So... where's Tecno Soft now?

jp · Post by jp » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:10 pm

Currently ripping all my Tecno Soft games on to my roomates PC so I can burn them and put them on my 360.

And this got me thinking... where are the Tecno Soft guys now? I know they ended sometime after TFV and there were rumors that TFVI was being made for the beloved Dreamcast, but obviously, that did not, and for all intents and purposes, will not, happen.

So anybody know where the party members scattered off to? All I've been able to dig up (granted, its been in the past 5 minutes or so) is that Hyakutaro Tsukumo, the brilliant brilliant man who did the music for them, started his own company called Factory Noise or something like that. And he released two Thunder Force soundtracks on here, Lost Technology and Broken Thunder.

So... yeah, where did the good people at Tecno Soft scamper off to?

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:32 am

How accurate is this source?

In 2001 the company was purchased by pachinko maker Twenty-one Company and was folded into its R&D division, ceasing to exist.

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:54 am

Thunder Force wrote:How accurate is this source?

Pretty accurate.

jp · Post by jp » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:45 pm

Damn... that really sucks...

The Coop · Post by **The Coop** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:05 pm

It does indeed.

Though there is a rumor floating around that Technosoft is looking to hire some employees for a 2006 release, but it's just that... a rumor. God only knows if that's even possible with the company having been swallowed up.

Post by **system11** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:46 pm

The important question, is who owns the rights to the series now?

jp · Post by jp » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:04 pm

bloodflowers wrote:The important question, is who owns the rights to the series now?

My best guess is Hyakutaro Tsukumo, the sound guy. His company Factory Noise & AG has released/is releasing Thunder Force and Hyper Duel OSTs.

It would be awesome if Microsoft, in their quest for more obscure developers in Japan, rebuilt Tecno Soft.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:50 pm

jp wrote:Damn... that really sucks...

Let's strike up the band and play Taps.

It sucks a million. This really paints a bleak picture for the chances of a Thunder Force 6. I would still like to believe this rumor about TechnoSoft looking to hire for that "2006 release" though.

JBC · Post by **JBC** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:37 am

Well, if Raiden III can be made Thunder Force VI can as well. There is still hope, guys.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:46 am

twe wrote:Pretty accurate.

Hmm. I briefly looked into that unconfirmed Wikipedia assertion about Technosoft that states "In 2001 the company was purchased by pachinko maker Twenty-one Company and was folded into its R&D division, ceasing to exist".

Trying to verify that, all I can see for certain is that the original tecnosoft.com domain currently has this active registration information associated with it:

Twenty-one Co.,Ltd.
Tecnosoft Divi. ([email protected])
-
Fax: -
Katuumi 165-1
None
Sasebo, NAGASAKI 859-3216
JP

I'm guessing that's a fake contact email address btw.

Based on research there are several different "Twenty-one Co." companies in existence around the world and in Japan, however I can find no online record of any of them ever being a pachinko maker. This already puts some doubt on the Wikipedia claim.

Then there's the matter of dates.

In July 23 2002 the official Technosoft website was still online and still updated to show the following copyright information:

www.tecnosoft.com wrote:(C)1996-2002 Technosoft All Rights Reserved.

The date is explicitly inclusive of 2002, with no mention of a parent company. Despite Wikipedia's claim that the company was purchased the year before.

I don't think we can take the Wikipedia claim as 100% accurate fact just yet.

takohiko · Post by **takohiko** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 3:54 am

Thunder Force wrote: Based on research there are several different "Twenty-one Co." companies in existence around the world and in Japan, however I can find no online record of any of them ever being a pachinko maker.

http://www.gogo21.com/

I don't know if it's a pachinko maker or just a pachinko hall, and I'm too tired to navigate its site with all its flashing things , bright colours, japanese text and slow loading. but that is at least a Twenty-one Co.,Ltd that is in some way related to pachinko.