Taito

Background

Taito Corporation is a Japanese developer of video game software and arcade hardware wholly, owned by publisher Square Enix. It was established in 1953 as Taito Trading Company by a Russian Jewish businessman named Michael Kogan. Taito also imports and distributes American coin-operated video games in Japan, as well as their own games all around the world. Taito Corporation was acquired by Square Enix in 2005 and currently has divisions in Seoul, South Korea and Milan, Italy, and a subsidiary in Beijing, China. In the past, the company had operated divisions in North America and Brazil. Their first logo (used until 1987) was not used as a fullscreen ident in video games.

1st Logo (1979?-1988)

Logo: There is a rectangular banner, which appears to be broken and folded a bit in the middle. The word "TAITO" appears inside.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Very rare.

This was used on a few later games, and of course, in the quality of ages.
The 1979 arcade video game Space Chaser has the logo displayed on the title screen in a green color, with "*TAITO CORPORATION*" below in cyan.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1987-2000s)

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Note: The fifth video is pretty loud, so we advise you to turn down the volume.

Nickname: "Streak Pyramid"

Logo: There is a blue triangle with a streak, resembling a grass leaf, coming inside of it and projecting out of the triangle. While inside, the streak is black (background-colored) and its outer point is blue. The word "TAITO" is seen below.

Variants:

Some games have the triangle logomark taking place of the "A" of the Taito wordmark. This is typically seen on the title screen on most arcade games of the era. On rare occasions such as the arcade version of G-Darius, it may have "PRESENTS" below.
Many arcade games have unique variants of the logo:
- Battle Shark: The logo becomes transparent as a duplicate slowly waves like a flag for a few seconds. After a while it goes back to normal.
- Don Doko Don: We zoom towards a grid of Taito logos rotating counter-clockwise before stopping at the one in the center.
- Liquid Kids (known as Mizubaku Adventure in Japan): The "TAITO" text zooms in, followed by the triangle dropping in without the outer point, which bounces in from the right.
- Space Gun: Many tiny square pieces all arrange themselves to form the full logo.
- The Ninja Kids: The letters of the "TAITO" text jump in from different directions as the triangle fades in.
- Gun Frontier: The screen starts off filled with flames. When the logo then fades in, the flames disappear leaving a smoke effect inside the logo that soon disappears.
- Growl (known as Runark in Japan): The logo cross-fades in.
- Metal Black: We zoom out from the gray "TAITO" text to the full logo, seen on the center; the logo then ripples off the screen. This happens on a black background.
- Double Axle: The logo appears on the right and quickly slides to the left with a trail effect. This sequence plays three times until the logo stops in the middle.
- Galactic Storm: The full logo spins as it zooms to us before resting in its usual position.
- Solitary Fighter: The letters of the "TAITO" text quickly rush in from the left in a cluster before stopping in their spots, causing the triangle to spin rapidly for a moment.
- Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga III: Two triangles fade in on the opposite sides of a starry background before zooming towards the middle and merging, with the "TAITO" text fading in.
- Gun Buster: The logo flips in the air like a coin as it zooms out.
- Super Chase: Criminal Termination: The triangle slowly zooms in as the outer point orbits around it while being followed by the letters of the "TAITO" text, which stop underneath the logo as it moves to its rightful place.
- Gekirindan: The logo simply zooms out and stops.
- Bubble Memories: We see Bub walking in with a wind-up robot chasing him from behind, then Bub turns back and fires a bubble with his mouth, as the defeated robot goes inside the bubble, which floats up. The logo fades in, causing the bubble to explode and the robot to move to the path of the grass leaf projection of the logo, and flash away. Green sparkles then come out the circle afterwards, as Bub walks away.
On Sonic Blast Man and its sequel, the triangle spins in on a black background slowly, from the bottom. It then moves back, and then fades into the trademark triangle, with the name flashing in below.
On Ninja Warriors for the SNES, the logo appears and disappears with a special wiping effect.
On the intro of G-Darius for the original PlayStation, the 3D parts of the logo spin in from the sides, settle themselves, and zoom in at the end.
On Densha de Go! II for the original PlayStation, a train is seeing bringing up the full logo, and moves away. The train then returns and moves the logo out of the screen.
On Pyramid Intruder for the 3DO, the logo drops down and is in shape of a 3D cone, with the streak being white. The wordmark then fades in below, and the cone logo changes into the traditional plain logo.

FX/SFX: None for the most part.

Music/Sounds:

None for the most part.
Some games have a Japanese voice, followed by a light theme, and then the same voice singing "Taito!" at the end. This appeared on Japanese games as well as international releases and Japanese commercials during the time.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On the arcade variant of Metal Black, a glass-like crashing sound is heard at first, followed by another one, but darker-sounding.
On the Sega Saturn port of Metal Black, a loud jet-like takeoff sound is heard.
On the Liquid Kids variant, we hear the sound of a water balloon popping, then a metal-like clang, and a boing.
On the Densha de Go! II variant, a brief sound of a train passing by through the rails is repeated for two times.

Availability: Common.

The audio variant is found on Bust-A-Move 2 for the Nintendo 64, as well as a few Super NES games.
The normal logo and variant has known to appear twice on the PS1 version of G-Darius.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1990s-2000s)

Nickname: "Streak Pyramid II"

Logo: We start off on a blue background, which then reveals to be the Taito triangle logomark, zooming out ala the 1980 WCI/Warner Home Video logo. Then, "TAITO", in its trademark font and colored grey, fades in below.

Variants:

Some games, like the 3DO port of Bust-A-Move, have a cut-short version of the logo lacking the blue background.
On Arkanoid: Doh it Again! (1997), the blue background part is longer. After a few seconds, the copyright disclaimer for the game appears. Then it fades out and the logo animates normally.
On Football Champ (known as Hat Trick Hero in Japan), the outer point doesn't fade in until the logo stops, and the background is black. This only appears in the arcade version.

FX/SFX: The logo zooming out.

Music/Sounds: Depends normally. It can have the game's opening theme or is silent.

Availability: Used in tandem with the other logos.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (1990s)

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Note: The video shown in this page is the Ray Tracers variant. Again, this logo is pretty loud, so we advise you to turn down the volume.

Nicknames: "Streak Pyramid III", "3D Pyramid"

Logo: The 3D Taito logo zooms out on a black background. The ball of the logo moves in from the right and places next to the triangle's streak. Then a flash happens, bringing up the flat version of the same logo on a white background.

FX/SFX: The logo zooming out (like the previous one, but in 3D), and the flash.

Music/Sounds: A quick laser zapping sound, then followed by a held synth bass note with a descending sounder when the logo zooms out and a quick swoosh during the flash.

Music/Sounds Variants:

At least one game used the Japanese voice music variant of the second logo.
Ray Tracers used a loud noise, followed by a jet take-off like sound (not as low-pitched as the Metal Black variant).

Availability: Common. This logo is seen on the company's games for the original PlayStation.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (2001- )

Nicknames: "Streak Pyramid IV", "3D Pyramid II", "T-Pyramid-ITO"

Logo: The blue triangle is seen from the top and pans to the side view. Four light streaks enter it and glow in the center. The triangle moves to the forming word "TAITO" and poses as the letter "A". Then it flashes and changes the background to white.

Variant: Newer games (especially on newer arcade machines) have the logo still.

FX/SFX: Good computer effects.

Music/Sounds: A synth composition.

Availability: Uncommon. This can be seen on PlayStation 2 games from the company.

Editor's Note: None.