Toaplan Co., Ltd.
Moby ID: 3368
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Toaplan Co., Ltd. (株式会社東亜プラン) was a Japanese game development company headquartered in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, with their development office in Toshima-ku, Tokyo. The company was established in 1984 as the development division of arcade distributor Toa Kikaku, and was best known for their manic arcade shoot-'em-ups such as Truxton, Zero Wing, and Batsugun.
The studio's origins trace back to Shinjuku-based Orca, where much of the early Toaplan team met. Following Orca's bankruptcy in 1984, the development team established Crux. However, Crux itself soon faced bankruptcy, and the team again moved to Toa Kikaku, establishing their development division, Toaplan.
After a few minor releases, Toaplan's first big hit was Tiger-Heli, which was also the start of a long relationship with Taito, who distributed the game. This was followed up with a number of shooters, including Slap Fight, Sky Shark, and Twin Cobra. With the release of Hellfire in 1989, Toaplan had enough clout to begin releasing and distributing their arcade titles under their own name, and would soon after begin making forays into console development and publishing as well. The company also experimented in genres other than shooters, with titles like Wardner, Snow Brothers, and Knuckle Bash.
With shooters, particularly the high-difficulty, high-intensity titles Toaplan was famous for, waning in popularity by the mid-'90s, the company was hit hard financially and was forced to close in 1994. Former Toaplan staffers went on to establish a number of other studios, including CAVE, Takumi, Tamsoft, and Gazelle, while others found their way to other prestigious studios including Square and Taito. Many of these studios continued and built on Toaplan's history of manic shooting games.
Credited on 33 Games from 1985 to 2024
Displaying most recent · View all
Snow Bros. Wonderland (2024 on PlayStation 5, Windows, Nintendo Switch...) |
Spy Bros.: Pipi & Bibi's DX (2023 on Nintendo Switch, Windows) |
Snow Bros. Nick & Tom Special (2022 on Nintendo Switch) |
Snow Bros. Classic (2020 on Android, iPad, iPhone) |
Toaplan Shooting Battle 1 (1996 on PlayStation) |
Snow Bros. 2 With New Elves (1994 on Arcade) |
Slap Fight MD (1993 on Genesis) |
Batsugun (1993 on Windows, SEGA Saturn, Arcade...) |
Grind Stormer (1993 on Windows, Genesis, Arcade...) |
Knuckle Bash (1993 on Arcade) |
FixEight (1992 on Windows, Arcade, Macintosh...) |
Dogyuun (1992 on Windows, Arcade, Macintosh...) |
Truxton II (1992 on Windows, FM Towns, Arcade...) |
Brain Washing Game Teki-Paki (1991 on Arcade, Nintendo Switch) |
Ghox (1991 on Arcade) |
Pipi & Bibi's (NSFW) (1991 on Arcade) |
Vimana (1991 on Windows, Arcade, Linux...) |
M.U.S.H.A. (1990 on Genesis, Wii, Nintendo Switch) |
Out Zone (1990 on Windows, Arcade, Linux...) |
Snow Bros. Nick & Tom (1990 on Game Boy, Genesis, Amiga...) |
[ view all ]
History +
- 1994
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While working on "Otenki Paradise" (Snow Bros 2) Toaplan goes bankrupt.
- 1984
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Toaplan releases their first game: Mahjong King. It was sold to SNK.
Trivia +
The name Toaplan means "East Asia Ambition" or "East Asia Project".
A lot of their games had an official soundtrack, released on the Japanese market only. This was quite unique for games in the eighties.
A former unofficial website about the company was available at www.toaplan.com
Related Web Sites +
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All Your Base - The Toaplan Museum
A site formerly known as Toaplan.com, unofficial source of information on Toaplan games.
Frequent Collaborators
Companies- 17 games with Valve Corporation
- 17 games with Bitwave AB
- 15 games with GOG Poland Sp. z o.o.
- 14 games with Tatsujin Co., Ltd.
- 12 games with Taito Corporation
- 8 games with Taito America Corporation
- 6 games with Romstar, Inc.
- 5 games with SEGA Corporation
- 4 games with Retro-Bit
- 4 games with Kool Brands, LLC
- 13 games with Masahiro Yuge
- 11 games with Tatsuya Uemura
- 8 games with Koetsu Kusaka
- 8 games with Ali Manzuri
- 8 games with Niklas Istenes
- 8 games with Martin Lindell
- 8 games with Marcus Karlsson Drake
- 7 games with Magnus Danielsson
- 7 games with Carl-Henrik Skårstedt
- 7 games with Olof Karlsson
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