Topic: The Creator of CV??

[Sindra]

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/cvlib-credits.htm#vkill

According to Mr.P's, Vampire Killer (essentially "Castlevania") was produced and designed by one, Akihiro Nagata. So, for the sake of argument, it would appear he's the most qualified to take title of "Creator of Castlevania". Oddly enough, it doesn't appear he had much if any involvement in any of the other games in the series. (though Mr.P's doesn't have the credits for Simon's Quest)

Unfortunately, I have looked around the net, and all other places sport KONAMI as being the producer of the game. That, and looking up his name doesn't produce much.....so I don't have anything to backup this tidbit of info.

[Kale]

In Reply To #17 & 16

what about the japanese version? It souds from what you said, its just a absolutely horrid translation >.> which..... seems to happen to castlevania, even today.

[Steve]

The credits are the same in the Japanese version.  The tribute to old monster movies was intentional, not the result of bad localization.

http://www.vgmuseum.com/mrp/NewCV/cvlib-credits.htm#vkill

According to Mr.P's, Vampire Killer (essentially "Castlevania") was produced and designed by one, Akihiro Nagata. So, for the sake of argument, it would appear he's the most qualified to take title of "Creator of Castlevania". Oddly enough, it doesn't appear he had much if any involvement in any of the other games in the series. (though Mr.P's doesn't have the credits for Simon's Quest)

Vampire Killer's credits include a special thanks to the "FC Team," meaning the staff of the Famicom game, which came first.  And considering how little any of the other games take after VK (especially compared to the Famicom game), I definitely wouldn't be comfortable jumping to the idea of that game's producer being the de facto father of the franchise.

[Sindra]

Well, before IGA, there doesn't appear to be any determinable one person that was consistent with the overseeing of multiple games in the series. There's no defined "leader". So, are we trying to prove who started the series itself, or who is responsible for the series extending past just one game and into a franchise?

[Profbeanburrito]

well,I wanted to know who the "father" of the series was. The guy who came up with the original and did the work.

[CVfan13]

There is always the possibility that one solid person didnt make it. They could have had some sort of "idea discusion" and that just came up and was built on by multiple Konami people's.

[DragonSlayr81]

I wonder if anybody at Konami really knows this? I mean, there HAS to be some guys still working them who worked aroudn the time the original was made. A lot of Japanese video game companies have veteren game designers in the midsts. Even if the sole person who came up with the concept is gone, I'm sure someone THERE is aware who that person is. Unless they totally got rid of all the old peeps of Konami. Though it was before Metal Gear, maybe Hideo Kojima knows who created the series. He was there "around" that time.

[CVfan13]

In Reply To #24

Maybe it WAS Hideo Kojima and he is secretly hiding it. He gave the honor to a dude named Bob, Konami didn't like the name Bob, so they refused to give out that information, and thus, we do not know of Bob, the end.

[Sonic_Reaper]

There is always the possibility that one solid person didnt make it. They could have had some sort of "idea discusion" and that just came up and was built on by multiple Konami people's.

This is the most likely scenario, especially where "Konami" is credited for its creation.  At one point (is there still??), there was a "Konami Music Club" that oversaw music production, which would have included more than one person.  So the "director" or "creator" of the first game in a series may not necessarily be the ONLY person that thought of the idea, or perhaps did, but was molded and changed based on the suggestions of others.

[Profbeanburrito]

There is always the possibility that one solid person didnt make it. They could have had some sort of "idea discusion" and that just came up and was built on by multiple Konami people's.

Thats true, it is possible. Super CV 4 was made by like 3 people so, i don't think that it would be too large a group that made CV,  but I'm still sure there's some one who should be mentioned as it's creator. Miyamoto was the creator of Super Mario Bros. but he still had his team to help, so thats kind what I was looking for head director or the guy who thought: "Let's make some dude go through a castle to fight Dracula and on the way he'll fight so cool undead monsters......with a whip!"

[Slayer]

The question I answered was already answered.  My bad.

[CVfan13]

In Reply To #27

Well yeah, everybody needs their team. In the case of CV, one of these "teams" may have indeed created CV.

[The Silverlord]

I'd like to think there was one creator/definitive producer (even if it was the mind who just said, "hey, let's do a Dracula game!"), and given IGA's response it hints at one person.

Akihiro Nagata is listed as the Producer and Game Designer of Vampire Killer, but I can't find him on any other MSX1/2 game credits to see if he was busy on those platforms with other games.

Interestingly, Metal Gear on MSX2 (07.07.1987), like Vampire Killer, has a Game Designer entry listing Hideo Kojima.  The NES version which came later (22.12.1987) has no such entry, nor even a Special Thanks to Kojima.

The NES version Maze of Galious, which I believe shipped well after its superior MSX counterpart, lists a completely different staff team from the MSX version, although they nod with a Special Thanks to Ryouhei Shogaki, Graphic Designer and Planner/Director of the MSX version.

It's rather here-or-there if you were to take any stock in that kind of thing.  With Vampire Killer, given the release dates, there's not much in it:

26 Sept 1986   Akumajo Dracula (Castlevania) - Famicom Disk System
30 Oct 1986    Akumajo Dracula (Vampire Killer) - MSX 2

(Source: msx.org)

But who can truly say which was programmed first?  Also, the Special Thanks nod to the FC Team could have been in relation to anything; i.e. help with disk to cartridge (although unlikely).  And while it seems more logical to suggest different platform teams would share the same producer, there's no real evidence to suggest this would be the case, given that teams appear to be "platform-specific".

[The Last Belmont]

^ I think both games were probably programmed around the same time, some elements that wouldn't work on the MSX (side scrolling for instance) were never implemented and diff. ones were incorporated into the MSX game as a result.  (making you find keys to progress instead of the doors just all being unlocked). They seem to be two very diff. games which just share some similar sprites and ideas. Even the main weapons for each game are different. It seems more or less like Konami gave the idea which was thought up and discussed by maybe some of it's higher ups to the Famicom and MSX divisions and let them create 2 different games. The different divisions probably had little to no contact as was standard in japanese companies back then, especially in big corporations. Different divisions were also known to not like each other some times back then. (sony is a good example of this)
As a result they created two very diff. games with the nes one fairing better then it's MSX counterpart and spawning many direct sequels as a result. (Though the MSX version is included in the official canon now as an alternate telling of Simon's Encounter) It would seem Konami just took a gamble and it payed off. It would seem they kept better records of the MSX team than the Famicom team or they were lost over the 21 years since the famicom game first came out. I don't know if anyone has scanned the rom code looking for hidden stuff, but the actual credits for the original game might be hidden in the rom somewhere.

[The Silverlord]

Indeed, good points.  You know, given the size of the teams back then, it wasn't uncommon for a producer or director to be directly involved with the coding or graphic design, although that doesn't seem to be the case with Nagata (same for Kojima too with Metal Gear), which might suggest he was higher up and overseeing the affairs of both teams.

At any rate, Nagata's input cannot be neglected and is perhaps considerable: Vampire Killer has much in conjunction with Symphony of the Night, such as the free room-by-room feel and item collecting/bartering elements.  Qualities which may have been done before (Metroid, Maze of Galious), but not in the context of Castlevania as we know it.

And you're right on the money with the hardware limitations: the MSX2 version would have been programmed in Z80, and the NES is 6502 architecture.  The original MSX was notoriously bad for side-scrolling.  If development had began during the MSX period, Vampire Killer would have been designed with rooms from the outset.