Data East
Status: dead
Country: Japan
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
Overall rankings
Common gametypes
Top platforms
Arcade | 133 | ||
---|---|---|---|
NES | 41 | ||
Saturn | 20 | ||
MS-DOS | 20 | ||
SNES | 20 | ||
PS | 15 | ||
Apple II E | 14 | ||
Mega Drive | 12 | ||
C64 | 10 | ||
Zeebo | 10 | ||
GB | 8 | ||
Neo-Geo | 8 | ||
PC Engine | 7 | ||
Famicom Disk System | 7 | ||
Amiga | 4 |
ARCD 1988
ARCD 1991
OCS 1989
ARCD 1984
ARCD 1988
ARCD 1982
ZEBO 2010-07-27
SNES 1993-11-01
ZEBO 2010-03-31
ARCD 1987
ARCD 1991
SNES 1992-12-18
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 |