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September 4th, 2015 
Carl Williams 
5) Camerica being a Thorn in Nintendo’s Side
Camerica, unlike Tengen, never had a license to make Nintendo Entertainment System games. They did it the old fashioned way, by short circuiting the lockout chip in the console. Camerica made their cartridges look distinctly different than official ones and they also had the rights to many Codemasters games (Dizzy for instance) and in certain parts of the world they distributed the biggest thorn in Nintendo’s side- the Game Genie.
How did Camerica get back at Nintendo? They felt that cartridge prices were too high, partly because each game was using common chips as other games. Camerica decided to release the Aladdin deck. Aladdin held the common chips and the others were sold on smaller cartridges that clipped into the Aladdin deck, supposedly saving money for the gamer. I didn’t say these were all going to successful screwjobs.
6) Accolade Goes Ballistic on Genesis
Accolade is connected to Activision via two of the founders who moved on to create their own company, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead. Accolade came to consoles after over half a decade of success on computers. Looking to recreate some of their previous success, Accolade ported some of their computer titles over to the Sega Genesis. Hardball III was one of these ports. Accolade also secured certain arcade titles such as Double Dragon for release on the Genesis.
How did Accolade screw over Sega? They reverse engineered the Genesis console and released a handful of titles under their Accolade label. Sega Sued and won then Accolade got that overturned and then a settlement was reached and Accolade started the Ballistic label. Accolade is now, after a long line of purchases a part of the “new” Atari company (who has over the years, and under previous company names, acquired over a dozen other developers and publishers). You might say, Atari has gone full circle.
7) Electronic Arts Follows Accolades Lead
If Accolade could figure out how to reverse engineer the Sega Genesis, so could Electronic Arts. That is exactly what they did too. EA did this to secure better contract terms, not just to stiff Sega. It worked and we saw many new games released for the Genesis. The original EA Genesis games, Zany Golf, Budokan and Populous were unlicensed and therefore won’t work on certain Genesis consoles. EA supported the Genesis nearly as long as Nintendo supported the Super Nintendo (ending support in 1997).
How did EA screw over Sega? Um, have you played Sega’s sports lineup on the Genesis, Game Gear or Sega Saturn? Compare them to the EA versions and you will see, EA was wiping the floor with Sega. EA screwed over Sega by decimating their sports division (later EA would purchase the exclusive rights to the NFL and other sports blocking EVERY other publisher from even competing).
8) Capcom makes Sega Play the Waiting Game.
This one is kind of a combo screw job by Capcom and Nintendo. See, when Street Fighter II hit the Super Nintendo it was kind of a big deal. Sega wanted in on that action but Nintendo had gotten Capcom to sign an exclusivity contract on the original SFII game. That is fine, not too long after the original hit the arcades we saw the release of Street Fighter II: Championship Edition (and several more followed) so Sega was happy as a kid in a candy store at getting Capcom to agree to NOT sign an exclusivity contract on this one with Nintendo. All seemed great in gaming, Sega was going to get a SFII game and, of course, it would be on SNES too. Not too fast, read on to see the screw job bigger than the Montreal Screwjob that Vince pulled in the WWF (now WWE).
How did Capcom screw over Sega? Capcom was slightly behind on getting the Super Nintendo port ready in time to release alongside the Sega Genesis version. Rather than just launching them at different dates, Capcom held the Genesis version up for at least two months till the SNES version was ready- not only screwing over Sega on some lucrative summer sales but also the fans that wanted the damn game.
9) Kenji Eno Gives Sony the Middle Finger at Live Sony Game Show
Enemy Zero was a unique horror game that didn’t rely on jump scares and zombies like Resident Evil. No, Enemy Zero put you on a space station where an invisible force, yes INVISIBLE, is searching you out. There is a large use of sound and a severely limited supply of offensive items which raises both the challenge and the scare factor.
How did Kenji Eno, owner of Warp, screw Sony? Well, Enemy Zero was supposed to be a Sony Playstation game. Apparently sales were low for D, Warp’s previous title, were really low on the Playstation. This pissed off Kenji Eno who decides to play nice up to the reveal of Enemy Zero at a Sony game show, in front of a large audience. At the Sony themed show the Enemy Zero video was shown and at the end the PS logo morphed into a Sega Saturn one, probably inciting quite a bit of hatred at the time (Facebook and Twitter were not a thing at this point in history so we won’t know exactly what rage befell Kenji Eno).
It is not all that often that a game developer or publisher screws over a console manufacturer but when it does happen, it is usually something magical and blown completely out of proportion by lawyers. Videogames are full of drama and excited activity. Thankfully game developers, publishers and the companies that make the consoles know how to play with the big boy pants on nowadays.
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