PlayChoice-10

The PlayChoice-10 is an arcade system developed and marketed by Nintendo. Released in August 1986 as the successor to the Nintendo VS. System, the PlayChoice-10 was developed as a means to showcase NES games while maintaining revenue from the arcade business; it did so by allowing players to test up to ten games, one at a time. Two upright cabinet variants of the PlayChoice-10 were offered: a stacked dual-screen one and a single-screen one. A "cabaret" variant of the dual-screen cabinet, featuring a 9-inch screen on top of a 15-inch one instead of two 25-inch screens, was available in markets outside the United States. Conversion kits were also available for both dual-screen and single-screen formats, with the former intended for converting Punch-Out!! cabinets and the latter intended for converting standard Nintendo cabinets; the company later offered conversion kits for VS. UniSystem cabinets, with a five-game PlayChoice-5 kit made available alongside the standard ten-game kit. Nintendo additionally offered a countertop variant of the PlayChoice-10: the PlayChoice CounterTop System, which featured two control sets side-by-side. Games were distributed on printed circuit boards (PCBs) featuring ROM chips and were connected to the motherboard with edge connectors. Gameplay is restricted to a set time limit, with two minutes available at minimum; inserting additional coins before play results in bonus session time (called "Prime Time") on top of the added time. Players are able to freely switch between games by pressing a button that invoked a game selection menu; they are also able to pause and reset the current game. Dual-screen cabinets displayed the selection menu and game instructions on the top screen and the gameplay on the bottom screen. The games themselves have minor differences compared to their console counterparts, with all of them including game instructions; some games had other differences, with Punch-Out!! using a battery save to remember a player's initials for high scores.