Konami |
Konami Corporation (コナミ) ( . Konami also means Small waves.
Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo and additionally operates health and fitness clubs in Japan.
=History=
On March 19, 1973, Kozuki transformed the business into Konami Industry Co., Ltd. and began work on manufacturing amusement machines for arcades. Their first actual game machine wasn t created until 1978. They began to achieve success with hit arcade games such as 1981 s Scramble (video game) and Super Cobra .
Between 1982 and 1985, Konami manufactured and sold game software for home Personal computers, producing games for the MSX, Atari 2600, and Nintendo Nintendo Entertainment System ( Famicom ) game consoles. This new business was in addition to, not in place of, the arcades, and many hit console games of this time period were ports of the arcade versions. Konami of America Inc. was established in the United States in 1982, and in 1984 Konami expanded to the United Kingdom and established Konami Limited.
Konami began to achieve great success when the Famicom took off, being released in the United States as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Many of the NES/Famicom s bestselling titles were produced by Konami, including Gradius , the Castlevania series, the Contra (game) series, and Metal Gear (video game) . Konami was one of the most active and prolific third party development studios for the NES, which led to conflict with Nintendo of America s licensing restrictions. During the heyday of the NES, Nintendo of America controlled the production of all licensed NES software titles, and limited third party developers to a maximum of five titles per year. Several companies found a way around this restriction by founding quasi-independent subsidiary corporations, effectively doubling the number of games that they could release during the year. In the case of Konami, this subsidiary was known as Ultra (company), and a large number of Konami titles were published in North America under their banner, including the original Metal Gear , Gyruss , Skate or Die , the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games and the critically savaged Snake s Revenge (a Japanese-made Metal Gear sequel made specifically for the western market). In Europe, faced with a similar restriction placed by Nintendo s European branch, Konami established Palcom Software Ltd. to the same end. By the early 1990s, Nintendo of America had relaxed many of the more draconian of its licensing restrictions, and, no longer needed, Ultra was shut down in 1992, with the remainder of its staff being reabsorbed into Konami s official American branch.
In 2003, Konami of America closed down their arcade division due to heavy losses. All machine inquiries and new machines will be handled by Betson Enterprises.
Konami is today the 4th largest game developer in Japan after Nintendo Co Ltd (1st), Sega Sammy Holdings (2nd) and Namco Bandai Holdings (3rd).
=Games=
Over the years, some of the biggest and most memorable video games have been created by Konami. Genre-defining titles attributed to Konami include the dating simulation
Konami is also notorious for its famous password, the Konami Code, which traditionally gives many powerups in its games. Although variants also exist, as in the Parodius series, and button naming can differ depending on the controller used, the classic Famicom or NES combination is: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.
=Konami structure=
In 2005, Konami Corporation merged with six of its subsidiaries.
=See also=
=External links=
*[http://www.konami.net/ Konami Global] *[http://www.konami.co.jp/en/ Konami Corporation (Japan)] *[http://www.konami.com/ Konami America] *[http://www.konami-europe.de Konami of Europe] *[http://www.konami.co.uk/video.htm Konami of Europe Arcade Division] *[http://www.mobygames.com/company/konami-corporation Konami Corporation ] entry at MobyGames|
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