Enix was a Japanese video game publishing company founded in September 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima. Initially a tabloid publisher named Eidansha Boshu Service Center, in 1982 it ventured into video game publishing for Japanese home computers such as the PC-8800 series, the X1 series, and the FM-7. Fukushima had no programming knowledge and did not employ internal programmers or game designers. Instead, he held a contest for programming hobbyists in order to pool talents and publish selected games, with a ¥1 million award for the top prize (US$5,000). Few entries were received in the first month, but after a marketing campaign on television and in appliance stores, hobby clubs, computer and manga magazines, three hundred entries were received by the end of the "First Game Hobby Program Contest".

This contest allowed Enix to release numerous games with a wide variety of genres early on, as thirteen winning entries were polished and chosen for release in February 1983. Among these were Morita no Battle Field by Kazurou Morita; Door Door by Koichi Nakamura; and Love Match Tennis by Yuji Horii, a young columnist for Weekly Shōnen Jump. In addition to two more contests, Enix began recruiting developers on a project basis. For each project, Enix outsourced development and handled production and promotion duties, which made cost control more efficient. Unlike software houses of the time, Fukushima tried to instill a commercial mindset in his developers, as he thought games should be treated as books or movies in terms of copyright. He employed a royalty payment system between the company and the developers so that the latter would be compensated proportionally to the direct sales of their games. Each of Enix's home computer release featured a photo and resume of the developer on the back cover of the package.

Enix's home computer games were commercially successful; on their release, the first batch of February 1983 ranked first, second, third, fifth and seventh in the top ten Japanese best-selling games, leading to other game releases and a profit of ¥300 million (US$1.5 million) by the end of the year. Enix moved into traditional game publishing in 1985, beginning by porting its most successful home computer games to the Famicom console: Door Door, which sold 200,000 copies, and The Portopia Serial Murder Case, which sold 700,000. Enix soon focused primarily on publishing titles for consoles, though it continued to sell home computer games through to 1993. With the exception of the character designer Akira Toriyama, the development team of Enix's future flagship series Dragon Quest was recruited, thanks to the company's programming contests: Horii and Nakamura had won the first contest, and Koichi Sugiyama was contacted after sending in a questionnaire postcard for Morita Kazurou no Shogi.

List by year

1983 Month Title Platform(s) Details February(winning entries in the 1st Game Hobby Program Contest) NEC PC-8801Turn-based strategy game by Kazuro Morita.Back cover of Morita no Battle Field (in Japanese). Enix. February 1983. NEC PC-8801, other modelsPuzzle game by Koichi Nakamura. Ported to the Famicom in 1985 and mobile phones in 2004. FM-8, other modelsAdult game by Tadashi Makimura. NEC PC-8801Shooter game by Yoshiyuki Okada.Back cover of Cosmic Soldier (in Japanese). Enix. February 1983. Sharp X1Game by Seiji Fujihara. NEC PC-8801Adventure game by Toshiyuki Asanuma.Toshiyuki Asanuma (February 1983). Title screen of Seiko's Adventure (in Japanese). Enix. NEC PC-8801, other modelsMaze game by Osamu Hasegawa.Back cover of Underground Monster (NEC PC-8801 version) (in Japanese). Enix. February 1983. FM-7, other modelsMaze game by Tomoshige Hashishita. NEC PC-6001Card game by Hiroaki Shimada. NEC PC-6001Tennis game by Yuji Horii. Sharp MZ-80K, other modelsAction game by Toshiyuki Nagase.Toshiyuki Nagase (February 1983). Title screen of Bōsō! Orient Kyūkō (Sharp MZ-80K version) (in Japanese). Enix. Sharp MZ-80B, other modelsAction game by Atsushi Shirai. NEC PC-8001, other modelsCard game by Masahiro Kawaguchi. June NEC PC-8801, other modelsShoot 'em up by Random House (Kazurou Morita's company), based on Namco's title Xevious. NEC PC-6001, other modelsAdventure game designed by Yuji Horii. Ported to the Famicom in 1985 and mobile phones in 2001. NEC PC-6001, other modelsAction game by Hiroaki Shimada.Hiroaki Shimada (June 1983). Title screen of Raita no Growing Up (in Japanese). Enix. Sharp X1 NEC PC-8801, other modelsAction game by Osamu Hasegawa.Back cover of Gekisen! Minamitaiheiyō (NEC PC-8801 version) (in Japanese). Enix. June 1983. FM-7, other modelsAdventure game by Tadashi Makimura.Back cover of Joshiryō Panic (FM-7 version) (in Japanese). Enix. June 1983. NEC PC-8801, other modelsMaze game by Yoshiyuki Okada.Back cover of Light Flipper (NEC PC-8801 version) (in Japanese). Enix. June 1983. Sharp X1, other models October(winning entries in the 2nd Game Hobby Program Contest) NEC PC-8001, other modelsAction game by Yasuhiro Miyata.Back cover of Fan Fun (NEC PC-8001 version) (in Japanese). Enix. October 1983. NEC PC-8001mkII, other modelsShoot 'em up by Takanari Suzuki.Takanari Suzuki (October 1983). Title screen of Game Kyōjin no Uchū Ryokō (NEC PC-8001mkII version) (in Japanese). Enix. Sharp X1, other modelsAction game by Takashi Goto.Takashi Goto (October 1983). Title screen of Dokuron no Yakata (Sharp X1 version) (in Japanese). Enix. Sharp X1, other modelsRun & gun shooter game by Hiroshi Ishikawa.Back cover of Kagirinaki Tatakai (Sharp X1 version) (in Japanese). Enix. October 1983. Reprinted from Retro Gamer no. 67 (2009) FM-7, other modelsAdult game by Katsumi Mochizuki.Back cover of Lolita Syndrome (FM-7 version) (in Japanese). Enix. October 1983. FM-7, other modelsAdventure game by Tadashi Sugie.Tadashi Sugie (October 1983). Title screen of Fushigi na Tabi (FM-7 version) (in Japanese). Enix. NEC PC-8801Action game by Takeshi Nakazawa.Takeshi Nakazawa (October 1983). Title screen of Tropical Boy (in Japanese). Enix. Mazeland Sharp MZ-700Maze game by Takashi Shimizu, based on the manga Dr. Slump. NEC PC-8001mkII, other modelsPuzzle game by Hideyuki AkiyamaHideyuki A. (October 1983). Title screen of Magnetic Field (in Japanese). Enix. NEC PC-8001, other modelsPuzzle game by Masashi Hijikata.Back cover of PushMan (NEC PC-8001 version) (in Japanese). Enix. October 1983. NEC PC-8801, other modelsRacing game by Masao Aoba. FM-7Shoot 'em up by Kazuhiro Hasegawa.Kazuhiro Hasegawa (October 1983). Title screen of Cosmo Crash (in Japanese). Enix. FM-7Adventure game by Hiroyuki Odawara. November Sharp X1, other modelsRole-playing game by Toshiyuki Nagase.Back cover of Parallel World (NEC PC-8801 version) (in Japanese). Enix. May 1984.

