wondermega
Member
so wonderful. Thanks for posting and translation
Bentendo said:He's also responsible for the fluid flying in Balloon Fight. He and his team were responsible for the arcade version while Miyamoto and his team were working on the Famicom version. The Famicom version wasn't nearly as good as the arcade version, so Miyamoto sent some of his team over to Iwata so he could explain to them what they were doing wrong. Because of him we have the fluid swimming in Super Mario Bros.
Kano: Yes, what a waste! (laughs) To address that, the second game, "Flagman," could only display the digit "1" in the thousands column, and only by the sixth game, "Manhole," was there a display for "AM" and "PM."
Iwata: Why could it only display the digit "1"?
Kano: Well, for example, to display "10:00 PM," you need display "AM" and "PM," as well as four rows, which use 28 segments.
Iwata: Right.
Kano: If you make it so the thousands column can only display the digit "1"...
Iwata: I see. "AM," PM," and "1" together make three segments, but to display a full digit, you need seven segments, so that way you can save four segments. (laughs)
Kano. It's a significant savings. We wanted to even just four extra segments for gameplay, if we could get them. It did mean that the highest possible score was 1999, though.
Shikamaru Ninja said:Kaeru no tame ni Kane wa Naru
One of many things that separates him as well. Dude is also an incredibly talented programmer (he completely reworked and ported the entire Pokemon battle code to the N64 in under a week)
He's also responsible for the fluid flying in Balloon Fight. He and his team were responsible for the arcade version while Miyamoto and his team were working on the Famicom version. The Famicom version wasn't nearly as good as the arcade version, so Miyamoto sent some of his team over to Iwata so he could explain to them what they were doing wrong. Because of him we have the fluid swimming in Super Mario Bros.
Shikamaru Ninja said:SRD Technology was absolved as a Nintendo programming team initially. At first they worked for R&D1, R&D2 and R&D4. So basically on Balloon Fight.. SRD Technology was working under Nintendo R&D1. So Miyamoto and his design team weren't involved in Balloon Fight. It was R&D who did both the arcade and console version.The difference is R&D1 had different programming teams coding each version.
Iwata said:There were a lot of games that were developed both for the arcade and the Famicom. HAL Laboratory worked on the home console version of Balloon Fight while SRD
Nakago said:We worked on the arcade version. Then after we'd completed it, we wondered why the player's movements were smoother on the home version developed by HAL and asked Iwata-san for some advice.
Iwata said:That's when I told Nakago-san everything I knew. One thing I recommended was that instead of calculating the character's position using integers, they should also calculate it using decimal points, thereby doubling the precision. In this way, calculating gravity, buoyancy, acceleration and deceleration all become more precise and the movements look smoother. That's the kind of thing I explained at the time.
Nakago said:When Iwata-san explained all this to me, the scales fell from my eyes! (laughs) But I remember Miyamoto-san complaining: "Why do you have to go to another company to find this stuff out?" (laughs)
I see, so HAL programmed the Famicom version while SRD did the arcade version, while R&D designed the game? The only reason I thought Miyamoto was involved was because of this conversation they had in Iwata Asks.
Shikamaru Ninja said:Well. Nintendo R&D1 developed both games. When it comes to programming. Nintendo had its own programmers and sub-contracted programmers. Iwata was a sub-contracted programmer contributing to a bunch of games here and there. So.. technically you had pure R&D1 programmers (Masao Yamaoto, Takahiro Harada, Takehiro Izushi), R&D2 prorammers, R&D3 programmers, SRD programmers and Intelligent Systems programmers (who moved into Nintendo's building), and contracted programmers like Satoru Iwata (HAL) and Tomoshige Hashishita (paxsoftnica) all working for Nintendo. Some games have 2-3 programming collaborations. It gets really messy. Miyamoto's R&D4 eventually exclusively took the SRD Technology team as their inhouse programmers.
