, sometimes written as Toa Plan, was a video game developer

Video game developer

A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...

 from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. They were responsible for the creation of a wide array of relatively famous scrolling shooters and arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

s, yet the company declared bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

 in 1994.

Games developed (Arcade)

Year	Game	Publisher
1984	Jongou	SNK SNK Playmore SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
1985	Performan	Data East Data East also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...
1985	Tiger Heli Tiger Heli was one of the first games developed by Toaplan and published by Taito Corporation in 1985. It is a predecessor to Twin Cobra...	Taito Corporation Taito Corporation The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
1985	Jongkyou	Data East Data East also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, when it declared bankruptcy...
1986	Get Star / Guardian	Taito Corporation
1986	Slap Fight Slap Fight , also known as Alcon, is a 1986 vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito.-Summary:It takes its inspiration from Xevious and Gradius...  / Alcon	Taito Corporation
1986	Mahjong Sisters	Toaplan
1987	Hishouzame / Sky Shark / Flying Shark	Taito Corporation
1987	Wardner Wardner (arcade game) Wardner is a platform style arcade game released by Taito in 1987. The player controls a character by the name of Dover through various forest stages in an attempt to save his kidnapped girlfriend from the evil Wardner...  (no Mori) / Pyros	Taito Corporation
1987	Kyuukyoku Tiger / Twin Cobra Twin Cobra Twin Cobra, known in Japan as , is a 1987 helicopter-themed shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan. It was published by Taito Corporation in Japan, and by Romstar in North America, and is one of Toaplan's most popular arcade games...	Taito Corporation
1988	Dash Yarou / Rally Bike	Taito Corporation
1988	Tatsujin / Truxton Truxton (arcade game) Truxton is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Toaplan in 1988. Like many other shooters, the game is set in space, where the player takes control of a small spaceship across several planets...	Taito Corporation
1989	Hellfire Hellfire (video game) is a horizontally scrolling shooter, developed by Toaplan and released by Seismic Software Inc. in 1989. It was released both as an arcade cabinet and as a cartridge for the Sega Genesis.-Story:...	Taito Corporation
1989	Daisenpuu / Twin Hawk Twin Hawk Twin Hawk, known in Japan as , is a 1989 vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. Due to being developed by Toaplan, it borrows elements and style of Toaplan's other arcade game Twin Cobra in look, sound and feel, but only with a World War II setting...	Taito Corporation
1989	Zero Wing Zero Wing is a 1989 side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. The player is a lone hero who will save the universe from an evil force....	Taito Corporation
1989	Horror Story / Demon's World Demon's World Demon's World is a platformer arcade game that was developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in 1989. This game is multi-regional, meaning that it can be configured for different regions via the DIP switches...	Taito Corporation
1989	Same! Same! Same! / Fire Shark Fire Shark Fire Shark, known in Japan as , is a shoot 'em up arcade game developed and published by Toaplan. The player controls a biplane and builds up a score by shooting a variety of military targets.-Gameplay:...	Toaplan
1990	Out Zone Out Zone is a 1990 arcade game by Toaplan and distributed in the US by Romstar.Out Zone is a run and gun, in which the player controls a soldier who must fight his way through seven increasingly difficult levels. At the end of each level a boss must be defeated before the player can progress any further...	Romstar
1990	Snow Bros.: Nick & Tom Snow Bros is a platform arcade game released in 1990 by Toaplan.-Description:At first glance, it is similar in gameplay to Taito's Bubble Bobble. The game supports up to two players, with each player taking the part of one of two snowmen Nick and Tom. Each player can throw snow at the enemies...	Romstar
1991	Vimana Vimana (arcade game) is a vertical scrolling shooter, developed by Toaplan and released by Romstar and Tecmo in 1991 for the arcades worldwide. Vimana was unique in its combination of a Sci-Fi theme with Hindu references.-Story:...	Romstar
1991	Teki Paki Teki Paki Teki Paki is an arcade game, released in 1991 by Toaplan....	Toaplan
1991	Ghox	Romstar
1992	Pipi & Bibi's / Whoopee!!	Romstar
1992	Dogyuun(!!)	Toaplan
1992	Tatsujinou / Truxton II Truxton II is a 1992 arcade game developed and published by Toaplan for video arcades, and later ported to the FM-Towns. It is the sequel to Truxton....	Toaplan
1992	Fixeight	Toaplan
1993	Grind Stormer Grind Stormer thumb|V-V arcade PCBGrind Stormer, known in Japan as , is a vertical scrolling shooter developed for the arcade by Toaplan, and ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1993 by Tengen. It is considered a successor to Slap Fight as it uses a similar power-up system...  / V-V	Toaplan
1993	Enma Daiou	Toaplan
1993	Knuckle Bash Knuckle Bash is a side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade game developed and published by Toaplan in Japan. It was later released in North America and Europe by Atari. It was designed by Junya Inoue, who later left Toaplan after its bankruptcy in 1994, and joined Gazelle, a company founded by former Toaplan staff,...	Toaplan / Atari Games Atari Games Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade games, and originally part of Atari, Inc..-History:When, in 1984, Warner Communications sold the Atari Consumer division of Atari Inc...
1993	Batsugun Batsugun is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up hailing from the now defunct Japanese game developer Toaplan.Originally developed for the arcade, Batsugun saw two revisions—the first being released in 1993. The latter named Batsugun Special Version was shown at the AOU show in Japan but was never...	Toaplan
1994	Otenki Paradise / Snow Bros. 2: With New Elves	Hanafram

Companies spun off from Toaplan

After Toaplan closed its doors in 1994, several former employees formed or were involved with the following companies:

• CAVE
  Cave (company)
  Cave Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game company, known primarily for its manic shoot 'em ups. Cave remains one of the most active makers of arcade shoot-'em-ups in the Japanese market...
  
  
• Raizing/8ing (When Raizing was folded into 8ing, some employees left for CAVE.)
• Gazelle
  Gazelle (software company)
  Gazelle was an arcade game developer founded by former Toaplan employees after the bankruptcy of the latter company in 1994.They developed only two games: Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, a beat 'em up, 1995 and Air Gallet, an extremely difficult "manic" vertically scrolling shoot 'em up, 1996. Both...
  
   (creators of Air Gallet
  Air Gallet
  Air Gallet is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Gazelle and released by Banpresto in 1996. It runs on the Cave MK 1 hardware.-Gameplay:...
  
   and the Sailor Moon arcade game; both distributed by Banpresto
  Banpresto
  is a Japanese toy company, best known in America for game development, headquartered in the Shinagawa Seaside West Building in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was founded April 1977 as Hoei Sangyo, Co. Ltd. The company was renamed Coreland in 1982, and during the 1980s it worked mainly as a subcontractor for...
  
  . Gazelle did not last long; after its closure, some employees left to join CAVE.)
• Takumi (creators of Giga Wing
  Giga Wing
  Giga Wing is a 1999 vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Takumi and published by Capcom on their CPS-2 arcade system board and ported later that year to the Dreamcast console. The arcade version is notable for using a horizontally aligned monitor Giga Wing is a 1999 vertically...
  
   and Mars Matrix, published Twin Cobra II
  Twin Cobra II
  -External links:*Takumi page: ,...
  
  after Toaplan's closure. Current status unknown.)

External links

• Toaplan (formerly known as Toaplan.com), unofficial source of information on Toaplan games.
• Toaplan System 1 and Toaplan System 2 game list and statistics.
• Toaplan history (Neo-Arcadia), History of Toaplan (in French)