SEGAbits Forums
Gaming => General Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Gryson on November 18, 2020, 12:40:28 pm
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I'm writing a book that might interest some people here:
Legends of 16-Bit Game Development: A History of Treasure and the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
(https://rasterscroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Legends-Cover-01-1.jpg)
This is based on extensive research I've done in Japanese, and the book is full of new information on the history of Treasure that (in my opinion) is really exciting.
You can read an excerpt here:
Hideyuki Suganami and the Birth of Seven Force (http://"https://rasterscroll.com/the-birth-of-seven-force/")
The book is currently on Kickstarter, so if you're interested, please support it! I can't make this a reality without a lot of help.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development)
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Nice !!!
I always love reading anything Mega Drive related
and Treasure games always deliver.
Also back then when I bought Game Boy Advance,
Treasure's Gunstar Super Heroes was my first GBA game.
The drawback is just ...
The book's price is fair but the shipping cost to Asia is really costly.
Still I'm gonna support it later.
Hope your campaign would be funded.
Keep us updated here. :-D
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Something that I want to emphasize too when I read the article, as a Mega Drive lover.
The Advantages of the Mega Drive over the SNES
when It Came to Multi-jointed Characters
(https://i.gifer.com/IYbV.gif)
Maegawa: “On the SNES, it was more difficult to implement lots of multi-jointed movement.
The SNES wasn’t as good at multiplication, so you’d have to store character movement patterns as data.
Since the Mega Drive was good at multiplication, you could do the movement calculations in the program.
For the hardware of the time, that was a big deal.
Multi-jointed movement on the Mega Drive looked very smooth.”
Article : https://rasterscroll.com/the-birth-of-seven-force/ (https://rasterscroll.com/the-birth-of-seven-force/)
This article is an excerpt from this Book Development Kickstarter.
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Wow Gryson this seems to be amazing. Thank you for the Kickstarter link, I will be sure to add to it. I have always been interested in books concerning gaming history both for consoles and for PC. I have quite a few of them with my favorite, so far, being the story of Sierra On-Line company The Sierra Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line by Shawn Mills. Yours seems to be right up my alley and I excited. Just to be clear, there will be a physical copy, right? It is not just an electronic format?
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Nice !!!
I always love reading anything Mega Drive related
and Treasure games always deliver.
Also back then when I bought Game Boy Advance,
Treasure's Gunstar Super Heroes was my first GBA game.
The drawback is just ...
The book's price is fair but the shipping cost to Asia is really costly.
Still I'm gonna support it later.
Hope your campaign would be funded.
Keep us updated here. :-D
Sorry it's expensive - blame the US Postal Service, since the cheapest international parcel shipping is $23+ to most countries. But thanks for the support, and I love that Gunstar Heroes gif!
Wow Gryson this seems to be amazing. Thank you for the Kickstarter link, I will be sure to add to it. I have always been interested in books concerning gaming history both for consoles and for PC. I have quite a few of them with my favorite, so far, being the story of Sierra On-Line company The Sierra Adventure: The Story of Sierra On-Line by Shawn Mills. Yours seems to be right up my alley and I excited. Just to be clear, there will be a physical copy, right? It is not just an electronic format?
Thanks! Yes, this Kickstarter is for a 7x10-inch physical book. I might do an ebook later, but now I wanted to put all support into the physical book.
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I'll put the kicstarter updates' here, in case someone missed it..
Two Additional Reward Tiers Added
(https://s12.directupload.net/images/201124/55ofuk2q.jpg)
Small update: I've added two reward tiers for those of you who want to pick up two copies of the book with combined shipping.
Thank you for all of the support so far! I am very excited about the progress of the project.
Link : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3029853 (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3029853)
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Added some cool Treasure related info that Gryson added on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock) and Sega-16 forum :
What was it like on the business side of running a development company in Japan?
(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SentimentalMeekBengaltiger-size_restricted.gif)
Treasure president Masato Maegawa recounted the time he was called into Sega president Hayao Nakayama's office...
It was early 1995, shortly after the release of Dynamite Headdy. The value of the yen had just suddenly risen to a historical high against the US dollar, meaning all sales in the US now brought in much less money in Japan. Many Japanese companies, including Sega, were suffering.
Maegawa had already signed the contract for Dynamite Headdy: Sega paid ¥50 million (~$500,000) up front for development, plus ¥300 (~$3) royalty per copy sold in both Japan and the US. Notably, Sega was paying in yen per copy sold in the US rather than in dollars. However...
Sega president Nakayama called Maegawa into his office and said he was unilaterally revising the contract, despite the game already being released. For per-copy sales in the US, he crossed out ¥300 and wrote in $2.4.
It was necessary to switch to dollars, Nakayama said, because the appreciation of the yen would put Sega into the red otherwise. Maegawa was flabbergasted, since the revision would cost Treasure a lot of money, but he had no power to prevent it.
Nakayama made Maegawa stamp his hanko seal next to the changes to show he approved of them, even though Maegawa was thinking to himself, "This is illegal!" But he had no recourse if he wanted to continue working with Sega.
Maegawa later found out that despite this experience, Sega was perhaps the most generous publisher when it came to overseas sales. Many publishers would reduce the overseas royalty to 1/5 of what it was in Japan, making it hard for developers to profit from high sales outside Japan.
