Category Archives: Magazine Translations

Mega Drive Darius: Have Fun With This Historical What-If of a Port

Magazine Translations

Yuuichi Toyama (Taito Development Division 2, Development Department, left) Katsuhisa Ishikawa (Taito Development Division 1, Head of Sound Department, right) What were each of you doing when Darius first came out? (Toyama) I would have been working on Thunder Force III at Technosoft around then. I was responsible for game development on the MSX, but was very jealous of the capabilities of arcade hardware (Laughs) I played Darius quite a bit and everything about it astounded me, including the three screen cabinet. (Ishikawa) I was still in high school. I remember thinking what an amazing game Darius was when it rattled the windows of the old shop I used to play it in, with the huge sound it put out from the Body Sonic system (Laughs) Continue Reading

Today’s Akihabara With UK

Magazine Translations

Interview/Article - Yukio Hayashi Photography - Hiroyuki Matsuzaki (https://www.instagram.com/itl_mtzk/) UK is the guitarist in a duo called MOROHA, that blends music and spoken words. He also loves games and Akihabara. We talked to him about why he's so entranced with Akihabara as we walked around the area for around three hours, as it poured down rain during the rainy season. 1:00 PM on 6/10, pouring rain. JR Akihabara Station, the Electric Town exit. It's too bad that it's pouring rain, but thanks for doing this. (UK) Thank you. First off, I'd like to hear some of your memories of Akihabara over lunch. Where do you usually eat when you come here? (UK) Sure. A lot of the times it's ramen or something, but I go to Gansen a lot too. Ahh, Gansen's great. Let's go. 1:10 PM, pouring rain. In front of Gansen. ...Looks like it's closed today and tomorrow (Laughs) (UK) Too bad! Alright, let's go get some curry from a place near Suehirocho station instead. Continue Reading

Hamster Applies For a Guinness World Record For an Unprecedented 131 Consecutive Weekly Releases

Hamster has released downloadable titles for 131 consecutive weeks, including the start of the Arcade Archives Neo Geo series when the Nintendo Switch released on 03/03/2017. As a result, they've applied for a Guinness World Record. Having released a total of 167 titles on the Nintendo Switch, this is an unprecedented number of releases. Series producer and president Satoshi Hamada gives us the whole story.

A Record Only Possible Due to Cooperation From Other Companies

What made you decide to develop for the Nintendo Switch, which is serving as the starting point for this record? (Hamada) We decided on it as soon as we heard about the Nintendo Switch. We'd already started releasing the Arcade Archives series on the PlayStation 4, but we were thinking of bringing it to the Switch as well. Continue Reading

Infiltrating A Store Making A Big Push For Game Music: TOWERanime Shinjuku

Shinjuku, where tons of people are constantly coming and going. And in Shinjuku lies a CD shop that puts its efforts into game music: TOWERanime Shinjuku. We bring you a glimpse into a department overflowing with enthusiasm from the game music loving staff.

Asking Someone That Sells Game Music: The Secret To Creating A Department

TOWERanime Shinuku, a department within Tower Records Shinjuku that was opened in 2014. It previously was centered mostly around anime, but after some recent changes it's now focusing heavily on game music. We've asked long time employee and game lover Ryuuji Kaneko about what it's like to sell game music CDs, and the advantages of doing so in an actual store. Continue Reading

Sound Creators That Pushed Hardware Limits: Yuzo Koshiro and Yasunori Mitsuda

In this interview, Yuzo Koshiro not only talks with us about music during the Super Famicom era, but also about working on the indispensable ActRaiser. Yasunori Mitsuda also talks about working on Chrono Trigger, a game that Koshiro said smashed his confidence to pieces. What have their journeys as creators been like, evolving along with the hardware? We've got the answers here. Yuzo Koshiro - The president of Ancient, and also a composer. He previously composed music for the Ys series with Nihon Falcom. Having gone freelance after that, he established Ancient in 1990 and got involved in games such as ActRaiser. In recent years he's composed music for the Etrian Odyssey series, and more. Yasunori Mitsuda - The president of Procyon Studio. After working at Wolf Team as a sound programmer, he joined Square (currently Square Enix), and made his debut as a composer with Chrono Trigger in 1995. He later went independent and formed his own company, Procyon Studio. In recent years he's worked on music for games such as Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Inazuma Eleven series, and more.

The Industry Shaking ActRaiser

Around when did the two of you first meet? (Koshiro) It was during the development of Kid Icarus: Uprising, which was released in 2012. Other composers were involved apart from me, but Mitsuda brought us all together. Procyon Studio even took care of all the recording. Continue Reading

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