The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold Edition

984 Pages·2014·20.08 MB·English

by  Szczepaniak

The
Untold History
of
Japanese Game Developers
Volume 1
By Szczepaniak
SMG SZCZEPANIAK
Published by SMG SZCZEPANIAK
Copyright © 2014 by J.W. Szczepaniak
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without
written permission from the copyright owner, except for brief quotations in a review.
The non-photograph images reproduced in this book are printed under the banner of fair use as
supplemental visuals to support critical and historical writing. All non-photographed images (in-game
screens, photo scans, posters, etc.) contained herein are copyright of their respective rights holder.
In-game images, where not take by the author, are courtesy of: Hardcore Gaming 101 and MobyGames,
used with permission.
All interviewee photographs are courtesy of Nicolas Datiche unless otherwise stated.
www.nicolasdatiche.com
First Edition: July 2014
Anyone wishing to contact the author can do so via his public email address:
[email protected]
Kindle ISBN: 978-0-9929260-3-8
To my mother,
for encouraging me to fight for truth and justice in a world without any
SELECTED CONTENTS
Hitoshi YONEDA
Japanese cover artist, first hired by Falcom, company’s early days, Sega,
Phantasy Star II cover, changes for the West, influenced by English water colour
painters, other non-game work Tatsuo NOMURA
Google software engineer, April Fool’s jokes, 8-bit Maps explanation, Google
Treasure Hunt, Pokémon joke, behind the scenes of Google, working with
Square-Enix, Dragon Quest Katsutoshi EGUCHI
Former punk musician discusses the life of Kenji Eno, creating Real Sound for
the Sega Saturn, working with the Bitmap Brothers, bringing Gods and Xenon 2
to Japan, dealing with CESA and ratings in Japan, Eno-san’s creation of the
Dreamcast logo, Michael Nyman in a hotel, map of WARP offices Toru HIDAKA
Enix programmer, history of the company, how royalties worked, game design
and programming schools, Kouichi Nakamura, self-taught programming,
development tools, detailed explanations on PC-88 development (graphics, map
creation, music), Haunted Cave, Magic Garden, JESUS I&II, converting Ultima,
Prajator, differences between tapes and disks, illegal games, the changing
nature of the industry Professor Akinori NAKAMURA
The work of Ritsumeikan University in preserving Famicom games Game
Preservation Society
Detailed look at the Japanese Game Preservation Society, scanning floppies,
copy protection, unreleased games, rarest PC Engine game on Earth, optimal
conditions for preserving games, technical explanations Matsubara KEIGO
Interview with a preservationist with 14'000+ game books, choose-your-own-
adv books based on games, music CDs, magazines, Earthbound guides, and the
most important book: Denshi Yuugi Taizen TV Games QTQ
Japanese gaming and arcade culture, old magazines, hi-score players, the world
of the SCORELER, a TV series called No Continue Kid which examines this
culture Roy OZAKI & Kouichi YOTSUI
Mitchell Corporation and Capcom (with rare photos!), Pang and its similarities
to Bubble Buster / Cannon Ball on Japanese computers, arcade games Strider,
Cannon Dancer, The Karate Tournament, Lady Killer, Gamshara, Puzz Loop
and Zuma, dealing with gangsters, Polarium, Suzuki Bakuhatsu, Nostalgia 1907,
secrets of Namco’s System 10 board, visiting Nintendo, PC-98 dev, Data East,
Toki, unreleased games Masaaki KUKINO
Konami and SNK arcade games, map of SNK office, unreleased games, Haunted
Castle (aka: Castlevania), Asterix, Crime Fighters, Silent Scope, meeting Noel
Gallagher of Oasis, King of Fighters Suikoden Chapter
Yoshitaka Murayama, Harry Inaba, Jeremy Blaustein, Casey Loe, Nick Des
Barres, world exclusive secrets about Konami’s unreleased games
console/handheld, lots of Suikoden trivia, difficulties of localisation Visual
Novels introduction
Ryukushi07
Japanese visual novels, nakige, eroge, darkige, doujin vs commercial, Comiket,
differences between Japanese/English story techniques, Umineko, Higurashi
When They Cry, Rose Gun Days, dealing with fans, Otogirisou, Key, Jun Maeda,
an unreleased game, otaku culture, Otogorisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru Kotaro
UCHIKOSHI
Visual novels, working at KID, Pepsiman, VANTAN videogame vocational
school, Memories Off, Otogorisou and Kamaitachi no Yoru, Never 7, Ever 17,
Remember 11, EVE, the pressures of making erotic games, Steins;Gate, 999,
Virtue’s Last Reward, Danganronpa, PlayStation 4
ZUN
Touhou shooters, PC-98 versus Windows, office sketches, working at Taito,
Bujingai, PS2 bench-marking, Taito’s karaoke games machine, Comiket over the
years, doujin, indie, female characters, beer, trivia Yoshiro KIMURA
