Technosoft

Company type	Kabushiki gaisha
Industry	Video games
Founded	February 1980; 45 years ago (1980-02)[1]
Defunct	2001; 24 years ago (2001)
Fate	Assets incorporated into Twenty-one Company,Intellectual Properties acquired bySega
Successor	Twenty-One Technosoft div.
Headquarters	Sasebo, Nagasaki,Japan
Products	Video games Computer software

Technosoft^[a] was a Japanese video game developer and publisher based headquartered inSasebo, Nagasaki. Also known as "Tecno Soft", the company was founded in February 1980 asSasebo Microcomputer Center, before changing its name to Technosoft in 1982. The company primarily dealt with software for Japanese personal computers, including graphic toolsets and image processing software. Technosoft's first venture into the video game market wasSnake & Snake, released in 1982, before seeing success with titles such asThunder Force (1983) andPlasma Line (1984).

Technosoft became largely profitable during the late-1980s and early-1990s, largely in part due to the widespread popularity of theirThunder Force andHerzog franchises. However, later in the decade, Technosoft began to largely diminish as profits began to slump, before ultimately being acquired and folded into Japanese pachinko manufacturer Twenty-One Company in late 2001. Twenty-One began to release products in 2008 under the Technosoft brand, and sold the entirety of its video game library toSega in 2016. The Technosoft name continues to be in use in the present day as the name for Twenty-One's research and development division, and as a brand name for various products such as soundtrack albums.

Some staff members left Technosoft to start the game development companiesArsys Software in 1985 (founded by Kotori Yoshimura, creator ofThunder Force andPlazma Line), CAProduction in 1993, andGanbarion in 1999.

In 2006, the URL for Technosoft was registered and updated. However, no updates other than "We will restart soon! Please wait for a while." and "THUNDERFORCE is a registered trademark." have been added to the website. In 2008, The Technosoft brand was revived by Twenty-One company. Technosoft licensed merchandising and music of the brand's past titles. The copyright for Technosoft's intellectual properties were not registered under Technosoft nor Twenty-One Company, but to Kazue Matsuoka.^[2]

Sega revealed thatThunder Force III will be part ofSega 3D Classics Collection,^[3] and on September 17, 2016, at the Tokyo Game Show, Sega announced that they acquired the intellectual property and development rights to all the games developed and published by Technosoft. When questioned about future Technosoft releases, Sega would look into re-releasingThunder Force IV,Thunder Force V andHerzog Zwei.^[4]

In September 2016, there was a total of 21 registrations made by Sega Holdings. These registrations revised the copyright of Technosoft intellectual properties from Kazue Matsuoka to Sega Games Co, Ltd thus completing the acquisition.^[5] As of 2016, the digital soundtrack rights for theThunder Force series will still be handled by Twenty-One Company through the Twenty-One Technosoft division.^[6]

Factors that influenced the acquisition included the former Technosoft president stating that they did not want the Technosoft brand to desist, and so handing over the intellectual properties to Sega was the only other option. Sega and Technosoft also had an established collaboration during the Genesis/Mega Drive era and so this pre-established relationship was also a factor when acquiring the brand rights to Technosoft titles.^[7]

The company's most commercially successful franchise was theThunder Force series. It was a series ofscrolling shootervideo games. The series began with the originalThunder Force in 1983. The games are known by fans of the genre for their hardcore appeal, pleasing graphics, and generally well composedsynthesizer-basedchiptunemusic soundtracks.

The series' first game,Thunder Force, appeared in 1983 on a variety of Japanese computers, such as theSharp X1,NEC PC-8801 mkII, andFM-7. Technosoft also released alevel editor, orgame creation system, entitledThunder Force Construction, for the original game on theFM-7 computer in 1984.^[8] SinceThunder Force II, the majority of installments in the series appeared on theMega Drive console, where the series gained much of its popularity. The most recent entry was released onPlayStation 2.

Plazma Line (プラズマライン) is afirst-person spaceracing game released by Technosoft for theNEC PC-8801 andFM-7 computers in 1984. It is notable for being the first computer game, and home video game in general, with 3D polygon graphics.The objective of the game is to race throughouter space in a first-person view while avoiding obstacles (rendered in3D polygons) along the way. It also featured anautomap radar to keep track of the player's position.^[9]

The game was created by Kotori Yoshimura,^[9] who also created the originalThunder Force.^[10] Yoshimura later left the company in 1985 to start the development studioArsys Software along with fellow Technosoft member Osamu Nagano.^[11]

In March 1985,Plazma Line was ranked number five on theBeep list of best-selling Japanese computer games.^[12]

Herzog (German: "Duke") is astrategy video game released by Technosoft in Japan for theMSX andNECPC-88 computers in 1988. It was areal-time tactics andtactical shooter game with real-time strategy elements.

The series' best known entry is theSega Mega Drive (Genesis) titleHerzog Zwei (1989), which is sometimes regarded as the world's firstreal time strategy game. Although released two years afterNether Earth, it was the first game with a feature set that falls under the contemporary definition of the real-time strategy genre, predating the genre-popularizingDune II.^[13][14][15] The producers ofDune II acknowledgedHerzog Zwei (meaning "Duke 2" in German) as an influence on the game.^[16][17]

• Official website
• Archived version of official website from 1998
• Archived version of official website from 2001

• Companies based in Nagasaki Prefecture
• Video game companies established in 1980
• Video game companies disestablished in 2001
• Defunct video game companies of Japan
• Video game development companies
• Japanese companies established in 1980
• Japanese companies disestablished in 2001

• Articles containing Japanese-language text
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