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Native name | マイクロニクス |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Kazuo Yagi |
| Defunct | 1996 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , Japan |
Key people | Kazuo Yagi and Masahiko Tsukada |
Micronics Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game developer based in Osaka. It is mostly known for developing games for the Nintendo Entertainment System and its Japanese equivalent, the Famicom. At the request of publishers such as Capcom, SNK, and Pony Canyon, Micronics largely worked as subcontractor game company that ported arcade or PC versions of games to home game consoles. [1]
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The company was founded around 1985 by Kazuo Yagi and Masahiko Tsukada, with their first port to the NES, Elevator Action, releasing in Japan that year. Owing to the secretive nature of the company, often working without credits attribution, little is known about the exact number of employees and capital throughout most of its existence. [2] [3]
Throughout its existence, Micronics developed about 30 NES titles under contract from various publishers. They also developed, to a lesser degree, ports on other platforms such as the Sega Mega Drive and MSX computer. While most of their projects consisted of ports, they did produce a handful of original titles as well. A lot of their releases, such as Super Pitfall, are known to exhibit severe technical problems such as glitches and sprite flickering, and have become known as some of the worst games released for the Famicom/NES. [4] [5] Together with Tose, Micronics became the most prolific sub-contractor of arcade and PC ports for the NES, especially for Capcom and SNK in the early days of the system, before those companies started producing their ports in-house. Thus, because of the brand recognition of some of the arcade titles, some Micronics releases have become best-sellers for the platform. [6] [7] [8]
The company's activities winded down during the 1990s, when it developed some games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System under the name Khaos, before ending operations in 1996.