D4 Enterprise

D4 Enterprise Co., Ltd. (株式会社D4エンタープライズ, Kabushiki-gaisha D4 Entāpuraizu; often shortened to D4E) is a Japanese video game publisher currently specializing in content delivery services like Project EGG, EGGY and PicoPico over the Internet. The company has also collaborated with Nintendo to re-release Neo Geo, MSX and arcade titles for the Wii, and MSX titles for the Wii U, as part of the Virtual Console services on both consoles.

Other products and services from D4 Enterprise include EGG Music, a digital music service, focused around soundtracks for older Japanese home computer games; AC-MALL, an online store selling reprints of older video games, soundtracks and other forms of merchandise; and 1chipMSX, a special updated model of the MSX home computer. D4 Enterprise also holds the copyright and trademarks to the game libraries of several defunct Japanese video game companies, including Compile, T&E Soft and Xtalsoft.

D4 Enterprise was founded on March 3, 2004, by former Bothtec Inc. employee, Naoto Suzuki. Suzuki had previously been involved with the creation and management of Project EGG - and D4 Enterprise was created in part due to declining interest in the running of that service on the part of Bothtec. D4 Enterprise and Bothtec then entered into an agreement to jointly manage and operate Project EGG, as well as Soft-City.com - the website that hosted Project EGG.

Later on, in September 2004, D4E would start its own game distribution service and entertainment website called "Amusement Center" (often shortened to AC), as a separate entity from its collaboration with Bothtec on Soft-City.com and Project EGG, although Project EGG would later be mirrored on the AC website. As part of the Amusement Center, AC-MALL was also created as a digital storefront for game reprints, books and other merchandise. In November 2004, D4E would launch a sub-section of Amusement Center called the "iTa-Choco Shop". The iTa-Choco Shop was a store focused around games by iTa-Choco Systems - the personal company of Kōji Sumii (also known by the pseudonym, Rasho), the creator of Bokosuka Wars. The iTa-Choco Shop was terminated on May 10, 2022. D4E would also launch another sub-section of Amusement Center called "Compile Station", dedicated to the works of former game publisher Compile. A selection of 40 free Compile games and a Madō Monogatari 4-koma webcomic drawn by Compile illustrator "Ichi" are available via Compile Station.

D4 Enterprise continued to jointly operate Soft-City.com, even after Bothtec divested their stake in the service to Gaiax Co. Ltd in early 2005. In August 2005, D4 Enterprise would establish EGG Music as a sub-service of Amusement Center, for the purpose of digitally distributing older video game soundtracks. EGG Music would go on to contain over 200 soundtracks, from over 100 different composers - including works by Ryu Umemoto and Yuzo Koshiro. In early 2006, D4E would collaborate with Internet Revolution Co. Ltd (a joint venture between Konami and Internet Initiative Japan) to provide the emulation service "i-revo games"; 150 titles were released on the service, with games from the Famicom, Super Famicom, PC Engine and MSX available. i-revo games was discontinued on March 31, 2011.

In August 2006, D4 Enterprise would announce their involvement with creating and distributing the 1chipMSX - a special miniature recreation of the MSX2, first shown off in October 2004 and originally created as a collaboration between ASCII Corporation and the MSX Association. The 1chipMSX would later be exhibited by D4E at Tokyo Game Show 2006, and pre-orders were opened on October 12, 2006. 1chipMSX finally released on December 11, 2006. Only 5000 units of the device were produced, with the last units being sold in a special campaign celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original MSX - in 2008. There were originally plans for Dutch manufacturer Bazix to distribute the 1chipMSX in the West, as the representative of the MSX Association outside of Japan; however licensing difficulties, disagreements between the involved parties and the transfer of the MSX trademark from MSX Association to MSX Licensing Corporation resulted in Bazix terminating their working relationship with MSX Association and 1chipMSX was never released outside of Japan.

On December 29, 2006, another sub-section of the Amusement Center site was opened - Falcom Museum, a service for distributing older Nihon Falcom titles and for compiling information related to all Falcom titles at the time. These older Falcom titles also became available on Project EGG at the same time. In 2007, D4E would establish a record label called EGG Music Records, to distribute physical editions of EGG Music albums. To date, over 30 physical albums have been released under the EGG Music Records imprint.

On September 18, 2007, Neo Geo titles started to become available on the Wii's Virtual Console service in Japan - provided by D4 Enterprise, distributing titles under licence from SNK Playmore. Neo Geo Virtual Console titles would later launch on October 5, 2007, in PAL regions and on October 8, 2007, in North America. Neo Geo games would not be added to the South Korean Virtual Console service. In 2008, D4 Enterprise brought the MSX versions of Aleste and Eggy to the Japanese Wii Virtual Console – although both would later be delisted in 2012. D4E would also distribute 13 Konami MSX titles for Wii Virtual Console in late 2009 and early 2010. Later on in 2012, D4E would also bring the arcade versions of Technōs Japan's Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun and Sunsoft's Ikki and Shanghai to Virtual Console Arcade on Wii – in Japan only. From 2013 onwards, D4E would also provide the MSX emulator for Virtual Console on Wii U- which was once again Japan-only. The Wii Virtual Console service was discontinued in all regions on January 30, 2019, and the Wii U Virtual Console was discontinued on March 27, 2023.