Something Awful have knocked up a guide to what was required in order to get the ‘Nintendo Seal of Quality’ stamped on their game, throughout Nintendo’s console history. You can see it by clicking on these words.
Best bit: “Works extra good when blown on.â€
The infamous seal was never intended to show consumers that a game was of a decent quality; it was used to prove that it was a legit copy, and not a pirate, and that it would actually work when you plugged it in.
thats what nintendo said, but really, pirates could just copy the seal as well couldn’t they? thats certainly what they did. i’ve even seen pirate gameboy games with extra seals added where the original wouldn’t have one (moulded into the back of the case for example). the real reason for the seal was to reduce confidence in legitimate companies producing games without a license from nintendo – since they were law-abiding they wouldnt dare copy the trademarked seal, so their games had no seal and were therefore supposed to be perceived as inferior, according to nintendo at least