Data East Corporation
 |
|
|
Native name
|
株式会社データイースト |
|---|---|
|
Romanized name
|
Kabushikigaisha Dēta Īsuto kōporēshon |
| Kabushiki gaisha | |
| Industry | Video games, engineering |
| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | April 20, 1976 |
| Founder | Tetsuo Fukuda |
| Defunct | June 25, 2003 |
| Headquarters | Suginami, Tokyo, Japan |
| Products | List of games released by Data East |
| Revenue | ¥282.5 million (April 2001) |
| Subsidiaries | Data East USA, inc. Data East Pinball inc. |
| Website | dataeast-corp.co.jp/index_e.html |
Data East Corporation (株式会社データイースト Kabushikigaisha Dēta Īsuto kōporēshon?) also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video games. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo, The American subsidiary, Data East USA, had been headquartered in San Jose, California.
Data East was founded by Tokai University alumni Tetsuo Fukuda on April 20, 1976, as an electronic engineering company which focused on integrating interchangeable tapes inside arcade game devices. Data East developed in 1977 its first arcade game Jack Lot. This was followed in 1978 by Super Break, a clone of Atari's Breakout and Space Fighters, a clone of Taito's Space Invaders. In 1979, Data East released its first original game, Nice On, which was released exclusively in Japan. Data East established a U.S. division in 1979, after its chief competitors Sega and Taito had already established a market presence. In 1980, Data East published Astro Fighter which became its first major arcade title. While making games, Data East released a series of interchangeable systems compatible with its arcade games, notably the DECO Cassette System and the Multi Conversion Kit, but these products soon became infamous among their users due to their numerous technical problems. Data East dropped the DECO Cassette by 1985.
...
Wikipedia