Data East Declares Bankruptcy

Thanks to GameSpot for reporting the news that Japanese developer/publisher Data East has officially been declared bankrupt. According to the article, "Data East has been in financial trouble since 1999, when the company requested a settlement in the district court in order to reorganize its finances because of a 3.3 billion yen ($28 million) debt." The company was renowned for a massive backcatalog of '80s and '90s arcade and home games, including BurgerTime, Karate Champ, Karnov, and the brilliantly named Bad Dudes Vs. Dragon Ninja, as well as the addictive Magical Drop puzzle game series for Neo Geo and other consoles.

Karnov..

[August_zero]

So much for my hopes for "Karnov: Online"

Re:Karnov..

[edwdig]

You'll just have to settle for Dance Dance Karnov then.

http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=142

How sad.

[handsomepete]

Burgertime is one of my favorite arcade games of all time. Tomorrow I'll throw some pepper at my eggs in mourning.

They also made some pretty decent pinball games including Star Wars, Simpsons and Rocky and Bullwinkle themes.

Re:How sad.

[DLWormwood]

They also made some pretty decent pinball games including Star Wars, Simpsons and Rocky and Bullwinkle themes.

The pinball divison still lives... kind of... It changed hands several times, from Sega and now to a re-branded Stern.

IMHO, DE/Sega/Stern's tables were the lowest quality verses others like those of Williams', but that lower quality meant lower cost, which allowed them to survive as the only still operating pinball manufacturer. (That and some bar friendly licences like South Park also helped.)

Re:How sad.

[cj_goth]

I wouldn't group Stern's new machines together with the old Data East machines. I'd agree with you wholeheartedly that the DE machines were certainly a long way behind the Williams/Bally/Gottleib meta-brand in the 90s, but after Gary Stern's buy-out of the division in 99 the newer games have been top-notch. Playability, features, rule-depth and feel have all been on a par if not superior to the last of the WMS machines (except, of course, the next-generation Pinball 2000 video hybrids).

In fact, Stern tab

Two Words: Tattoo Assassins

[JMandingo]

If only Data East had went into production with this genius work, Fakuda would be right up there with Master Gates:

http://www.bunnyears.net/tattoo

(just a wee little bit of sarcasm)

Investors..

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you a BAD ENOUGH DUDE to RESCUE DATA EAST?

Games?

[HunterZ]

Does this mean that Data East titles such as Heavy Barrel and Bad Dudes are now abandonware?

Re:Games?

[Echnin]

I'd post this as a link, but frickin' Windows won't let me change the keyboard layout, so I can't make those less-than-greater-than things. Sorry. Game number 88 of ~4500 on the-underdogs: http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=88 ... It's been there a while

Re:Games?

[xenocide2]

Just cuz its on the underdogs doesn't mean its free or legal to download in your country.

Re:Games?

[xenocide2]

Actually thats not the case. Their faq even says that offering "abandonware" is illegal. What it does say, is that in the event that one of the copyright holders notices Underdog's actions and complains, they'll take it down. Still a criminal offense, reguardless of whether you stopped or not. If I recall correctly, part of what has kept the underdogs going is their cushy location within China.

Re:Games?

[Scarblac]

Does this mean that Data East titles such as Heavy Barrel and Bad Dudes are now abandonware?

Sure, as long as you remember that that doesn't actually mean anything. So-called "abandonware" games aren't legal to download, they're just considered unlikely to cause legal trouble in the eyes of some people running a site.

The rights to these games will be bought by someone, and they get to decide what you can do - downloading them for free off some third party site isn't likely to be first on their list.

Re:Games?

[splerdu]

Sure, as long as you remember that that doesn't actually mean anything. So-called "abandonware" games aren't legal to download, they're just considered unlikely to cause legal trouble in the eyes of some people running a site.

So-called abandonware isn't legal to download, because a lot of abandonware sites put on titles that are only 5-10 years old. Everyone knows copyrights are good for 75 years so they aren't really abandonware. Unfortunately 75 years is an eternity for computers and software.

The Data

Hardest Game Ever

[jeblucas]

As soon as I read the headline I thought of two games: Burgertime on the NES and Karnov on the NES. Burgertime was about the worst arcade-to-console translation ever. SUCH a pile. The controls were terrible--I would repeatedly miss ladders and shoot pepper in the wrong directions. HATED IT.

Karnov was INSANELY difficult. I remember jumping really high and landing on bad guys that killed me about 12 seconds after the start of every game. Mind you, Metroid was out at the time--that was a little bit better. The only game harder that I played was that psycho Konami Rush'n Attack. I made it to Level 2 about 4 out of a million times and the dog+sniper combo always erased me. Maybe that Donkey Kong guy [slashdot.org] should take a crack at that bad boy.

Your move, creep!

[sixb0nes]

Robocop was a great cross-platform side scroller. They sure made you feel like a ton of bricks though - I remember it being quite difficult to master the shot timing.

They published quite a few games I still enjoy today - hope they can pull out .. somehow.

Shadowrun

[Oakey]

They also made Shadowrun for the SNES (or published it, they were responsible in some way). This game was brilliant. Such a shame they never made a sequel.

Never make a deal with a Dragon

[August_zero]

Very different games though

The Version on the Sega was closer to the source material, but I have to agree with the above and say that the SNES version was better.

Better story, hell great story and far less tedious.

Re:Never make a deal with a Dragon

[Oakey]

Ok, so I did some checking. Data East was responsible for Shadowrun on the SNES (I thought it was FASA but I believe that's where the license came from?). Anyway, yes, Shadowrun. This title seems to have been overlooked during this discussion about Data East (same at Penny Arcade forums too, no one seems to remember Data East being responsible either).

The game had a great story, seriously, you wake up in a morgue at the start. How many games can boast that? For those who completed it you'll remember Drake

Re:Never make a deal with a Dragon

[August_zero]

It seems like a license that is ripe for a new game, perhaps a MMORPG? X-box live needs one hella bad to compete with evercrap on the PS2, and if they implemented the game right, it could have something for everyone; hacking, driving, magic, automatic weapons....