Interview

Interview with Satoshi Yokokawa: New Sonic 3 and Mecha Sonic Mk. II info revealed

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Sega Retro interviewer Ashley Rojas has published an in-depth interview with Satoshi Yokokawa, the Sonic Team artist behind Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic & Knuckles‘ enemies and bosses. The interview follows Yokokawa from his 1991 hiring at Sega CS1, where his first project was the Toshokan title 16t, to his transfer to the Sega Technical Institute in California for the development of Sonic 3. Yokokawa explains the thinking behind the game’s distinctive enemy designs and reveals the inspirations behind Mecha Sonic Mk. II‘s character designs. The interview goes on to cover his transition to 3D on Saturn titles like World Advanced Daisenryaku, the Gigas bosses of Eternal Arcadia, and his freelance work with Treasure on games including Astro Boy: Omega Factor, Gunstar Super Heroes, and Bangai-O Spirits.

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Exclusive Tom Payne interview: New details about Sonic 2 and Sega Technical Institute

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Ashley Rojas has conducted a new interview with Sega Technical Institute artist Tom Payne, most known for his role as one of three American artists assigned to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. In this interview, Tom reveals never-before-heard development information, including being brought onto the project, new details on Genocide City Zone, memories about working with his Japanese coworkers, and even how the dinosaur enemies later placed in Hidden Palace Zone came from his first week at the studio. He also expands on his contributions to titles like Sonic Spinball and Spinny & Spike, later recounting his career after leaving Sega and up to the present day.

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MICROWAVE MEGAWEEK DAY 4: DJ GEMS Demo and Sonic 2’s Club Scene

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DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro’s forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas – representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. – visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician’s game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David’s career and Sega of America’s audio history.

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MICROWAVE MEGAWEEK DAY 3: Multimedia Studio and the Sega CD

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DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro’s forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas – representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. – visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician’s game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David’s career and Sega of America’s audio history.

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MICROWAVE MEGAWEEK DAY 2: Internal Sega Genesis prototypes

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DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro’s forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas – representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. – visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician’s game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David’s career and Sega of America’s audio history.

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MICROWAVE MEGAWEEK: Five days of prototypes, documents and unreleased music

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DevStash x Sega Retro present Microwave Megaweek is a 5-day prototype and development material release event happening now on Sega Retro’s forums. Earlier this year, interviewer Ashley Rojas – representing her newly-founded game preservation nonprofit DevStash Inc. – visited former Sega of America audio director David Javelosa to preserve as much of the musician’s game industry work as possible. From never-before-seen internal documentation to long-sought prototypes, Microwave Megaweek serves as a physical representation of both David’s career and Sega of America’s audio history.

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Special interview with Tim of Walaber Entertainment, creator of Parking Garage Rally Circuit

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You may remember us reporting on Parking Garage Rally Circuit, an upcoming indie racing game coming soon to Steam, which is styled after a Sega Saturn game and could actually become a Saturn game if it gets enough sales on Steam. After that article, I have reached out to Tim of Walaber Entertainment, the studio developing Parking Garage Rally Circuit, for an interview with the man behind the game. He has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the game for all our readers.

Join us after the break to hear about Tim’s history with Sega Saturn, his inspirations for Parking Garage Rally Circuit, and a bit more of what we can expect to see in this game when it launches on Steam sometime this year.

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Interview: “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” Actors Ryoma Takeuchi & Kento Kaku, Executive Producer Erik Barmack

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Thanks to the production team of the upcoming streaming series Like a Dragon: Yakuza and Prime Video, SEGAbits was given the opportunity to interview Series Lead Ryoma Takeuchi and Co-Star Kento Kaku, and series Executive Producer Erik Barmack.

In a round table setting, joined by fellow video game fan sites, we asked the creative team about how the project began and the challenges of portraying characters like Kazuma Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi) and Akira Nishikiyama (played by Kento Kaku). You can see their answers to our questions after the break or watch our video interview above, and stay tuned to SEGAbits for more coverage of the series as we near the October 24th release date on Prime Video!

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SEGAbits Exclusive Interview with Veteran SEGA Designers Akihito Hiroyoshi & Yumiko Miyabe

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During our visit to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, we seized the opportunity to meet and engage in conversation with former veteran SEGA Designers, Akihito Hiroyoshi—renowned as the character designer for classic SEGA AM2 arcade games such as Arabian Fight and Virtua Cop—and Yumiko Miyabe, the former art director for the Space Channel 5 series.

These interviews unveiled insights into their early lives, careers during their tenure at SEGA, and personal hobbies. By clicking the link, you can delve into the interviews and explore behind-the-scenes artwork from the games they passionately crafted during their time at SEGA.

