Nintendo VS. System facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
VS. System

A VS. Dr. Mario arcade machine
Developer	Nintendo
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Arcade video game
Release date	January 1984; 40 years ago (January 1984)
Retail availability	1984-1990
Discontinued	1990 (1990)
Units sold	100,000
Media	ROM chips
CPU	Ricoh 2A03
Platform	NES-based
Best-selling game	VS. Super Mario Bros.
Successor	PlayChoice-10

The Nintendo VS. System is an arcade system developed and produced by Nintendo from 1984 to 1990. It is based on most of the same hardware as the Family Computer (Famicom), later released as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Most of its games are conversions from the Famicom and NES, some heavily altered for the arcade format, and some debuted on the VS. System before being released on the Famicom or NES. The system focuses on two-player cooperative play. It was released in three different configurations: upright VS. UniSystem cabinets, upright VS. DualSystem cabinets, and sit-down VS. DualSystem cabinets. Games are on pluggable circuit boards, allowing for each side to have a different game.

The VS. System was a commercial success in the United States, with about 100,000 arcade cabinets sold, as the highest-grossing arcade machine of 1985. It was the first version of the Famicom hardware to debut in North America, in 1984. The system's success in the arcades proved the market for the official release of the NES console in North America in 1985.

Hardware

The VS. System was designed primarily as a kit to retrofit Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Popeye, and Mario Bros. cabinets, so they require the same special monitor. These monitors use inverse voltage levels for their video signals as compared to most arcade monitors.

Almost all VS. System cabinets have identical hardware powered by a Ricoh 2A03 central processing unit (CPU), the same in the Nintendo Entertainment System, except for special PPUs or video chips. Each chip contains a different palette that arrange the colors in different configurations chosen apparently at random. Most boards can be switched to a new game simply by swapping the program ROMs and the appropriate PPU or the game will have incorrect colors. Several of the later units employ further copy protection by using special PPUs which swap pairs of I/O registers or return special data from normally unimplemented regions of memory. Attempts to run these games in other VS. System models will result in the game failing to even start.

Some dedicated double cabinets look like two games butted together at an angle, with a single motherboard. The Red Tent, a steel sit-down cabinet for the VS. DualSystem, allows play for up to four players simultaneously. It has the same motherboard as the double cabinet.

Because the VS. System has the same CPU as the NES, its games can be ported to the NES with modifications to the console including extra memory banks and additional DIP switches.

Version differences

Some games differ from their Famicom or NES versions. For example, VS. Super Mario Bros. is considerably more difficult than Super Mario Bros.; some of the levels were reused in Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Family Computer Disk System. Some games' graphics differ; for example, VS. Duck Hunt has more details and animation sequences.

History

In 1980, Data East had introduced the concept of a convertible arcade system board, or arcade conversion system, with the DECO Cassette System, but it was not a major success. The first successful arcade conversion system is Sega's Convert-a-Game system in the early 1980s. Its success led to several other arcade manufacturers introducing their own arcade conversion systems by the mid-1980s, including the Nintendo VS. System in 1984.

The Nintendo VS. System is important in the history of the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Vs. System is the first version of the Famicom hardware to debut in North America during 1984, the success of which proved the market for the official release of the NES console. Following the video game crash of 1983, the North American home video game market had collapsed. Nintendo's negotiations with Atari to introduce the Famicom in North America failed due to Atari's collapse, and Nintendo of America's market research garnered warnings from retailers and distributors to stay away from home consoles, with US retailers refusing to stock game consoles. Meanwhile, the arcade game industry also had a slump as the golden age of arcade video games ended, but the arcade industry recovered and stabilized with the help of software conversion kit systems, such as Sega's Convert-a-Game system, the Atari System 1, and the Nintendo-Pak system. Hiroshi Yamauchi realized there was still a market for video games in North America, where players were gradually returning to arcades in significant numbers. Yamauchi still had faith there was a market for the Famicom, so he introduced it to North America through the arcade industry.

Nintendo based the VS. System hardware on the Famicom, and introduced it as the successor to its Nintendo-Pak arcade system, which had been used for games such as Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong 3. Though technologically weaker than Nintendo's Punch-Out arcade hardware, the VS. System was relatively inexpensive, fulfilling Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology". The Nintendo-Pak and Punch-Out hardware also have a limited game library, whereas the VS. System accessed a wider variety of games, by easily converting Famicom games. Nintendo of America hired Jeff Walker from Bally to help market the VS. System in North America, where it debuted at the 1984 ASI show along with Punch-Out in February.

List of games

Unknown prototypes of VS. System games may exist, either unreleased or released briefly for market testing. The VS. System launch game was VS. Tennis, released in January 1984.

See also

In Spanish: Nintendo Vs. para niños

• PlayChoice-10, Nintendo's other NES-based arcade series
• Nintendo Super System, the Super NES-based arcade system
• Wild Gunman (1984), which had a fictional VS. arcade version featured in the film Back to the Future Part II (1989)