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Offline Nagumo

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #45 on: August 26, 2013, 04:54:27 AM »
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Some more information about the developers of the NES games I found on MobyGames:

  • M. Takemoto: Besides Castlevania he also worked on Top Gun and Contra Force. He seems to disappear from Konami in the early '90's.
  • Y. Okuda: His full name is Yasuo Okuda. Noteably, he also worked on Snake's Revenge, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Legend of the Mystical Ninja. As of 2009, he's still with Konami.
  • S. Kitamoto: Full name is Shinji Kitamoto. His work besides Castlevania includes, Top Gun, Contra, Esper Dream, And Knightmare II. After Castlevania III he seems to have disappeared.
  • T. Fujimoto. First name is Takehsi. Worked on Parodious, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. Afterwards, he joined Square Enix. Noteably, he also worked on Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
  • N. Togakushi: Not much known about this guy. Besides Castlevania, he only worked on Gyruss.
  • K. Ogawa: Kumiko Ogawa. Interestingly, he also worked on Curse of Darkness. Afterwards he joined Capcom and worked on several Resident Evil games and Dragon's Dogma.

Offline PFG9000

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #46 on: August 26, 2013, 09:10:16 AM »
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Now that I've finally had a chance to read this article, I see that Kurt Kalata (DiscoAlucard here) helped out with it.  The very end of the article thanks him.

Offline RichterB

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #47 on: August 26, 2013, 11:45:22 AM »
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GREAT INTERVIEW! Besides what's been mentioned, the biggest things I picked out were:

1.) Had Super Castlevania IV been developed after and not during CVIII, it would have had branching paths! :o
2.) Super Castlevania IV was no fluke; the things we've picked out as great were on purpose. The team was really dialed in and enthusiastic.
3.) The balance issues with the whip were likely a combination of crunch time to get the game done and the tinkering of levels and whip mechanics after some structures had already been laid down. Seems like the dialogue between the whip designer and level designer was back and forth with experimentation rather than set in stone. Ueno says the whole thing could have had more polish.
4.) We now have an answer about the famous Beta "fight through a ROOM!"
5.) Ueno gave some pointers/opinions to the Bloodlines team, it sounded like.
6.) Somebody hire this guy to do a new 2D Castlevania with all the bells and whistles!!! He passed the job interview!
7.) Kurt is still out there in the fandom!

Offline shelverton.

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #48 on: August 26, 2013, 12:51:32 PM »
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I see most of you have already read the article by now, but I got this from the actual author (He's over at HG101) so I thought I'd share this with y'all!




"The CV1, CV2, and CV3 team were the same group - they also did Snake's Revenge, which I think is amazing.

The CV4 team, headed by Mitch, was entirely separate, though according to Mitch there was definite overlap in the development periods. CV4 began development prior to CV3 coming out. It must have started just as Nintendo was informing companies about the SFC, since they only had design specs, not actual dev hardware at first.

As for the creators of the original CV, that's very interesting. The Famicom Disk System release was first, and predates the MSX2 version, which was by an entirely different team (Konami kept the FC, MSX and arcade divisions all separate in those days).

I interviewed the creator of Haunted Castle (it's unpublished), and he said that the head of CV1 was Hitoshi Akamatsu, the same as the sequels.

Now, Derboo on HG101 did some digging, and found that Hitoshi Akamatsu at Konami also worked on Time Pilot, and filed a patent regarding this, which listed his home address. It was missing the postal code, so I checked it against the city and found 5 possible codes. I sent 5 letters to Japan, with slightly different addresses.

I recently received the last one back - all were marked undeliverable. It seems he doesn't live there any more.

Will we ever get hold of the true mind behind the original? I have no idea.

Also, someone spoke about MegaMan's creator. If I'm not mistaken it's not Keiji Inafune, but rather Akira Kitamura.

Glad everyone enjoyed the article. It's my last one until I've finished my book.

Best regards
John S"



Offline Pfil

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #49 on: August 26, 2013, 12:55:59 PM »
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Excellent article! Plenty of rare and valuable information!
Thanks for sharing it!
Now I'm tired, eternally walking... forever dying, and never stopping. I feel in sorrow, all I see is white. I’m following a blind way beneath a sad sky.


Offline Lelygax

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #50 on: August 26, 2013, 02:08:01 PM »
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How 'bout we not discuss Cox here unless Ueno or somebody says something on him, eh? Frankly, I'm sick of seeing the dipshit's name, so let's move on; this is about Ueno.

Sounds good to me

All scans in original quality, zipped:
http://rapidshare.com/files/131335375/CV4scans.zip

Thanks, D/Ling it right now.

I interviewed the creator of Haunted Castle (it's unpublished), and he said that the head of CV1 was Hitoshi Akamatsu, the same as the sequels.

Also, someone spoke about MegaMan's creator. If I'm not mistaken it's not Keiji Inafune, but rather Akira Kitamura.

So we get good news only to discover that Keiji Inafune is lying? Who is Akira Kitamura?
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Offline Nagumo

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #51 on: August 26, 2013, 02:41:33 PM »
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An interview with Haunted Castle's creator? This guy is amazing. Can't wait to read it. I have a theory Castlevania, Vampire Killer, and Haunted Castle were all born from an initial idea and developed alongside each other. I wonder if that's true?

Offline shelverton.

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #52 on: August 26, 2013, 02:44:33 PM »
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About the creator of Mega Man, here's something from a Gamespot interview 6 years ago:

"Inafune also revealed that he wasn't responsible for the creation of Mega Man himself. "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom," he explained. "My mentor [at Capcom], who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him. I didn't get to completely design a Mega Man [protagonist] from scratch until Zero (Mega Man X, SNES). Back when the SNES was coming out, I was asked to give Mega Man a redesign, so I created this character. But I realized that this design wouldn't be accepted as Mega Man, so I had another designer create the new Mega Man, and I worked on Zero to release him as the 'other main character' that would steal all the good scenes!"

I'm guessing this 'mentor' was Kitamura?
« Last Edit: August 26, 2013, 02:46:26 PM by shelverton. »

Offline Lelygax

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #53 on: August 26, 2013, 02:54:26 PM »
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Thanks for clarifying, yes it should be Kitamura.
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Offline Abnormal Freak

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Re: Masahiro Ueno interview, Retro Gamer 119 (August)
« Reply #54 on: August 26, 2013, 03:17:39 PM »
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I interviewed the creator of Haunted Castle (it's unpublished), and he said that the head of CV1 was Hitoshi Akamatsu, the same as the sequels.

Cool stuff. Nice to know his first name and that he also headed CV1. Seems we have our original Castlevania director.


Also, someone spoke about MegaMan's creator. If I'm not mistaken it's not Keiji Inafune, but rather Akira Kitamura.

I had mentioned this. Inafune is often credited as the creator of Mega Man, but in the Mega Man Official Complete Works artbook he talks about what you later mentioned, that Inafune came on board after MM had already been created and drawn out in pixel art. I believe it was Inafune's job initially as illustrator to take that dot art and put it to pen and ink, and I believe he also designed some of the boss enemies, though a few like Elec Man were already created and drawn in dot art. I think that's how it went. (I could crack open the book if anyone's interested in knowing for sure.)

I don't think he ever mentioned the project leader's name, and I don't think I've seen the name Akira Kitamura before. It's nice to know the name of another original director of a famous franchise.



I sure hope that Haunted Castle interview sees the light of day soon.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2013, 03:20:29 PM by Abnormal Freak »
Oh yeah, and also:
meat

Soda as well.

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