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<div style="background-color:#C8C8C8"><small>'''FOLLOW GDRI ON [https://twitter.com/gdri TWITTER]''' :: Blog [[http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=feed&feed=rss RSS]]  :: [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]] [[http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=rss RSS]]</small></div>
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<div style="background-color:#C8C8C8; text-align: right;"><small>'''FOLLOW GDRI ON [https://twitter.com/gdri TWITTER]''' :: Blog [[http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page&action=feed&feed=rss RSS]]  :: [[Special:Recentchanges|Recent Changes]] [[http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php?title=Special:RecentChanges&feed=rss RSS]]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</small></div>
  
'''GDRI''' is dedicated to researching the companies and people involved with video game development. [[About|Find out more...]]
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'''GDRI (Game Developer Research Institute)''' is a website dedicated to researching the companies and people involved with video game development, especially the hidden world of contract development. To find out more about who we are and what we do, read [[About|our about page]]. Otherwise, please click one of the links on the menu to the left, or read our blog below. <small>(For increased enjoyment, go to a [[Special:Random|random page]].)</small>
 
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=Webmaster's Blog=
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==[[Blog:Zombie Hunter (Famicom)|Zombie Hunter (Famicom)]]==
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==[[Blog:Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)|Sounders: Natsume (Where Are They Now)]]==
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==[[Blog:Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega|Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega]]==
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==[[Blog:Gale Racer (Saturn)|Gale Racer (Saturn)]]==
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==[[Blog:Burning Fists: Force Striker (Mega CD/Sega CD)|Burning Fists: Force Striker (Mega CD/Sega CD)]]==
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==[[Blog:Change of Heart: Secular Developers Turned Christian|Change of Heart: Secular Developers Turned Christian]]==
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<div align="right">[[Blog:13|previous entries >>]]</div>
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<div align="right">[[Blog:14|previous entries >>]]</div>
 
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'''BLOG ARCHIVE''' (Newest-to-oldest) [[Blog:13|13]] | [[Blog:12|12]] | [[Blog:11|11]] | [[Blog:10|10]] | [[Blog:9|9]] | [[Blog:8|8]] | [[Blog:7|7]] | [[Blog:6|6]] | [[Blog:5|5]] | [[Blog:4|4]] | [[Blog:3|3]] | [[Blog:2|2]] | [[Blog:1|1]]
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'''BLOG ARCHIVE''' (Newest-to-oldest) [[Blog:14|14]] | [[Blog:13|13]] | [[Blog:12|12]] | [[Blog:11|11]] | [[Blog:10|10]] | [[Blog:9|9]] | [[Blog:8|8]] | [[Blog:7|7]] | [[Blog:6|6]] | [[Blog:5|5]] | [[Blog:4|4]] | [[Blog:3|3]] | [[Blog:2|2]] | [[Blog:1|1]]
 
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Revision as of 04:31, 1 November 2017


FOLLOW GDRI ON TWITTER :: Blog [RSS]  :: Recent Changes [RSS]    

GDRI (Game Developer Research Institute) is a website dedicated to researching the companies and people involved with video game development, especially the hidden world of contract development. To find out more about who we are and what we do, read our about page. Otherwise, please click one of the links on the menu to the left, or read our blog below. (For increased enjoyment, go to a random page.)

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Zombie Hunter (Famicom)

by CRV (talk) | Originally posted November 1, 2017

We're pleased to announce that Tower of Druaga and Dragon Buster had a baby and its name is Zombie Hunter.

In this Famicom title, you control a warrior wearing golden armor, trying to find a key to move on to the next area. Sound familiar? And just like Dragon Buster, it's a side-view, weapon-swinging action game where you periodically stop to battle enemies (which are apparently all zombies). Also, most of the bosses are dragons.

More RPG elements have been added to the mix such as experience points and leveling up. Victorious battles also earn you treasure chests filled with gold, which you can use in shops hidden throughout the game. Chests may also contain items such as armor, food, medicine, new weapons, and the key to the next level. Hopefully the enemies drop enough items because this is a tough game. Grinding is recommended.

Despite the fact most of the game takes place in an underground labyrinth, the levels aren't very mazelike at all. You're given the choice of two paths at the start and that's it. Unlike Dragon Buster, the stages only scroll left and right.

Zombie Hunter's resemblance to those Namco classics isn't much of a surprise, considering it was the brainchild of programmer Fukashi Omorita, a former employee at the venerable game maker. In fact, he worked on the Famicom version of Tower of Druaga and several other conversions. He later programmed Itadaki Street for the Famicom and a Monopoly game for the Super Famicom produced by Shigesato Itoi, then joined Chunsoft, where he was involved with some visual novels and Torneko no Daibouken games.

