Nichibutsu

Nihon Bussan Co., Ltd.日本物産株式会社
Logo.
Origin	Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan
Years	1970-2015
Consoles	Arcade games
First game	Table Attacker (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
Last game	Koisuru Cosplay Akihabara
Aliases	SPHINX
Games published by	Hamster Corporation (2014-current)
Related companies	WOOD PLACE, MAKE SOFTWARE, T-System YUBIS, TAITO SHOJI, MIKI SHOJI

Nichibutsu Building (1979)

Nichibutsu (日物), also known as Nihon Bussan Co., Ltd.(日本物産株式会社), was a Japanese developer and publisher video games, some of them copies of existing titles.

In 1978, Nichibutsu released their first video game titles, Table Attacker, a clone of Breakout, and Moon Base, a clone of Space Invaders. Nichibutsu also produced Moon Alien originally under an agreement with Namco, but the game was subject of a litigation over Nichibutsu allegedly producing more boards than what Namco had permitted in the agreement. The company switched to original titles afterwards (and even was granted licenses to develop console titles), but their arcade division focused exclusively on strip mahjong games after 1989.

Nichibutsu was a sponsor of the Team Lotus Formula One team from 1991 to 1993 when the company released the F1 Circus series of racing games, but did not obtain an FIA Formula One World Championship license until 1992; games prior to Super F1 Circus Limited and F1 Circus '92, while licensed by console makers, were unlicensed by the FIA/FOCA.

Games

Moon Base (1978)

Moon Alien (1979)

Panic Stadium (1990)

Medal games

1. Piccadilly Circuit (hack of Piccadilly Circus, unlicensed)

Arcade games

1. Table Attacker (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
2. Table Attacker Guard (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
3. Table Attacker Special (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
4. Table Attacker Black (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
5. Attacker Ace (hack of Breakout, unlicensed)
6. Table Bonpa (hack of Circus, unlicensed)
7. Bonpa (hack of Circus, unlicensed)
8. Moon Base (hack of Space Invaders, unlicensed)
9. Moon Base Spector (hack of the color version of Space Invaders, unlicensed)
10. Moon Base Zeta (hack of Space Invaders Part 2, unlicensed)
11. Moon Alien (hack of Galaxian, originally licensed from Namco)
12. Moon Cresta (hack of Galaxian, original game)
13. Moon Trek (original game)
14. Crazy Climber (original game, Sounds used is unlicensed)
15. Crazy Climber 2 (original game)
16. Mag Max (original game)
17. Cosmo Police Galivan (original game)
18. THE LADY HUNTER (original game)
19. Mahjong Shikaku (original game)
20. Panic Stadium (original game)
21. Sailor Wars (original game, Sounds used is unlicensed)
22. Deadheat Road (original game)

Gallery

President and CEO. Sueharu Torii He founded a company at the age of 23.

Nichibutsu producing unauthorized Space Invaders units.

Nichibutsu's official Amusement arcade, which uses Taito's Space Invaders characters in the signboard advertisement of the store without permission.

Moon Base copies Taito's Space Invaders, and the poster design uses Star Wars' Darth Vader without permission.

Moon Alien copies Namco's Galaxian, and the poster design uses William Roger Dean' design MOTOWN CHARTBUSTERS VOL.6 without permission.

Moon Trek has Star Trek appear in the game content and posters without permission.

THE LADY HUNTER has Batman appear in the game content and posters without permission.

Cosmo Police Galivan has in-game the Japanese tokusatsu shows Space Sheriff Gavan and Space Sheriff Sharivan without permission.

UFO Robo Dangar has in-game the Japanese Animation UFO Robo Grendizer without permission.

Mahjong Shikaku uses many Japanese anime characters without permission, such as Nausicaa from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Sailor Wars uses Sailor Moon characters without permission.

Nichibutsu did not stop plagiarism until he withdrew from the game business. As an example, Nichibutsu's Deadheat Road uses Taito's Dangerous Curves design.

External link

• Official Japanese website (Wayback Machine)
• Tits and Tiles: The NSFW History of Strip Mahjong (superjumpmagazine.com) - There is a company commentary on Nichibutsu

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