Developer Obscura Vol. 1: Pony Canyon & Friends

[idrougge]

I received a prompt reply from Mr. Horimoto. He recalls that Newtopia Planning was a 2nd party (his words) to Ponyca. Newtopia's boss was Koji Ichikawa, who is now boss of Locus (http://www.locus.co.jp/kaisyaannai/index.html). The development contract for Ultima - Seisha e no michi (Avatar) was given by Newtopia to Infinity through a company called Digital Presence, run by the boss of another company called Digital Arts.

So now we get a picture of the complicated make-up of the Japanese software industry, and know who Koji Ichikawa is. It might also support my theory that Newtopia wasn't a real program house.

Edit: Can't find a trace of Digital Presence, but Digital Arts is operating as a company still. Founded in 1986, made framebuffers. Now it is specialised in scan converters, though it seems to take on software development contracts as well. No mention of games in its company history.
The company history for Locus says that it started out as a software consulting company, with the localisation of Wizardry and Ultima as its primary business. I should probably mail them and ask if they're the same company as Newtopia. They were founded in 1986.

[Ed Oscuro]

What was the extent of your email question? I understand that you didn't want to ask too much, of course.

[CRV]

The company history for Locus says that it started out as a software consulting company, with the localisation of Wizardry and Ultima as its primary business. I should probably mail them and ask if they're the same company as Newtopia. They were founded in 1986.

It's entirely possible.

The earliest game I can find from Locus is a 1993 Game Boy game called Panel Action Bingo, published by FCI in the US. I presumed they were the developer, but now, I'm not so sure. They share the copyright. They later worked on some Wizardry ports for the PlayStation/Saturn/Windows.

http://review-site.net/developer/ro.html#ローカス

[idrougge]

The earliest game I can find from Locus is a 1993 Game Boy game called Panel Action Bingo, published by FCI in the US. I presumed they were the developer, but now, I'm not so sure. They share the copyright. They later worked on some Wizardry ports for the PlayStation/Saturn/Windows.

http://review-site.net/developer/ro.html#????

As SIT says, they only (with emphasis on only) do production and planning.

Is it anything you think I should ask Horimoto or Lotus?

[idrougge]

What was the extent of your email question? I understand that you didn't want to ask too much, of course.

I basically asked if they knew anything about Newtopia, and if it possibly was the old name for Infinity. Well, it can't have been that, since it says Infinity even on the title screen of Olympos no tatakai, but I hadn't played that game until today. The ending for Olympos credits only three people: Y. Horimoto, R. Oshimoto and K. Sawa.

[idrougge]

What was the extent of your email question? I understand that you didn't want to ask too much, of course.

I basically asked if they knew anything about Newtopia, and if it possibly was the old name for Infinity. Well, it can't have been that, since it says Infinity even on the title screen of Olympos no tatakai, but I hadn't played that game until today. The ending for Olympos credits only three people: Y. Horimoto, R. Oshimoto and K. Sawa.

[CRV]

Is it anything you think I should ask Horimoto or Lotus?

I would just go ahead and ask Locus about Newtopia Planning.

As for Tokyo Shoseki, which you asked about before, I'm not sure if they actually developed anything or not.

[Ed Oscuro]

What was the extent of your email question? I understand that you didn't want to ask too much, of course.

I basically asked if they knew anything about Newtopia, and if it possibly was the old name for Infinity. Well, it can't have been that, since it says Infinity even on the title screen of Olympos no tatakai, but I hadn't played that game until today. The ending for Olympos credits only three people: Y. Horimoto, R. Oshimoto and K. Sawa.

Hmm...could you ask him what games he remembers having worked on, and what teams he was with? Anyway, thanks for doing this, you're awesome.

[CRV]

I was digging through the ISO for 1994's "Eye of the Beholder" for the Sega CD, looking for credits. Well, guess who's involved. Satoru Miki and Hiroyuki Fujiwara and all the "usual suspects" from what we're calling "Miki & Fujiwara Production." That blows my theory out of the water. Maybe ISCO really didn't develop games like MD Midnight Resistance and MD Master of Monsters. They certainly were involved since the company president, Shigeki Saka, produced or supervised many of them.

Iggy, you think you could e-mail ISCO about this whole thing?

