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: A diamond-like shape is seen, with a triangle shape on top, and the text "TAITO" banded across the V-shaped section. The entire logo resembles a marquee sign.

Variant:

On their earliest MSX titles and most later arcade titles, the logo would be instead in a sans-serif font. Either it would be in white, green, or red.

FX/SFX: None mostly, though a few games might have some movement. Colony 7 has the "TAITO" letters glowing in different colors.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Very rare.

The 1979 arcade video game Space Chaser has the logo displayed on the title screen in a green color, making it the first title to use the logo.
Most of their other games don't show the logo, even the later ones.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1988-2000s, 2022)

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Note: The 1st and 5th video is pretty loud, so we advise you to turn down the volume.

Nicknames: "Streak Pyramid", "Catch the Heart!"

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.
- 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 and the LaserDisc port of Time Gal, 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.
This logo appears twice on the Taito Egret II Mini cabinet with the triangle in place of the "A" in the workmark:
- When starting up, the logo appears on a white background before cutting to the Egret II Mini logo.
- When shutting down, the logo is on a black background with a white outline. After a few seconds, the logo is squished horizontally to mimic a TV switching off.

FX/SFX: None for the most part.

Music/Sounds:

None for the most part.
Some games have a Japanese girl's voice saying "Catch the Heart!", followed by a light chime 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:
- On Bust-A-Move '99 for the Nintendo 64 (known as Bust-A-Move 3 DX in Europe and Puzzle Bobble 64 in Japan), the "Catch the Heart!" line is omitted.

Music/Sounds Variants:

On the arcade variant of Metal Black, two swooshes are heard with the first being much quicker, followed by an explosion and a jet-like takeoff when the logo stops in place.
On the Sega Saturn port of Metal Black, only the explosion and takeoff are heard, and at the beginning.
On the Liquid Kids variant, we hear the sound of a water balloon popping, then a metal-like clang when the logo hits the text, 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.
When shutting down the Taito Egret II Mini, a techno-jingle loosely based on the "Catch the Heart!" variant plays.

Availability: Common.

It can be found on almost all of their arcade games during this period as well as several console games, starting with Recordbreaker.
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 (1993)

Nicknames: "Streak Pyramid II", "Catch the Heart! II", "Taito's Face"

Logo: Over a white background, the trademark triangle is seen at the top while a face consisting of 2 black crosses, a yellow circle, and a red smile is seen below, loosely based on a pierrot/clown's face with the triangle as a hat of sorts. The logo then starts to shift down while rocking from side-to-side, causing the dot to bounce around, as the face pieces become the "TAITO" text. After the logo finishes forming, the background then fades from white to black.

Trivia: This is actually a simplified version of the logo used at the end of Japanese commercials at the time.

FX/SFX: 16-bit animation with fake 3D-style effects.

Music/Sounds: The "Catch the Heart!" jingle as described in the previous logo.

Availability: Extremely rare. It's likely only seen on Quiz Sekai wa SHOW by Shohai!, which was released on arcade.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (1990s-2000s)

Nickname: "Streak Pyramid III"

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: Uncommon, as it appears on certain other games like the ones mentioned above. Used in tandem with the other logos.

Editor's Note: None.

5th 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 IV", "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.

6th Logo (2001- )

Nicknames: "Streak Pyramid V", "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) and handheld games have the logo still.

FX/SFX: Good computer effects.

Music/Sounds: A synth composition. The still version is silent.

Availability: Uncommon. This can be seen on PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox games from the company.

Editor's Note: None.