Szczepaniak - The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers: Gold Edition

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:

Kindle ISBN: 978-0-9929260-3-8

To my mother,

for encouraging me to fight for truth and justice in a world without any

Japanese cover artist, first hired by Falcom, companys early days, Sega, Phantasy Star II cover, changes for the West, influenced by English water colour painters, other non-game work

Google software engineer, April Fools jokes, 8-bit Maps explanation, Google Treasure Hunt, Pokmon joke, behind the scenes of Google, working with Square-Enix, Dragon Quest

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-sans creation of the Dreamcast logo, Michael Nyman in a hotel, map of WARP offices

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

The work of Ritsumeikan University in preserving Famicom games

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

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

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

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 Namcos System 10 board, visiting Nintendo, PC-98 dev, Data East, Toki, unreleased games

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

Yoshitaka Murayama, Harry Inaba, Jeremy Blaustein, Casey Loe, Nick Des Barres, world exclusive secrets about Konamis unreleased games console/handheld, lots of Suikoden trivia, difficulties of localisation

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

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, Virtues Last Reward, Danganronpa, PlayStation 4

Touhou shooters, PC-98 versus Windows, office sketches, working at Taito, Bujingai, PS2 bench-marking, Taitos karaoke games machine, Comiket over the years, doujin, indie, female characters, beer, trivia

Square Soft, Doug Smith, Lode Runner, old Japanese computers, Romancing SaGa, Rule of Rose, Chulip, Little Kings 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

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

Falcom (incl. office sketch), Shade, creation of Popful Mail, alternate names, Ys V on SFC, Studio Alex

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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