Data Carddass (データカードダス, Dēta Kādodasu) is a series of Japanese arcade game machines created by Bandai, which largely focus around the digital use of collectible trading cards. It is an expansion of Bandai's Carddass collectible trading card series, which allows players to use special cards to interact with arcade video games. Many of these machines revolve around various anime and tokusatsu franchises owned by Bandai. The machines first began release in Japanese arcades from March 2005.
Bandai had sold 100,000 Data Carddass arcade machines by March 2012.[1] For use with the machines, over 2.4 billion Data Cardass cards had been sold by 2017,[2] increasing to 2.749 billion Data Carddass cards sold as of March 2021[update].[3]
Data Carddass make use of special Carddass cards with data stored on them. These collectible cards can be read by various Data Carddass machines in order to interact with the game. For example, in Aikatsu!, a game revolving around fashion, players can scan cards featuring various clothes to make their character wear them. Depending on the machine, cards can either be inserted via a slot or scanned via a flat panel. Each machine is also fitted with various controls unique to their specific minigames, such as buttons which require timed presses or touches. Performing well in these games can also grant additional cards. Select machines utilise IC cards, which allow frequent players to save personal data from the games. Certain machines can also scan collectible toys to affect the gameplay.[4]
These machines are periodically updated as new elements are added in their respective franchises.