Square Soft, Doug Smith, Lode Runner, old Japanese computers, Romancing
SaGa, Rule of Rose, Chulip, Little King’s Story, indie, doujin, detailed life
history, board game with potatoes, Love-de-Lic (with office sketches), Moon on
PlayStation, Lack of Love, Kenichi Nishi, outdoor theatre, Grasshopper, rare
artwork Kouji YOKOTA
Telenet, Falcom, Game Arts, Quintet (with rare photos!), Exile on Japanese
computers, PC-88, Megami Tensei differences between Famicom and MSX,
ActRaiser, Illusion of Gaia, Robotrek, censorship, Gaiares, Sega Mega CD,
Lunar: Eternal Blue, removed characters, Valis, creating pixel art, graphics
techniques, the story behind Ys III, what happened to Masaki Hashimoto and
Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, Granstream Saga Jun NAGASHIMA
Falcom (incl. office sketch), Shade, creation of Popful Mail, alternate names, Ys
V on SFC, Studio Alex Yuzo KOSHIRO
Falcom, Sega, Quintet, Ancient as a family-run business, The Black Onyx, sister
joining industry by creating art for The Fire Crystal, what happened to Masaki
Hashimoto and Tomoyoshi Miyazaki, making doujin games, history of The
Scheme on PC-88, writing a music column for magazines, tour of the studio, Joe
Hisaishi, origin of Sonic the Hedgehog on 8-bit systems, Bare Knuckle 4 details,
influencing dubstep Masamoto MORITA
Sega, arcade divisions and rivalry with console divisions, Saturn, Dreamcast,
different arcade boards and their uses, end of Sega hardware, sketch of company
layout, meeting Steven Spielberg, Dororo on PS2, the manga being censored,
influenced by Halo, Isao Okawa, Die Hard Arcade AX series and Game Arts
introduction
Akira TAKIGUCHI
ASCII, AX series, Game Arts, Taito deals, history of Japanese computers, Olion,
lots of unreleased games, Theseus & influence on Thexder, Illegus, MSX
prototype, writing books on games and the MSX, Apple II in Japan, PC-6001
Commodore Business Machine (PET), programming languages, Kouichi
Nakamura Masakuni MITSUHASHI
ASCII (with map), AX series, Game Arts, Theseus, Illegus, Silpheed on both PC-
88 and Sega Mega CD, rendered backgrounds on Sega, cut content, secret
minigames, Lunar: Eternal Blue debugging and game balance, Japanese
magazines, DEA game school and course specifics (photos), Star Trek Kohei
IKEDA
AX series, Game Arts co-founder, creator of Thexder, early days at the company,
office maps, Cuby Panic, PC-6001, new model of PC-88, shift to consoles, some
incredible Game Arts trivia Hiroshi SUZUKI
First ever stealth game, Manbiki Shounen, signing a deal with Taito, Lupin III
(arcade game), flight sims, Japanese computers, BASIC Master Level 3, PC-98,
creating custom hardware boards for computers, flight controller, sound board,
lots of unreleased games, early culture of computer games Tomonori
SUGIYAMA
Vanguard, Enix, unreleased Sega Saturn hardware allowing online shopping,
The Black Onyx, Axiom on PC-88, games on PC-98, working with Game Arts
and Falcom, future of mobile phone games, working on Lunar: Silver Star Story
and Lunar: Eternal Blue, for both Sega Mega CD and later Sega Saturn,
Grandia Yutaka ISOKAWA
Namco (and its desire to launch a console), Enix, Vanguard, origin of Pitman
and Catrap, updating Catrap for Game Boy, copyright discussion, magazine
type-ins, early computers, creating the NeGcon controller, unreleased NeGcon
games, programming on Lunar, PC-98, Reichsritter, Gunyuu Sangokushi
Hokkaido trip & Hudson lab
Yasuhito SAITO
Musician, dB-SOFT, Data West (with office maps), programming Volguard and
177, Macadam Soft, the mystery behind Bounty Arms on PlayStation, Layla on
Famicom, Sharp X1, the Data West Active Picture System for streaming on FM-
Towns, Rayxanber shmups, Cross Blaim’s connection to Metroid Takaki
KOBAYASHI & Keite ABE
dB-SOFT, Agenda, SmileBoom, Woody Poko, Melroon, Studio P on PlayStation,
PC-88 and PC Engine technicalities, 177 controversy, Riot City, Prince of
Persia, BASIC for the NDS and 3DS, computer history, gifts to fans, mahjong,
working with SNK, life in Hokkaido, copy protection on floppies dB-SOFT
Dinner
Keiji INAFUNE
Mega Man, Mighty No.9, Capcom, Comcept, Akira Kitamura, origin of
characters, Zero as a red Han Solo, Kickstarter and crowdfunding, kids sending
postcards with boss designs, Japan and Western games and what they can teach
each other, limitations of the Famicom hardware Stephen & William ROZNER
Mega Man for DOS, Capcom USA, Street Fighter for the C64, and an
unreleased version on NES!
Makoto GOTO
Shubibinman 2, Don Quixote for laserdisc (MEGA LD), Sega Pico, Vixen 357,
Winds development house as an outsource company, Japanese middlewear, Phil
Winds development house as an outsource company, Japanese middlewear, Phil
Fish, Star Trek, PC Engine magazine scan
Foreword by GAMESIDE Magazine’s Editor in Chief