Winkysoft

Winkysoft

Founded: 1983-01
Defunct: 2016
Headquarters: Osaka, Japan

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Winkysoft (ウィンキーソフト; fully 株式会社ウィンキーソフト or Winkysoft Co., Ltd.; sometimes written as Winky Soft or other minor variations) was a Japanese software company which acted both as a developer and publisher of games, starting with original creations in the mid-80s but eventually becoming most well-known for their 90s work on licensed properties for other companies. This evolution ran roughly parallel to their shift in focus from mostly 8-bit computer titles to full-time console and handheld development. The year of 1991 represents a significant transition for the company, marking the release of both their last home computer product (a remake of Olteus for the Sharp X68000) and the debut of what would become their most wildly popular franchise (the Banpresto-owned Super Robot Taisen).

With the exception of the Super CD² action-RPG Gensou Tairiku Auleria, the history of the company after 1991 is beyond the scope of this wiki. Suffice it to say that they mostly peaked in the 90s, apparently split with Banpresto sometime around the turn of the century, spent a decade developing less prominent licensed works for other clients, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy in late 2015, despite both returning to work on Super Robot spin-offs and releasing several mobile games.

The company's mascot was apparently a rotund blue penguin, most commonly seen on the boxes of their PC-88 releases. While visually similar to Sega's Pengo or Konami's Pentarou, it has a casual demeanor closer to Zoom's cat.

At some point (likely late in 2016), D4 Enterprise acquired the rights to distribute Winkysoft's early self-published releases - minus their adaptation of Tenchi wo Karau. Together with Auleria, these sixteen titles likely represent all of the NEC-relevant products the company was involved with.