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Data East Declares Bankruptcy

Posted by simoniker on from the bad-dudes-versus-financial-insolvency dept.

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.

6 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Games? by HunterZ · · Score: 1, Interesting

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

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    1. Re:Games? by splerdu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      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 East products on the other hand, are now true abandonware. The entity holding the copyrights has been dissolved, and the works move on to become public domain... ...unless a holding company scoops them up. Better make sure that didn't happen before you start hosting bad dudes. =)

  2. Hardest Game Ever by jeblucas · · Score: 3, Interesting
    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 should take a crack at that bad boy.

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  3. Re:How sad. by DLWormwood · · Score: 2, Interesting
    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.)

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  4. Shadowrun by Oakey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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  5. Never make a deal with a Dragon by August_zero · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

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