[NetHaven]

This is absolutely true. If anyone remembers Tengen back in the day putting stuff out without the Nintendo seal of approval; Nintendo completely freaked out about it despite the fact that Tengen’s stuff was much higher quality than many “approved” Nintendo games.

[LocalH]

Tengen started out as a licensee. They released three games as licensees (Pac-Man, RBI Baseball, and Gauntlet). They were also simultaneously cracking 10NES. Worried about damage to consoles, they went to the Copyright Office and falsely represented themselves as potentially entering into litigation with Nintendo, and obtained the 10NES program (which is honestly probably where they screwed up). They started releasing the famous black unlicensed carts, and proceeded to get sued.