Sega 1991 Developer “Relay Essays”

Toru "Yoshibon" Yoshida

Well then… what should I write? I guess I should write about my work!

I'm a graphic designer. I make the graphics for our Megadrive games. The first game I worked on at Sega was Super Thunder Blade. I was completely green behind the ears and didn't really know what I was doing, but I feel like I did a faithful job.

The next game I worked on was Phantasy Star II. The first thing I did was draw character designs for each character, based off a list of the characters the planners handed me. It seems Nei is far-and-away the fan favorite, but to be honest, I didn't really like her that much at first. I was more of an Anne (Amy) guy. But Nei was so beloved by everyone, I admit that over time I've come to love her too. I also drew the close-up portraits for all the characters in Phantasy Star II, and the character graphics when they're walking around the world map, and the dungeon graphics--which unfortunately got criticized because the parallax scrolling made it hard to see where you were.

The next game I worked on was the Megadrive port of Daimakaimura (Ghouls and Ghosts). I drew the backgrounds. The arcade version has a wider color range than the Megadrive, and trying to match it as close as possible was really hard work.

After Daimakaimura, I drew the graphics for the Phantasy Star II text adventures.

Recently, I've been working on the graphics for a new Megadrive game. The title hasn't been revealed yet, but the characters were designed by a certain famous manga artist. The release is a ways off yet so I can't say much now, but let me just say, yes! That manga already has a Megadrive game in the works! I hope you're excited for it.

As this is a relay essay series, I must now choose next month's writer. The Megadrive FAN editors asked me to chose someone with a lot of personality, so I present to you the planner of Sorcerian, Gamer Miki-chan! I've heard tales about how when she was going through employee training, despite wearing a skirt she bravely straddled the Space Harrier machine and played away to her heart's content! How's that for personality?!

Gamer Miki (Miki Morimoto)

Let me get one thing out of the way first: yes, when I was a trainee at Sega I did wear a skirt while playing Space Harrier! But saying I "bravely straddled" it is a bit much, don't you think?! Sure, maybe you have to straddle Hang On, but Space Harrier… come on! All the people who have only read Yoshipon's introduction last week are going to get the wrong idea about me!

Now with that said, yes, it is true, I love Space Harrier. I joined Sega, after all, because it was the company that made Space Harrier!

Right now I am working in planning. I create the original plans, get a team together, and supervise the development (sounds like a big deal, right?!) Although I feel like half of my work is doing miscellaneous tasks…

The first game I did the planning for was the adventure game "Hoshi wo Sagashite…" for the Master System. The truth is, I wanted that game to focus more on raising the Mio creatures. It's a little embarassing to me now! Even so I would love to take my shot at making an adventure game for the Megadrive!

The next game I worked on was the Master System version of Ys. With his red hair, Adol's little sprite looked just like a matchstick to me. I remember planting the tree sprites on those fields and forests one by one, one by one…

After that was Sorcerian. I wrote all but four of the scenarios. Even now, I still occasionally get ideas for new scenarios… perhaps next time we could develop it for CD-ROM? I wonder how many scenarios we could fit into that format? Ah, just thinking about it is scary!

As the New Year approaches, right now I'm working on an original game that will take advantage of all my previous development experience. Please look forward to it!

The next relay essay writer is my senpai, Phoenix Rie-san (Rieko Kodama). She is currently working on the backgrounds for Sonic the Hedgehog, among other things. Also, it's late this month, but she's the editor of SPEC (Sega Players Enjoy Club) too! She told me to say, "The next issue will be here soon, please wait just a little longer!"

Rieko Kodama

Well now, what should I write? It's been 7 years since I joined Sega. Oh no… am I revealing my age by saying that? Meh… I don't care!

The first game I worked on at Sega was Champion Boxing for the Mark III. The Mark III hardware had very few colors, which made designing the graphics a real struggle! Next I worked on the arcade versions of Ninja Princess and Quartet. After that I did several more Mark III games, including Great Baseball, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Phantasy Star, Hoshi wo Sagashite, as well as Altered Beast, World Cop Soccer, and Shadow Dancer for the Megadrive. Let me tell you, that Statue of Liberty in Shadow Dancer was hell to create!! I drew out the sprites on graph paper that was 2 meters high, then had to transfer it all over one tile at a time. Come on Sega… for work that onerous I deserve a trip to America to see the real Statue of Liberty!

