video game parlance Since the origin of video games in the early 1970s, the video game industry, the gamer, players, and video game culture, surrounding culture have spawned a wide range of technical and slang terms. 0–9 ...

, bootleg is a term widely used with varying range of usage, including but not limited to pirated games, multicarts, asset flips, romhacks, modifications marketed as full games, unauthorized reproductions,

fan games A fan game is a video game that is created by fans of a certain topic or IP. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fan games attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, game ...

, unlicensed titles, unofficial ports and

demakes A video game remake is a video game closely adapted from an earlier title, usually for the purpose of modernizing a game with updated graphics for newer hardware and gameplay for contemporary audiences. Typically, a remake of such game software sh ...

, plug and plays,

video game clones A video game clone is either a video game or a video game console very similar to, or heavily inspired by, a previous popular game or console. Clones are typically made to take financial advantage of the popularity of the cloned game or system, bu ...

and any titles that use copyrighted materials without a license or permission. They have garnered wide attention in the gaming community, often infamy, with seemingly bizarre choices in game design, poor graphics and glitches, mistranslations and blatant disregard for copyright, but have also garnered a cult following with appreciation given towards their creativity, the creation of increased gaming accessibility in the developing world, the pushing of hardware limits, the use of what limited resources the developers often had available, their influence on official titles and their wider place in video game history.

Notable bootleg game developers and publishers

* Sachen *

Hummer Team Hummer Team() was a Taiwanese developer of bootleg video games. It was most well known for making NES ports of games originally developed on more advanced hardware. History Hummer Team was founded in Taipei, Taiwan by Hummer Cheng, who ha ...

* Colour Dreams * NTDEC *

Gamtec Gamtec () is a Taiwanese video game developer established in June 1989 and based in Taichung City, Taiwan noted for its unlicensed Sega Mega Drive games such as ''Legend of Wukong'' and ''Squirrel King''. Its motto is: ''Believe in yourself'' ( ...

* Micro Genius * Dendy * Hacker International *

Zemina Zemina (Korean language, Korean: 재미나, originally 제미나) was a South Korean software maker brand of Saehan Trading (Korean: 새한 상사) founded in 1981. They primarily made games for the Zemmix, Daewoo Zemmix, but because it was an M ...

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

SouljaGame DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to prominence with his self-released 2007 debut single, "Crank That ...

Notable bootleg titles

* 7 GRAND DAD *

Somari ''Somari the Adventurer'' (commonly known as simply ''Somari'' ( and 速音瑪莉; pinyin: ''Sùyīn mǎlì'' )) is a side-scrolling platform video game for the Family Computer. An unlicensed remake of Sega's 1991 Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game ...

* Kart Fighter *

Pokémon Diamond and Jade is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

Final Fantasy VII (NES video game) ''Final Fantasy VII'' is an Copyright infringement, unlicensed "Shanzhai" Video game remake#Demakes, demake of Square (video game company), SquareSoft's role-playing video game ''Final Fantasy VII'', originally released for PlayStation (console), ...

References

Video game terminology Unauthorized video games Video game distribution Unlicensed Nintendo hardware Unlicensed Sega hardware {{Videogame-terminology-stub