Stumbled upon a nice Nichibutsu corporate flyer

[level42]

Check it out !

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=3508

Some nice pics of the factory and some arcades/game halls.

One of them even has a nice Seeburg jukebox

I wonder where Nichibutsu went wrong.... I mean, they weren't all that different from let's say.......Nintendo.....but they had 1 certain man....

[PaulSwan]

Some of those cabs are lovely...

To theorize an answer your question, they probably didn't create enough of there own games that were a hit. Many of the games on that flyer are versions of existing games (Rolling Crash == Head On, Moon Alien == Galaxian(?), Moon Base == Space Invaders).

Paul.

[level42]

Yep. But up to about 1980 about ALL Japanese companies were like that. Nintendo, Sega, Taito, Universal, Tehkan they all copied eachothers games until about that year.
Then all start creating original stuff but Nichibutsu only seems to come up with Crazy Climber (and in a degree, Moon Cresta).

[ataritoobin]

They remained pretty popular in Japan with Frisky Tom, Mag Max, and some other shooters and side-scrollers.  They gained popularity in another way with their adult Mah Jong games as well.  I think every Nichibutsu PCB I've ever sold wound up going back to Japan.

I'm still amazed how advanced Crazy Climber was for 1980 - full-color scrolling playfields, sampled speech, large sprites, music that fades out - wow! 

[DarthNuno]

Very interesting flyer, nice idea to highlight it 

Here's my top 3 Nichibutsu games :

1. MAGMAX
2. TERRA FORCE
3. MOON CRESTA

[PaulSwan]

Yes, I do remember them finding a niche in Mah Jong games eventually. They didn't get into simulator games that eventually became popular (driving games, etc).
Paul.