Ultra (company)
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Founded in 1988 as a subsidiary of Konami of America, Ultra Software Corporation was a spinoff company created in an effort to get around Nintendo of America's strict licensing rules. One of these rules was that a third-party company could only publish up to five games per year for the (NES) in the US. This was hardly convenient for Konami, which has begun releasing more than ten games a year for both, the Famicom and Famicom Disk System, in Japan. With a greater library than they were allowed to localize, Konami formed the Ultra Games brand to extend their annual library to ten games a year.
Ultra's first two NES games were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (based on the TV series) and Metal Gear (a port/adaption of the MSX2 game of the same name). At first, Ultra was dedicated to localizing Konami's pre-existing software from Japan, but later they began publishing works from other companies as well. Some of Konami's most notable games released under Ultra label include Operation C (a Game Boy sequel to Contra) Snake's Revenge (a semi-sequel to the original Metal Gear) and the various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles for the NES and Game Boy.
After the North American launch of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo became less strict on the number of games third-parties could publish. As a result, Ultra Games began losing its purpose and Konami shortly dropped the label in 1992.
In Europe, Konami established the Palcom Software Limited subsidiary for similar purposes. Their library was similar to Ultra's, but the company also published games that were not released in America such as Parodius and Pop n' Twinbee.