Right now, I've just finished my work on Sonic, and have a moment to catch my breath. I did the backgrounds for the Labyrinth and Starlight stages. They're great stages, I really want people to enjoy it. Get all the rings!!!

The next relay essay writer is Toyonaka Ozaki, the character designer for Phantasy Star III. Did you know, she is such a huge fan of Romance of the Three Kingdoms that she bought the arcade pcb for Tenchi wo Kurau! Actually, while she was creating the characters for Phantasy Star III, she got to know the enemy designer (Masaki Segawa), and they ended up getting married! Isn't that amazing? They got married while making a game where getting married is a key element of the game! Ooo… do you think they'll get mad at me for writing that? Meh… I don't care!

Toyonaka Ozaki

I think the fact that my younger brother had a computer was a big influence on my joining Sega. I played Xanadu on it, and started to think maybe a career in games could be fun? The first game I worked on at Sega was Choonsenshi Borgman (Cyborg Hunter) for the Master System. I drew the graphics for it. I didn't know anything about computers then so it was hard for me, but it was probably even harder for the people around me who had to deal with my lack of experience. Borgman was an adaptation of a TV anime series, so I thought I was going to get to draw a bunch of illustrations of the characters, but I ended up only getting to draw one! What a shame!

After that I helped out on various projects, including Super Hang On and Phantasy Star III. The Phantasy Star series is a very important franchise for Sega, so getting assigned to it means lots of overtime, and people called us the "Phantasy Star Elites" because of all the overtime pay… but in reality there was a lot of pressure so I'm not sure how glamorous it really was!

Afer that I transferred to arcade development and worked on Clutch Hitter. It features real rosters of professional baseball teams of 20 each, or 240 players in total, and the work of drawing all their portraits was split among three designers. As you can tell from my name Toyonaka, I was born in Osaka. I worked on three teams, including one from Kobe! But the minor teams didn't have a lot of material available for them, so it was not easy finding their pictures to draw them!

Right now I'm working on the backgrounds for Golden Axe II for the Megadrive. Like the previous game it's only a 4M cart, so it's again a battle against the memory limitations! Be sure to check it out!

The next relay writer is composer and sound designer IPPO-chan (Izuho Numata), known for her work on Ys and Daimakaimura. She is as tiny and petite as an elementary schoolkid (sorry IPPO!), but don't let her appearance fool you! She's a real firebrand… I heard she voluntarily drank sulfuric acid once when she was in school for an experiment!? She's quite an interesting person.

Izuho "IPPO" Numata

I was originally studying chemistry, but I guess for various reasons I found myself not wanting to pursue a career in chemistry. One day I was looking at the job ads and saw one for Sega Enterprises, and I was lucky enough to get the job.

By the way, last month Rieko wrote something about me drinking sulfuric acid for an experiment, but come on--no one would do an experiment like that! What happened was, in chemistry there's an instrument called a pipette which can be used to suck up liquids with your mouth, and I was doing that when I accidentally got some sulfuric acid inside my mouth. I remember it had a lemony taste, so I drank it.

I believe my first project at Sega was Ys…? I got very sick just before the development was completed. I remember stopping by the hospital after work, and hearing the doctors suddenly tell me "You need to be hospitalized." I ended up staying at a hospital right next to Sega's offices.

After Ys, I worked on music for several Master System games (overseas versions). My first experience with the Megadrive was working on Daimakaimura. Well, actually, if we're talking about voice recording, I did the "jankenpon" voice on Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle too. I also did Tyris' yells in the upcoming Golden Axe 2. Wow, I've barely talked about any legit sound staff stuff. I did the music for Forgotton Worlds, and then Phantasy Star III. Right now I'm working on the music for RPG Densetsu Heboi. 1

The next relay essay writer is Sonic the Hedgehog sound programmer MACKY (Yukifumi Makino). I hear he's a weirdo who transferred from human resources to game development. He also served as the dormitory manager for Sega's dormitories… he sounds like an uptight guy from what I'm writing but that's not the case at all--he's actually very easy-going!