Other people worked on the game, of course — Omorita mentions on his site a graphic designer named Suda, who died several years later at a young age. The development company Lenar was brought in to do background graphics, music, and the voice synthesis you hear on occasion. Lenar was run by Junichi Mizutari, an acquaintance of Omorita's from Namco.

Zombie Hunter was published by a company called Hi-Score Media Work, which was also responsible for a game magazine. They were sued by Enix after they ran a spoiler article on Dragon Quest II, and that may have been the start of their downfall. They went on to release an English dictionary for the MSX (which Omorita worked on) as well as Faria, a Famicom RPG from Game Arts and something called Colon. They also appear to be behind the much-maligned PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 shooter Deep Blue, which was published by Pack-In-Video (which distributed Faria).

An MSX2 version of Zombie Hunter was also released which loses the voice samples and has choppier scrolling. The credits are the same as the Famicom version except for the addition of one programmer. It's unclear if Omorita actually worked on it as he doesn't talk about it on his site.

Activision planned a stateside NES release called Zombie Master, but that was canceled. If you must play Zombie Hunter, seek out the English translation by KingMike.

Post updated July 3, 2022

Legal Brief: Atari vs. Sega

CRV (talk) 05:49, 6 August 2017 (CEST) [permalink]

We now have "official" evidence of certain developers' involvement in certain Sega 8- and 16-bit games. But first, here's some background on the case that produced it:

In October 1993, Atari Corp.1 filed a lawsuit against Sega of America alleging infringement of a 1984 patent involving "horizontal scrolling on a video display."2 The Tramiel family company sought a preliminary injunction that would have halted the manufacture, use, and sale of Genesis and Game Gear hardware and software.

1. Atari Corp., incorporated on May 17, 1984, as Tramel [sic] Technology, Ltd., was started by ousted Commodore founder and president Jack Tramiel to create a new computer. In July of that year, the company bought Atari, Inc.'s consumer assets and was renamed Atari Corp.
2. U.S. Patent No. 4,445,114 ("Apparatus for Scrolling a Video Display")

The court found that the harm caused to Sega, retailers, developers, and peripheral manufacturers by this injunction would have likely outweighed whatever harm had been done to Atari, so the motion was denied. Nevertheless, a settlement was reached in September 1994 between both parties — Sega would acquire $40 million worth of stock in Atari and would also pay Atari $50 million for a license to use over 70 patents issued between 1977 and 1984. The companies agreed to cross-license up to five games per year through 2001. They also agreed to drop all claims against each other.

For the cash-strapped Atari Corp., this infusion of money was very important and likely helped enable deals with Williams, Acclaim, and EA and other projects that were in the hopper in 1995. Unfortunately, Atari president and CEO Sam Tramiel later had a heart attack, which prompted his father Jack to take back the reins of the company.3 Jack felt it was safer to tie up with JTS, a manufacturer of hard drives — a "brown box commodity" that required little marketing — than to continue piddling away money on video games and the Jaguar, which sold so poorly.4 Atari entered a reverse merger with JTS on July 30, 1996.

3. Jack Tramiel was CEO of Atari Corp. until his son took over in 1988. Jack had been and would remain Chairman of the Board.
4. 125,000 units sold

Ultimately, no Sega games ever made it to the Jaguar, but Atari did show interest. Sega sent a list of games available for licensing and, as you'll see in the memos posted below, eventually did approve a few. There was some speculation in the press that Virtua Fighter and Daytona could turn up on the Jag, but these were apparently off the table. Instead, Atari received a catalog of 8- and 16-bit games that also didn't include Sonic or Ecco. The list also notes if royalties would be owed to or need to be negotiated with a third party, usually outside developers, many of which are covered on this site.

References: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Continue reading to see the list and related memos, followed by a summary and breakdown of the developers mentioned


Burning Fists: Force Striker (Mega CD/Sega CD)

CRV (talk) 06:10, 22 June 2017 (CEST) [permalink]

Street Fighter II was such a phenomenon, even Sega of Japan made tepid attempts at cashing in. There was the arcade game Burning Rival, which is neither well-liked nor well-remembered. On the Master System and Game Gear, there was Masters of Combat/Buster Fight (developed by SIMS), which had a Dhalsim-like character with stretching arms and legs. Then there's this unreleased Mega CD/Sega CD game from 1994.

Burning Fists received little press and was quietly cancelled. Nevertheless, it was supposedly 80% complete, and there were two protoypes that eventually fell into the hands of Good Deal Games, which polished them up for a 2006 release.

