Logo used by Athena throughout the company's existence.
Athena Co. Ltd (株式会社アテナ, Kabushiki Gaisha Atena), simply known as Athena, was a Japanese video game developer, founded in July 1987.
The company is commonly known for the Dezaemon series of game development tools that let players to create their own shmups, but mostly with their role on the formation of Warashi.
The Athena-Warashi transitional point[]
This part of the company's history began with Strike Gunner S.T.G and BioMetal where Noriyuki Takasaki was part of the staff members which got little credit as "Special Thanks" but took the role as the Producer of Daioh, which was programmed by Tsutomu Tabata, who worked on Tool Support for BioMetal. After Daioh's success, Takasaki, Tabata and a group of Ex-Athena staff left the company to form Warashi Multimedia Lab where they remade Daioh as Shienryu, the first game and first hit title of the company.
Athena's demise[]
Due to the difficulties of recovering financially in the videogame market, in 2013, the Tokyo Court decided to start the company's bankruptcy process. In September 2023, it was announced that Japanese publisher Hamster Corporation would acquire the rights to Athena's library of titles which were then released through the Arcade Archives lineup, with the first being Strike Gunner S.T.G, followed by Daioh.