Nintendo VS. System

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 1981. 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 pivotal in the history of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The VS. System is the first version of the Family Computer (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 North American home video game crash of 1983, Nintendo's negotiations with Atari to introduce the Famicom in North America stalled due to Atari's ongoing debacle, and Nintendo of America's market research garnered warnings from retailers and distributors to stay away from home consoles, with U.S. retailers refusing to stock game consoles. Meanwhile, the arcade game industry also had a slump as the golden age of arcade video games was coming to an end, 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. Nintendo president 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. ==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 NES, 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, and games are not interchangeable with these models. 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. Some games differ from their home console 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.: The Lost Levels for the Famicom Disk System. Some games' graphics differ, such as VS. Duck Hunt having more details and animation sequences. ==List of games==

Unknown prototypes of VS. System games may have been either unreleased or released briefly for market testing. The launch game is VS. Tennis, released in January 1984. == Reception ==

Upon release, the VS. System generated excitement in the arcade industry, receiving praise for its easy conversions, affordability, flexibility, and multiplayer capabilities. Eddie Adlum of RePlay magazine said Nintendo had suddenly become "the big guy on the block" in 1984 due to the VS. System, which "not only meant interchangeable games but interaction between players on dual-monitor games". For Play Meter magazine, Roger C. Sharpe called it a "highly attractive and open-ended interchangeable game system featuring excellent graphics and realistic on-screen visuals" in 1984 and Gene Lewin gave the system a rating of 10+ out of 10 in 1985. Others criticized the system's graphics as technologically weaker than more recent rival arcade systems, and than Nintendo's own powerful Punch-Out!! arcade hardware. and May 1984, and VS. Baseball topped the chart in June and July 1984. By 1985, however, the VS. System had declined in Japan, which led to Yamauchi deciding to withdraw Nintendo from the Japanese coin-op industry in late 1985 and Nintendo focusing more on the Famicom. In North America, by contrast, the VS. System became a major success. Between 10,000 and 20,000 arcade cabinets were sold in 1984, and individual VS. games were top earners on arcade charts. and August 1984 (on the Play Meter charts), and VS. Baseball topped the charts from September through November 1984. ''Hogan's Alley and Duck Hunt then became even more popular in American arcades, popularizing light gun shooter video games. In November 1985, five VS. games were on the US RePlay top 20 arcade charts, with Hogan's Alley holding the top spot. Duck Hunt was also popular in arcades at the time. and Hogan's Alley and Excitebike'' became the top two highest-grossing arcade system games that year. The success of the VS. System gave Nintendo the confidence to repackage the Famicom for North America as the NES. Nintendo's strong positive reputation in the arcades also generated significant interest in the NES. It also gave Nintendo the opportunity to test new games as VS. Paks in the arcades, to determine which games to release for the NES launch. Nintendo's software strategy was to first release games for the Famicom, then the VS. System, and then for the NES. This allowed Nintendo to build a solid launch line-up for the NES. Many games' North American debut was on the VS. System before being released for the NES, which gave players the impression of being "amazed" at the accuracy of the arcade "ports" for the NES. By the time the NES was launched in North America (from late 1985 to 1986), about 100,000 VS. Systems had been sold to American arcades. According to Ken Horowitz, the VS. System "was perhaps the most vital catalyst in the rise of the NES to the top of the home video game market". ==See also==