Category:Technos Japan

Technos Japan Corporation (株式会社テクノスジャパン, Kabushiki-gaisha Tekunosujapan) is a defunct Japanese video game developer, best known for the (which includes Renegade, Super Dodge Ball and River City Ransom) and  franchises. The company was also the owner of the American publishing subsidiary, American Technos Inc.

Initially operating from a single-room apartment, Technos was founded in 1981 by three staff members of Data East. Their first game was Minky Monkey, released in 1982. Many of Technos Japan's earlier games were often published or distributed by other companies, particularly Data East (as was the case with Karate Champ) and Taito, as Technos at the time did not have the economical resource to distribute their own games.

In the 1980s, Technos enjoyed increasing success with their Kunio-kun and Double Dragon series. A few Kunio-kun games were localized for the North American market; namely Super Dodge Ball, River City Ransom (considered by critics to be a cult classic) and Nintendo World Cup, but none maintain any connection with each other. Technos also released two arcade sequels to Double Dragon: Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 1988 and Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone in 1990 (the latter was developed by an external development team at East Technology), and produced the respective NES versions of those games, as well as Super Double Dragon in 1992, an original installment for the Super NES.

Outside the Double Dragon and Kunio-kun games, Technos produced a few original games for the arcade and home markets. By 1996, Technos Japan declared bankruptcy and went out of business. The company's last few games were produced for the Neo Geo hardware. Since Technos Japan's closure, a company called Million (founded by former CEO Kunio Taki and Kunio-kun series producer Mitsuhiro Yoshida) has purchased the former intellectual properties of Technos Japan and are producing new games based on them.