was a Japanese manufacturer of arcade games. The company was founded in 1982 at Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan as , but changed to its current name sometime in 1984. It is currently owned by Hitoshi Hamada. One of their earliest arcade hits was the

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

rail shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a Video game genre, sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certai ...

'' Dynamite Duke'', one of the first to combine close combat with long-range shooting. A year later, Seibu Kaihatsu became best known for their

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

vertical-scrolling

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charac ...

arcade game '' Raiden'', which was successful enough to earn several sequels and spin-offs in its series of titles. In

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

, a development department known as was spun off from Seibu Kaihatsu. During the late '80s,

Fabtek Fabtek Inc. was a thriving video kit company founded in Bellevue, Washington, United States and started its operations there in 1987. Fabtek's name was derived from the initials of its founder Frank Ballouz (F.A.B.-tek), a former Atari and Nint ...

bought the rights to internationally distribute Seibu Kaihatsu's arcade titles outside Japan. This partnership started with Dead Angle, which was Fabtek's first game to be released, and ended with

Raiden Fighters Jet a 1998 scrolling shooter arcade game by Seibu Kaihatsu. It is a sequel to '' Raiden Fighters 2'', released one year later. ''Raiden Fighters Jet'' retains the same game mechanics as its predecessors, while introducing new ones in a departure from ...

, which was both Fabtek's and Seibu Kaihatsu's last game to be released. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, its arcade division vanished and its official website shut down. It was also rumored that they filed for bankruptcy; in fact, Seibu Kaihatsu temporarily disbanded itself. Therefore, Fabtek's international distribution rights expired while closing its business. During the same year, they established , right before the dissolution of their relationship with adult video game developers h.m.p. and Mink to develop adult mahjong video arcade games. In 2005, the development staff left Seibu Kaihatsu to apply at MOSS, then bought the development rights to the ''Raiden'' franchise from Seibu Kaihatsu to develop '' Raiden III'' and '' Raiden IV'' in order to keep the franchise's fanbase hyped with Seibu Kaihatsu assisting them.

Games by Seibu Kaihatsu

Stinger A stinger (or sting) is a sharp organ found in various animals (typically insects and other arthropods) capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal. An insect sting is complicated by its introduction of ve ...

(1983) (released as Seibu Denshi) * Scion (1984) (released as Seibu Denshi) * Kung-Fu Taikun (1984) * Knuckle Joe (licensed to Taito) (1985) * Shot Rider (1985) * Wiz (1985) * Empire City: 1931 / Street Fight (licensed to Taito) (1986) * Panic Road (1986) (co-developed with

Visco Corporation is a software company located in Japan. It was founded in 1982 by and later became corporate on August 8, 1983 while revealing itself as "Visco" in Japan. They originally developed video games for several platforms from the arcades and NES ...

and licensed to Taito) * Air Raid / Cross Shooter (licensed to Taito) (1987) * Pop'n Run The Videogame (1987) * Mustache Boy (licensed to March) (1987) * '' Dead Angle'' (1988) * Dynamite Duke / The Double Dynamites (licensed to Fabtek) (1989) * '' Raiden'' (1990) * Seibu Cup Soccer (1991) * Olympic Soccer '92 (1992) * '' Raiden II'' (1993) * Zero Team (1993) * '' Raiden DX'' (1994) * '' Senkyu / Battle Balls'' (1995) * '' Viper Phase 1'' (1995) * E-Jan High School (1996) * '' Raiden Fighters'' (licensed to Fabtek) (1996) * '' Raiden Fighters 2: Operation Hell Dive'' (licensed to Tuning / Fabtek) (1997) * ''

'' (licensed to Tuning / Fabtek) (1998)

External links

Official website

MobyGames ProfileGiant Bomb Profile
Amusement companies of Japan Video game companies of Japan {{Japan-videogame-company-stub

Games by Seibu Kaihatsu

See also

External links