To recap...
Bits Laboratory:
Ghostbusters
Thexder
Infinity:
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Marionette:
AD&D: Pool of Radiance
Dr. Chaos
Phantom Fighter
Newtopia Planning???:
Attack Animal Gakuen
Ultima: Exodus
To recap...
Bits Laboratory:
Ghostbusters
Thexder
Infinity:
Ultima: Quest of the Avatar
Marionette:
AD&D: Pool of Radiance
Dr. Chaos
Phantom Fighter
Newtopia Planning???:
Attack Animal Gakuen
Ultima: Exodus
This just in:
I put Atelier Double through archive.org and found their works list.
Here are the relevant titles in chronological order:
Winter games (Acclaim) NES
Winter games (Ponyca) Famicom Disk
Dandy (Ponyca) Famicom Disk
Kujakuô 2 (Ponyca) Famicom
Tamura Mitsuteru (?) mahjong seminar (Ponyca) Famicom
Bard's tale (Ponyca) Famicom
Ultima - Quest of the avatar (FCI America) NES
A-ressha de ikô/A-train (Ponyca) Famicom
Bard's tale (FCI America) NES
Bard's tale 2 (Ponyca) Famicom
AD & D: Dragon of flame (Ponyca) Famicom
Double moon densetsu (Messiah) Famicom
Do you have a link?Originally Posted by idrougge
I read elsewhere that Infinity did Quest of the Avatar. It even resembles Battle of Olympus, which they also did. I also read that Group SNE did Dragon of Flame.
http://web.archive.org/web/200405150.../works/fc.htmlDo you have a link?
Do you have a link?
Anyway, I think I've managed to identify some real Pony staff, i e people who work for Pony and not for the individual subcontractors.
One is Kunihiko Kagawa, credited on Phantom fighter, Ultima Exodus and Ultima Quest for avatar. Another one is Kunihiko Kagawa, credited on Ultima Quest for avatar, Dr. Chaos, Phantom fighter and Ultima Exodus.
Group SNE:
http://review-site.net/developer/ku.html#%83O%83%8B%81[%83v%82r%82m%82d
http://web.archive.org/web/200308210...13computer.htm
Infinity:
http://review-site.net/developer/xi....83j%83e%83B%81[
http://www.infinity-soft.co.jp
Do you happen to have the credits for Exodus and Quest for the Avatar?
Exodus:
ORIGINAL DESIGNED BY
RICHARD A. GARRIOTT
PRODUCER
MASAICHIRO HIRANO
YASUO HATTORI
DIRECTOR
KUNIHIKO KAGAWA
JUNICHI ISHII
COORDINATOR
KOJI ICHIKAWA
MASUKO MORI
SALES & PROMOTION
MUTSUKO ARATA
CHIEF PROGRAMMER
TAKAAKI USHIKI
PROGRAMMER
YOSHIHIKO NAKAZAWA
TOMOHIRO HORI
NAOKI KOGA
SAEKO SUDA
CHARACTER DESIGNER
ATSUSHI FUJIMORI
WORDS ARRANGEMENT
YASUSHI AKIMOTO
MUSIC
TSUGUTOSHI GOTO
ILLUSTRATOR
TADASHI TSUKADA
SPECIAL THANKS
NISHITANI SABURO
YAMADA YASUHIRO
KAWASHIMA KONO
PRODUCED BY
NEWTOPIA PLANNING
Quest of the avatar:
ORIGINAL DESIGNED BY
RICHARD A. GARRIOTT
PROJECT MANAGER
KUNIHIKO KAGAWA
NES VER. DESIGNED BY
YASUHIRO KAWASHIMA
COORDINATOR
KOJI ICHIKAWA
CHARACTER DESIGNER
REIKO OSHIDA
MUSIC
SEIJI TODA
ILLUSTRATED BY
JC STAFF
NES TRANSLATED BY
ATELIER DOUBLE CORP
ORIGINAL VERSION
ORIGIN SYSTEMS INC
NES VERSION
PONYCANYON
Seisha e no michi:
ORIGINAL DESIGNED BY
RICHARD A. GARRIOTT
PRODUCER
YASUO HATTORI
DIRECTOR
KUNIHIKO KAGAWA
FAMICON VER. DESIGNED BY
YASUHIRO KAWASHIMA
COORDINATOR
KOJI ICHIKAWA
CHARACTER DESIGNER
REIKO OSHIDA
MUSIC
SEIJI TODA
ILLUSTRATED BY
J.C. STAFF
ORIGINAL VERSION
ORIGIN SYSTEMS INC
PRODUCED BY
NEWTOPIA PLANNING
PRESENTED
PONYCANYON
Note the difference between Avatar and Seisha. Note also that Atelier Double is only mentioned in the credits for Avatar and that they only mention the NES release on their page, not the FC one.
