AS-Soft (Japan)

NOTE: Do not watch the video if you suffer from epilepsy.

Nicknames: "The DOS Trojan Logo", "Seizure Balls of Doom", "What? I Thought I Was Playing a High School Game?!"

Logo: We see a red "A" with a small visible blue outline spinning on the left. The spinning slows down and the rest of the characters "-SOFT" stretch in from blue bars. "SOFT" is more spaced out unlike "AS". The letters then join themselves and slide into the center. A blue rectangle then flashes in behind. The background then flashes abruptly in yellow and white, and leaves the "AS-SOFT" logo on the black background for a few more seconds without the rectangle. Suddenly, the background flashes in yellow/white again, this time bringing up various multicolored balls of various sizes. All of the balls then move down and the blue balls are seen flashing continously in white. The byline "AS SOFT IN WORLD" (spaced out) with "HISCHOOL ADVENTUER NO.1" appears below the AS-Soft wordmark. Some seconds later, some of the balls turn red/blue and dissapear before the logo cuts into the opening credits.

FX/SFX: The letters connecting, the flashing, and the balls moving down.

Cheesy Factor: Although it's not that "cheap" due to the Sharp X1 being an 8-bit computer, the logo really has it's cheese material. The flashing happens very fastly, triggering epileptics, and the animation of the balls, while being quite advanced for the system, look like a poorly-done mess. They misspelled "ADVENTURE" and the music is unpleasant to listen to as well. Everything looks like a DOS trojan/virus that really makes a very weird concept for a videogame logo.

Music/Sounds: A messed-up sounding 8-bit square tone during the flashing and appearance of the balls.

Availability: Ultra rare. Was recently spotted in Hi-School Adventure No. 1 for the Sharp X1, which is hard to find due to being one of the rarest games on the system (although searching for an emulation copy online does help).

Scare Factor: Nightmare. Some people would be suffering panic attacks thanks to the transition from the innocent warm-up to the fast flashing, combined to the appearance of the balls and the headache-inducing 8-bit tone, and first time viewers won't also be expecting it. This is one of the most interesting 8-bit videogame logos you may ever come across, however, and the fact that it looks like an early computer virus (look on YouTube) can also contribute on your opinion of it.