Game of the day 1044 Exciting Soccer II (エキサイティングサッカー II) 1984 Alpha Denshi
01984 Alpha Denshi First Alpha Denshi Co. product 1980
Established in Saitama in July of 1980, 'Alpha Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha' (アルファ電子 株式会社) started off as a minor electronics company.
Their first release was Shougi (1980), a basic japanese chess simulator. Later the same year came Dorachan (1980), a Doraemon themed game seemingly released without an official licence: the title screen credits 'Craul Denshi'.
Their first memorable release was Crush Roller (1981), a clever variant on the Pac-Man (1980) template featuring a paintbrush. It's a quality little game that was given a brief revival on the Neo Geo Pocket in 1999.
ADK would also find success with sports games: Exciting Soccer (1983) was a quality arcade football game, while Champion Baseball (1983) was an advanced baseball simulator for its time (its arcade distribution was handled by Sega - who would later overlook its home conversion on the SG-1000).
The ADK / SNK partnership began with Battle Field (1987), a superbly produced overhead shooting game that gathered a massive worldwide audience as 'Time Soldiers'. SNK later handled the arcade distribution of ADK's Gang Wars (1989), another cult favourite of the period.
The moment that ADK will forever be associated with is their joining ranks with SNK and their Neo Geo project, becoming the very first third-party developer to release titles for the format.
Out of the blue, ADK delivered a string of unforgettable titles, right from launch: Magician Lord (1990) is an extraordinary platform game that's only been getting better with age, and Ninja Combat (1990) remains a memorable arcade action game, very much in the same spirit as Gang Wars.
A string of refreshingly original titles for the Neo Geo would follow: Raguy (1991) remains the machine's only traditional platform game, and the overhead racing game Thrash Rally (1991) made clever use of the Neo Geo's under-used link-up feature.
The World Heroes series is ADK's hilarious take on the versus fighting game boom of the 90s. All four chapters were supremely playable, joyful and full of character - World Heroes Perfect (1995) might well be the pinnacle of ADK's career.
Sadly their success was short-lived: the utter failure of the Neo Geo Pocket left ADK in poor shape, forcing them to close doors in 2000.
Their IP was rapidly snapped up by SNK Playmore, leading to a few of their characters appearing in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (27 July 2005) and the PS2 exclusive Twinkle Star Sprites La Petite Princesse (28 July 2005).
More recently still the compilation ADK Tamashii (2008) kept the name alive for a while, but seemingly ADK are all but gone - and somewhat missed.
From ARCADE GEAR: http://www.arcade-gear.com/Games/ADK/...