Data East Corporation, also called DECO, was a Japanese company that made video games, pinball machines, and electronic devices. The company operated from 1976 to 2003 and created 150 video game titles. At one time, the company had sales of 20 billion yen each year in the United States alone, but it eventually went out of business. Its American branch, Data East USA, had its main office in San Jose, California. The company’s main office was in the Suginami ward of Tokyo.

Today, most of Data East’s video games, its trademark, and its logo are owned by G-Mode, which is a mobile-focused company under Marvelous, a video game publisher. A few Data East video games are owned by other companies, including Paon DP.

History

Data East was founded on April 20, 1976, by Tetsuo Fukuda, a graduate of Tokai University. In July 1977, Data East released its first arcade game, Jack Lot, which was a medal game based on Blackjack for business use. In January 1978, the company launched Super Break, its first actual video game. More than 15 arcade games were released by Data East during the 1970s.

In June 1979, Data East established its U.S. division. In 1980, the company published Astro Fighter, which became its first major arcade game. While creating games, Data East also released interchangeable systems compatible with its arcade games, including the DECO Cassette System. However, this system became known for technical problems and was discontinued by 1985. The DECO Cassette System, developed in 1979 and released in 1980, inspired later systems like Sega’s Convert-a-Game and Nintendo’s VS. System. After abandoning the DECO Cassette, Data East focused on dedicated arcade cabinets, leading to greater success, including the hit game BurgerTime (1982).

In 1981, three employees of Data East founded Technōs Japan, which later became independent. In 1983, the company moved its headquarters to a new building in Ogikubo, Suginami. In March 1985, Data East Europe was established in London. Despite the video game crash of 1983, Data East continued releasing arcade games for the next 15 years.

Between 1984 and 1985, Data East distributed three major arcade hits in North America: Karate Champ (1984), Kung-Fu Master (1984), and Commando (1985). These games made Data East a leading company in the arcade industry during the mid-1980s. Karate Champ, Kung-Fu Master, and Commando were the top three highest-grossing arcade games in the United States in 1985. Karate Champ was the first successful fighting game and influenced modern fighting game standards. Other famous games from Data East’s 1980s era include Heavy Barrel, Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja, Sly Spy, RoboCop, Bump ’n’ Jump, Trio the Punch, Karnov, and Atomic Runner Chelnov.

Data East also produced licensed games based on other companies’ titles, such as Kid Niki: Radical Ninja, Kung Fu Master, and Vigilante from Irem, and Commando from Capcom. In the mid-1990s, Data East briefly became a Neo Geo arcade licensee, starting with Spinmaster and co-published with SNK.

In 1985, Data East released a home computer version of Karate Champ, which became the first home computer game to sell over 500,000 copies in the United States by 1989. This led to a legal case, Data East USA, Inc. v. Epyx, Inc., where Data East claimed that Epyx’s game International Karate (1985) infringed on Karate Champ’s copyright.

In 1986, Data East entered the video game console market with B-Wings for the Famicom. In North America, Data East USA became the first licensee for the Nintendo Entertainment System and released games for the console in late 1986. Over the years, Data East became a licensee for multiple home systems in Japan, including the Famicom, PC Engine, Game Boy, Mega Drive, Super NES, Neo Geo, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, WonderSwan, and Neo Geo Pocket Color. Some of Data East’s game series, such as Tantei Jingūji Saburō, Glory of Hercules, and Metal Max, were created specifically for home consoles. Data East worked with Ocean Software to publish games for the American market in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1987, Data East Pinball was formed as a subsidiary of Data East USA. It manufactured pinball machines from 1987 to 1994, including innovations like the first pinball machine with stereo sound (Laser War), the first use of a small dot-matrix display in Checkpoint, and the first use of a large DMD (192×64) in Maverick. Data East often used licensed properties for its pinball machines, such as Guns N’ Roses, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Batman, RoboCop, The Simpsons, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The company also created custom pinball games for specific clients, like Aaron Spelling’s movie Richie Rich or Michael Jordan. However, these strategies contributed to financial difficulties starting in 1990. In 1994, Data East sold its pinball business to Sega. At the time, Data East Pinball was the world’s second-largest pinball manufacturer, holding 25% of the market.

Although video games were the company’s main revenue source, Data East also produced engineering products, such as image transmission equipment, data communication adapters for satellite phones from NTT DoCoMo, and electrocardiogram equipment for ambulances. Its Datafax product, released in 1983, was the world’s first portable fax machine.

By the end of the 1990s, Data East USA was liquidated. No official announcement was made, but calls to its offices received a prerecorded message stating the company had closed before Christmas 1996. Its final releases were Defcon 5 and Creature Shock: Special Edition. In December 1997, the Japanese parent company announced it was leaving the arcade industry entirely, with debts estimated at 3.3 billion yen. Data East filed for reorganization in 1999 and stopped making video games. Customer support for video games ended in March 2000.

For the next three years, Data East sold negative ion generators, developed devices for NTT DoCoMo phones, and licensed old video games to other companies. However, financial issues from the

Legacy

In February 2004, G-Mode, a Japanese mobile gaming company now owned by Marvelous, purchased most of Data East's video game library. G-Mode also owns the Data East trademark. However, some games are owned by Paon DP instead of G-Mode, including Karnov, Chelnov, Windjammers, the Glory of Heracles series, and the Kuuga trilogy. The rights to the Metal Max series belong to Kadokawa Games, while the rights to Jake Hunter belong to Arc System Works. The RoboCop titles related to Data East were bought by D4 Enterprise in September 2010. Other Data East properties were transferred to an asset management company owned by the Fukuda family. This company sued Nintendo twice during the 2000s for patent infringement, but both cases were dismissed.

Data East's former building in Ogikubo, located in a mostly residential area, was demolished around 2014 and replaced by an apartment or condominium construction. Founder Tetsuo Fukuda was still active in 2017 as president of a medical company he established in December 2015 at the age of 76.