Namco

Namco Limited was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential companies in the coin-op and arcade game industry, producing multi-million-selling game franchises such as Pac-Man, Galaxian, Tekken, Soulcalibur, Tales, Ridge Racer, and Ace Combat.

The name Namco comes from Nakamura Manufacturing Company, derived from Namco's founder, Masaya Nakamura. In the 1960s, Nakamura Manufacturing built electro-mechanical arcade games such as the 1965 hit Periscope. It entered the video game industry after acquiring the struggling Japanese division of Atari in 1974, distributing games such as Breakout in Japan. The company renamed itself Namco in 1977 and published Gee Bee, its first original video game, a year later. Among Namco's first major hits was the fixed shooter Galaxian in 1979, followed by Pac-Man in 1980. Namco prospered during the golden age of arcade video games in the early 1980s, releasing popular games such as Galaga, Xevious, and Pole Position.

Namco entered the home market in 1984 with conversions of its arcade games for the MSX and the Nintendo Family Computer, later expanding to competing platforms, such as the Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16, and PlayStation. It continued to produce hit games in the 1990s, including Ridge Racer, Tekken, and Taiko no Tatsujin, but endured financial difficulties due to the struggling Japanese economy and diminishing arcade market.

In 2006, Namco merged with Bandai to form Bandai Namco Holdings. The standalone Namco brand continues to be used for video arcade and other entertainment products by the group's Bandai Namco Amusements division. Namco's video games division was merged into the subsidiary Bandai Namco Entertainment. Namco is remembered for its unique corporate model, its importance to the industry, and its advancements in technology.

On June 1, 1955, Japanese businessman Masaya Nakamura founded Nakamura Seisakusho Co., Ltd., in Ikegami, Tokyo. The son of a shotgun repair business owner, Nakamura proved unable to find work in his chosen profession of ship building in the struggling post-World War II economy. Nakamura established his own company after his father's business saw success with producing pop cork guns. Beginning with only ¥300,000 (US$12,000), Nakamura spent the money on two hand-cranked rocking horses that he installed on the roof garden of a Matsuya department store in Yokohama.

The horses were loved by children and turned a decent profit for Nakamura, who began expanding his business to cover other smaller locations. A 1959 business reorganization renamed the company Nakamura Seisakusho Company, Ltd. The Mitsukoshi department store chain noticed his success in 1963, and approached him with the idea of constructing a rooftop amusement space for its store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It consisted of horse rides, a picture viewing machine, and a goldfish scooping pond, with the centerpiece being a moving train named Roadaway Race. The space was a hit and led to Mitsukoshi requesting rooftop amusement parks for all of its stores.

Along with Taito, Rosen Enterprises, and Nihon Goraku Bussan, Nakamura Seisakusho became one of Japan's leading amusement companies. As the business grew in size, it used its clout to purchase amusement machines in bulk from other manufacturers at a discount, and then sell them to smaller outlets at full price. While its machines sold well, Nakamura Seisakusho lacked the manufacturing lines and distribution networks of its competitors, which made the production of them longer and more expensive.

The company was unable to place its machines inside stores because other manufacturers already had exclusive rights to these locations. In response, Nakamura Seisakusho opened a production plant in February 1966, moving its corporate office to a four-story building in Ōta, Tokyo. The company secured a deal with Walt Disney Productions to produce children's rides in the likenesses of its characters, in addition to those using popular anime characters like Q-Taro; this move allowed the business to further expand its operations and become a driving force in the Japanese coin-op market.