ADK

ADK Corporation (株式会社エーディーケイ), also known as Alpha Denshi Corporation (株式会社アルファ電子), was a Japanese video game company that was originally independent, but later became very famous in the 1990s, who made various games mainly for SNK's Neo Geo platform, as many console games. "ADK" is an acronym for Alpha, Denshi, and the Japanese term for "corporation", Kabushiki kaisha. ADK made various video games for many genres, but their most notable works are their fighting games, particularly the World Heroes series.

Origins
ADK was created in July 1980 in Saitama, Japan. The first two arcade video games ADK created were Shougi (将棋), a basic, but well-developed Japanese chess game; and Janputer (ジャンピュータ), the world's first arcade Mahjong game, which was sold by Sanritsu Giken Corp. Afterwards, Sega and Tecmo would sell ADK-produced games through the early 1980s. In the later 1980s, ADK became something of a 2nd-party developer for SNK.

ADK made games for many genres, including sports, shooters, platformers, fighters, and beat 'em up games. The company became quite famous, with considerable success in North America.

In early 1990s, ADK started developing many games for SNK's Neo Geo system. However, through the mid-90s, ADK failed to win very much success. The company eventually went bankrupt and closed its installations in early 2000 (SNK itself would declare bankruptcy the very next year). SNK ended up buying ADK's intellectual properties.

Legacy
Today, ADK has a legacy in the hands of SNK Playmore, with new appearances of its characters, notably in the fighting game Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, where Hanzo, Fuuma, Mudman and Neo Dio from the World Heroes series appeared, as well as Kisarah Westfield and Joe Kusanagi (in a cameo in one of Kisarah's attacks) from Aggressors of Dark Kombat.

Some originally ADK characters have made an appearance in SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, like Hanzo from WH and Sasuke from Ninja Master's. Their characters appear in this game as SNK character cards and as Action and Counter cards.

Early arcade games

 * ''Champion Baseball
 * Champion Baseball II (1983)
 * Exciting Soccer (1983)
 * Exciting Soccer II (1984)
 * Bull Fighter (1984)
 * Equites (1984)
 * High Voltage (1985)
 * The Koukouyakyuh (1985)
 * Splendor Blast (1985)
 * Super Stingray (1986)
 * Kyros No Yakata / Kyros (1986)
 * Gang Wars (1989)
 * Sky Adventure (1989)
 * Super Champion Baseball (1989)

Neo Geo games

 * Blue's Journey / Raguy (1990)
 * Magician Lord (1990)
 * Ninja Combat (1990)
 * Thrash Rally (1990)
 * Crossed Swords (1991)
 * Ninja Commando (1992)
 * World Heroes (1992)
 * World Heroes 2
 * Aggressors of Dark Kombat (1994)
 * World Heroes 2 Jet
 * Syougi No Tatsujin - Master of Syougi (1995)
 * Crossed Swords 2 (1995) (only for the Neo-Geo CD)
 * World Heroes Perfect
 * ADK World (1995) (only for the Neo-Geo CD)
 * Ninja Master's Haou Ninpou-chou (1996)
 * Twinkle Star Sprites (1996)
 * Over Top (1996)