created anime footage, and all of them were exclusively released in Japan; except a Takatoku Toys handheld electronic game distributed by Incoming Trading, a Banpresto arcade game licensed by Fabtek, and a Bandai Visual PlayStation game whose debuted North American localization was eventually cancelled probably due to copyrights issues involving Harmony Gold. See the list of Macross video games for all the official and crossover releases from the 1980s up to the 2010s. Legal complications with international distribution Harmony Gold purchased the international distribution rights for the Macross series and between 1999 and 2003 filed trademarks on the distribution of Macross merchandise and media outside of Japan. Harmony Gold's international distribution rights are under dispute however as they bought the rights from the Japanese company, Tatsunoko Productions, which in a court ruling against companies, Studio Nue and Big West, was ruled to have only the rights to the international distribution of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and no legal claim to the rest of the franchise; those belonging to the latter companies. Harmony Gold claims that the case does not apply to them since it occurred in Japan and does not apply to the international distribution rights. Harmony Gold continues to re-affirm their claim to the international distribution through cease and desist letters,[ resulting in later Macross series not being distributed outside of Japan. On March 1, 2021, Big West, Studio Nue, and Harmony Gold have agreed to work together and distribute Macross properties outside Japan alongside Robotech. The signed agreement also mentions that Big West will allow Harmony Gold to release their upcoming Robotech film in Japan. LegacyMacross was the basis for the Robotech franchise in North America. Super Dimension Fortress Macross was adapted into the first saga of the Robotech television series (19851986), called The Macross Saga, which spawned the Robotech franchise. Robotech was influential in the Western world, helping to introduce the anime medium to North America.Macross popularized the concept of transforming mecha, which can transform between a standard vehicle (such as a fighter plane or transport truck) and a fighting mecha robot. Shōji Kawamori introduced the concept with Diaclone in 1980 and then popularized it with Macross. Kawamori then went on to design transforming mecha for Transformers (1986). The transforming mecha concept became popular in the mid-1980s, with Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984) and Zeta Gundam (1985) in Japan, and with Robotech and Transformers in