Technosoft

Technosoft was a Japanese video game developer and publisher based headquartered in Sasebo, Nagasaki. Also known as "Tecno Soft", the company was founded in February 1980 as Sasebo Microcomputer Center, before changing its name to Technosoft in 1982. The company primarily dealt with software for Japanese personal computers, including graphic toolsets and image processing software. Technosoft's first venture into the video game market was Snake & Snake, released in 1982, before seeing success with titles such as Thunder Force (1983) and Plasma Line (1984). Technosoft became largely profitable during the late-1980s and early-1990s, largely in part due to the widespread popularity of their Thunder Force and Herzog franchises. However, later in the decade, Technosoft began to largely diminish as profits began to slump, before ultimately being acquired and folded into Japanese pachinko manufacturer Twenty-One Company in late 2001. Twenty-One began to release products in 2008 under the Technosoft brand, and sold the entirety of its video game library to Sega in 2016. The Technosoft name continues to be in use in the present day as the name for Twenty-One's research and development division, and as a brand name for various products such as soundtrack albums.