Data East

Founded in 1976-04-20 closed in 2003-06-25
Status: dead
Country: Japan

10.3

per year

Data East Corporation, also abbreviated as DECO,
was a Japanese video game and electronic engineer-
ing company. The company was in operation from
1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles.
Data East was founded on April 20, 1976 by
Tokai University alumnus Tetsuo Fukuda. Data East
developed and released in July 1977 its first arcade
game Jack Lot, a medal game based on Blackjack for
business use. This was followed in January 1978 by
Super Break which was its first actual video game.
More than 15 arcade games were released by Data
East in the 1970s.
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 compat-
ible with its arcade games, notably the DECO Cas-
sette System which soon became infamous among
users due to technical problems. Data East dropped
the DECO Cassette by 1985.
Data East continued to release arcade video
games over the next 15 years following the video
game crash of 1983. Some of its most famous coin-
op arcade games from its 1980s heyday included
Karate Champ, Heavy Barrel, BurgerTime, Bump
‘n’ Jump, Karnov and Atomic Runner Chelnov.
In 1981, three staff members of Data East
founded Technōs Japan, who then supported Data
East for a while before becoming completely inde-
pendent.
Most of Data East’s intellectual properties
were acquired in February 2004 by G-Mode, a Japa-
nese mobile game content provider.

It is known for Bad Dudes, Burgertime, Dark Savant, Dragon's Lair, Fighter's History, Hang-On, Hiryū no Ken, Ikari Warriors, Lemmings, Magical Drop, Metal Max, OutRun, Rampage, Sengoku, Tantei Jinguuji Saburo, Tatakae Genshijin, The House of the Dead, Turrican, Wizardry

Releases per year

1979	2
1980	4
1981	6
1982	11
1983	12
1984	13
1985	14
1986	17
1987	38
1988	29
1989	29
1990	25
1991	29
1992	17
1993	19
1994	17
1995	16
1996	24
1997	11
1998	4
1999	9
2000	3

2003	1

2010	10

360 video games with valid date were considered (98.6%)

Overall rankings

	8
	62
	48
	7
	2

Common gametypes

Top platforms

Arcade		135
NES		41
MS-DOS		20
SNES		20
Saturn		20
PS		15
Apple II E		14
Mega Drive		12
C64		10
Zeebo		10
Neo-Geo		8
GB		8
PC Engine		7
Famicom Disk System		7
Amiga		4

Data East best rated games

Crude Buster	1990	arcd
Doukoku Soshite...	1998	sat
Lock 'n' Chase	1981	arcd
Magical Drop III	1997	neo
Shadowrun	1993	snes
Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess	1989	ocs
Magical Drop II	1996	neo
Batman: The Movie	1989	ocs
Buggy Boy	1988	st
Atomic Runner Chelnov	1988	x68k

Data East worst games

Breakthru	1987	c64
Victory Road	1989	ocs
Karate Champ	1986	nes
Karnov	1988	c64
Ring King	1987	nes