nesdev.org

Accidentally, I found a website called Duty Cycle Generator.
Who know any other NES game designer in the between 1980s and 1990s ?
I am curious about NES programming at that time.

He used to talk here quite a bit- memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3896
But I guess he hasn't been all that active since his NES broke.

lidnariq wrote:He used to talk here quite a bit- memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3896
But I guess he hasn't been all that active since his NES broke.

Thanks. And I wonder where I can find else staffs like him. For example, the authors of classical games like Contra, Jackal, Mega Man and so.

Not sure where you can contact them, but a site called VGMPF wherein they list various composers and their related projects. They've even had luck tracking down people who did music in games that otherwise had no credits.

http://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/

I'm certain most of them have a facebook or even their own company nowadays. For example, Kyouhei Sada, composer for Contra, Bayou Billy, and Top Gun, not to mention the father of the now iconic Konami sound they made for the NES, has his own company, whose name escapes me at the moment.

Many (I would estimate most) composers from days of yore are either a) super busy with work (i.e. they will not respond to you on Twitter, FB, or other social media -- they have too many people following them already), b) are doing something very different (changed lines of work), or c) have fallen off the grid entirely.

There are a few composers/musicians I follow on social media or through other means who I intentionally do not talk to because I can see from the nature of their communications that they generally do not "communicate" with people individually or as groups -- they're using social media to post what they want, when they want, how they want.

When I chatted with Nick Dwyer (producer of the RBMA's "Diggin' In The Carts" series) briefly -- he actually tracked me down to talk to me about a blog post of mine**, believe it or not! -- my very first question to him was how he managed to track down all of these composers in Japan. He said something to the effect of how that was one of the biggest complications -- there are actual companies/teams/etc. that can help accomplish this (and it's even more complex in Japan given cultural norms and behaviours, e.g. what's considered invasive in Japan is considered less so here in the US, but as always it varies per person). You don't want to upset anyone or step on any toes even slightly. He didn't give me any actual details (understandably/respectfully), but it was pretty obvious the process was long and "careful".

P.S. -- This is the 2nd or 3rd thread I have read in recent days where someone on this forum has wanted to "track down" to chat with/etc. folks of this nature. Please remember to be respectful. Neil Baldwin is a good example of someone who likes engaging the community (or has in the past -- he's probably busy!), but you should assume by default, out of respect, that most are not like this. It's a good safety default.

** -- Please do not derail the thread discussing the nature of my blog post. If you have questions/comments, talk to me privately. Stay focused on the subject/topic here please.

OneCrudeDude wrote:... I'm certain most of them have ... their own company nowadays. For example, Kyouhei Sada, composer for Contra, Bayou Billy, and Top Gun, not to mention the father of the now iconic Konami sound they made for the NES, has his own company, whose name escapes me at the moment.

PureSound Ltd. / PureSound Inc., I think. I don't know what his stake or role is in the company.

Yes, Puresound is what I was looking for! And IIRC, he was the founder and CEO. And since you mentioned there's companies in Japan that specialize in tracking down people, I am honestly curious about one Yukio Kaneda (his alias being KNT in-game), programmer of two SNK NES games. What makes this guy interesting is how angry he was at Nintendo, going so far as to wish them bankruptcy.

https://tcrf.net/Iron_Tank

While it was known that Nintendo didn't always play nice with third party developers, I wonder what his true motivation was. And I wonder what he has to say about Nintendo nowadays.

And look who's bankrupt now... (The old SNK, but I doubt the new one is doing to hot either. Are we going to see an SNK Playevenmore?) Half of their talent came from Irem in one form of another anyway.

OneCrudeDude wrote:While it was known that Nintendo didn't always play nice with third party developers, I wonder what his true motivation was. And I wonder what he has to say about Nintendo nowadays.

Wasn't Nintendo pretty much the first company to start the whole third party developer thing? Well, I guess there was Activision for the Atari?

You know, it's amazing what Activision has been reduced to...

As I understand it, Nintendo was the first console maker to have an official third-party licensing program as we know it. But Apple II, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum computers were full of third-party software.

True. That's probably what I was thinking of. One thing though is that the Commodore 64, Apple II, and ZX Spectrum were home computers and not video game consoles, but it seems like that's what home computers were primarily used for back then (playing games).

