What happend to Data East??...

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 2:55 am

One of my favorite gamging companies! Evidently, however, they are no longer around.

Have they been absorbed by 8ing/Raizing, or some other gaming company??

And, have they ever put together any soundtrack compilations of any of their games? I just got Saturn Skull Fang today in the mail, and, aside from the gameplay, I LOVE the music-especially the first-stage tune!

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 3:15 am

I happen to regard just about everything Data East ever made to be utter crap, but that's just me. I don't know where their IP ended up, but their pinball division got bought by Sega in the early nineties and became Sega Pinball, which later became Stern Pinball where it exists to this day, the last surviving pinball manufacturer.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 3:29 am

Vexorg wrote:I don't know where their IP ended up, but their pinball division got bought by Sega in the early nineties and became Sega Pinball, which later became Stern Pinball where it exists to this day, the last surviving pinball manufacturer.

Stern has been making games long before Stern pinball started up. However, I'm not sure if they are the same company or just a company that owns the Stern name.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 3:32 am

BrianC wrote:
Vexorg wrote:I don't know where their IP ended up, but their pinball division got bought by Sega in the early nineties and became Sega Pinball, which later became Stern Pinball where it exists to this day, the last surviving pinball manufacturer.
Stern has been making games long before Stern pinball started up. However, I'm not sure if they are the same company or just a company that owns the Stern name.

The current Stern is a different company than the original, although it is still the same guy (Gary Stern) running things.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 3:50 am

DATA EAST FUCKING RULES.

Tumble Pop
Spinmaster
Joe and Mac Return
Diet! GoGo
Boogie Wings
Windjammers
Ghostlop

Are some of the best games mortals will ever have the privilege of playing. Other people might have their own list of the goods. I have to believe that anyone saying there shit is crap has simply been playing all the wrong games.

How about Karate Champ fer cryin out loud?! That game PWNED every arcade on the planet when it came out.

I'd personally like to give that Edward Randy a go but that board really does co$t. I think I'm through spending more than $200 on a PCB.

Anyway, quality topic, I too would like to know what happened.

Pa

thesuperkillerxxx · Post by **thesuperkillerxxx** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:11 am

^^^
PA, you forgot Bad Dudes. What a killer game.... I loved the charge punch sound effect!

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:34 am

Uh, people are forgetting Mega Turrican.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:06 am

Believe it or not, neither of those was ever totally my bag.

And BTW, I never was into Karate Champ myself. I wanted to be but the older players would waste me so fast that I couldn't afford to play for more than ten minutes.

Pa

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:07 am

Elixir wrote:Uh, people are forgetting Mega Turrican.

No, they are not. It was only published by Data East in the US. It was designed by Factor 5.

Some games I like from Data East:
Ring King
Burgertime
Karnov
Side Pocket
Bad Dudes

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:24 am

Robocop arcade game. That does the movie justice. Well, except for the uber-modded ED-209 you find on the later stages of the game.

ResOGlas · Post by **ResOGlas** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:55 am

Wasn't Magical Drop from Data East?

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:57 am

ResOGlas wrote:Wasn't Magical Drop from Data East?

yes. I think it was.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 9:15 am

Data East should have bankrupted in early 2000, i think, so no Magical Drop IV, sadly. Just in case, i also recommend NIght Slashers, Super Burger Time and Joe and Mac return, other excellent titles of theirs (ah, i'd add Wolf Fang/Rohga and the arcade version of Boulder Dash)..In general, they were expert game makers, even if their games were usually not so nice to look at, before the "Night Slashers" hardware (whose name escapes me now, duh).

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 11:15 am

BrianC wrote:
Elixir wrote:Uh, people are forgetting Mega Turrican.
No, they are not. It was only published by Data East in the US. It was designed by Factor 5.

That's too bad. None of the other games really appealed to me, but turrican was fun.

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 4:11 pm

Two Crude Dudes was another really great game by Data East. I loved the post apocalyptic atmosphere in that game.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:24 pm

Never new there was a Super Burger Time!

Saturn Wolf Fang will be my next game purchase-and after playing it I will write a HUGE-arse review of the game, which is much needed on this site.

Back OT, does anyone know what happened to Data East??

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 5:27 pm

ResOGlas wrote:Wasn't Magical Drop from Data East?

I can't believe that wasn't in my list above. That's a brilliant game.

