was a Japanese music and

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

History

NEC Avenue was founded in 1987 as a record label within NEC. NEC Avenue eventually got involved with video games, and secured licenses to produce console versions of arcade titles from

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

and

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

. Toshio Tabeta, the employee responsible for the Sega deal, would later learn that the Sega employee that gave NEC Avenue permission to make arcade ports was scolded. Video game records represented about 10% of NEC Avenue's business in 1994. In October 1995, its game division was spun-off into a new NEC subsidiary named

NEC Interchannel was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. History Interchannel was founded on October 2, 1995 as an NEC subsidiary named . Its founding was a result of divisions within NEC being spun off. NEC Interchannel took over NEC Avenue's music ...

. NEC Interchannel took over NEC Avenue's music and game operations in October 1997, then acquired its music subsidiary, , in March 1998. NEC Avenue was dissolved on January 29, 1999, and NEC Avenue Music Publishing became IC Avenue Music Publishing after Interchannel split from NEC in 2004.

Artists

DOME A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

Joe Hisaishi , known professionally as , is a Japanese composer, musical director, conductor and pianist, known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He is also known for his piano scores. Hisaishi's music has been known to explore ...

Junko Yagami , is a Japanese singer and songwriter from the Aichi Prefecture. She has released 25 albums, including 6 live concert albums, and is a notable figure in Japanese music of the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Upbringing Junko Yagami was born in ...

Katsuhiko Nakagawa was a Japanese actor and musician from Tokyo. He is the grandson of Kazutaka Itō and the father of the multi-tarento Shoko Nakagawa. He appeared in the 1986 adaptation of ''Toki o Kakeru Shōjo'', voiced the lead character of ''Choriki Robo Ga ...

Monday Michiru is a Japanese American actress, singer, and songwriter whose music encompasses and fuses a wide variety of genres including jazz, dance, pop, and soul. She is arguably best known for being a pioneer of the acid jazz movement in Japan in the e ...

Nobukazu Takemura Nobukazu Takemura (竹村延和 ''Takemura Nobukazu'') is a Japanese musician and artist. Born in Hirakata, Osaka in August 1968, he became interested in music at a young age by listening to the radio, and began to make music at home with a ta ...

Shinji Harada Shinji Harada (Harada Shinji、原田真二) is a famous pop music artist in Japan, born in Hiroshima, on December 5, 1958. After three years of practicing guitar, at the age of fifteen he was ready to play guitar with the band ''Yamaha''. Hara ...

Takako Ōta (born August 13, 1967) is a Japanese voice actress and singer, best known for voicing the lead role of Yū Morisawa / Creamy Mami in anime ''Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel''. ''Creamy Mami'' is known as a pioneer of the new marketing strategy, now ...

Video games

*''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...

'' (1988) *''

Fantasy Zone is a 1986 arcade game by Sega, and the first game in the ''Fantasy Zone'' series. It was later ported to a wide variety of consoles, including the Master System. The player controls a sentient spaceship named Opa-Opa who fights an enemy inv ...

'' (1988) *'' SonSon II'' (1989) *''

Hyper Dyne Side Arms is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and released by Capcom as an arcade video game in 1986. The player takes control of a flying mecha suit who must battle an alien army. ''Side Arms'' uses a two-directional attacking system similar ...

'' (1989) *'' F-1 Dream'' (1989) *''

Jūōki ''Altered Beast'' is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade video game developed and manufactured by Sega. The game is set in Ancient Greece and follows a player character chosen by Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena from the demonic ruler of the underworl ...

'' (1989) *'' Side Arms Special'' (1989) *''

Darius Alpha is a 1987 horizontal-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Taito. Players control a starship named the Silver Hawk in its mission to destroy the Belser empire before they wipe out the planet Darius. Its gameplay involves tra ...

'' (1990) *'' Super Darius'' (1990) *'' Dai Makaimura'' (1990) *'' Operation Wolf'' (1990) *''

After Burner II is an Arcade video game, arcade vehicular combat game developed and released by Sega in 1987. The player assumes control of an American Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by des ...

'' (1990) *''

Thunder Blade is a third-person combat flight simulator video game released by Sega for arcades in 1987. Players control a helicopter to destroy enemy vehicles. The game was released as a standard stand-up arcade cabinet with force feedback, as the joysti ...

'' (1990) *'' Daisenpū'' (1990) *''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (comp ...

'' (1990) *'' Hellfire S'' (1991) *'' Splash Lake'' (1991) *'' Daisenpū Custom'' (1991) *'' Might & Magic'' (1992) *'' Bonanza Bros.'' (1992) *''

Forgotten Worlds ''Forgotten Worlds'', titled in Japan, is a side-scrolling shooter video game by Capcom, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988. It is notable for being the first title released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hard ...

'' (1992) *''

Dragon Knight II ''Dragon Knight II'' (ドラゴンナイトII) is a fantasy-themed eroge role-playing video game in the ''Dragon Knight'' franchise that was originally developed and published by ELF Corporation in 1990-1991 only in Japan as the first sequel to ...

'' (1992) *'' Gain Ground SX'' (1992) *''

Horror Story Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...

'' (1993) *''

Rainbow Islands is a 1987 in video gaming, 1987 arcade game developed and published by Taito Corporation, Taito. The arcade version was licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is subtitled "The Story of Bubble Bobble 2" and ...

'' (1993) *'' Super Darius II'' (1993) *'' Puyo Puyo CD'' (1994) *'' Tenchi wo Kurau'' (1994) *''

Chiki Chiki Boys ''Mega Twins'', known as in Japan, is a side-scrolling action game released for the arcades by Capcom in 1990. It was the tenth game released for the CP System hardware. Plot The game features two twins who are attempting to re-take control ...

'' (1994) *''

Dragon Knight III ''Knights of Xentar'' is an erotic role-playing video game published for MS-DOS compatible operating systems in North America by Megatech Software in 1995. It was originally published as ''Dragon Knight III'' (ドラゴンナイトIII) in Japan. I ...

'' (1994) *'' Strider Hiryū'' (1994) *'' Dragon Knight & Graffiti'' (1995) *'' Tenchi Muyō! Ryōōki'' (1995) *'' Space Invaders: The Original Game'' (1995) *'' Asuka 120% Maxima'' (1995) *'' Dōkyūsei'' (1995) *''

Dōkyūsei 2 is a video game published by ELF Corporation and the sequel to '' Dōkyūsei''. ''Dōkyūsei 2'' was released in 1995 for MS-DOS version and in 1997 for Microsoft Windows. A PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five ...

'' (1996) *'' Madō Monogatari: Honō no Sotsuenji'' (1996) *''

Dragon Knight 4 ''Dragon Knight 4'' (ドラゴンナイト４) is an erotic role-playing video game developed by ELF Corporation and released only in Japan for several platforms between 1994 and 1997. In 1994, the game first became available for PC MS-DOS, NEC P ...

'' (1997)

References

{{reflist Video game companies established in 1987 Video game companies disestablished in 1999 Defunct video game companies of Japan Japanese companies established in 1987 Japanese companies disestablished in 1999 Former NEC subsidiaries