Castlevania

[Johnny Undaunted]

Originally posted by thray-walsh
While Igarashi was working on Tokimeki, he'd often go downstairs to see what the DracX team was up to (since he secretly wanted to work on Castlevania). He helped a little with debugging and play-testing, hence the 'Special Thanks' credit on the game.

Do you know whatever happened to H. Akamatsu? He was the lead programmer behind Simon's Quest and Snake's Revenge (as well as one of the programmers behind Surprise Attack) and was the director behind Dracula's Curse and oddly enough there isn't any Konami game beyond 1990 made by him (although there's a guy listed as "Kuuneru Asobu" in hiragana on the credits of TMNT3 and Lone Ranger and I think it might be him under an alias). I think he was the guy who gave Kojima the idea to make Metal Gear 2 on the MSX.

Yeah. And it's never the ones it would make sense to either. Like if you called Bucky O'Hare on NES a Treasure game, you'd be mostly right, since the main programmer, artist, and sound guy went to Treasure, but Super CV4? No.

I ageed with you there. It ticks me off when some idiot says that Treasure created Contra when it was only two of their guys who worked on Contra III (which wasn't even the original game).

Are all of these Tokemi games directed by Kojima?

No, no and no. He only worked as a producer on all three volumes of the Drama Series spinoff (Nijiiro no Seishun,, Idonori no Love Song and Tabidachi no Uta) and that's only because they were developed on the Policenauts-engine. He has nothing to do with the main games in the series or any other spinoff besides those.

[thray-walsh]

Johnny,

Since he hasn't been credited on anything for a Lonnng time, I'd wager that he either left Konami or ascended to a managerial/executive role.

It took me a while to track down Toru Hagihara at KCET since he's now in a more managerial role...

[Johnny Undaunted]

Originally posted by thray-walsh
Johnny,

Since he hasn't been credited on anything for a Lonnng time, I'd wager that he either left Konami or ascended to a managerial/executive role.

It took me a while to track down Toru Hagihara at KCET since he's now in a more managerial role...

He was the director behind Belmont's Revenge and both Dracula X games, wasn't he? Was he the so-called "Trans Fisher" who worked on the NES original?

[thray-walsh]

Yeah, he was the main programmer for both Rondo of Blood and Nocturne in the Moonlight, and he worked on the 2nd GB game as well. He's definitely old enough to have worked on some pretty early stuff, but I sadly didn't have much time to talk with him. It was a brief meeting, but a cool one--he was very humble, awestruck that I even knew who he was. ;p

[Johnny Undaunted]

Originally posted by thray-walsh
he was very humble, awestruck that I even knew who he was. ;p

Well considering that Kojima is pretty much the only Konami designer that's actually very well-known worldwide, he has every reason to be surprised.

[NightWolve]

Great thread man. Never even knew about the arcade version, but that's what mame is for.

[Green]

Nice thread, I didn't know about some of those games like the Jr series. The first Castlevania game I ever played was Bloodlines, and I came upon the Castlevania 4 a long time afterwards. I like Bloodlines alot more, really. I haven't beaten either, but from what I've played 4 seems too slow to be really enjoyable. I like how Bloodlines looks more, too.

Shine, you rock hard for knowing all the words to Holy Diver. Dio rocks!

[xS]

but surprisingly, Konami's own in-house development team would not be the masterminds behind the first 16-bit Castlevania. Instead, Konami looked to a small team of designers and programmers that would later become known as Treasure.
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/fea...nia/p6_01.html


Btw Jhonny: Since you're the one who supposedly has kept track of all the names and addresses of all of these Konami folk, do you have any idea who worked on their pre NES 80s games like Gyruss, Time Pilot, and Juno First?

[Johnny Undaunted]

Originally posted by xS
but surprisingly, Konami's own in-house development team would not be the masterminds behind the first 16-bit Castlevania. Instead, Konami looked to a small team of designers and programmers that would later become known as Treasure.
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/fea...nia/p6_01.html


Btw Jhonny: Since you're the one who supposedly has kept track of all the names and addresses of all of these Konami folk, do you have any idea who worked on their pre NES 80s games like Gyruss, Time Pilot, and Juno First?

See? This is why I came to dislike Gamespot.

The Arcade versions of Gyruss and Time Pilot were both designed by Yoshiki Okamoto before he left Konami for Capcom (in Time Pilot's case, his then-boss tried to take all the credit for it, even though Okamoto went agaisnt his instructions).

I don't know who did Juno First though.

EDIT: Incidentally, Toshi Arima (who was the programmer of Ghosts 'n Goblins and other Capcom games) programmed both of Okamoto's games at Konami before he left for Capcom too.

[Clash!]

I was just playing Kenseiden this afternoon, fantastic game.

I really want Konami to make a new standard Castlevania game. I like the Metroidvania games but I still like the traditional kind more, thats why I am really interested in Lamet. But I would like to see a new one on the GBA in 2D as well.