Huson Soft HuCAL
Hudson creates business software for everyone.
I’ve been meaning to expand my coverage beyond the US and Europe. When I was looking through Japanese computer magazines, I came across an ad for what I thought was an American company based on the name and logo. Nope, it is a decidedly Japanese company. There is a world of cool Japanese computer stuff that we in America missed.
The Company
Hudson Soft was founded in May 1973 by brothers Yuji and Hiroshi Kudo. Both brothers liked trains and named their company after their favorite locomotive design, the Hudson. When they first opened, the company sold radios and photographic equipment. Initially, they wanted to open a coffee shop, but that plan fell through, so they switched to electronics.
In the late 1970s, Hudson Soft started selling personal computers “such as NEC’s TK-80, Sharp’s MZ-80K, and Commodore’s PET” and their accessories. At the time, there wasn’t a lot of software available, so Hudson Soft started writing their own. Takashi Takebe, an early Hudson Soft employee, said the following in Japansoft: An Oral History, “The games we made were tiny. We would include five to 10 of them as a bonus with the purchase of a new computer.”
As the popularity of their games grew, Hudson Soft decided to focus more time on that area of their product line. Some of their most popular titles include Bomberman, Adventure Island, Star Soldier, Bonk and Bloody Roar. At the time, there was a wide range of systems and architectures, and Hudson ported their games to all of them.
In 1983, Hudson became the first third-party developer for Nintendo’s Famicom console. This was a big turning point for Hudson. They started porting their catalog of games to the Famicon and porting Nintendo games to other platforms, such as the PC-88 and Sharp X1. Husdon also worked on Family BASIC, which was “a combination of keyboard and development platform designed to turn the Famicom into a fully-fledged home computer”. Interestingly, Hudson was also involved with the development of the TurboGrafx-16 video game console, also known as the PC Engine.
In the early 2000s, the bank that financed Hudson Soft’s games collapsed. Now facing financial issues, the company decided to go public on the stock exchange. Konami bought 5.6 million shares and became the majority shareholder. Within a decade, Hudson Soft had become a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami and was shortly thereafter fully absorbed.
For more information about Hudson Soft, check out these links:
Hudson Soft | The studio behind Bomberman and the PC Engine at 50
Fellow Substacker
has written several articles about Hudson Soft’s games
The Product
I found very little information about HuCAL on the web. Most information about Huson Soft on the web mainly focuses on their games. The blurbs that do mention HuCAL refer to it as a game.
Below is the Google Translation of the above ad:
We want people who can program, as well as people who can't, to use computers easily. Hudson's business software, HuCAL, was developed with this intention in mind. Even busy businessmen can learn it in a short time. Easy to operate. A kanji dictionary with about 40,000 words that rivals word processors. Priced at 45,000 yen. Also includes a voice manual that allows you to operate while listening, and an overlay that shows key operations to make it easier to understand.
Hudson creates business software for everyone.
Main characteristics of HuCAL
- You can write on the tally sheet.
- Kanji dictionary for functions and data search. It can also be used as a simple word processor for inputting kanji.
- There is also a sort function that allows you to easily rearrange table data. Approximately 40,000 easy (idiom conversion/character conversion).
- You can do this by using macro instructions.
- It can be used not only for customer management, sales analysis, etc., but also for English vocabulary.
- Top-class simple language for business use
Compatible model NEC PC-8801 (Kanji ROM model number PC-8801-01K or PC-8801-01 is required.)
After reading this translation, I thought HuCAL was a word processor. I think that may have been an issue with Google Translate. (If you speak Japanese and would be open to helping me translate Japanese ads, please comment below.) However, I did find another ad for HuCAL. Since this one is from an Australian magazine, it is a bit easier for me to read. It proves that HuCAL was definitely a spreadsheet. And it ran on Sega systems. Very cool.
Did you ever use Huson Soft HuCAL? Do you know anything about its history? Tell us about it in the comments below.
What computer ads would you like to see in the future? Please comment below. If you enjoyed it, please share it with your friends and relatives. Thank you.