1984

Month Title Platform(s) Details May NEC PC-8801, other modelsPuzzle game by Chunsoft (Koichi Nakamura's company). Ported to mobile phones in 2004. NEC PC-6001mkII, other modelsAction game by Yasuhiro Miyata.Yasuhiro Miyata (May 1984). Title screen of New Fan Fun (NEC PC-6001mkII version) (in Japanese). Enix. Sharp X1, other modelsGolf game by Masashi Muramori. June Sharp-1500 FM77 July Sharp X1Puzzle game by Komei Kato. FM-7, other modelsGame by Random House. FM-7, other modelsPuzzle game by Teshige Dokite. August NEC PC-8801Game by Takeshi Nakazawa. Sharp X1, other models FM-7, other modelsGame by Studio Jandora. September NEC PC-8001mkIIAction game by Takanari Suzuki, based on the manga Dr. Slump. NEC PC-8801, other modelsGame by Toru Hidaka. November NEC PC-8801, other modelsGame by Tam Tam, based on the Wingman manga series. NEC PC-6001mkII December NEC PC-8801mkII, other modelsJapanese version of the game of the same name developed by Broderbund. December(winning entries in the 3rd Game Hobby Program Contest) FM-7, other models FM-7, other modelsGame by Kazuo Ohashi. FM-7, other modelsAdventure game by Yuhei Yamaguchi, co-published by Enix and Random House. Unknown Shooter game by Koji Okamoto, based on the manga Dr. Slump. Visual novel adventure game by Yuji Horii.

1985 Month Title Platform(s) Details January FM-7, other models February Sharp MZ-1500, other models Sharp X1, other modelsRun & gun shooter game by Takashi Goto, based on the manga Dr. Slump. NEC PC-8001, other modelsGame by Yasuhiro Miyata. Educational game by Chunsoft. April FM-7, other models Collaboration between Yuji Horii and manga artist Hikaru Sekino. May NEC PC-8801, other modelsAdventure game by Yuji Horii. Ported to mobile phones in 2001. July Golf game by Masashi Muramori. August NEC PC-9801, other modelsShogi game by Random House. November NEC PC-8801 NEC PC-9801E, other models FM-7, other modelsRole-playing game by Makoto Kuba. NEC PC-8001mkIIBased on the arcade game by Namco. Unknown Sharp X1, other models Open-world platform-adventure game by Hiroshi Ishikawa. MSX

1986 Month Title Platform(s) Details April NEC PC-8801, Sharp X1, MSX Sequel of Wingman First game with music by Koichi Sugiyama May SMC-777Pool Game by Takashi Shimizu November MSX2, other models Unknown Game by Toru Hidaka, based on the Fist of the North Star manga series.

1987 Month Title Platform(s) Details April NEC PC-8801 VA, other modelsAdventure game by Game Kyojin. May NEC PC-8801 VA, MSX2Game by Toru Hidaka. July MSX August NEC PC-8801 VA, other modelsBased on the arcade game by Namco. October NEC PC-8801 VA, Sharp X1, MSX2Golf game by Masashi Muramori. December NEC PC-8801 FA, other modelsThe sequel to Wingman 2.

1988 Month Title Platform(s) Details February MSX July PC-8801, PC-9801, MSX2Adventure game composed by Koichi Sugiyama. December The Old Village Story NEC PC-8801 FE, other models

1989 Month Title Platform(s) Details February NEC PC-8801 FE, other models March NEC PC-9801 RA, other modelsShogi game by Random House. December NEC PC-8801 FE, other models

1990 Month Title Platform(s) Details March NEC PC-8801 MC, other models Music by Yuzo Koshiro. April NEC PC-9801 RA, other modelsBy Random House. May PC-9801 July Formula C.M.S NEC PC-8801 SR, other models September NEC PC-9801 VM, other models October PC-8801, PC-9801, X68000Golf game by Masashi Muramori.

1991 Month Title Platform(s) Details January NEC PC-9801 RA, other models March PC-8801, PC-9801, X68000 August NEC PC-9801 VM, other models November X68000Shooter game by Random House. December NEC PC-8801 FH, other models

1993 Month Title Platform(s) Details October NEC PC-9801 DA, other modelsShogi game by Random House.

References