But there are lots of Nintendo games that have programmers from several different groups on a single game. Donkey Kong arcade versions had R&D1 and Ikegami Tsushinki working together. While the Donkey Kong famicom ports were R&D2 and SRD programmers working together. Metroid had R&D1 and Intelligent Systems programmers working together. But then Metroid 2 was all programmed by R&D1, while Metroid 3 was all programmed by IS. Pinball had R&D1 programmers and Satoru Iwata. Excitebike had SRD and Paxsofnica programmers working together. Mother had Nintendo R&D and Paxsoftica programmers working togeher.
Shikamaru Ninja said:What? Iwata? For what game? He has no development credit in any Pokemon N64 game other than a general producer. His last game coded was on the SNES I am pretty sure.
Iwata Asks: HeartGold and SoulSilver said:Iwata: Right. (laughs) You decided to release Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64 and the first task was to analyse Red and Greens battle logic and send it over to Miyamoto-san and his team. Youd normally expect there to be a specification document, but there was nothing of the sort
Morimoto: Im so sorry! (laughs)
Iwata: No, no, its fine! (laughs) Studying the program for the Pokémon battle system was part of my job.
Morimoto: I created that battle programme and it really took a long time to put together. But when I heard that Iwata-san had been able to port it over in about a week and that it was already working Well, I thought: What kind of company president is this!? (laughs)
All: (laughter)
Morimoto: I was saying things like: Is that guy a programmer? Or is he the President? (laughs)
Iwata: To be blunt, at the time I was more of a programmer than I was a company president. (laughs)
Morimoto: (laughs) I was really taken aback that you could get to grips with such a complicated programme in such a short space of time.
Ishihara: I remember thinking that there just werent that many people out there who would be able to read the entire Game Boy source code, which was by no means written in a highly-refined programming language, and grasp how everything connected with everything else. So Iwata-san, you analysed the whole thing and reworked the code, decided on the way to localise Red and Green, got the battle system running on N64 I was gobsmacked that you managed all of that
Iwata: Well, at the time, I felt that for the whole team at Nintendo, the biggest priority was not to do anything that would adversely influence the development of Gold and Silver. So I very naturally slotted in on the development side for Pokémon.
Morimoto: What's more, there were the tools for compressing the Pokémon graphic code
Iwata: Ah yes, the compression tools.
Morimoto: You were kind enough to create those tools.
Iwata: Yes. (laughs) Well, I had heard from Ishihara-san that youd been rather concerned about it.
Morimoto: At that point, we got a little carried away and were making all sorts of demands, saying: This part isnt quite right do you think you could fix it? We had some nerve to be making those requests to a company president (laughs)
Iwata: Well, I was willing to do whatever I could! (laughs)
Shikamaru Ninja said:What? Iwata? For what game? He has no development credit in any Pokemon N64 game other than a general producer. His last game coded was on the SNES I am pretty sure.
The japanese club nintendo version of ball is probably the most affordable. Other than finding one at a flea market or garage sale or the ds remakes.Linkhero1 said:amazing read. Thanks Zoc.
I wish I had a Game and Watch
heheheZoc said:Izushi: That's exactly right. Our motto was "timing is everything," so we had to rework the game and tune it many, many times. Another colourful thing about Mr. Yokoi was that he would constantly ask to make changes to improve the game. When he was trying out the prototypes, he would say things like "you've got the timing OK, but what about adding some kind of obstacle here?"
Kano: As far as I'm concerned, it was good to have that kind of feedback at the prototype stage, with Mr. Yokoi telling us "Hmm... let's try again!"
Izushi: That was his catchphrase.
Kano: And at that point, he didn't care about the staff's opinions. We were very always reluctant to go back to the game's mock-up...
Iwata: These are the roots of "overturning the tea-table." (laughs)
Yamamoto: That's right. After you think you're done, start over...
Iwata: You had to go all the way back to the darkroom?
Yamamoto: Yes. Right back to the darkroom.
