, formally known as , was a video game production company headquartered in Oyama, Tochigi,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It was founded in 1972 as a subsidiary of Universal Entertainment. On November 1, 1983, the company was renamed to "UPL Co. Ltd". UPL filed for bankruptcy in March 4,

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. Near the end of UPL's business, Tsutomu Fujisawa later established a new video game company called ''Scarab'', which renamed itself several years later as feelplus. Fujisawa died in February 28, 1998.

Notable works

Arcade

* Mouser (released in North America by Cosmos) * Nova 2001 (released in North America by Universal) * Ninja-kun Ma-jou no Bouken (released by Taito) * Penguin-kun Wars * Raiders5 * XX Mission (released in North America by United Artists Theatre Amusements) * Ark Area * Mutant Night * Ninja-Kid II (released in the USA by World Games as Rad Action, and by United Amusements as JT-104) * Atomic Robo-Kid (released in North America by Nikom) * Omega Fighter (released in North America by American Sammy Corporation) * Otogizoushi Urashima Mahjong *

Task Force Harrier is a vertical scrolling shooter video game developed by NMK and released for arcades in 1989 by UPL in Japan and by American Sammy in North America. It was ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis as in 1991. Gameplay The game is a conventional sc ...

(released in North America by American Sammy Corporation) * Bio-ship Paladin (released in North America by American Sammy Corporation) *

US-AAF Mustang ''USAAF Mustang'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade game originally developed by NMK, and published by UPL in 1990. It was ported a year later to the Mega Drive by Taito, while being renamed ''Fire Mustang''. NMK also developed the Me ...

* Vandyke *

Acrobat Mission ''Acrobat Mission'' is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by UPL in 1991, licensed to Taito for manufacture and distribution. It was ported to Super Famicom in 1992. Gameplay Players started the game equipped with the defau ...

* Black Heart * Koutetsu Yousai Strahl

Game Boy

Ninja Taro ''Ninja Taro'', released in Japan as , is an action-adventure video game for the Game Boy by NMK. It was released in 1991 in both Japan by UPL and North America by American Sammy and is part of the ''Ninja Jajamaru-kun'' series. Story When rumor ...

(published outside of Japan by

American Sammy American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

)

Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan as ...

* Atomic Robo-Kid (ported by Treco) * Bio-ship Paladin (ported by Treco)

Sharp X68000

* Atomic Robo-Kid (ported by

System Sacom , also known as System Sacom Sales Corp., is a Japanese company which sells electronic devices. They are more notable for their past, in which they developed video games. In the 1980s, they mainly published games for computers, but they changed ...

)

Super NES

(ported by

Teichiku is a Japanese record label, run by , that specializes in enka, kayōkyoku, and similar music. Teichiku is an abbreviation for , the former name of the company. Teichiku Entertainment also runs the record labels Imperial Records, Takumi Note, ...

) * Super Ninja-kun (published by

Jaleco was a corporate brand name that was used by two previously connected video game developers and publishers based in Japan. The original Jaleco company was founded in 1974 as Japan Leisure Company, founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa, before being renam ...

)

TurboGrafx-16/ TurboGrafx-CD

* Atomic Robo-Kid Special * Gomola Speed

References

External links

UPL-Grave Digger: The legend begins once more...
- a grave website created by UPL employees dedicated to the company. {{in lang, ja
''UPL Co., Ltd'' profile
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Defunct video game companies of Japan Video game companies established in 1972 Video game companies disestablished in 1992 Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Japan Japanese companies established in 1972 Japanese companies disestablished in 1992 Hamster Corporation