2
0
If you’ve ever played or collected Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games, surely you’ve noticed that some of the cartridges are taller than others with a strange yellow tab on the upper left side. While functionally no different than other Genesis games, the reason for this strikingly unique design, complete with an embossed EA logo – actually has quite an interesting backstory.
The Sega Genesis came at a time when Nintendo had an unbelievably tight grip on the market. Their NES console (the Famicom in Japan) is credited with saving the North American video game industry after the crash brought on by Atari’s lack of quality control. Trying not to make the same mistake, Nintendo fitted its consoles with a lockout chip to help prevent unlicensed third-party publishers from releasing their own NES games. Moreover, they implemented very strict licensing standards to maintain an upper hand, a practice that did not sit well with many publishers. On top of licensing fees, the terms required that publishers go through Nintendo for cartridge production (at a high cost per unit), required exceptionally large minimum runs, and severely restricted how many titles each publisher could release per year. This placed virtually all risk on the publisher, leaving Nintendo unscathed if a game sold poorly. These unbalanced terms ultimately led to publishers finding ways around the lockout chip and produce their own cartridges behind Nintendo’s back (such as Atari’s black Tengen cartridges).
Meanwhile, up and coming publisher Electronic Arts was looking to make its entry into the console games market. Long before EA became the juggernaut it is today, it was a growing company known primarily for publishing computer games such as M.U.L.E. and The Bards Tale. Hoping to seek a better deal than what Nintendo offered, they turned to Sega, which had recently broken through the North American console to become Nintendo’s primary rival. As it turns out though, Sega’s licensing terms were not much better than Nintendo’s. After attempts to negotiate, they were ultimately told if they wanted a better deal, they wouldn’t be getting it from Sega – they should just reverse engineer the Genesis hardware and figure it out themselves. The statement was meant to be a power move by Sega in an effort to maintain the upper hand.
EA, however, was not to be deterred. Founder Trip Hawkins figured Sega might be right – maybe reverse engineering was the answer. With a tenacious attitude and knowledgeable team, the company got to work dissecting, studying, and documenting the inner workings of the 16-bit console by using their own dev kit. Before long, they were armed with all the know-how to develop, manufacture, and release their own games with no interference from Sega. Nothing was stopping them – legal or otherwise – from completely circumventing Sega’s strict policies. In fact, nothing was stopping them from creating their own licensing agreements with other developers to publish Genesis games, cutting Sega out of the process entirely. But they didn’t.
Rather than moving forward with the plan, Hawkins figured the ethical thing to do would be to check with Sega one more time to see if they were willing to discuss more agreeable terms. By this time, Sega had already caught wind of EA’s reverse engineering efforts and were suddenly willing to negotiate. Sega offered EA more favorable licensing terms and allowed them to manufacture their own cartridges, cutting the cost per unit significantly. The small yellow tab is an indication that the cartridge was produced by EA directly and serves as a symbol of the battle they had won. These decades old events were the primary catalyst in Electronic Arts transforming from a scrappy underdog to an absolute giant in the video game industry, for better or worse.
