VS. System
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| VS. System | |
|---|---|
 VS. Super Mario Bros. in a VS. Table cabinet | |
| Release date | February 1984[1] |
| Discontinued |  Late 1985[2][3] July 31, 1992[4][5] |
| Successor | Nintendo PlayChoice-10 |
The VS. System is a collection of coin-operated VS. DualSystem or VS. UniSystem arcade systems, and the games were designed for competitive play. The VS. DualSystem comes with two screens and four sets of controls, meaning it had support for four simultaneous players, which only the launch title, VS. Tennis, takes advantage of, not any games of the Super Mario franchise. The first model is the red sit-down type that lets players face each other and was later renamed VS. Table.[6] The upright type looks like two machines conjoined at an angle. The VS. UniSystem is like a conventional upright arcade cabinet with two sets of controls and a single screen, and it can either come as a dedicated gray cabinet or be a conversion from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., or Popeye cabinets. It is not possible to convert the dedicated wide-body Mario Bros. cabinets or the Punch-Out!! cabinets. In Japan, there are conversion kits for cocktail cabinets.[7]
The VS. System was designed in response to the video game crash of 1983 and the collapse of a proposed deal with Atari to distribute the Famicom in the United States. Knowing that arcade gaming was still commercially successful in North America, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi conceived the VS. System as a way to gauge consumer interest in Nintendo's home console games.[8][9] The precursor to the VS. System line are the Nintendo-Pak conversion kits. Mario Bros. was the first to be available as a Nintendo-Pak, in addition to selling the dedicated wide-body cabinets.[10] Donkey Kong 3 was available only as a Nintendo-Pak, which spared operators from having to buy the cabinet.[11]
The VS. System games were the last arcade games Nintendo of Japan released before leaving the business in late 1985. This was despite the high demand of VS. Super Mario Bros., which never had a physical arcade release in the country.[2][3] The system had a longer life in North America; new games were released for it as late as 1990, and it was successful enough to spur the development of the Nintendo PlayChoice-10. By the time Nintendo of America announced it would stop producing arcade equipment on July 31, 1992,[4][5] however, no new VS. games were coming out.
The VS. System games are mostly ports of Nintendo Entertainment System games, although many have notable changes in their graphics, gameplay, and difficulty. One exception is VS. Wrecking Crew, released a year before its NES counterpart Wrecking Crew, from which it greatly differs.
List of Super Mario games[edit]
| Arcade game | Nintendo Entertainment System game |
|---|---|
| VS. Wrecking Crew | Wrecking Crew |
| VS. Pinball | Pinball |
| VS. Golf | Golf |
| VS. Super Mario Bros. | Super Mario Bros. |
| VS. Dr. Mario | Dr. Mario |
VS. Dr. Mario is the only arcade version unavailable on the Arcade Archives.
Gallery[edit]
Cabinets[edit]
VS. Super Mario Bros. in a dedicated VS. UniSystem cabinet
VS. Golf / VS. Super Mario Bros. in an upright VS. DualSystem cabinet
VS. Dr. Mario in a VS. Table cabinet
VS. Pinball in a VS. Table cabinet
VS. Wrecking Crew in a VS. Table cabinet
Screenshots[edit]
VS. Super Mario Bros.
VS. Wrecking Crew
VS. Dr. Mario
VS. Pinball
VS. Golf
Flyers[edit]
Library of VS. titles flyer
VS. Golf / VS. Pinball flyer showing off the upright VS. DualSystem
Earlier Japanese flyer of VS. Wrecking Crew
Earlier Japanese flyer of VS. Wrecking Crew
Later Japanese flyer of VS. Wrecking Crew
Later Japanese flyer of VS. Wrecking Crew
Earlier flyer of VS. Super Mario Bros. with the title VS. Mario's Adventure
Later flyer of VS. Super Mario Bros.
References[edit]
- ^ Game Machine. February 15, 1984 issue. Page 3.
- ^ a b "Coin-Op "Super Mario" Will Shop To Overseas". Game Machine. Amusement Press. Published March 1, 1986.
- ^ a b Play Meter - Volume 12, Number 5 - April 1986
- ^ a b "Nintendo Will No Longer Produce Coin-Op Equipment". Cashbox.
- ^ a b "Nintendo Stops Games Manufacturing; But Will Continue Supplying Software". Cashbox.
- ^ VS. Dr. Mario installation manual
- ^ Cocktail conversion kit flyer
- ^ Stark, Chelsea (October 19, 2015). How Nintendo brought the NES to America -- and avoided repeating Atari's mistakes. Mashable. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
- ^ Horowitz, Ken (July 30, 2020). "The Vs. System (1984)". Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games. McFarland & Company. pp. 119–28. ISBN 978-1-4766-4176-8.
- ^ Mario Bros. Nintendo-Pak manual
- ^ Donkey Kong 3 Nintendo-Pak manual
| Video game systems and add-ons | |
|---|---|
| Nintendo home consoles | Nintendo Entertainment System/Family Computer (Family BASIC, Family Computer Disk System) • Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom (Satellaview, Super Game Boy) • Nintendo 64 (Nintendo 64DD) • Nintendo GameCube (Game Boy Player) • Wii (Virtual Console, WiiWare) • Wii U (Virtual Console) |
| Nintendo handhelds | Game & Watch • Game Boy • Virtual Boy • Game Boy Color • Game Boy Advance • Nintendo DS (Nintendo DSi, DSiWare) • Nintendo 3DS (Virtual Console) |
| Other | MS-DOS • VS. System • Nintendo PlayChoice-10 • Nelsonic Game Watch • Super Mario Bros. Watch • Gamewatch Boy • Philips CD-i • Mini Classics • Nintendo Switch • Triforce • Visteon Dockable Entertainment System • Classics • LodgeNet |
