Company

Technos Japan

Technōs Japan Corp. was a Japanese video game developer, best known for the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun (which includes Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom) franchises. As of June 2015, Arc System Works owns the intellectual properties of Technōs Japan. Initially operating from a single-room apartment, Technōs was founded in 1981 by three staff members of Data East. Their first game was Minky Monkey, released in 1982. A few months after their foundation, a lawsuit was brought up against the company by Data East under allegations that Technos had stolen data from Data East's arcade game Pro Tennis with the intent of producing and selling a bootleg of it.[3] The two companies settled in August 1983 and Technos would go on to create two arcade games published by Data East, Tag Team Wrestling and Karate Champ. Technōs Japan's earlier games were published by other companies, as Technōs at the time did not have the economical resource to distribute their own games. Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun ("Hot Blooded Tough Guy Kunio"), a side-scrolling beat-em-up released in 1986 about a high school student who fought thugs and delinquents from other schools, was the company's first big hit in Japan. Kunio-kun was released in the west as Renegade with the game's graphics changed to make the game marketable in the overseas market. Technōs would then produce a Nintendo Entertainment System version of the game, which would be Technōs' first game for the home console market. Technōs Japan's subsequent arcade beat-em-up, Double Dragon, was a big success worldwide when it was released in 1987, leading to the production of an NES version of the game, as well as licensed versions by other companies for various platforms. The success of Kunio-kun led to the production of numerous spin-offs and sequels starring the same character produced for the 8-bit Family Computer platform in Japan and later for the Game Boy and Super Famicom, resulting in more than twenty games starring Kunio by the mid-1990s, many of which were rule-bending sports games. A few Kunio-kun games were localized for the North American market; namely Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom (considered by critics to be a cult classic[citation needed]) and Nintendo World Cup, but none maintain any connection with each other. Technōs would attempt to remedy this by attempting to localize several Kunio-kun under the Crash 'n the Boys label, but only Crash 'n the Boys: Street Challenge was released (the game's ending features a teaser for Ice Challenge, which was unreleased). Technōs also released two arcade sequels to Double Dragon: Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 1988 and Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone in 1990 (the latter was developed by an external development team at East Technology), and produced the respective NES versions of those games, as well as Super Double Dragon in 1992, an original installment for the Super NES. An American-produced Double Dragon animated series and a live-action film were also made as well. Outside the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun games, Technōs produced a few original games for the arcade and home markets such as U.S. Championship V'Ball, The Combatribes and Shadow Force, as well as two WWF arcade games (WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest), but most of these games did not achieve the same kind of success that Kunio-kun and Double Dragon achieved. The company's last games were produced for the Neo Geo hardware, which include a Double Dragon fighting game based on the movie, their second and last fighting game Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, and a Neo-Geo sequel to Super Dodge Ball. By 1996, Technōs Japan declared bankruptcy and ceased operations. Some of the developers who worked on the Neo Geo titles (including Kengo Asai) briefly worked at Face, a former affiliate of SNK. Following the closure, a licensing company named Million Co., Ltd was formed to purchase the former intellectual properties of Technōs Japan. Million continued to produce new games such as Super Dodge Ball Advance, Double Dragon Advance and River City Ransom EX for the Game Boy Advance, Super Dodgeball Brawlers for the Nintendo DS, as well as reissuing older titles via the Virtual Console and other services. On June 11, 2015, Arc System Works announced they had acquired all intellectual properties of Technōs Japan from Million Co., Ltd.


101 Games
Double Dragon
Double Dragon
River City Ransom
River City Ransom
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Super Dodge Ball
Super Dodge Ball
Shin Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun: Kunio-tachi no Banka
Shin Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun: Kunio-tachi no Banka
Downtown Special Kunio-kun's Historical Period Drama!
Downtown Special Kunio-kun's Historical Period Drama!
Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day!
Downtown Nekketsu March Super-Awesome Field Day!
Double Dragon
Double Dragon
Renegade
Renegade
Super Spike V'Ball
Super Spike V'Ball
Shadow Force
Shadow Force
Kunio-kun no Dodgeball Da yo Zenin Shuugou!: Tournament Special
Kunio-kun no Dodgeball Da yo Zenin Shuugou!: Tournament Special
Kunio no Oden
Kunio no Oden
Nekketsu Fighting Legend
Nekketsu Fighting Legend
Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu
Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu
Arcade Archives: Double Dragon
Arcade Archives: Double Dragon
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Battle Lane Vol. 5
Battle Lane Vol. 5
Double Dragon
Double Dragon
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones
Technos Collection 1
Technos Collection 1
Double Dragon
Double Dragon
The Combatribes
The Combatribes
Sugoro Quest: Dice no Senshi-tachi
Sugoro Quest: Dice no Senshi-tachi
Nekketsu! Beach Volley Da yo: Kunio-kun
Nekketsu! Beach Volley Da yo: Kunio-kun
Popeye
Popeye
Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer
Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer
Karate Champ
Karate Champ
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Nintendo World Cup
Nintendo World Cup
Super Bowling
Super Bowling
Mat Mania
Mat Mania
Renegade
Renegade
Super Double Dragon
Super Double Dragon
Super Dodge Ball
Super Dodge Ball
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon II: The Revenge