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Thread: Developer Obscura Vol. 1: Pony Canyon & Friends

  1. #61
    ServBot (Level 11) GarrettCRW's Avatar
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    It's an off-the-wall idea, but what's the possibility that rival developers have "helped out" each other by providing coding/advice/whatever, much like what the various Japanese animation studios do for one another when when one studio falls behind on a series? If the developers in Japan did this, it might explain why so many early FC & NES games have the Pony Canyon "feel".
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    Quote Originally Posted by GarrettCRW
    It's an off-the-wall idea, but what's the possibility that rival developers have "helped out" each other by providing coding/advice/whatever, much like what the various Japanese animation studios do for one another when when one studio falls behind on a series? If the developers in Japan did this, it might explain why so many early FC & NES games have the Pony Canyon "feel".
    I think that's a common practice in Japan's industry. Smaller companies get by by jumping in on projects when they're too close to the deadline.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    Add NES Twin Cobra to the list of Micronics games.

    To make extra sure, let's compare some credits.

    Ghosts 'n Goblins (FC)

    PLANNING

    HASSE AND FUJI

    MUSIC

    HAL AND WOOD

    DESIGN

    BLACK AND HASSE

    PROGRAM

    KAZZO

    PRESENTED BY

    CAPCOM


    Mottomo Abunai Deka (FC)

    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


    Twin Cobra (FC)

    PRODUCER

    S. TAKAHASHI
    P. M. D. C

    ASSIST

    YUICHIRO. K

    PROGRAMMER

    T. NAGAYA

    CHARACTER

    T. KURODA

    SOUND

    T. NAGAYA

    SPECIAL THANKS

    YUICHI
    19 KUBOTA
    Y. KAZZO
    M. TSUKADA


    Raiden Trad (SFC)

    Producer Shigeyoshi Ikeda
    Program T. Nagaya
    Map Edit Y. Yamada
    Sound Copya System, Ltd.
    Special Thanks K. Ishida, Mrs. Nagaya, Eclos


    Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (FC)

    Staff
    Tama, Kita, Hamach, Tuka, Keiko

  4. #64
    Ryu Hayabusa (Level 16) rbudrick's Avatar
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    I thought of something that's never been done before...an online database of people in game credits....what an undertaking that would be. Sure would solve a lot though. You'd definitely have to look for aliases, though, since half of them didn't go by their real names, or used different pronunciations of their kanji to mask their real name.

    -Rob
    The moral is, don't **** with Uncle Tim when he's been drinking!

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    Quote Originally Posted by rbudrick
    I thought of something that's never been done before...an online database of people in game credits....what an undertaking that would be.
    http://www.mobygames.com/

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    Add NES Elevator Action to the Micronics list (has that ol' familiar pause tone).

  7. #67
    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    I think Irem's Daiku no Gen San 2: Akage no Dan noGyakushuu (Hammerin' Harry 2) for the FC may be from Micronics. Somebody else might want to check it out.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    I'm "pretty" sure Ninja Kun: Ashura no Shou and Miracle Ropit's Adventure in 2100 for the FC were done by Micronics. Again, I'd appreciate it if someone else could look at them and see if you agree with me.

  9. #69
    Ryu Hayabusa (Level 16) rbudrick's Avatar
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    Wow, someone listened to me and acted fast.

    Very cool. I like a lot of things they did, but I think a database dedicated strictly to the the staff themselves could be much further-reaching, as the Moby database is a little tough to use for certain things.

    -Rob
    The moral is, don't **** with Uncle Tim when he's been drinking!

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    I'm just gonna go ahead and say Miracle Ropit is a Micronics game. I've also gone and changed the thread title to reflect a new series of threads I hope to start here.

  11. #71
    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    - 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."

    Conclusions: Newtopia Planning probably wasn't what we'd call a developer. And "Miki & Fujiwara Production" must have been the group/company Satoru Miki and Hiroyuki Fujiwara headed up that did a number of games for Pony Canyon (mainly on the computer side). Presumably, the two of them left to work for ISCO. What was left of the group went on to do Break Time for the NES. Maybe they became Opera House. I don't know. That's kinda sketchy.

    - I am now going back to saying Ultima: Quest for the Avatar for the NES was by Infinity. That's what I've put in the Video Game Rebirth database.

  12. #72
    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    On the subject of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar for the NES - does anybody else get terrible flashing edges on the screen when moving about, and does this happen in another games by the developer (Infinity)?

