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| Loona 699th Post
  
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|  "Hypothetical questions to japanese devs" , posted Thu 30 May 02:15  
I don't think I've seen it mentioned here, but there's this Kickstarter project about getting in touch with some japanese devs and attempting to extract some new info about some clasics.
It's by the guy who wrote this article that makes me wonder if this is what's blocking NeoGeo64 games to get proper home conversions, so I'm intrigued.
One of the higher tiers lets donators pick a specific game or series and 3 questions to ask to people involved with them, which would ensure 4 pages of the book covering that topic in the book.
Of course, it's a rather high cost, but the concept is at least interesting enough to discuss that it might be worth a thread of its own - I figure some would gravitate towards topics like Castlevania, but it might still be interesting to see what questions might be crossing people's minds regarding some classics.
Mine's kinda silly, and I'm not even sure whom it should be asked to (Takashi Nishiyama? Ekishi Kawasaki?), but as a huge SNK nerd I've always wondered why Geese laughs like a madman when you beat him in FF3, even if canonically he was ultimately the victorious one by the end of the game's events - that fight happens kinda early for "he who laughs last" to apply.
What kind of things would you like to be able to ask to whom about what?
"Beat the machine that works in your head!" - Guano Apes "Open Your Eyes"
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| karasu99 1135th Post
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| "Re(1):Hypothetical questions to japanese devs" , posted Thu 30 May 03:07
quote:
I don't think I've seen it mentioned here, but there's this Kickstarter project about getting in touch with some japanese devs and attempting to extract some new info about some clasics.
It's by the guy who wrote this article that makes me wonder if this is what's blocking NeoGeo64 games to get proper home conversions, so I'm intrigued.
One of the higher tiers lets donators pick a specific game or series and 3 questions to ask to people involved with them, which would ensure 4 pages of the book covering that topic in the book.
Of course, it's a rather high cost, but the concept is at least interesting enough to discuss that it might be worth a thread of its own - I figure some would gravitate towards topics like Castlevania, but it might still be interesting to see what questions might be crossing people's minds regarding some classics.
That's a fascinating Kickstarter concept! Hopefully it will fund and succeed! I'm not even sure where I'd begin with questions like that. One in particular that I've always been curious about is A) Who was the character designer at Namco for Dig Dug? Info about that has always been pretty sparse. And B) Also regarding Dig Dug character design: WTF?!?
Regarding the NG64 games, I recall from years ago the official reasoning for (mostly) no ports being that the code had somehow been lost, but who knows how truthful that was, and like that article maintains, it could easily have slipped into the hands of some collector, especially during SNK's buyout.
Also, Loona, thanks a million for linking to that article and blowing my productivity for this morning! Seriously though, it was fascinating reading, so thanks (really)! I've always enjoyed Hardcoregaming101 (their print books so far have been excellent) and I'll certainly back their project.
www.secret-arts.com
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| maese 693th Post
Red Carpet Regular Member
| "Re(2):Hypothetical questions to japanese devs" , posted Thu 30 May 14:38
quote:
I don't think I've seen it mentioned here, but there's this Kickstarter project about getting in touch with some japanese devs and attempting to extract some new info about some clasics.
It's by the guy who wrote this article that makes me wonder if this is what's blocking NeoGeo64 games to get proper home conversions, so I'm intrigued.
One of the higher tiers lets donators pick a specific game or series and 3 questions to ask to people involved with them, which would ensure 4 pages of the book covering that topic in the book.
Of course, it's a rather high cost, but the concept is at least interesting enough to discuss that it might be worth a thread of its own - I figure some would gravitate towards topics like Castlevania, but it might still be interesting to see what questions might be crossing people's minds regarding some classics.
That's a fascinating Kickstarter concept! Hopefully it will fund and succeed! I'm not even sure where I'd begin with questions like that. One in particular that I've always been curious about is A) Who was the character designer at Namco for Dig Dug? Info about that has always been pretty sparse. And B) Also regarding Dig Dug character design: WTF?!?
Regarding the NG64 games, I recall from years ago the official rea
-- Message too long, Autoquote has been Snipped --
Super-interesting idea, and super-interesting reads as well!! While this kind of topic has a high risk of becoming a namedropping contest, I myself would love to read a lengthy interview with Murayama Yoshitaka, the mastermind behind Gensou Suikoden series. That would surely make for an interesting talk.
I recall Murayama saying somewhere that, back in the time, Konami intended to compete with Sega and Sony with a game console of its own and, wanting to back it with a solid lineup, they decided to try new game genres and styles. An epic RPG was going to be one of those, thus GenSui was born. At the end of the day the whole project was dropped and Suikoden whe only survivor. I guess those collectors of unreleased stuff would kill to get their paws on that KonamiStation prototype.
Also, I don't know much about the people behind the original Street Fighter 2 (and most Capcom and SNK fighters of the golden era, for what's worth). It would be great to get some insight about those guys and their memories of the work they did back then.
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| nobinobita 1174th Post
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| "Re(1):Hypothetical questions to japanese devs" , posted Fri 31 May 08:02
Wow what a cool project! I hope it gets off the ground. We really need this book in the US. People who work in games tend to have a very small frame of reference and the young history of videogames is being rewritten all the time.
quote:
What kind of things would you like to be able to ask to whom about what?
I hope they can track down the people who made Herzog Zwei and ask them what it was like to create the first modern RTS. How was it conceived. How was it received? Did they ever get their due? I remember reading very early on in an issue of a PC gaming magazine that the Developers of Dune 2 credited Herzog Zwei for the Megadrive as their main inspiration. But they changed their tune years later saying it was just one of many games that influenced them.
I also hope they can interview the golden era Capcom artists ie Bengus, Kinu, Akiman and later Edayan and Ikeno. Like, JESUS CHRIST, what was it like there? They were such creative powerhouses. I mean, while Street Fighter was innovating how games play (6 button controls, high level PvP etc), the artists were redefining really basic things like how people approach drawing the human body.
On a more specific note, I want to know who actually animated all those amazing sprites? From the notes strewn across various books, it looks like Akiman and Bengus actually animated some of the characters themselves (I know for sure that Akiman animated Wolverine and Third Strike Chun-Li), but who else was involved? What was the process like?
www.art-eater.com
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