VS. UniSystem

In 1984 Nintendo put NES-grade hardware into arcade cabinets a full year before the NES itself reached American living rooms. The VS. System let operators swap games by changing a board, and it let Nintendo test what American players would pay a quarter for before betting a console launch on it.

This is the dedicated single-screen UniSystem. A VS. Interchanger switcher means it runs two titles without opening the cabinet — VS. Super Mario Bros. and VS. Duck Hunt — with more boards in storage to rotate in. Super Mario Bros. is what is usually up. And that game deserves a warning: it is not the Super Mario Bros. you finished as a child. It is a deliberately harder arcade edition built to eat quarters, with levels lifted from what became The Lost Levels, narrower platforms, and fewer places to rest.

The house rules

Every slot on the high score board is initialed DK, and every run on it went to 8-4. That is not a boast about the machine so much as an admission about the person who owns it.

There is a longer piece on exactly how and why the arcade version is harder — the level swaps, the enemy changes, and what Nintendo learned from it. Read that here →

Work log

What has been done to it, and one thing worth knowing before anyone opens it up.

• VS. Interchanger fitted — A switcher by Tony Swann, so the cabinet runs VS. Super Mario Bros. and VS. Duck Hunt without swapping boards.
• Spare boards held — Further VS. titles in storage, ready to rotate in.
• Control panel overlay replaced — New CPO by ThisOldGame.
• Service note: inverted voltage monitor — Worth knowing before anyone puts a meter on it.

More photos of the VS. UniSystem in the gallery →

Sources & further reading: Museum of the Game — VS. Super Mario Bros. · Super Mario Wiki

The UniSystem sits in the cabinet row with Donkey Kong, the Mario Bros. widebody and Big Blue. See the whole lineup →