Konami
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Konami Corporation (コナミ株式会社, Konami Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games. The company was founded in 1969 as a jukebox rental and repair business in Osaka, Japan, by Kagemasa Kozuki, the still-current chairman and president.
The name "Konami" is a conjunction of the names Kagemasa Kozuki (current chairman and president), Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako.[1] Konami is currently headquartered in Tokyo and additionally operates health and physical fitness clubs in Japan.
Konami also operates United States activities in El Segundo, California for video games and Paradise, Nevada for the casino gaming industry. Its Australian gaming operations are located in Sydney, Australia, and distribution of Konami's games in Australia is handled by Mindscape Australia.
Video Games
Major titles by Konami include the vampire-hunting side-scroller Castlevania series, the survival horror Silent Hill series, the action/shooter Contra series, the platform/adventure Ganbare Goemon series, the espionage action Metal Gear series, the console role-playing Suikoden series, the music-oriented Bemani series (which includes Dance Dance Revolution, Beatmania IIDX, GuitarFreaks, DrumMania and pop'n Music, among others), Dancing with the Stars, the dating simulation Tokimeki Memorial series and football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer.
Konami also produced its shoot 'em up arcade games such as Gradius, Life Force, Time Pilot, Gyruss, Parodius, Axelay and TwinBee. Konami's games based on cartoon licenses, especially the Batman: The Animated Series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Tiny Toon Adventures series, but other American productions like The Simpsons, Bucky O'Hare, G.I. Joe, The Goonies and the French production Asterix, all have seen release at some point in the past by Konami either on arcades and/or video game consoles.
Recent cinematically-styled franchises from Konami are the continuing Silent Hill survival horror franchise and the Metal Gear series, which underwent a public renaissance with Metal Gear Solid. Another successful franchise is Winning Eleven, the spiritual sequel to International Superstar Soccer, which is extremely popular in Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Europe, where it is sold by the name Pro Evolution Soccer. And in Japan, it is known for the extremely popular Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū series baseball series and the Zone of the Enders games. The company has also recently picked up Saw from Brash Entertainment when the game's production had been suspended due to financial issues.
Konami Code
Konami is also known for its password, the Konami Code, which traditionally gives many power-ups in its games. Although variants also exist, as in the Boktai series and button naming can differ depending on the controller used, the classic GBA combination is: ↑, ↑, ↓, ↓, ←, →, ←, →, B, A. However, use of this code in more recent Konami productions has been sparse.
References
- ↑ Konami Computer Entertainment Kobe, Inc. in at MobyGames.