“When you hear the name VIC TOKAI, what comes to mind?”—Those who have been familiar with games for a long time might remember titles for the Famicom or Mega Drive. However, when you trace its history, you will discover that it is quite a unique company that cannot be explained simply by calling it “a game developer/publisher that existed in the past.” VIC TOKAI is a telecommunications operator that grew based in Shizuoka Prefecture, and was also known for developing and selling titles for home video game consoles. Some people might be surprised and ask, “They were a telecommunications company, yet they made games?” But that very unexpected combination is the intriguing part of talking about VIC TOKAI. It has two faces: its history in the telecommunications field that continues to the present day, and the footsteps it left in the game industry from the 1980s through the 1990s.

VIC TOKAI’s history began in March 1977. Originally established under the corporate name “Yaizu Cable Vision Co., Ltd.”, it changed its name to VIC TOKAI in May 1978 of the following year. In other words, it was not a company created to make video game software from the start. Taking cable television as its origin, it expanded its business domains, and in that process, also ventured into the game industry. Knowing this background makes you understand the question, “Why does the game maker called VIC TOKAI have a slightly different atmosphere compared to other companies?” This is because it was not a company that walked a single path specializing in just one entertainment field, but rather a company that built a unique history at the intersection of telecommunications and entertainment.

From the 1980s to the 1990s, VIC TOKAI actively developed its activities as a game company. While involved in developing arcade games released by Sega, it also handled the development and sales of software for home video game consoles, including the Famicom and Mega Drive. For players who remember those times, the name “VIC TOKAI” printed on packages and other materials itself may be a fond memory. There was also a period when it co-developed games with Sanseibu, which engaged in entertainment businesses such as amusement arcades and karaoke venues. Later, it was KeysFactory that took over Sanseibu’s video game software and peripheral equipment development business. Tracing these connections between companies is interesting because it allows you to see the flow of people and technology surrounding the game industry back then through the history of a single company.

“In that case, are they still active as a game maker today?”—Here, history takes a major turn. VIC TOKAI withdrew from the game business in 1998, and subsequently developed its business around the telecommunications field—its original strength—including cable television and Internet-related operations centered in Shizuoka Prefecture. While this was a sad event from the perspective of game fans, looking at it as a corporation, it can be said to have been a turning point where it switched its main business area in response to changing times. The cable television business was later spun off into a separate company, and it expanded its domain to include Internet service providers and MVNOs, among others. When you consider that a company making games during the era of the Famicom and Mega Drive stepped into the world of the Internet and mobile communications, the scale of that transformation is surprising.

However, the story does not end with “withdrawing from the game business.” Starting in 2010, it stepped back into game development once again by offering social games for Mobage, among other things. A company that was once active in home consoles and arcades returned after many years to a new game market centered around mobile phones. Of course, the environment surrounding games and the ways people play were vastly different between the 1980s/1990s and the 2010s. Nevertheless, the history of re-challenging the field of games once left behind holds a fascination unique to VIC TOKAI. When you think of it as “from video game consoles to telecommunications, and then to games born precisely because it is the era of telecommunications,” you can even feel a mysterious connection in the path the company has walked.

VIC TOKAI’s charm is not just the nostalgia felt for it as a game maker. Starting from cable television, it ventured into the game industry, experienced the era of arcade and home console games, and then converted back into a company centered on telecommunications. That flexible progression is precisely what characterizes this company. In 2011, it proceeded to a management integration with TOKAI (The TOKAI), leading to its subsequent corporate structure. When people who learned the name VIC TOKAI through old video game software dig into its history, unexpected discoveries like “It was this kind of company!” are bound to pop up one after another. Despite being a manufacturer that left its name in a corner of gaming history, its story did not end there, but continued onto another stage called telecommunications—. Is not such a story filled with change the true pleasure of looking back at the company known as VIC TOKAI?