Pa

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:41 am

Vexorg wrote:I happen to regard just about everything Data East ever made to be utter crap

You make me a sad panda.

I've been a Data East fan ever since I first played Joe & Mac on the SNES well over a decade ago...wonderful platformer, even if it is a little short it's my favorite version out of every Joe & Mac (didn't like Lost in the Tropics as much as the original).

I'm kind of a Data East fanboy and trying to get every game of theirs on a console; the most recent one I bought was Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty for the Saturn. Mighty shitty with the slowdown, but other than that it's got the Fighter's History flavor...except in Chinese.

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:43 am

Have to second Boogie Wings and Magical Drop III. Top shelf shit. No one should die before playing these games...

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:53 am

Guess my Magical Drop III MVS purchase about 2 weeks ago was well-warranted :)
I played it against two people at work, I can beat the guy who recommended it to me about half the time, but then there's the other guy who can easily smoke my ass 75% of the time, with the remaining 25% being a slightly longer struggle..

Any differences between the Saturn and PS1 versions of Wolf Fang?

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:34 am

Nothing dramatically noticeable. The PS mode in the PS version became the Saturn mode in the SS version. Both have the same lame rock arrange soundtrack and long, unskippable voice options should you choose to turn them on.

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:48 pm

PaCrappa wrote:DATA EAST FUCKING RULES.

don't forget midnight resistance

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:53 pm

Hey thanks. Midnight Resistance happens to rule as well

Pa

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 5:54 pm

PaCrappa wrote:Hey thanks. Midnight Resistance happens to rule as well

Pa

yeah, one of my favourite "rotato" games as i call them.
wasn't heavy barrel by data east too? great game.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 6:51 pm

I thought that Heavy Barrel was like an Ikari Warriors sequel by Taito. I will now go to KLOV to see if I'm right.

WRONG!

You were right and I learn something new every day. Two things even. I thought for some reason that Ikari Warriors was a Taito game, but it's SNK. Crazy.

SNK wishes they ruled it like Data East did.

Pa

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:25 pm

Bpogie Wings again, i'm making a Data East retrospective this night

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:06 pm

PaCrappa wrote: SNK wishes they ruled it like Data East did.

Pa

Heck yes. Guerrilla War and Dogosouken pale against Midnight Resistance and Heavy Barrel.

LoneSage · Post by **LoneSage** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:52 pm

It's funny how most people only think of Fighter's History as a ripoff of SFII (and if you really dissect it and look at the character designs, IMHO it definitely is), but Heavy Barrel was definitely inspired by Ikari Warriors and the similarities between Midnight Resistance and Contra made me laugh hard once I listed them a few years ago. Red Falcon and Crimson Head and the spread shot, to name two.

Data East, in some cases, lived off of other companies ideas', and in turn created some wonderful games. They weren't the most innovative company, but hell, they sure did know fun.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 2:39 am

Ganelon wrote:Nothing dramatically noticeable. The PS mode in the PS version became the Saturn mode in the SS version. Both have the same lame rock arrange soundtrack and long, unskippable voice options should you choose to turn them on.

Well thanks for that info; I guess I'll be waiting until I get some Sony gaming hardware to purchase Wolf Fang; the PS1 port is a lot cheaper.

What's so great about Magical Drop III?? From what I've read about it, it's just the same old formula of 3 of the same color in a row.

D · Post by D » Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:40 am

LoneSage wrote:
Vexorg wrote:I happen to regard just about everything Data East ever made to be utter crap
You make me a sad panda.

I've been a Data East fan ever since I first played Joe & Mac on the SNES well over a decade ago...wonderful platformer, even if it is a little short it's my favorite version out of every Joe & Mac (didn't like Lost in the Tropics as much as the original).

I'm kind of a Data East fanboy and trying to get every game of theirs on a console; the most recent one I bought was Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty for the Saturn. Mighty shitty with the slowdown, but other than that it's got the Fighter's History flavor...except in Chinese.

Dude, you need to get the sequel to Outlaws, it's called Fuun Saiki or something like that. I have it, it rules, it fixes the problems with the first title, like sluggish controls, it has 2 extra characters from Fighter's History.

I really like Data East. I like their name, their logo and their games.
Perhaps some games they made are not that good or just did something wrong. Alot of work has allways gone into those games.

I don't like the Fang-games.

But Data East is ace, they made lots of pinball machines as well.
Where's the the Data East compilation