[idrougge]

I don't know, what should I ask? We're having a 30 degree heat wave here, so I can hardly think. ;-)

Could you post those credits for EOTB?

[CRV]

I don't know. Ask if they actually developed those games or just produced them. Ask about Satoru Miki & Hiroyuki Fujiwara.

Eye of the Beholder Sega CD Credits

PRODUCER
Yasutaka Ukai
Makoto Ichinoseki

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Hiroyuki Fujiwara
Satoru Miki

GRAPHICS
Atsuhiro Gunji
Hiroshi Akagi
Ken Takagi
Yasuaki Mizutani
Saeko Satou
Kiyoto Yoshimura

GAME DESIGN
Atsuhiro Gunji
Masaaki Furuya

MUSIC
Yuzo Koshiro
Motohiro Kawashima

SOUND EFFECTS
Hitoshi Sakimoto (YmoH.S)

VISUAL
Makoto Ichinoseki
Kiyoto Yoshimura
Yoko Ogasawara

GRAPHICS
Atsuhiro Gunji
Ken Takagi

SOUND EDIT
Hidefumi Ohara
Keiichi Yoshida
Kiyoto Yoshimura

VOICES
Martha Carlucci
Teacey Steinmetz
Margot Blattmann
Charlens Landrum
Tim Brown
Harold Johnson
James Ward
Nicholas Beliacff

TRASLATION SUPERVISE
GROUP SNE
Hitoshi Yasuda
Miyuki Kiyomatsu
Megumi Tsuge

PROMOTION
Yoshiaki Matsumoto
Masayoshi Kanagawa

Testing
Jeff Gregg

THANKS TO
Darren
Ross
Eric
Erik
Rich
Charlene
Robert
Albert
Michael
Mr. Fukuda
Elaine
Cynthia Po (I don't know if these names are supposed to be together or separate)
Kuniaki Ikariya (SEGA)
Yuji Ikeuchi (SEGA)

SPECIAL THANKS TO
James Ward (TSR)
Nicholas Beliaeff
Kaz Saito (FCI-NY)
Doreen Do (FCI-NY)
Eiko Nagata (FCI-NY)
James MacLean (FCI-NY)

[idrougge]

- I was looking Ultima: Exodus for the MSX2 tonight. While it says "Produced by Newtopia Planning," if you look in the ROM, it says "Ultima Msx2 version by Miki & Fujiwara Production."

Interestingly, Ultima 1 for the MSX is "produced" by Newtopia Planning, but ported by two other companies which are not listed in SIT - SuperStation, Inc. and Desktop, Inc.

Credits:
Original by Richard Garriott (Lord British)
Directed by Kunihiko Kagawa
Coordinated by Koji Ichikawa, Yasuhiro Kawashima
Program Directed by K. Mizuno (JF2AJA)
Programmed by H. Fujita, K. Takeuchi, H. Miyoshi, T. Tsujioka (JH1NRR)
Pictured by Mari Miyazawa
Music by Takeshi Yasuda
Art Design by Hideki Haruta
Special thanks to Shiro Hirano, Yusuke Nakajima, Koichiro Mori
Translation work by SuperStation Inc., Desktop Inc.
Produced by Newtopia Planning
Presented by Ponycanyon Inc.

[CRV]

Here's a page featuring T. Tsujioka (JH1NRR). It's quite old. I doubt the e-mail address works.

http://mmm.uec.ac.jp:8081/club/koken.../tsujioka.html

Here's a Japanese site featuring info on Ultima and other RPG series. It's seems JH1NRR/SuperStation/DeskTop "translated" the PC-98 Ultima ports.

http://www.saturn.dti.ne.jp/~dastard/azito.htm

[idrougge]

Didn't think of looking up those callsigns, but they seem to lead somewhere, at least. Will try to contact them later on.

