Konami is a Japanese video games developer and publisher. The company also produces many other kind of toys, trading cards, slot machines and operates health and physical fitness clubs in Japan.

The current headquarters are based in Tokyo. In the United States Konami manages its video game business from offices in El Segundo, California and manages its casino gaming business from offices in Paradise, Nevada. Its Australian gaming operations are located in Sydney, Australia.

History

The company was founded in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kōzuki, who remains the company's chairman. In 1973 the company began producing amusement machines for arcades. In 1979, they began exporting products to the United States. In 1982 Konami began manufacturing and selling PC games. Many of the NES bestselling titles, like Gradius, the Castlevania series, the Contra series, and Metal Gear series, were produced by Konami, in fact Konami was one of the most active and prolific third party development studios for the NES.¹

Castlevania

Castlevania was for a long time Konami's flagship series. The first game was released in september 1986, but it have not received large attention until it was ported on cartridges for the NES console. The first chapter of the series was a typical platform game were the player has to travel to Dracula's castle, Castlevania, and fights his way through the castle destroying Dracula himself and the castle. Later the game introduced many innovations, like non-linear design and a world map that the played would be free to explore, introducing that way the concept of free-roaming games.²