Yukifumi "MACKY" Makino

I started out in human resources before making an abrupt switch to game development. It's a bit embarassing so I don't talk about it much now, but before joining Sega, I was in a band. Someone at my school joined Sega straight out of high school, and I thought going straight into game development was somehow too pedestrian, so I applied to one of the non-development departments… but imagine my surprise when it was human resources I got assigned to! Unlike game development, HR employees have to dress suit-and-tie. What really did me in was my habitual tardiness though… after awhile I got pretty burnt out.

About a year later, I put in a request to be transferred, and surprisingly it was accepted, and lo and behold I was on the game development team. It's an amazing company that would transfer an employee straight from HR to game development, but thanks to Sega's willingness, I got to enjoy the odd atmosphere of starting at the same time as the fresh new hires that year.

IPPO mentioned my stint as dormitory manager, but these "dorms" were really just minkan apartments, so it wasn't some imposing job in any sense. The arrangements back then called for three grown men to a single 3DK, though, which was kind of crazy in it's own right.

Anyhow, as I am on the sound staff, I worked on the sound for Sonic the Hedgehog. Being my first assignment, I can also say it was my "latest"! Other than Sonic, I also helped out on Advanced Daisenryaku and the Game Gear port of Arliel (Crystal Warriors). Right now I'm working on 3x3 Eyes, so please keep a look out for that one.

For the next writer, it's my pleasure to pass the baton to Shadow Dancer planner MU-san!

Tomohiro Kondo (MU)

I joined Sega the same year as MACKY. My first work for the Megadrive was Shadow Dancer, for which I was the main planner. Before the Megadrive, I did the planning for various Master System games. Right now I'm working on a CD-ROM game for the Megadrive called "Switch" (temporary title). I'm afraid I have to keep the content of the game secret for now.

I ended up joining Sega because of Afterburner. Before that I didn't know anything about Sega, but people were talking about this awesome new game at the game center, and when I saw Afterburner that was how I first learned of Sega. I was taken aback by the taikan [over-sized] cabinet; having majored in mechanical engineering, it was a huge shock to me. That interest in taikan cabinets is what spurred me to join Sega, but during my training I gave a game presentation and that was the start of my crazy journey, for they made me a planner after that presentation.

Right now at Sega, I've started a "Baka Club" (Idiot Club)… I'm campaigning for this club to be officially recognized at Sega. Basically, it's a club where we do dumb stuff, things that others would deem too stupid to try. Recently one of us had the idea to go play mahjong atop Mt. Osore, but unfortunately we couldn't get a bus there and the plan fell apart. We didn't give up though, and in the spirit of experimenting, we instead went to Kujuukuri Beach in the middle of the night and carried out our plans. Lighting was a challenge, but we put four candles on the corners of the playing board and it was bright enough to see, surprisingly so. In any event, it was a success!

The next relay essay writer is KYAMURA (Atsuhiko Nakamura), the planner for the Megadrive version of Senjou no Ookami II (MERCS). Like me he loves drinking, and we often go out to drink together.

Atsuhiko Nakamura

It's true, I go out drinking with Kondo a lot. About twice a week? I was the planner for the Megadrive port of Capcom's Senjo no Okami II (MERCS)--the Original Mode, specifically. Before that, I worked on several games in the Games Toshokan (Games Library) series. Right now I'm working on "Ayrton Senna's SUPER MONACO GP II".

Part of the reason I joined Sega is that I was obsessed with their mahjong games when I was a student, and through that, I got interested in games more generally. I just happened to see a job ad for Sega, applied, and got in. I had intended to apply to other companies too, but once Sega accepted me I didn't want to waste my time… and here I am!

The biggest challenge I faced in Senjou no Okami II was undoubtedly the bugs. Thanks to a certain drunk programmer, it was infested with bugs. And then a lot of things happened at the same time: the programmer got sick and collapsed, I got called to a wedding during the busiest part of the development, and much more. I don't know how we made it in time for the release, but we did.

My idea for the Original Mode was taken from Shadow Blasters. I proposed this to Capcom and they responded favorably, thank goodness.

In the future I'd like to make an RPG. Something original. Also, it may not be a big-seller, but I'd like to try making a mahjong game someday, too.

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