengen was (even though Sega supported Tengen with some sweet licenses). Sega sued and won, Accolade countersued and won then a settlement between the two companies was reached. Accolade launched the “Ballistic” label (ignoring NEC having released a game under that name for the Turbo Grafx-16 around this time).

Some trivia about Accolade. Remember two Activision founders started Accolade. Well, Activision was started by several upset Atari developers. After years of buyouts and mergers, Accolade ended up becoming part of the Atari we have today (along with nearly a dozen other companies across the globe). You would not be wrong in thinking Atari kind of went full circle here.

Kenji Eno, owner of Warp, gave Sony the middle finger at live game show

You think you have cool horror games today with virtual reality and augmented reality? Warp released a little game called Enemy Zero on the Sega Saturn (and PC). What was unique about this game was, you cannot see your enemy. You must judge where they are based on sound. Oh, and guess what. Your only weapon has a single shot before it requires a recharge. Talk about tense. Enemy Zero was a big game among the hardcore gamers and for a rather long time, it was thought that Warp would release this on Playstation – Sony promoted it, Warp promoted it, gamers lapped it up. Then at a Sony game show, this all changed.

The first “holy sh-t, holy sh-t” moment of the 32-Bit era happened
Kenji Eno was “all in” publicly about making Enemy Zero for the Sony Playstation console. This was going to be another notch in the belt for Sony, a flagship title of sorts. Well, not so much. Sales of D, the previous Warp game, on the Sony Playstation were less than stellar. This upset Kenji Eno and made him decide to jump ship to Sega’s Saturn console. Having to pick his moment for maximum effect, Eno was quiet about the jump, right up to the reveal at a Sony gaming event. This is on the level of Ric Flair bringing the WCW/NWA championship onto Monday Night Raw years ago.
Enemy Zero was shown, as planned, at the Sony gaming event (this being a Sony gaming event is key). The end of the video came and a Playstation logo appeared. After a few seconds that iconic logo morphed into a Sega Saturn logo, probably inciting a small riot among the people in attendance. You simply did not do this. Warp had effectively used Sony’s marketing and promotion at the show against them – one giant middle finger extended.