Data East

1979 / 1976 tot 2 1980 / 1976 tot 6 1981 / 1976 tot 12 1982 / 1976 tot 23 1983 / 1976 tot 33 1984 / 1976 tot 46 1985 / 1976 tot 60 1986 / 1976 tot 77 1987 / 1976 tot 115 1988 / 1976 tot 144 1989 / 1976 tot 173 1990 / 1976 tot 198 1991 / 1976 tot 227 1992 / 1976 tot 244 1993 / 1976 tot 263 1994 / 1976 tot 280 1995 / 1976 tot 296 1996 / 1976 tot 320 1997 / 1976 tot 331 1998 / 1976 tot 335 1999 / 1976 tot 344 2000 / 1976 tot 347 2003 / 1976 tot 348 2010 / 1976 tot 358
Founded in 1976-04-20 closed in 2003-06-25
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

19792
19804
19816
198211
198310
198413
198514
198617
198738
198829
198929
199025
199129
199217
199319
199417
199516
199624
199711
19984
19999
20003
20031
201010
358 video games with valid date were considered (98.6%)

Overall rankings

8
62
48
6
2

Common gametypes

shooter22%sport13%platformer12%action/reflex9%beat 'em up9%other32%

Top platforms

Arcade 133
NES 41
SNES 20
Saturn 20
MS-DOS 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