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Namco is a
company based in
Japan, best known for developing
video games. Some of the company's most famous games include
Pac Man,
Pole Position,
Xevious and the
Ridge Racer series.
History
Namco was founded in
Tokyo in
1955, by Masaya Nakamura under the name Nakamura Manufacturing Ltd. It
began by producing mechanical rocking-horses and similar children's rides,
which were installed in a number of department stores in
Yokohama and
Nihonbashi. It continued this line
of production through the 1960s, and expanded with the addition of rides
modeled after
Walt Disney characters in
1966.
The company's brand name was changed to Namco in
1972, and acquired the Japanese division of
Atari in
1974, thus bringing Namco into the coin-operated video game market.
Namco Enterprises Asia Ltd. was established in
Hong Kong, soon followed by Namco America, Inc. in
California.
1980 saw the introduction of one of the company's most famous
coin-operated arcade games,
Pac Man. When
Nintendo began producing its
Famicom home console unit, Namco started the development of game titles
for it, beginning with
Galaxian, which had first been
introduced to arcades in
1979.
Namco was the industry's first to develop a multi-player
competitive game,
Final Lap, in
1987. By
1988, the company's capital exceeded 5,500 million
Yen. In
1989, another racing simulation game,
Winning Run, was released; that same
year, the company's expertise with driving simulation matured with the
development of the Eunos Roadstar Driving Simulator, a joint venture with
the
Mazda Motor Corporation, followed by an educational program for traffic
safety developed with
Mitsubishi.
In the 1990s, Namco began selling coin-operated arcade
games in the
United States, and expanded their market into
Europe with the foundation of Namco Europe, Ltd. in
London. Sennichimae Plabo was opened in
Osaka, featuring a new concept of large-scale arcade amusement, and
Namco Wonder Eggs, a theme park, was opened in Tokyo.
Aladdin's Castle, Inc., was acquired by Namco in
1993, bringing the company to the forefront as the largest arcade
company in the United States. Additional amusement parks were opened,
including Namco Wonder Park Sagamihara and Namco Wonder City.
Ridge Racer, a driving simulation
game, entered arcades, featuring
3D computer graphics; the game was later released for the
Sony Playstation. Another of the company's most famous games,
Tekken, was released in
1994, which was also soon ported to the Playstation. Subsidiaries in
Germany,
France,
Spain, and
Israel were established, and soon began developing arcade games there.
List of games (selection)
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Ace Combat
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Ace Combat 4
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Final Lap
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Galaxian
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Pac Man
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Pole Position
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Ridge Racer
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Tekken
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