Technosoft

Thunder Force

The company's most commercially successful franchise was the Thunder Force series. It was a series of scrolling shooter video games. The series began with the original Thunder Force in 1983. The games are known by fans of the genre for their hardcore appeal, pleasing graphics, and generally well composed synthesizer-based chiptune music soundtracks.

The series' first game, Thunder Force, appeared in 1983 on a variety of Japanese computers, such as the Sharp X1, NEC PC-8801 mkII, and FM-7. Technosoft also released a level editor, or game creation system, entitled Thunder Force Construction, for the original game on the FM-7 computer in 1984. Since Thunder Force II, the majority of installments in the series appeared on the Mega Drive console, where the series gained much of its popularity. The most recent entry was released on PlayStation 2.

Plazma Line

Plazma Line (プラズマライン) is a first-person space racing game released by Technosoft for the NEC PC-8801 and FM-7 computers in 1984. The objective of the game is to race through outer space in a first-person view while avoiding obstacles (rendered in 3D polygons) along the way. Plazma Line is notable for being the first computer game, and home video game in general, with 3D polygon graphics. It also featured an automap radar to keep track of the player's position.

The game was created by Katsunori Yoshimura, who also created the original Thunder Force. Yoshimura later left the company in 1985 to start the development studio Arsys Software along with fellow Technosoft member Osamu Nagano.

Herzog

Herzog (German: "Duke") is a strategy video game released by Technosoft in Japan for the MSX and NEC PC-88 computers in 1988. It was a real-time tactics and tactical shooter game with real-time strategy elements.

The series' best known entry is the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis) title Herzog Zwei (1989), which is regarded as the world's first real time strategy game. It was the first game with a feature set that falls under the contemporary definition of the real-time strategy genre, predating the genre-popularizing Dune II. The producers of Dune II acknowledged Herzog Zwei (meaning "Duke 2" in German) as an influence on the game.

Other notable titles

Other notable releases include Elemental Master (1990) and the conversion of Turbo Grafx 16 game Devil's Crush (dubbed Dragon's Fury and released in North America by Tengen).

Closure

In 2001, the company was purchased by pachinko maker Twenty-one Company and was merged into its R&D division.

In 2006, the URL Tecnosoft.com was registered and updated. However, as of January 2008, no updates other than "We will restart soon! Please wait for a while." and "THUNDERFORCE is a registered trademark." have been added to the website. However, with the announcement of Thunder Force VI, the copyright for the game has been apparently turned over to one of the series' creators and may no longer apply.

Some staff members left Technosoft to start the game development companies Arsys Software in 1985 (founded by Katsunori Yoshimura, creator of Thunder Force and Plazma Line), CAProduction in 1993, and Ganbarion in 1999.

In 2016, at the Tokyo Game Show, it was revealed that Sega now holds the rights of all Technosoft's games. To commemorate this, Sega announced that they are re-releasing Thunder Force III in Sega 3D Fukkoku Archives 3: Final Stage for Nintendo 3DS.

List of known releases