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==[[Blog:Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)|Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)]]== | ==[[Blog:Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)|Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)]]== |
Revision as of 03:38, 14 September 2016
GDRI is dedicated to researching the companies and people involved with video game development. Find out more... | |||||||||
<startFeed /> Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)CRV (talk) 05:07, 11 August 2016 (CEST) [permalink] In the first edition of a new feature chronicling sound designers and production companies, GDRI catches up with some of the sound designers from Natsume (now Natsume Atari)'s 8/16-bit golden age.
Gale Racer (Saturn)CRV (talk) 05:33, 3 August 2016 (CEST) [permalink] The first game released for Sega's System 32 arcade hardware, Rad Mobile was impressive when it came out back in 1991. Three years would pass before there was a home system powerful enough to contain it. Enter Gale Racer for the Saturn. The object, like the arcade game, is to drive from Los Angeles to New York and claw your way to first place. But does this Saturn version perfectly replicate the arcade experience? Not quite. While Rad Mobile moves seamlessly from locale to locale ala Out Run, Gale Racer pauses the game between stages to show you your time and load the next section. This really changes — some might say even ruins — the flow of the game. Other vehicles on the road are made of polygons instead of sprites, which looks a little janky. The draw distance is lower, and the frame rate is not as smooth. The whole game seems a little buggy and a little glitchy. Gale Racer was handed off to a company called System Sacom, which was known mostly for adventure games. Former Sacom programmer Hiroshi Ogino wrote an e-book about his time there, and he devoted a chapter to his experience porting the game. Not surprisingly, it was quite difficult; the arcade cabinet and image/stage data were made available, but not the source code. Sega of America was at one time planning a US release, as it was mentioned in a press release announcing the Saturn's early launch. GameFan reported that the US version would "be completely repaired to mimic the arcade game perfectly." I asked Ogino about it, but he seemed to have no recollection. [1]
Post updated October 27, 2019 Change of Heart: Secular Developers Turned ChristianCRV (talk) 05:36, 30 January 2016 (CET) [permalink] A joke, circumstance, opportunity, a calling. Whatever the reason, some secular developers switched to, or at least tried their hand at, making Bible-based video games. Wisdom TreeThe most well-known example grew out of Color Dreams, a publisher and developer of unlicensed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Color Dreams founder Dan Lawton allegedly came up with the idea of doing religious games as a joke. Early on, Wisdom Tree took the older, more violent Color Dreams games and inserted family-friendly, Bible-related content. Sunday Funday: The Ride (NES) is basically a hack of Menace Beach, while Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land and Joshua & the Battle of Jericho (NES, et al.) were based on Crystal Mines. Since then, Wisdom Tree has put out a number of original educational and entertainment titles and continues to sell them on its website. Color Dreams is still around, doing business as StarDot Technologies, making surveillance cameras and related equipment. See also:
Credit to the creators/uploaders of the videos above Japanese-Developed Digitized Fighting GamesCRV (talk) 00:58, 24 December 2015 (CET) [permalink] The success of Midway's arcade blockbuster Mortal Kombat birthed many imitators. Would you believe some of them came from Japan? Reikai Doushi (1988, Arcade)While Mortal Kombat was the breakthrough hit that influenced a lot of games, it was not the originator of the digitized fighting form. Neither was Pit-Fighter. No, that honor goes to this little number by Home Data (now Magical) featuring a colorful cast of grotesque Chinese puppets.
Floating Runner (PlayStation)CRV (talk) 23:11, 5 September 2015 (CET) [permalink] Hey, it's a 3D platformer that came out before Super Mario 64 and before analog control became standard on consoles. That's something, right? In Floating Runner, you lead either adorable bounty hunter Lay or adorable priestess Cress on a journey to find seven crystals to save Crystal Land. As adorable as this game may be, it's marred by a lot of annoying little things, and they're not all attributable to the growing pains of the genre. Let's list them... (Plain old paragraphs are so cliché.)
But it's not all bad. The stage select system is unique - at the end of each world, the crystal cycles through different colors representing the other worlds. The frame rate is brisk. On a personal note, I find the game charming, despite its faults, and I don't have any desire to get rid of my copy. It's an interesting historical footnote. The music is nice, and I like the mix of flat-shaded and texture-mapped polygons. Just who developed this historical footnote of a game? If you dig around the disc, you'll find a T&E Soft copyright and credits (none for sound, though). These don't appear in-game, and there's no other mention anywhere that the average player would see. The staff names suggest this was done at T&E Soft Osaka (which was computer game company Xtalsoft once upon a time), where Red Alarm and Blaze & Blade were also made. Finally, let's take a moment to look at the Western packaging, especially the inside of the case. Yuck! At least someone had the good sense to use the Japanese art on the disc and inside the manual (see right). P.S. I don't pay much attention to Games Done Quick stuff, but I was impressed by this speed run. Panzer Dragoon Mini (Game Gear)CRV (talk) 16:35, 24 June 2015 (CEST) [permalink] Towards the end of the Game Gear's life in Japan, Sega rebranded it the Kid's Gear in an attempt to market the system to children. One of the handful of titles released under this brand was Panzer Dragoon Mini. Besides maybe the dragons, there's nothing particularly cute here. This is Panzer Dragoon — stripped of just about everything anybody would have liked about the Saturn games. After you choose one of three dragons to control (not ride, apparently), it's on to the action. You make your way through several stages shooting enemies, with either your regular shot or a lock-on laser. (There's no berserk attack despite the game coming out after Zwei.) Sometimes the camera shifts to the side, but that's about as interesting as things get. There are mid-bosses and end bosses, but their attack patterns primarily consist of moving back and forth spraying bullets. The backgrounds and especially the sprites look nice, but the ground is made up of boring, rolling stripes. It goes without saying that the music isn't as good as the Saturn versions, but Hitoshi Sakimoto should be commended for producing these pleasant arrangements. [CORRECTION: Hitoshi Sakimoto's works list says he only created the sound driver, so we don't know who actually arranged the music.] Spoiler - here's the exciting ending:CONGRATURATIONS!
There are no credits, so it's more difficult to pin down a developer. Evidence (as identified here) points to Rit's as the culprit, a company that made some original RPGs, most notably the Dragon Master Silk series, and worked on many of the old Shining games. Some images from SMS Power! Pinball Spirits (Windows)CRV (talk) 04:48, 14 May 2015 (CEST) [permalink] I like me some video pinball; I've amassed a decent collection of video pinball games. So when I found out about a pinball game that involved GDRI veteran Opera House and only came out in Japan, I was interested. Actually, even if it isn't great, I want it. But good luck finding it - not only is Pinball Spirits a Japanese exclusive, it's available only for Windows. There's a copy on Amazon Japan for under $60 US. Enjoy the cover shots at the link because that's all you're gonna see. Such is the world of Japanese Windows games. They seem to be among the most poorly documented and poorly preserved, unless there's something going on that I don't know about (which is possible). At least shopping sites like Amazon have games listed. There's more than just eroge. Did you know Konami released games like Henry Explorers (Crypt Killer) for Windows in Japan? Fun fact about Pinball Spirits: It was produced in cooperation with the non-profit Tokyo Pinball Organization. Read more about them here. <endFeed /> | |||||||||
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