Overview
The Nintendo PlayChoice-10 is an arcade machine that consists of ten different games that had previously only been available on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was one of the last arcade machines made by Nintendo before they announced they would stop making coin-op equipment in 1992
Because the home gaming consoles were nearing the popularity of arcade machines, video game companies (e.g. Sega, Nintendo) decided to capitalize on this trend by making stand up arcade machines out of their existing console systems. Nintendo, being the industry leader at the time, was especially successful with this concept. Nintendo packed its most popular games (e.g. Duck Hunt, Excitebike) into a machine case and called it PlayChoice-10.
French Playchoice-10 flyer.
The machine was compatible with the NES, but it was actually quite different. Normal NES cartridges could not be used; rather, the PlayChoice used special expansion cards containing usually unmodified NES games along with extra 8KB ROM to display hints. Due to the fact that the PlayChoice-10 output RGB video used a slightly different palette, games did not look exactly the same as they did on the NES.
