Taito Corporation

This Japanese corporation was mostly famous for it's arcade games and for starting the Arcade Game Golden Era with the release of Space Invaders in 1978. After this big hit, the Taito Corporation followed up their succes with other succeses like Bubble Bobble in 1986 or Double Dragon in 1987.Not only were they famous in Japan and America, but their games were imported worldwide and so their company grew stronger.

The history of the Taito Corporation

This company was founded by a Russian business man called Michael Kogan in 1953. It started as a vending machine distributor under the name Taito Trading Company, but then they took another route and began manufacturing their own arcade machines in the 1960s. After releasing their first game in 1973, they changed their name to Taito Corporation. Three years later in 1978, they hit their peak after the release of Space Invaders which because of it's humongous popularity, started the Golden age of arcade video game. Since the game got shipped to the U.S.A, in 1979 a new division in the Taito corporation was created called Taito America Corporation. Thanks of this coporation Taito was able to release arcade games also in North America, like Speed Racer in 1974 or Bubble Bobble. Later, in 1988 was created another division in North America called Taito Software Inc. This division focused on computer or console games even if Taito was mostly popular for it's arcade games. Until 1991, Taito kept releasing a variation of different games that go from action platformers, to shooters, to even beat 'em up.

Gun Fight

This game was made before Taito reached it's peak in 1978 with the release of Space Invaders because it was released three years earlier in 1975. Gun Fight (or Western Gun in Japan and Europe) was an arcade game where the player would shoot another character with the use of a revolver. This was revolutionary because this was the first game that showed actual human versus human combat, the player that played as a cowboy would shoot another player playing as a cowboy with a revolver. This is why this game was a two-player arcade game that felt more like a duel because as soon as a player shoots the other one, he wins the duel (which means that he gains one point). There were many variations of this game, not only did the title change but for example, for the version released by Midway the arcade machine contained a microprocessor which made it the first game to use one. Another example is the verion ported in 1978 in the Bally Astrocade console which contained a coloured version of this game. However it was the Midway's version that was very important because the insertion on the microprocessors helped make their next big hit called Space War.

Bubble Bobble

This game was first released by Taito in 1986 as an action platformer arcade game where you would play as one of two bubble dragons, either Bub or Bob, to rescue the dragons girlfriends from the Cave of Monsters. In this platformer the player needs to clear 100 levels in order to win. In these levels the player could navigate by moving side to side or jumping from one platform to another. Each level contained platforms, holes that the player could fall in and ennemies he needed to defeat by blowing bubbles at them to trap them and then poping these bubbles with the spikes on their back. When the bubbles popped, they dropped food that could be picked up by the dragon to gain points. And when every enemy was defeated, the player could advance to the next level. Not only did difficulty increases as the player goes further into the game, but also if an enemy is the remaining enemy or if he escapes from a bubble, he enteres a rage state where he turns pink and begins moving faster making him more dangerous. Also if the time runs out an invincible enemy that the player needs to evade appears.After it's fame the game was ported into other systems like the Comodore 64 or other home computers that just helped spreading the game not only around the world but on every hardware at the time.

Double Dragon

This game was made in 1987 as an arcade beat 'em up developed by Technōs Japan but published by Taito and this is important because it's Taito that brought this game to Europe and America from where it got very popular mainly as an arcade game even if it was also featured in other hardwares like the NES. In this game you played as one of two twin brothers called Billy or Jimmy Lee with the intent of rescuing a girl called Marian. Since this game was a beat 'em up, the player or players needed to fight against hordes of enemies to proceed, through the level. On the arcade version there were two sets of a joystick and three buttons to perform different attacks. By combining these attacks the player could perform special moves like grabbing and throwing an enemy, he could also pick up weapons dropped from said enemy.

This game was pretty short with only four stages ranging from the city's backstreets to a forest, however it was pretty difficult making it addictive. And in the final scene, if the game was played by two players, after beating the last boss they would fight each other over the girl. In the end this game became a very popular arcade beat 'em up because it had the possibility of playing with cooperatively which made it one of the most succesful game of it's kind.