Interview:Kimihiro Endoh

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What started out as a quest for answers about Opera House turned into a discussion about the publisher/developer Hot-B. Informative just the same.

Endoh-san's responses have been minimally edited.

GDRI: Did you work at Opera House?

KE: Yes, I worked at the Opera House. But, I did't work as an employee. I worked on freelance programmer.

GDRI: What was it like working for Opera House (as a freelance programmer)?

KE: I worked only programming.

GDRI: Do you have any information about the company?

KE: No, because I worked before 15 years with them.

GDRI: Did you have a contract with them?

KE: Yes.

GDRI: Do you remember what games you worked on? It looks like you did The 7 Colors on the PC-98 and Side Pocket on the Sega Game Gear.

KE: I am very surprised and miss it. How are you ever going to find me and my works? I remember ....

• 鋼鉄帝国 [TRANSLATION: Koutetsu Teikoku - aka Steel Empire, Empire of Steel] - MegaDrive(GENESIS) [HOT-B]
• 7 Colors - PC-98 [HOT-B] This is my first work on freelance.
• Side Pocket - Game Gear [Data East, Opera House]
• Civizard(Master of Magic) - PlayStation [Asmik, Locus, Opera House]
• (Omit. Because the following are the Internet applications on Windows.)

GDRI: Were you working at Hot-B before going freelance? My colleague noticed you're also credited on Blue Almanac (Sega Mega Drive).

KE: Yes, but I was part-time jobber. I helped only demo scene for Blue Almanac.

GDRI: Did something happen at Hot-B? It looks like you and [Jun] Kuriyama-san [formerly of Hot-B, currently the head of Dynamite] left during the same period of time.

KE: It is impossible to write it by my English skill.

GDRI: Was The 7 Colors done under contract with Opera House?

KE: No, I contracted with Hot-B.

GDRI: But the disk image contains the text string "OPERAHOUSE=4Yu." Do you know why? Was Opera House involved?

KE: Perhaps, the 7 Colors's music and sound driver made by [Hitoshi] Sakimoto-san.

Hot-B <- Opera House -> Sakimoto-san.
  |                            |
  +----------contract----------+

GDRI: Do you remember what Locus and Opera House did on Civizard respectively?

KE:

Asmik (Publishing)
  |
  +--- Locus (Direction)
         |
         +-----Opera House (Graphics)
                    |
                    +---- Sound (Sakimoto-san? I forgot.) [ED: Sakimoto did, in fact, work on Civizard]
                    |
                    +---- Program (me)

GDRI: What did you do on Koutetsu Teikoku - programming? The title "LOCATION DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY" is rather vague.

KE: I made the BIOS, Player logic, Map and Scroll logic, Boss logic, I dont't touch the enemy logic. (by Yamaguchi-san) Of course I was PART-TIME JOBBER :-)

Now I remember.

Crack Down - Sega Mega Drive (pub. Sega)
This is my first job.

GDRI: So Crack Down was by Hot-B? We had our suspicions.

KE: Yes. Sega がソースコードをくれなかったので アーケード版を遊びながらロジックを想像して 作りました. 後に、Sega から全然違うと怒られた :-<

[TRANSLATION: Yes. Sega did not give us any source code, so I had to guess how the game logic worked by playing the arcade version. Afterwards, Sega was disappointed because it was completely wrong.]

GDRI: Were you "EC.NA.DF.OE?"

KE: Yes, My name is (Kim)ihiro E(c)n(a)d(f)o(e).

GDRI: Do you know if Kageki and Insector-X were done at Hot-B?

KE: I don't remember well. Direction and part of graphics were Hot-B. But, sound and programs were subcontracting.(Genki?)

We thank Endoh-san for his time. Be sure to check out his software applications here.

Interview conducted via e-mail by CRV in January 2008.