I looked through Battle of Olympus. There is some text I can't decode, but one of the staffers is to be found in several of the games discussed here, namely Reiko (Y)oshida. Seen in:
Break time (graphics, as Rieko "Anny" Yoshida (sic))
Quest of the avatar/Seisha e no michi (graphics)
Battle of Olympus (scenario, graphics, as R. Oshida)
Master of monsters (Megadrive graphics, as Rieko Yoshida)
Also, Seiji Toda who made music for Quest for avatar did the music on Heroes of the lance on MSX. Once again we find that connection.
Why does Seisha say "Produced by Newtopia Planning" and Avatar does not? I have a feeling "produced" doesn't mean developed. And I guess "Translated" means translating it to English?
Let's break down the credits...
Ultima Exodus:
- Masaichiro Hirano was Producer on Pony Canyon's Super Runner on the MSX2.
- Yasuo Hattori was Director on Attack Animal Gakuen (Produced by Newtopia Planning).
- We've seen Kunihiko Kagawa mentioned in many Ponyca games. He was also mentioned in Decap Attack on the MD, which led me to jump to the conclusion over at the SMS Power forums that VIC Tokai games may have been done by Marionette. I've since dropped that whole mess.
- Junichi Ishii was Director on Super Runner on the MSX2.
- Koji Ichikawa was later Coordinator on Avatar.
- Masuko Mori was Coordinator on MSX Heroes of the Lance.
- Takaaki Ushiki was later Coordinator on Ultima VI on the SNES.
- Naoki Koga later went to work for Nintendo.
- Atsushi Fujimori did Visual Design on Attack Animal Gakuen.
- I thought Reiko Oshida might be from Infinity, but she's probably just a freelance graphic artist.
- Yasuhiro Kawashima is Editor on SNES Ultima IV, which I believe was programmed by Infinity (shares credits with SNES Populous, which explicitly says was done by Infinity). Doesn't mean he was an Infinity staffer.
Seisha/Avatar doesn't mention any programmers, as luck would have it.
Super Runner (MSX 2) Credits
PRODUCER
MASAICHIRO HIRANO
SHIRO OHTA
DIRECTOR
JUNICHI ISHII
KAZUHIKO ARIMOTO
PROGRAMMER
HIROYUKI FUJIWARA
SATORU MIKI
MUSIC
KAZUYOSHI YAMANE
SATORU MIKI
PHOTO DESIGNER
SHIGERU IWABUCHI
PACKAGE DESIGNER
YOSHITAKE TSUCHIDA
PROMOTER
MUTSUKO ARATA
ASSISTANT
YASUHIRO TAKASHIMA
AKIKO MOMOSE
SPECIAL THANKS TO
KUNIHIKO KAGAWA
MATSUHIRO JINNO
Heroes of the lance, MSX version: (I couldn't find NES credits)
Programmed by
Satoru Miki
Hiroyuki Fujiwara
Hirofumi Ino
Supervisor
Hitoshi Yasuda
Music by
Seiji Toda
Co?ordinator
Kazuhiko Arimoto
Masuko Mori
Presented by
Pony Canyon Inc.
Game developed by
U.S. Gold Ltd.
Strategic Simulations Inc.
Break time - the national pool tour (NES):
TOTAL PLANNING
MASAAKI'BUNBUN'FURUYA
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MASAAKI'BUNBUN'FURUYA
ATSUHIRO'ALBERT'GUNJI
RIEKO'ANNY'YOSHIDA
MUSIC COMPOSED AND DIRECTION
TAKESHI'HONAMI'YASUDA
PROGRAMMING
HIROFUMI'KNOTTY DREAD'INO
PROJECT MANAGER
KAZUHIKO'TONY'ARIMOTO
SPECIAL THANKS TO
ASUKA AND IWASAKI
NARRATOR
SHINICHI NAKAYA
PRODUCED BY
PONYCANYON AND OPERA HOUSE
Wow, much progress has been made since I went on vacation. This is exciting! (Okay, that was full on admission of what a nerd I am).