[Dimitri]

Going back to Micronics for a second, I found somewhere someone mentioned that Micronics might have been (or been part of) Treco. The suggestion that Atomic Robo-Kid on MD was also by them, but credits don't seem to exist for that particular game. However:

Task Force Harrier EX:
Management Hiromitsu Kususe
Creative Staff
Task Force Harrier EX
Director Team Griffin
Takashi Kuroda
Ryo Saitou
Planner Yoh Hayakawa
Main Programmer Y.K
Sub Programmer Yuuichi Yamaguchi
Special Programmer Mitoshi Asakawa
Main Graphic Designer Yoh Hayakawa
Graphic Designer Mitusru Ishida
Masaru Yokoura
Sound Tenpei Satou
SE M. Kajihara
PCM T. Suzuki
Special Thanks Takashi Ohga
Satoru Tanaka
Mura
Yaga Shooting Master
Tsu-Chi
Kimi Chan
Mo-Rin
Midori Chan
Naoko Chan
Meiko Chan
Master of Games
Take Chan
Presented by Treco 1991

Street Smart:
Presend by American Treco Corporation
Staff
Boss E.Kawasaki
Producer Tsuka
Designer Nobuhiko
Wada UG
Natsuji
Wara2
Helper Akira Goto
Programmer Imasa
Sound Programmer Doda
Sound Jojoha Kitamura
Special Thanks Shinchan
Bento- Matsuyama
Kura
and SNK Arcade Version Staff

Twin Cobra:
Publisher Hajime Satomi
Producer Hiromitsu Kususe
Assistant Producer Tatsuhiko Tsuchida
Takashi Ohga
Midori Sawada
Takashi Kuroda
Akihiro Murayama
Program Designer Hyakumangoku Hamada
Oshiete Kawacyan
Art Creator Numatoroh
Etoh Shiwasu
Kencyan Arumon Mark-2
Harada Riku-Shicyoh
Arumon Puls
Hashiuri Yuki
Kidokoro Mai
Music Arrange Raika no Papa
Super Data Maker Dotsukanpo Itoh
Executive Director Yoshiaki Sawada
SPecial Thanks Gamenanoyo-N Shigecyan
Silpheed
Silence Takahashi
Dadida Syohji
Tetorisu Kudasai Maccyan
Bakkin Tamayama
Yukimi Papa
Urakurenai Man 7
Egawa Bucyoh
Yamanaka San
Hex Dec Bin Imoto
Presented by Sega Enterprises Ltd.
(C) 1991 All Rights Reserved

Y.K and Yuuichi Yamaguchi might be the "Y.Kazzo" and "Yuichi" listed in several Micronics games.

Takashi Kuroda is also mentioned in the NES version of Twin Cobra, but he may be someone from Taito since he's also mentioned in MD Sagaia.

(Street Smart is only up there in case someone else spots a connection that CRV and I missed.)

[Kitsune Sniper]

Here's food for thought: a director at the current Infinity is called Reiko Horimoto. Could Oshida have married Yukio Horimoto?

Probably not. The name Reiko is fairly common in Japan, as far as I know.

[CRV]

Probably not. The name Reiko is fairly common in Japan, as far as I know.

Considering that both Reiko Oshida and Reiko Horimoto did graphics in games, I'm leaning toward "yes."

[idrougge]

I found our friend Reiko Oshida hiding inside the SNES Sim Earth ROM today. It's published by Imagineer in Japan, but developed by a company called TomCat System, made up of old Namco employees. Thankfully, they have an exhaustive list of works.

BTW, do we know who did FC Ballblazer yet?

[idrougge]

Y.K and Yuuichi Yamaguchi might be the "Y.Kazzo" and "Yuichi" listed in several Micronics games.

The programmer of Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings (Video System) on the SNES is called Kazzo. I've always written Kazzo off as a nickname for "Kazuo", mind you.

[CRV]

The programmer of Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings (Video System) on the SNES is called Kazzo. I've always written Kazzo off as a nickname for "Kazuo", mind you.

1) Yes, I noticed that. M. Tsukuda is also there. They're both in the arcade credits. I don't know what to make of that.

2) I'm wondering if Opera House is indeed Miki & Fujiwara Production. Looking at the Break Time (NES) credits again, the project manager is from Pony Canyon and everyone else seems to be from Miki & Fujiwara.

3) I was looking at the Double Hawk (SMS) credits again, too. Nannorio and Noboru Machida (Noborunrun) are there as planner and director respectively. But the rest of the credits I have not seen in another Sanritsu/SIMS game. But look at the programmers. Fujichan and Mikisama. Could it be Hiroyuki Fujiwara and Satoru Miki? Could Sanritsu have outsourced the game to Miki & Fujiwara Production/Opera House/whatever it is?