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
Downtown Nekketsu Story
Downtown Nekketsu Story

Apr 25, 1989

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Dec 31, 1988

Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Double Dragon II: The Revenge

Nov 01, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Oct 01, 1988

Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club
Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club

Jul 26, 1988

Super Spike V'Ball
Super Spike V'Ball

Jun 30, 1988

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Apr 08, 1988

Renegade
Renegade

Dec 31, 1987

Super Dodge Ball
Super Dodge Ball

Dec 31, 1987

Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu
Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball-bu

Nov 01, 1987

Double Dragon
Double Dragon

Aug 01, 1987

Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun
Nekketsu Renegade Kunio-kun

Apr 17, 1987

Xain'd Sleena
Xain'd Sleena

Dec 31, 1986

Renegade
Renegade

Dec 01, 1986

Karate Champ
Karate Champ

Nov 01, 1986

Soldier of Light
Soldier of Light

Sep 01, 1986

Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun
Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun

Jun 05, 1986

Battle Lane Vol. 5
Battle Lane Vol. 5

Jan 01, 1986

Mat Mania
Mat Mania

Dec 31, 1985

Shusse Ozumo
Shusse Ozumo

Dec 31, 1984

Karate Champ
Karate Champ

May 01, 1984

Acrobatic Dog-Fight
Acrobatic Dog-Fight

Feb 01, 1984

Dommy
Dommy

Jan 01, 1984

Tag Team Wrestling
Tag Team Wrestling

Dec 01, 1983