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It established its American subsidiary in 1973 in downtown Chicago, Taito America. Taito changed its name from Taito Trading Company to Taito Corporation in August 1972 and introduced its first arcade video game in 1973. In 1968, Crown Basketball debuted in the US as the highest-earning arcade game at the 1968 Tampa Fair. In 1967, they released Crown Soccer Special (1967), a two-player sports game that simulated association football using electronic components such as pinball flippers. Taito began manufacturing electro-mechanical games (EM games) in the 1960s. A partnership with the Seeburg Corporation made Taito its exclusive agent in Japan and one of the nation's leading jukebox companies. Though the deal had little impact at first, over 1,500 machines were sold by 1960 when the company began mixing Japanese records with American folk songs. The recovering Japanese economy allowed Taito to become the official distributor of AMI jukeboxes in the country.
#Taito type x front end english license
As Taito lacked a proper license to import jukeboxes into Japan, it purchased broken-down machines from United States military bases and refurbished them with working parts from defective units. Increasing competition led to Taito abandoning the vodka business in 1955 and focusing on its successful vending machines, in addition to importing jukeboxes. Taito Trading Company began as a vodka distillery-the first company to produce vodka in Japan-and an importer of peanut vending machines and perfume machines. On August 24, 1953, Taito Yoko was abolished and replaced with the Taito Trading Company, where Kogan was joined by lawyer and retired newspaperman Akio Nakatani. The second business, a clothing distributor named Taito Yoko, struggled financially as a result of employee carelessness and constant loss of products. The Communist takeover of China prompted Kogan to liquidate the business in 1950 and move operations to Japan, which after the war was suffering a significant economic decline. Taitung, which translated to "Taito" in Japanese, dealt in floor coverings, natural hair wigs, and hog bristles. A refugee of the Soviet Union, Kogan previously worked in a factory in Japan during the country's involvement in World War II, before moving to Shanghai to join his father. In 1944, Ukrainian Jewish businessman Michael Kogan founded Taitung in Shanghai. The company maintains a chain of arcade centers, known as "Game Taito Stations", across Japan, alongside being a manufacturer of toys, plush dolls and UFO-catcher prizes. Several of its games have since been recognized as important and revolutionary for the industry - Space Invaders in particular was a major contributor to the growth of video games in the late-1970s, and the aliens featured in the games are seen as iconic emblems within the video game industry. Alongside Konami, Namco and Sega, it is one of the most prominent video game companies from Japan and the first that exported its games into other countries. Taito is recognized as an important player in the early days of video games, producing a number of hit arcade games such as Speed Race (1974), Western Gun (1975), Space Invaders (1978), Bubble Bobble (1986) and Arkanoid (1986). In 2005, Taito was purchased by Square Enix, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary by 2006. It began production of video games in 1973. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the Taito Trading Company, importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. Taito Corporation is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. "Taito Corporation Company Profile 2019" (PDF) (in Japanese).
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