The Multitap (the first device to be marketed with such a name) by NEC Home Electronics for the PC Engine, which launched alongside the platform in Japan on October 30, 1987, was the first multi-controller adapter made specifically for multiplayer support, allowing up to five controllers to be plugged into the console. Because the console itself only has one controller port as standard, the Multitap was a necessity for games that supported more than one player. As a result, various inexpensive alternatives to the Multitap were released for the PC Engine by third-party companies, such as the Battle Tap by Big Club and the Joy Tap 3 by Hudson Soft, which featured less controller ports than the first-party Multitap, but these were gradually phased out as more games started to allow up to five players. The first PC Engine game to allow more than two players simultaneously was "" in August 1988 (ten months after the launch of the system), which allowed up to four players in a doubles match, while "Dungeon Explorer" in 1989 was the first game to fully allow up to five players. The Multitap was redesigned into the TurboTap for the North American market with the launch of the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989, and later as the DuoTap for the TurboDuo in 1992 (the different models were due to the change in controller ports between the TurboGrafx-16 and the TurboDuo).