So what do you get at 80% complete? Well, you get to choose from a motley but unmemorable cast of characters including a Japanese martial arts guy (the Ryu of the group), a Russian boxer with blue skin (the Blanka of the group, I guess), an overweight US Army guy, and a female wrestler.

The game itself, which is compatible with the six-button controller, is pretty unremarkable. You have various punches, kicks, and moves, you can block, and you can throw your opponent, but there's just nothing here that makes it stand out from other fighting games.

Most of the stages are fairly mundane as well, but a couple have nice flourishes. For example, the Daytona stage has a race car in the background that speeds off when the match is finished. A couple of the locales are interesting; I can't think of too many fighting games with an Iraq stage.

The AI was apparently beefed up for the GDG release, according to this article, but the notes on the disc say this was "canned." Either way, it's anemic most of the time. In many instances, you can spam a single attack.

What don't you get at 80% complete? Despite Good Deal Games' efforts, you don't get a bug-free game. On rare occasion, your opponent will stop moving.

And be careful not to press the start button after you win a round, or you'll activate a different bug — or perhaps it's a leftover debugging feature. The game will freeze, and you'll have to advance frames by pressing start until the word "FIGHT" forms in the next round.

One of the stages is missing: Denmark. There is no final boss battle, though you see his intro at the end of the game. You also don't get endings for each individual character; apparently these didn't work right and can't be seen in-game, but they are included as a bonus video on the disc.

There isn't even a consistent game name. The title screen says Force Striker, but other parts say Burning Fists, hence the conjoined name on the GDG release. According to Goodbye Soft, a book of unreleased MD/MCD/32X games, previous titles were Hustle Muscle and Real Fighters. (If you watch those individual endings, you'll see the characters all become "Real Fighters" after beating the boss.)

If you dig around the disc, you'll find the name of developer KAZe. Known more for pinball games like Last Gladiators on the Saturn, this would be KAZe's earliest known title for any Sega system. The company would not do another fighter until the Kamen Rider games for the PlayStation several years later. A 2ch post from 2007 backs up KAZe's involvement and says former Namco sound designer Norio Nakagata was the producer.

Speaking of sound, one of Burning Fists' strong points is the music, which seems like rejected tracks from Last Gladiators (not a bad thing). I went so far as to ask Last Gladiators composer and frequent KAZe collaborator Yusuke Takahama if he was involved; he confirmed it. ("Yes, I think I was in charge, but I do not know if the game was released.")

Overall, Burning Fists: Force Striker is a standard fighting game with glimmers of potential. It would have been decent if it was finished, but it probably would have never been a big hit.


The following video is a complete playthrough which also highlights some of Burning Fists' bugs and missing/incomplete features.

Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis/Mega Drive)

CRV (talk) 23:56, 30 May 2017 (CEST) [permalink]

Running on Sega's top-of-the-line Model 2 hardware, Virtua Fighter 2 was a remarkable feat of graphics and gameplay when it was released in arcades. Even the Saturn version seemed incredible at the time, but it took a lot of work to get it running at a high frame rate, and it was still not arcade perfect. Surely bringing VF2 to the Genesis would be an impossible task. That didn't stop them from trying.

Unsurprisingly, the graphics are the greatest and most obvious difference in this 16-bit version, now entirely 2D. The character animation is a little choppy, but the effect on gameplay is minimal. It still controls like you would expect a Virtua Fighter game to control.

The music has been competently converted, marred only by the overall tinniness of the audio. The voice samples, meanwhile, bring back memories of Fighters Megamix on the game.com. On second thought, they're not quite that bad, but they are scratchy.

Invariably in such translations, some content is going to get cut. Gone are the new characters from the arcade version, Shun Di and Lion, and some of the backgrounds. Some voices and moves are also missing.

It would be easy to dismiss this game as shovelware; however, consider that it was put together by a fairly extensive team in Japan (the only place where this version wasn't originally released). The programming and some of the graphics were done by Gai Brain, which developed a number of Takara's SNK ports including the great Game Gear version of Fatal Fury Special. Cotton maker Success was also involved with the graphics. Data East was involved in a production and direction capacity. Prolific audio company Cube worked on the sound.

Even Satoshi Nakai, who designed the enemies in Wings of Wor and Resident Evil – Code: Veronica among many other things, toiled away on this game. As he said in The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Volume 2, "I have painful memories of banging out pixels while drenched with sweat from the hot summer weather." And he just worked on Jacky.

On its own, Virtua Fighter 2 is not bad; you couldn't expect much better on the Genesis. It's just not better than any other version and was/is completely unnecessary. It's a novelty — a novelty they insist on including in every Genesis compilation and plug & play device ever made.

Video by "AoFparson" on YouTube

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