ADK (company)
ADK Corporation (Japanese: 株式会社エーディーケイ, Hepburn: Kabushiki Kaisha ADK), formerly known as Alpha Denshi Corporation (株式会社アルファ電子), was a Japanese video game production company throughout the 1980s and 90s. ADK began as a developer of arcade games but is best known for their library of SNK Neo Geo titles, mainly produced in the 1990s in partnership with SNK. Most notable among these are their fighting games and in particular, the World Heroes series. The company closed with properties sold to SNK Playmore in 2003.
History
Early Years
ADK was founded in July 1980 in Ageo, Saitama, Japan. At the time, it was known as Alpha Denshi or Alpha for short. Originally a producer of audio and telecommunications equipment, Alpha first ventured into video games in 1980 with two arcade titles: Dorachan (ドラちゃん) by Craul Denshi and Tehkan's Shogi (将棋), a basic Japanese chess game. Dorachan was recalled shortly after release due to unlicensed usage of the fictional character Doraemon.
Despite an inauspicious start, Alpha continued to develop arcade games in 1981. Janputer (ジャンピュータ), published by Sanritsu Giken Corp, was one of the earliest arcade Mahjong titles and helped Alpha to establish themselves in the industry. That same year, Craul Denshi released Alpha's Crush Roller (Make Trax), a maze game similar to Pac-Man. By 1982, Alpha was able to finance their own independent development of Talbot, another maze game, which they licensed to Volt Electronics for distribution. In 1983, Alpha expanded into sports games with their self-published Exciting Soccer and two Champion Baseball titles for Sega. Alpha would produce several more games for Sega through the mid 1980s while continuing to publish others on their own.