Tsukuda Original

Founded: 1974?

Defunct: 2002-07

T-series code: T-65

Merged into: MegaHouse Corporation

Headquarters:

Taito-ku, Tokyo, Japan

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Tsukuda Original (ツクダオリジナル) is a now-defunct toy/board game manufacturer based in Tokyo that was in business from 1973 through 2002. It was a subsidiary of Tsukuda Group.

Tsukuda Original are notable for a number of reasons. During the 1970s the company registered the board game, Reversi, under the name "Othello" (supposedly named after the Shakespearean play). They introduced the green, black and white colour scheme and created the modern rules used in the game today. Its success led to a number of video game interpretations, some of whom were programmed by Tsukuda Original themselves.

In 1983 Tsukuda Original struck a deal with Sega to produce a licensed SG-1000 clone, the Othello Multivision. It was one of Sega's attempts to try and establish a video game/computer standard, encouraging companies to make compatible systems (though this concept not be fully realised until ASCII Corporation debuted the MSX). The Othello Multivision, as the name suggests, came built with an SG-1000 interpretation of Othello built-in. There were two models of the console and a number of own-brand SG-1000 games developed by the company.

Tsukuda Original produced a total of eight game cartridges for the SG-1000. Their games were initially sold in silver boxes that mainly marketed them as Othello Multivision games, although compatibility with SG-1000 and SC-3000 was still mentioned on the back. Their games were later reissued in smaller black boxes that emphasized compatibility with both, the Othello Multivision and the Sega platforms.

By 1985 Tsukuda Original's Othello Multivision dream seemed over, though the company continued to produce games primarily for Nintendo systems until 1995 (and would continue to license out the Othello board game to video game developers in the years that followed, such as to Success for the 1998 Sega Titan Video game Othello Shiyouyo).

Tsukuda Ideal (ツクダアイデアル), another Tsukuda Group subsidiary, released one game in Sega hardware.

Softography

SG-1000

(1983)
(1983)
(1983)
(1984)
(1984)
(1984)
(1984)
(1984)
(1984)
(unreleased)

Game Gear

(1991) (as Tsukuda Ideal)

Sega Titan Video

(1998)

References