Additionally, the interviews are available in video format, with links provided here for Akihito Hiroyoshi and Yumiko Miyabe. A special acknowledgment goes to our fellow writer, Dakota, for video recording, as well as SEGA fans, Martin Hemmingway and Scott Hamby for translating the interviews. *Please note: images provided in the interview are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission*

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Calling All SEGA Enthusiasts: Ask Your Questions to Former Designers Yumiko Miyabe and Akihito Hiroyoshi

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Fellow SEGAbits writer, Dakota, and I are planning to make a trip to Japan from September 17th to September 28th for Tokyo Game Show. During our trip to Japan, we plan to interview former SEGA designers, Yumiko Miyabe, known for her work as Art Director for the Space Channel 5 series, and Akihito Hiroyoshi, known for his work as character designer for SEGA AM2 classics such as Arabian Fight and the Virtua Cop series.

Our exclusive interview will delve into their remarkable careers in the gaming industry, exploring their early beginnings, the notable games they helped design at SEGA, and even their current hobbies. We warmly invite you to participate by submitting your burning questions for Yumiko Miyabe and Akihito Hiroyoshi. We will keep everyone updated on the interviewing process. If you have any questions for them to answer, let us know either in this Twitter thread or leave them here in the comment section below.

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Special interview with Ross Kilgariff, the creator of Harlequest!

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Many of you probably remember the announcement of Harlequest!, a brand new action RPG in development for Sega Dreamcast that is now live on Kickstarter. As of this writing, there are 5 days remaining for the Kickstarter to raise as much money as possible.

Since I have written that article, I have gotten the opportunity to speak with the game’s main creator, Ross Kilgariff (ross:codes) to learn more about him and the inspirations behind Harlequest! Check in after the break to hear more from the man himself. Special thanks goes to Ross for reaching out to us for this opportunity.

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SEGAbits @ SAGE 2022: Interview with Noah Copeland on Sonic Triple Trouble 16-BIT – PART TWO

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[READ PART 1]

Welcome back to the second part of our two parter interview with Noah Copeland, the director of Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16 bit. On our last interview we chatted about how Noah gained an appreciation of the SEGA Genesis and his background in the fangame development scene. Hit the break to read the rest of the interview!

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SEGAbits @ SAGE 2022: Interview with Noah Copeland on Sonic Triple Trouble 16-BIT – PART ONE

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As part of our SAGE coverage, we managed to get a hold of Noah Copeland to come have a chat with us about the development of his fangame Sonic Triple Trouble 16 bit. This love letter to the classic Game Gear game released to much fanfair last month, remaking the original games visual to fit perfectly with it’s classic Mega Drive counterparts, featuring the ability to switch between Sonic or Tails as well as multiple playable characters. Hit the break for the first of two part interview with Noah as he goes into more detail about the fan games history and development ideology!

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Interview with Yu Suzuki: Air Twister and His Return to Arcade Rail Shooters

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It goes without saying that Yu Suzuki is one of the most influential figures in video gaming. Yu Suzuki was instrumental in the development of full body motion controls, 3D racing, 3D fighting, open-world gameplay and QTE. Even if you have never played one of his titles, which you really need to rectify right now, you have played a game that includes one of his contributions to the gaming industry.

Space Harrier, one of Mr. Suzuki’s early arcade titles, was a third-person rail shooter set in a fantasy environment. The player controlled a jet propelled cool blonde dude, shooting down everything from geometric shapes to robots to one-eyed woolly mammoths. The game was such a success that it was one of Japan’s top two highest-grossing upright arcade games in 1986. The other title was Mr. Suzuki’s Hang-On, released a year prior. Now, in 2022, Yu Suzuki is returning to the world of third-person rail shooters with the Apple Arcade exclusive game Air Twister which is set to release on June 24, 2022.

Mr. Suzuki was kind enough to grant us an interview to talk about the upcoming title, and as luck would have it we are releasing this on his birthday! So before we kick things off, we would like to wish Mr. Suzuki a happy birthday and thank him again for taking the time to answer our questions.

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[Exclusive] Classic SEGA Interview: Smilebit’s Takayuki Kawagoe talks Jet Set Radio Future with Xbox Nation Magazine

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This interview originally appeared in the premiere issue of Xbox Nation Magazine. Stay tuned for scans of the magazine itself later this week!

Takayuki Kawagoe – Smilebit
Past projects: General development, project manager for various 16-bit titles, and head of the Saturn software lineup. Sega Rally 2 and JGR (Dreamcast), along with many others.
Xbox projects: Gunvalkyrie, JSRF: Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon.
Favorite food: Any fish, Korean BBQ, and Italian food
Favorite movie: “Some Kind of Wonderful,” and any kung fu movie starring Jet Li.
Favorite music: Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Peter Gabriel, Joe Strummer/The Clash, Jim Foetus, Malcolm Mclaren, The Smiths, Nay Nays, Kyoko Koizumi, Robert Wyatt, Elvis Costello, Serge Gainsbourg, electro pop, hip hop, Latin beats, reggae, punk, and ’80s music in general.

XBN: Please describe your role in the development of Jet Set Radio Future?

Takayuki Kawagoe: As the producer for JSRF, I motivate my staff, consult with them, decide which direction the project should take, balance the budget, promote the title, etc.. Regarding the content in the game: because this is the second title, I trust Mr. Kikuchi (director) and Mr. Ueda (art director) with most of the finer details of the game. That said, I get my words in their works…I’m their “nagging father”…

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