Technosoft[a] was a Japanese video game developer and publisher based headquartered in Sasebo, Nagasaki. Also known as "Tecno Soft", the company was founded in February 1980 as Sasebo 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 was Snake & Snake, released in 1982, before seeing success with titles such as Thunder Force (1983) and Plasma Line (1984).
Technosoft became largely profitable during the late-1980s and early-1990s, largely in part due to the widespread popularity of their Thunder Force and Herzog 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 to Sega 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.
History
Some staff members left Technosoft to start the game development companies Arsys Software in 1985 (founded by Kotori Yoshimura, creator of Thunder Force and Plazma Line), CAProduction in 1993, and Ganbarion 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 that Thunder Force III will be part of Sega 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-releasing Thunder Force IV, Thunder Force V and Herzog 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 the Thunder 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 series' first game, Thunder Force, appeared in 1983 on a variety of Japanese computers, such as the Sharp X1, NEC PC-8801 mkII, and FM-7. Technosoft also released a level editor, or game creation system, entitled Thunder Force Construction, for the original game on the FM-7 computer in 1984.[8] Since Thunder Force II, the majority of installments in the series appeared on the Mega Drive console, where the series gained much of its popularity. The most recent entry was released on PlayStation 2.
Plazma Line (プラズマライン) is a first-person space racing game released by Technosoft for the NEC PC-8801 and FM-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 through outer space in a first-person view while avoiding obstacles (rendered in 3D polygons) along the way. It also featured an automap radar to keep track of the player's position.[9]
The game was created by Kotori Yoshimura,[9] who also created the original Thunder Force.[10] Yoshimura later left the company in 1985 to start the development studio Arsys Software along with fellow Technosoft member Osamu Nagano.[11]
In March 1985, Plazma Line was ranked number five on the Beep list of best-selling Japanese computer games.[12]
The series' best known entry is the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) title Herzog Zwei (1989), which is sometimes regarded as the world's first real time strategy game. Although released two years after Nether 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-popularizing Dune II.[13][14][15] The producers of Dune II acknowledged Herzog Zwei (meaning "Duke 2" in German) as an influence on the game.[16][17]
^ abcde"Plazma Line". Oh!FM. Archived from the original on 12 January 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Wibarm". Oh!FM. Archived from the original on 19 January 2015. Retrieved 1 September 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Corporate profile". Cyberhead. Archived from the original on October 24, 2001. Retrieved 30 August 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^"The Making of... Dune II". Edge. Next-Gen.biz. December 9, 2008. Archived from the original on December 8, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2011. Herzog Zwei was a lot of fun, but I have to say the other inspiration for Dune II was the Mac software interface. The whole design/interface dynamics of mouse clicking and selecting desktop items got me thinking, 'Why not allow the same inside the game environment? Why not a context-sensitive playfield? To hell with all these hot keys, to hell with keyboard as the primary means of manipulating the game!
