The Beginning (1978-1989)

Ozma Wars was SNK's first game in 1979.

Before all of the name changes, before the NeoGeo, and long before the company became known for its King of Fighters and Metal Slug games, SNK was just another startup trying to gain a foothold in the burgeoning video game craze of the early 1980s.

SNK (short for Shin Nihon Kikaku, or "New Japanese Project") Electronics Corp., the brainchild of Eikichi Kawasaki, set up shop in Osaka, Japan, in July 1978. Initially, the company's purpose was to design and produce software and hardware components for a variety of business clients. Shortly thereafter, noticing the rapid growth that was occurring in the coin-operated video game sector, Kawasaki expanded the company's endeavors to include the development and marketing of stand-alone coin-operated games. The first two titles out of SNK's coin-op division were Ozma Wars (1979), a vertically scrolling space shoot-'em-up, and Safari Rally (1980), a maze game with little noteworthy value save for the fact that "Shin Nihon Kikaku" was spelled out on the copyright notice. Things took a turn for the better with 1981's Vanguard, a side-scrolling space shoot-'em-up that many people consider the precursor to modern genre staples such as Konami's Gradius and Irem's R-Type. SNK licensed the game to Centuri for distribution in North America but ultimately started manufacturing and distributing the game itself when profits exceeded expectations.

On October 20, 1981, SNK Corporation of America was born. The company established itself in a tiny office in Sunnyvale, California (near San Jose), with the intent of delivering its own unique brand of coin-operated games to arcades all across North America. The man chosen to run SNK's American operation was none other than John Rowe, eventual founder of Tradewest and current president and CEO of Sammy Studios.

Perhaps SNK should thank Rambo for making Ikari Warriors such a huge hit.

Riding high on the success of Vanguard, SNK shifted its focus solely toward the development and licensing of video games. Between 1979 and 1986, SNK produced a grand total of 23 stand-alone arcade games. Highlights during this period include Mad Crash (1984), an isometric shoot-'em-up similar in style to Sega's Zaxxon; Alpha Mission (1985), a wildly popular vertically scrolling shooter; and Athena (1986), a side-scrolling platform game that would ultimately gain a large following when it was ported to the NES in 1987.

Far and away, the company's most successful game during this time frame was Ikari Warriors. The game was released in 1986, and arcade-goers flocked to this relatively new style of shoot-'em-up, which took you out of the worn-out and hackneyed spaceship motif and put you in control of mercenaries battling it out against enemy soldiers in a jungle setting. Movies like Rambo: First Blood Part II were all the rage at the box office, and players were eager to spend their quarters to mow down soldiers, toss grenades, and seek cover in foxholes just like John Rambo was doing on the silver screen. Ikari Warriors was so popular that it was eventually licensed and ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, and NES video game consoles. SNK followed up Ikari Warriors with two sequels, Victory Road (also in 1986) and Ikari III: The Rescue in 1989.