Ikegami introduced the first portable 4 1/2-inch
Image Orthicon tube hand-held TV camera. The camera made its debut in the United States in February 1962, when
CBS used it to document the launching of NASA's
Friendship 7, its first crewed space mission to orbit the Earth. The later HL-51 was popular among broadcasters for both ENG and
EFP image acquisition. Later models would include the HL-79 series, first introduced in 1978 with the HL-79A and continuing into the 1980s with the later HL-79D and HL-79E models, as well as the HL-83 and the HL-95 "Unicam". Although Ikegami is known as a manufacturer of high-quality television cameras, the company does not make video recorder mechanisms (
VTRs), and was a licensee of professional video formats such as
Sony's
Betacam SP and
DVCAM, and
Panasonic's
DVCPRO. In 1995, Ikegami co-operated with
Avid on a tapeless video acquisition format called
Editcam, but few were sold. Ikegami developed a tapeless camera format is called GFCAM
Toshiba. In the early 1980s, Ikegami developed
arcade video games as a subcontractor to Japanese video game companies. Among the games they developed are
Computer Othello,
Block Fever,
Monkey Magic,
Congo Bongo,
Popeye,
Donkey Kong,
Radar Scope,
Sheriff,
Space Fever,
Space Firebird,
Space Demon,
Heli Fire,
Sky Skipper,
Space Launcher, and
Zaxxon. At that time, computer programs were not recognized as copyrightable material. According to these sources, Ikegami proceeded to sue Nintendo for unauthorized duplication of the
Donkey Kong program code for the latter's creation of
Donkey Kong Junior (1983, Tokyo District Court), but it was not until 1989 that the Tokyo High Court gave a verdict that acknowledged the originality of program code. In 1990, Ikegami and Nintendo reached a settlement, terms of which were never disclosed. ==Products==