Source: Game Business Archive 3, 2019
If stories like these interest you, please consider supporting the book! (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development)
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The pixel art desk on the cover of Legends of 16-Bit Game Development Book is inspired by Hideyuki Suganami's desk, shown here in an illustration from 1993.
Suganami made use of hardware for both programming and graphic design.
(https://rasterscroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Suganami-Desk-small.jpg)
(https://rasterscroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Legends-Cover-01-1.jpg)
Link : https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1330989614409129985
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AXION
(https://i.ibb.co/3zn5RFn/Axion.jpg)
"Treasure's 4-player fighting game Yu Yu Hakusho: Makyo Toitsusen started out as an original title called Axion.
These are the only screenshots known to exist of it, from Beep! MD July 1994. I don't believe these have been posted online before."
Link : https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1332800959110668290
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Trivia : Treasure's Gunstar Heroes & Dynamite Headdy are available on mobile devices too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS77a4eeXTo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L6tY90enhE
Reminder - 14 days left to back this awesome book :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3029853
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Treasure's Studio in Shinjuku from 1994
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/MD-Fan-9-1994-Treasure-Office-01.jpg)
Ever wonder what a Japanese development studio looked like?
Here's a (probably) never-before scanned or translated sketch of Treasure's studio in Shinjuku from 1994, done by a staff member (from MD Fan 9/1994).
Source : https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1334939968058306564
Reminder - 11 days left to back this cool book :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development
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Here's an awesome bit of Treasure history that I just translated: the original note and sketch that Suganami sent to Sega describing the Alien Soldier cover.
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/AS-Cover-sketch-translated-sm.jpg)
The final cover was drawn by Sega's artist Jun Satoh, who also created several other iconic Sega covers, including Shadow Dancer, Golden Axe II, and Ax Battler.
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/AS-Cover-sm.jpg)
One of the interesting finds here is that Suganami drew a character called "Lambda Bunny" in his sketch, but this character was not included in the game. There is a conspicuous gap on the final cover art where the character would have been.
Oh, and just a reminder, if you're interested in supporting content like this, please back the book on Kickstarter! We're at 71% with just 10 days to go:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development)
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Here's an awesome bit of Treasure history that I just translated: the original note and sketch that Suganami sent to Sega describing the Alien Soldier cover.
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/AS-Cover-sketch-translated-sm.jpg)
The final cover was drawn by Sega's artist Jun Satoh, who also created several other iconic Sega covers, including Shadow Dancer, Golden Axe II, and Ax Battler.
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/AS-Cover-sm.jpg)
One of the interesting finds here is that Suganami drew a character called "Lambda Bunny" in his sketch, but this character was not included in the game. There is a conspicuous gap on the final cover art where the character would have been.
Oh, and just a reminder, if you're interested in supporting content like this, please back the book on Kickstarter! We're at 71% with just 10 days to go:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development)
The sketch was cool and Jun Satoh could managed it well.
But I don't like why they choose to use a flame-like color for them.
I know it's to make the main character stand out but feels like such a waste for all of those cool enemy's pictures.
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Seven Days to Go !!!
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/Maegawa-Quote.jpg)
Just a reminder that the companion booklet of translated content will only be available in the KS campaign!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development
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How popular was Gunstar Heroes in Japan?
Look at the games it beat out (by a large margin!) to win the reader-selected Action Game of the Year Award 1993 from the magazine Beep! MD.
1993: What a year for the Genesis/MD!
(https://i.ibb.co/Qv3FG94/How-popular-was-Gunstar-Heroes-in-Japan.jpg)
Source : https://twitter.com/MegaDriveShock/status/1337177012461391872
Five Days to Go :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development
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The Book is Finally 100% Funded !!! :D
Congrats Gryson !!!
(https://rasterscroll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Legends-Cover-01-1.jpg)
Some more fun translated stuff:
Ever notice a certain... resemblance between Gunstar Heroes' Smash Daisaku and another famous video game villain?
Treasure wasn't afraid to make fun of the resemblance! A Treasure staff member drew this comic at the time of the release of Gunstar Heroes in 1993 (Beep! MD 10/93). I also like the Shin Megami Tensei reference.
(https://mdshock.com/wp-content/uploads/Smash-Comic-Tr-s.jpg)
Note that Vega is the original Japanese name for M. Bison in the West.
Four Days to Go :
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development
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Thanks!
You can read the latest update here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3050272
I'm pleased to announce that Sik (@plutiedev (https://twitter.com/plutiedev)) will be working as a technical consultant on the book!
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Thanks!
You can read the latest update here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3050272 (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rasterscroll/legends-of-16-bit-game-development/posts/3050272)
I'm pleased to announce that Sik (@plutiedev (https://twitter.com/plutiedev)) will be working as a technical consultant on the book!
That's good to hear, SIK is great and talented.
I love his Mini Planets and Project MD,
bought physical version of Mini Planets years ago.
Arkagis Revolution is not my favorite genre though,
but still by playing its demo, it plays and looks impressive.
Nice to see this campaign is still going strong too.
18 hours to go and it's already more than $20.000
I've pledged too of course, looking forward to reading your book, Gryson. :-D
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(https://64.media.tumblr.com/15c7020de8663789b43c40298a25bba6/tumblr_pk0jewoyuo1roqda3o1_r2_500.gifv)
For those of you out there that missed the Kickstarter campaign but would like to support the book and ensure you receive a copy during the first print run, you can pre-order here: https://rasterscroll.com/