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro
    On the subject of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar for the NES - does anybody else get terrible flashing edges on the screen when moving about, and does this happen in another games by the developer (Infinity)?
    Does it happen in Battle of Olympus? If not, then no.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CRV
    Quote Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro
    On the subject of Ultima: Quest of the Avatar for the NES - does anybody else get terrible flashing edges on the screen when moving about, and does this happen in another games by the developer (Infinity)?
    Does it happen in Battle of Olympus? If not, then no.
    I've never experienced anything like that in BoO. That's a quality game, unlike most of what we're discussing in this thread.

  15. #75
    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Oh! It's a poison status indicator. Quality design!

    Kind of odd considering that Ultima came out the year after Battle of Olympus...but it is based on a rather simple program, I guess.

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    Funnily, I also find myself in the middle of investigating these companies right now. Here's a theory: Perhaps Newtopia Planning, as the name implies, and as the "produced by" credits imply, was in fact just a middle-hand, doing the planning for games while handing the hard work out to subcontractors even further down the chain, such as Miki/Fujiwara Pro. This is just yet another theory.

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    I have mailed Infinity about their past connection with Newtopia. Their boss is Yukio Horimoto, of Battle of Olympus fame. Let's hope they respond.

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    Quote Originally Posted by CRV
    - I thought Reiko Oshida might be from Infinity, but she's probably just a freelance graphic artist.
    Here's food for thought: a director at the current Infinity is called Reiko Horimoto. Could Oshida have married Yukio Horimoto?

    As for Hitoshi Yasuda, I'm certain he belongs to Group SNE. I only find him in games "developed" by SNE, and I think that's a dead end. SNE seems to be a licencing and planning company; they don't seem to do any actual development work themselves, apart from drawing design documents and following progress at the actual developers.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) CRV's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by idrougge
    Here's food for thought: a director at the current Infinity is called Reiko Horimoto. Could Oshida have married Yukio Horimoto?
    I would say "probably." She worked on graphics for the GameCube version of Ribbit King. Yukio was one of the programmers.

    Yes, Infinity did the GameCube version of Ribbit King. Their works list only mentions that version. So I don't know if they did the PS2 version.

    Quote Originally Posted by idrougge
    As for Hitoshi Yasuda, I'm certain he belongs to Group SNE. I only find him in games "developed" by SNE, and I think that's a dead end. SNE seems to be a licencing and planning company; they don't seem to do any actual development work themselves, apart from drawing design documents and following progress at the actual developers.
    Yes, Hitoshi Yasuda IS from Group SNE. Group SNE is a company mostly involved with making pen-and-paper and table RPGs. Their involvement in video games doesn't seem to beyond those things you pointed out. However, I did consider Group SNE a developer on PCE Cyber Knight, since Ryo Mizuno of Group SNE designed the game. But maybe I shouldn't. What do you think?

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    Quote Originally Posted by CRV
    Quote Originally Posted by idrougge
    Here's food for thought: a director at the current Infinity is called Reiko Horimoto. Could Oshida have married Yukio Horimoto?
    I would say "probably." She worked on graphics for the GameCube version of Ribbit King. Yukio was one of the programmers.
    You always seem to be one step ahead.

    Quote Originally Posted by CRV
    Yes, Infinity did the GameCube version of Ribbit King. Their works list only mentions that version. So I don't know if they did the PS2 version.
    I'd say they did not. They have a separate page where they list their original concepts, and those are few. Ribbit is not listed there. Their specialty seems to be ports in any case, just a look at the release list tells you that.

    Quote Originally Posted by CRV
    Quote Originally Posted by idrougge
    As for Hitoshi Yasuda, I'm certain he belongs to Group SNE. I only find him in games "developed" by SNE, and I think that's a dead end. SNE seems to be a licencing and planning company; they don't seem to do any actual development work themselves, apart from drawing design documents and following progress at the actual developers.
    Yes, Hitoshi Yasuda IS from Group SNE. Group SNE is a company mostly involved with making pen-and-paper and table RPGs. Their involvement in video games doesn't seem to beyond those things you pointed out. However, I did consider Group SNE a developer on PCE Cyber Knight, since Ryo Mizuno of Group SNE designed the game. But maybe I shouldn't. What do you think?
    That depends on what you mean by "develop". Planning and writing scenario is of course a development job, but the hard work was done by Compile. I'm more intrigued by who did the SNES version. Did Tonkinhouse/Tokyo Shoseki have its own development team?

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