Micronics

Japan

Micronics was a primarily anonymous outsource developer, making games for publishers without taking any credit, so information on them is difficult to come by. Here's what we know... Micronics was formed sometime around 1985 by Kazuo Yagi and Masahiko Tsukada, and spent the NES era primarily developing arcade ports like Elevator Action, Ghosts 'N Goblins and 1942 for publishers like Capcom, Konami, Taito and Pony Canyon. These ports, as well as their original and license-based projects like Super Pitfall, are notable for their lack of quality compared to their contemporaries - low framerate, poor controls, simplistic sound and questionable collision detection are usually all present and accounted for. In 2007, an anonymous poster on the Japanese message board 2ch claimed that co-founder Yagi was just a college student when he started Micronics with the intent of developing original games, but being stuck doing porting work allegedly led to him ceasing to care about bugs or other quality control issues. How close this is to the truth may never be known... Rebranded to Khaos in 1993.

Micronics at a Glance

If you are browsing PlayPile looking for a company with a long history in Japan, Micronics might come up. They were active from 1985 to 1996 and created twelve games as a developer while taking no credit as a publisher. The vast majority of their work appeared on the Family Computer with ten titles, while two versions ran on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Their library also includes single releases for the PC-8800 Series, TRS-80, and Super Famicom. They worked mostly in the 1980s with eight games before slowing down to four releases in the 1990s. Micronics focused heavily on Role-playing games with four titles, followed by three Platformers and two each of Shooters and Adventure games. They also made one Strategy, Visual Novel, and Simulator. Their output included original projects like Super Pitfall and license-based work such as Elevator Action, Ghosts 'N Goblins, and 1942 for major publishers like Capcom and Konami. Despite working with big names, their reputation suffered significantly. The only rated title on PlayPile is Super Pitfall from 1986, which holds a poor score of 36.4 out of 100. They have zero games in the great or good ranges, and that single rating confirms they did not meet quality standards compared to contemporaries. Reports suggest the team struggled with low framerates, bad controls, weak sound, and faulty collision detection during the NES era. Some accounts claim a co-founder started as a college student who lost motivation after being stuck doing porting work instead of original development. This alleged attitude may explain why their output often felt unfinished. They released Spriggan Powered in August 1996, which was one of their final games before rebranding to Khaos in 1993. Other notable releases from that later period include Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go Troop Strikes Back! and Shin Satomi Hakkenden: Hikari to Yami no Tatakai. Their history remains somewhat obscure since they operated as an anonymous developer for many years, but the data shows a clear pattern of low-quality ports and games that failed to impress players or critics during their eleven-year run.

Total Games

36.4

Avg Rating

1985

First Release

1996

Latest Release