# What game was made on the largest number of separate consoles?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [June 21, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061 "2015-06-21T03:43:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/21 "2015-06-22T04:51:08Z")

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I would say this - what game, upon immediate release to the general public or within a fairly short timespan afterward (no more than 2 years), was available on the on the most number of platforms.

The impressive part I’m trying to get at and understand is how one dev team releases a game for all sorts of consoles and system architectures all at one time. Like FIFA on GBA is an entirely different thing than it on XBOX 360 and I find that amazing that they can do that.

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**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/22 "2015-06-22T04:56:24Z")

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Madden 07 was released for 11 platforms - PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, Xbox 360, Windows, DS, Game Boy Advance, Wii, Nintendo GameCube, Mobile phone

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/23 "2015-06-22T05:05:40Z")

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Also OP, how similar do the games have to be? Nothing immediately to mind, but I remember old handheld games that care e.g. overhead view while the console version was 3d. Or like Shadow of Mordor, which was AFAIK identical on PC, PS4, Xbox One, but had some features simplified for PS3 and Xbox 360. I think that might count but not sure of the former example.

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/24 "2015-06-22T05:28:48Z")

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> [@Oedipus](#):
>
> I would say this - what game, upon immediate release to the general public or within a fairly short timespan afterward (no more than 2 years), was available on the on the most number of platforms.
> 
> The impressive part I’m trying to get at and understand is how one dev team releases a game for all sorts of consoles and system architectures all at one time. Like FIFA on GBA is an entirely different thing than it on XBOX 360 and I find that amazing that they can do that.

For actual different games, it would probably not be a single dev team. Might not even be for the same game on different systems, if one is a port of the other.

The FIFA GBA team is almost certainly different from the XBOX 360 team. And I’m pretty certain all they did on the PS2 version was tweak the rosters and change some superficial characteristics of the players (like maybe giving them the right skin color, hair color, and height–fairly easy to do without having to do any model work.)

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**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/25 "2015-06-22T11:47:38Z")

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> [@amanset](#):
>
> Worms seems to have been on everything but the kitchen sink too.

This slipped under the radar, but I’ve been looking and it has been on an impressive list of devices. There’s been an official Worms(\*) game on the following:

Amiga  
CD32  
Game Boy  
Megadrive/Genesis  
Jaguar  
Mac  
Dos/Windows  
Playstation  
Saturn  
SNES  
Dreamcast  
Nintendo 64  
Gameboy Color  
BeOS  
Gameboy Advance  
N-Gage  
Nintendo DS  
PSP  
Wii  
Random JavaME Devices  
Playstation 3  
Xbox 360  
iOS  
Android  
Linux  
PS Vita  
Playstation4  
Xbox One  
Playstation2  
Xbox  
Gamecube  
(\*) As in with the basic Worms gameplay, not one of the spin offs.

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**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/26 "2015-06-22T12:55:10Z")

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> [@Kobal2](#):
>
> The original \*Mortal Kombat \*was released on : arcades, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega CD, Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive, Xbox, PS2, PC and Amiga. It is still commercially available on the PSN & Xbox Live Arcade.

_Mortal Kombat_’s principal rival (at the time, at least) _Street Fighter II_ was released on:

[ul]  
[li]Arcades[/li][li]Super Nintendo[/li][li]Amiga[/li][li]Atari ST[/li][li]Commodore 64[/li][li]ZX Spectrum, whatever that was[/li][li]PC[/li][li]Amstrad CPC, whatever that was[/li][li]Capcom Power System Changer[/li][li]Game Boy[/li][li]Sega Master System[/li][li]Sega Saturn (as part of “Capcom Generation 5”)[/li][li]Playstation (as part of “Street Fighter Collection 2”)[/li][li]PS2 (as part of “Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1”)[/li][li]Xbox (as part of “Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 1”)[/li][li]Playstation Portable (as part of “Capcom Classics Collection: Reloaded”)[/li][li]Wii[/li][li]Wii U[/li][/ul]

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**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/27 "2015-06-22T12:56:17Z")

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According to Wiki on Lemmings:

> [@](#):
>
> The popularity of the game on the Amiga led to its rapid porting to many other platforms, and it is regarded as one of the most widely ported video games. Within a year of its release, the game had been ported to Atari ST, Sinclair Spectrum, PC and SNES. David Jones stated that after porting the game to 20 systems, he stopped keeping count of additional ports. Other commercial ports of the original game include 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Apple II, Apple Macintosh, CDTV, Commodore 64, NES, Sega Master System and Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, Philips CD-i and Sharp X68000.

If we’re talking within 2 years of release, Lemmings was released on 16 different systems [between 1991-1993](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Lemmings_ports). Plus an arcade version that was developed but not released.

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/28 "2015-06-22T13:18:33Z")

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We need the OP to clarify. Do the ports have to be identical? For example, _Killer Instinct_ lost a substantial amount of content when ported from arcade machines to the SNES. There is a Reddit thread where someone suggested that the port has to be done by the original studio, rather than a third party developer (which is why Tetris wouldn’t qualify.)

ETA: the Amstrad CPC was a British rival to the C64. Eventually Amstrad was squeezed out by Commodore completely.

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**Author:** ![ebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@ebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ebb)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/29 "2015-06-22T19:13:42Z")

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Although subsequent posts show this isn’t exactly what’s being looked for, my first answer to this was “Blackjack”. I don’t think there’s any device with even rudimentary calculating power that hasn’t had a Blackjack game implemented on it at one time or another, since it’s a very straightforward set of rules for the computer to follow, but it’s still a recognizable and fun game for the player. (For some values of “fun”.)

Even the more modern video game systems probably have a “100 Casino and Family Games” pack out there somewhere with Blackjack buried in it.

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**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/30 "2015-06-22T21:01:05Z")

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> [@ebb](#):
>
> Although subsequent posts show this isn’t exactly what’s being looked for, my first answer to this was “Blackjack”. I don’t think there’s any device with even rudimentary calculating power that hasn’t had a Blackjack game implemented on it at one time or another, since it’s a very straightforward set of rules for the computer to follow, but it’s still a recognizable and fun game for the player. (For some values of “fun”.)
> 
> Even the more modern video game systems probably have a “100 Casino and Family Games” pack out there somewhere with Blackjack buried in it.

True. Even the legendary (nay, mythical) [Royal-McBee LGP-30](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGP-30) had a blackjack application, written by the equally legendary [Mel Kaye.](http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html)

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**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/31 "2015-06-23T01:54:52Z")

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As a guy who used an Amstrad in High School, it was just an IBM clone but from Europe that had the PC power in the monitor and a prehistoric version of Windows years before MS came out with one.

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**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2015, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-game-was-made-on-the-largest-number-of-separate-consoles/723061/32 "2015-06-23T09:23:37Z")

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> [@Quimby](#):
>
> As a guy who used an Amstrad in High School, it was just an IBM clone but from Europe that had the PC power in the monitor and a prehistoric version of Windows years before MS came out with one.

Nope, there were many different Amstrads. The early ones (the CPCs) were not PC compatible, were standard 1980s z80 8-bit and were unusual for the time in that they had a built in tape player or 3.5" drive:

> **[Amstrad CPC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad_CPC)**
>
> The Amstrad CPC (short for "Colour Personal Computer") is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and the German-speaking parts of Europe.
> The series spawned a total of six distinct models: The CPC 464, CPC 664, and CPC 6128 were highly successful competit...

Later Amstrad did PC compatibles and (I believe) dedicated word processors.

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