While I was in Seattle, I had an idea--tell me what you guys think of this. Nintendo customer service has been really cool to me in the past about answering goofy questions. They sent me copies of technical documents and manuals for tons of Vs. system units and chipsets once. Has anyone just considered calling them up and asking about this issue? They may have some kind of documentation that may give us some insight into what's going on here, even if it just confirms what you guys already found out. I know this would probably be the wacko question of the year for the phone operators in Redmond, but they get excited when people ask questions like this. They may be able to help us out.
If you guys want, I can muster up the courage to call and ask about this, but we should discuss just what it is we want to ask so I don't ask something stupid or redundant.
So, I don't know, what do you guys think?
I guess it wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure what NOA would know about Japanese game developers.
Here's another Famicom game that was obviously done by the same developer as Ghosts 'n Goblins, et al.
Mottomo Abunai Deka
Executive Producer Miki Hirao
Producer Shoichiro Ide
Assistant Producer Yoshihiko Takeda
Programmer Kazzo
CG Designer Kabe Kun
Music Composer Kimio Nomura
Assistant Yuichi, Kageyabu 20, Miporin
Kazzo also programmed NES G'nG.
ArnoldRimmer83 brought Micronics up earlier in this thread, but it wasn't until today that I realized they were an actual developer (for some reason I was thinking it was "Toei Micronics"). They were the guys behind the following:
1942 (FC)
Tiger-Heli (FC)
Onyanko Town (FC)
Ghosts'n Goblins (FC)
Athena (FC)
Exed Exes (FC)
Son Son (FC)
Super Pitfall (FC)
Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (FC)
Commando (FC)
Thundercade (FC)
Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3: Taiketsu! Zouringen (FC)
Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go no Gyakushuu (FC)
Mottomo Abunai Deka (FC)
Shin Satomi Hakkenden: Hikari to Yami no Tatakai (FC)
Raiden Trad (SFC)
I still think NES Trojan was one of theirs, but someone earlier in this thread vehemently disagreed.
So how did I figure this out? Today, I was researching Shouei System, who developed many games for Toei Animation. If you look at the games they did under Toei, you'll see their name prominently on the title screen.
Now, if you look at games Micronics did for Toei, you'll see their name in roughly the same position.
And that's it.
In case you're curious, here's the games Shouei System did:
Hokuto no Ken / FC
Hokuto no Ken 2: Seikimatsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu / FC
Hokuto no Ken 3: Shinseiki Souzou Seiken Retsuden / FC
Hokuto no Ken 4: Shichisei Hakenden: Hokuto Shinken no Kanata e / FC
Hokuto no Ken 5 / SFC
Hokuto no Ken 6 / SFC
Hokuto no Ken 7 / SFC
Hokuto no Ken: Seijetsu Juuban Shoubu / GB
SWAT: Special Weapons and Tactics / FC
Sukeban Deka III / FC
Kamen no Ninja: Akakage / FC
Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko: Sekai Isshuu 80 Nichi Dai Bouken / FC
Baltron / FC
Scotland Yard / GB
Final Reverse / GB
Idea no Hi / SFC
Matsumura Kunihiro Den: Saikyo no Rekishi wo Kumikaero! / SFC
Wizardry Nemesis / SS
Digital Keiba Shinbun: My Trackman / DC
Heiwa Pachinko World 64 / N64
Shikinjou / GB
Hmm.. there's some N64 and DC games listed there. What I want to know is whether this design team maintained their usual level of quality throughout the years. How do their DC games compare to Shenmue? Do they still take 10 minutes to load?
You may be getting Micronics and Shouei System mixed up here. At any rate, I don't know if anybody wants to play a horse racing game to find out.
Oops, you're right, I am getting them confused. But the pachinko game might be kind of cool...You may be getting Micronics and Shouei System mixed up here. At any rate, I don't know if anybody wants to play a horse racing game to find out.
Very interesting, but how did you come to that conclusion? Through triangulation? I've not been able to find credits for many of the games you attribute to Micronics...
I have nothing really to add other than this is a great thread. I'll be keeping up with it and help if I can.
Regarding the Nintendo Customer Service hotline we actually called this weekend to ask about why only the top part of the SNES shell was so prone to yellowing when all other parts of the case tended to stay their original color. The person we talked to was very polite but their answer, instead of something like oxidation, was just that the system was 15 years old.
I suppose so (points to the whole title screen thing...how nice of Toei to allow that). I'm not sure what else Micronics would be.
This is one of my favorite Digital Press threads ever, it's like the subject matter is so obscure that the only people posting are intelligent and can contribute something worthwhile.
Unlike myself.
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