Home computers were then and still are used for quite a lot of things. Games are one of those things, but that's hardly the "primary" use, though it may very well have been your primary use if you were a gamer. If you want an idea of what else people were using computers for back then, leaf through computer magazines from the time.

For example, just take a look at these covers of old Atari Explorer magazines. Of 36 covers, only 2 of them depict games. The rest depict music programs, art packages, spreadsheets, word processing, etc.

The average computer buyer did not purchase a microcomputer for games back then. They were more expensive, and usually justified to the buyer as some kind of business expense that would help them do their professional work. The games market rose up as a secondary function, for people that already had a computer for some other purpose and have realized they can play with it too.

Home computers (specifically the ones you listed off: C64 and Apple II series) were not *primarily* used for playing games "back then". They were multi-purpose machines, and in most households were certainly used that way. For example, the IIE my family had was used for word processing and spreadsheets in AppleWorks, as well as programming and playing games. The usage patterns varied; my mother used AppleWorks for different purposes than I did. I still have a few of my Apple II-focused magazines (specifically A+ circa April 1991) if you want evidence of my claims.

I'm under the impression the C64 was also used the same way.

The ZX Spectrum, on the other hand, was predominantly intended for games. Though quite honestly I think it was primarily intended as a torture device for the British.

Espozo wrote: You know, it's amazing what Activision has been reduced to...

Say what you want about Activision's current output, at least the games they put out now resemble actual games as opposed to the tripe they used to put out, like Predator, Ghostbusters, or Super Pitfall.

And how ironic that Nintendo's draconian third party contracts were what was responsible into making third party developers into actual companies, and not licensees for ports. Though it's still unclear who did the early arcade-to-NES ports, like Kung-Fu. That game has DPCM samples and has been carefully designed around the NES' limitations (Thomas is a background object that scrolls, the music is only one sound channel to avoid sound cutoff), so something tells me that Nintendo ported the game themselves.

OneCrudeDude wrote:Say what you want about Activision's current output, at least the games they put out now resemble actual games as opposed to the tripe they used to put out, like Predator, Ghostbusters, or Super Pitfall.

Well, I always thought that they were mediocre, but the attention their trash is getting is astonishing. I don't mind most of their Atari 2600 games (I guess that's all they could handle?) and some of their Gamecube/PS2 era games. (I don't mind the original Call of Duty games, even though I didn't necessarily like them either. I find WWII a lot more interesting than "Modern Warfare" though.) I guess you could say that Activision's always produced sh*t, but they now put sprinkles on top.

OneCrudeDude wrote:Kung-Fu

That's actually what got me to know about Irem. On the box of my NES, it had games that were "recommended", and Kung-Fu stood out from the rest in that it said "Irem Corp 1984". I didn't think about them much, but I had been going through my then (I think?) 20 year old cousin's stuff and I found a GBC game called "R-Type DX", which, judging by the label, looked really weird, and I noticed it said "Irem" (even if this was the "new" Irem. I didn't know) on it. I "borrowed" it, and when I looked up some stuff about the game, I found out that R-Type I and II were arcade games, and shortly after that, I got Mame and played both of them. (To this day, I still haven't been able to beat R-Type II...) I soon latter found out about Super R-Type (Needless to say, I wasn't impressed) but I latter found R-Type III, and I was blown away. Unfortunately, It took about a year to actually get the game, and I beat the game with all 3 forces on the second loop, just to get my "money's worth." Later, (contrary to popular belief) I discovered that they make more than R-Type games, (well, I already knew about Kung-Fu, but that's it) and I discovered the good (GunForce II. I actually knew about Metal Slug before all of this and I played it, but I like GunForce II way better. Although it's definitely more polished and there's just more to it, I can't help but feel that Metal Slug was a downgrade in every other way.) and the bad... (Perfect Soldiers. Seriously, how can a company be so bipolar with its video game quality?) One random thing, but I pride myself in that I knew what Ninja Baseball Batman was before I saw the AVGN video. Anyway, that's it. I don't know why I felt like writing all of that, but hopefully that will help clear up my "Irem fetish".

Since you mentioned IREM, I think it's worth noting that they're the Japanese equivalent to Rare, at least after the buyouts. IREM rarely does their own games anymore, and now work under Sony developing stuff for the PlayStation Home thing.

Man, this got out of hand quickly.