20 Facts About Data East

Data East Corporation, abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company.

Data East was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles.

Data East developed and released in July 1977 its first arcade game Jack Lot, a medal game based on Blackjack for business use.

Data East established its U S division in June 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 game title.

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Data East abandoned the DECO Cassette System in favor of dedicated arcade cabinets, bringing Data East greater success over the next several years, starting with the hit title BurgerTime .

In 1981, three staff members of Data East founded Technos Japan, who then supported Data East for a while before becoming completely independent.

Data East continued to release arcade video games over the next 15 years following the video game crash of 1983.

Data East distributed three major arcade hits in North America between 1984 and 1985: the fighting game Karate Champ, the beat 'em up title Kung-Fu Master, and the run-and-gun shooter Commando .

Data East purchased licenses to manufacture and sell arcade games created by other companies.

Data East entered the video game console market in 1986 with the release of B-Wings for the Famicom.

In North America, the subsidiary Data East USA was the first third-party company to release video games for the NES.

Data East would become a licensee for several home systems, notably the NES, PC Engine, Game Boy, Mega Drive, Super NES, Neo Geo, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, WonderSwan and NeoGeo Pocket Color .

Data East made pinball machines from 1987 through 1994, and included innovations such as the first pinball to have stereo sound, the first usage of a small dot matrix display in Checkpoint along with the first usage of a big DMD in Maverick.

Some properties that Data East licensed for its pinball machines included Guns N' Roses, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Batman, RoboCop, The Simpsons, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Amidst plummeting sales across the entire pinball market, Data East chose to exit the pinball business and sold the factory to Sega in 1994.

At the time of the buyout by Sega, Data East Pinball was the world's second-largest pinball manufacturer, holding 25 percent of the market.

Outside of video games, Data East produced image transmission equipment, data communication adapters for satellite phones from NTT DoCoMo, and developed electrocardiogram equipment for ambulances.

Data East filed for reorganization in 1999 and stopped making video games altogether.

The other properties of Data East were transferred to Tactron Corporation, the asset management company of the Fukuda family.