was a Japanese software development company that was in business from 1980 to 2003 based in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. They started as a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developer, releasing titles for various home computer platforms (including the Family Computer), but subsequently left the gaming business to focus solely on programming software and tools as they entered the 1990s.

History

The company was founded on May 2, 1980 under the name Computer Land Hokkaido, publishing video games for various home computers under the "7 Turkey" brand name. In 1984, they officially changed their name to dB-SOFT, taking their new name from the

decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

(dB) unit. Some of the company's most commercially successful video games include ''

Flappy is a puzzle game by dB-Soft in the same vein as the '' Eggerland'' series and ''Sokoban'' that is obscure outside Japan. It features Flappy, a somewhat mole-like character who must complete each level by pushing a blue stone from its starting pl ...

'' (which has been released in over 20 versions) and ''

Woody Poco is a Japan-exclusive video game released for the Family Computer in addition to various other systems. It is a side-scrolling action role-playing game similar to '' Mystical Ninja''. Summary The player controls an old wooden figure named "Po ...

''. dB-SOFT also published two pornographic games under the Macadamia Soft imprint: ''Macadam'' and ''177'' (the latter was banned from retail by the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

due to its controversial premise in which the player's objective is to pursue and

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

a fleeing woman). In addition to gaming software, dB-SOFT also produced programming tools such as ''dB-BASIC'' (a

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

), ''P1.EXE'' (a word processor) and ''HOTALL'' (a web designing tool). On August 1, 2001, dB-SOFT ceased operation after being merged into NetFarm Communications (a company founded by Reiko Furuya, Sadayaki Furuya's wife). Their former office building was sold off in 2002.

Softography

Notes

References

External links

Official website

dB-SOFT
games available a
Project EGGdB-SOFT
at Giant Bomb * Companies based in Sapporo Defunct video game companies of Japan Video game development companies Video game publishers Video game companies established in 1980 Video game companies disestablished in 2001 Japanese companies established in 1980 Japanese companies disestablished in 2001 {{Japan-videogame-company-stub