Bentendo said:He's also responsible for the fluid flying in Balloon Fight. He and his team were responsible for the arcade version while Miyamoto and his team were working on the Famicom version. The Famicom version wasn't nearly as good as the arcade version, so Miyamoto sent some of his team over to Iwata so he could explain to them what they were doing wrong. Because of him we have the fluid swimming in Super Mario Bros.
Thanks I'll check it out. I've been looking for originals for a while and don't think I can afford them now.blizzardjesus said:The japanese club nintendo version of ball is probably the most affordable. Other than finding one at a flea market or garage sale or the ds remakes.
donny2112 said:I'm pretty sure he said he helped some with Super Smash Bros. (N64). It was in an interview with Sakurai either in an Iwata Asks or the E3 interview about Kid Icarus.
Once he became president [of HAL], Iwata's almost simple-minded passion for creating games led to two hits for the company: 1992's Kirby's Dream Land, a Game Boy game, and 1999's Super Smash Bros. for the 64. Both were released as Nintendo games, but HAL Laboratory had developed them behind the scenes, with Iwata occasionally writing code himself to finish them.
That's almost correct. HAL actually developed the Famicom version while Nakago's team at SRD worked on the arcade version.
Kano: As far as I'm concerned, it was good to have that kind of feedback at the prototype stage, with Mr. Yokoi telling us "Hmm... let's try again!"
Izushi: That was his catchphrase.
Kano: And at that point, he didn't care about the staff's opinions. We were very always reluctant to go back to the game's mock-up...
Iwata: These are the roots of "overturning the tea-table." (laughs)
Sorry but your not going to get it for less than $200; it's a collector's item now.
Oh god why am I laughing at this..? :lolZoc said:Iwata: (laughs)
Lord Error said:I just read a review of the Octopus game, and I remember thinking just the same things author of that review did. Amazing animation and characterization, the legendary expression of Octopus' face, the perfect concept where you constantly had to decide whether to try and be greedy and grab the treasure as much as you can, so that you put your life at risk, or to make more trips to get extra points... It was probably the most perfect two-button game ever made, and seriously, seeing those tentacles move up and down in the fast Game B mode was just mesmerizing.
Octopus review said:This is a review of a hand-held game "Game & Watch" made by Nintendo (makers of the Donkey Kong video arcade game). The model I have is called "Octopus". The store where I bought mine had five different models, each costs $35.
First a general description of the physical configuration. The case is quite thin; about 3/8 inch thick, 4 1/2 inches long, and 2 2/1 inches tall. About the size of a wallet calculator. It has a large LCD screen in the middle. The dimensions of the screen are 2 1/8 inches by 1 3/8 inches. The game is held with the long dimension horizontal. To control the action there are two large red buttons, one on each side of the screen, each conveniently near the lower left/right corner where your thumbs would naturally rest. The left red button causes movement to the left and the right red button causes movement to the right. In the upper right hand corner are three buttons; two select the level of difficulty, game A and game B, the third button turns on the clock display as the game can be a clock while it isn't being used. It has a little swing out stand in the back so that it can be stood up on your desk.
The game: to get as much of the treasure out of the sunken ship as possible. The scenario: in the upper left corner is your boat floating on the surface of the sea with a rope dangling to the ocean floor, in the lower right corner is the sunken ship with the treasure chest. Filling up most of the area in the water is a large octopus with four tentacles that grow and shrink at random rates and intervals. The rightmost three tentacles don't move around, they just grow and shrink. The leftmost tentacle can grow either in a downward direction or in an upward direction. In the upward direction it can snag you while you're climbing down the rope. If one of the tentacles touch you you're dead. As the game starts you have three divers in the boat and you use the right button to move the first one down the rope and over to the treasure then you use both buttons to make it dance back and forth to avoid the tentacles or when you're all the way over to the treasure you press the right button to make it grab some of the treasure. For each piece of treasure you snatch you get one point. After you've picked up any amount of treasure you can climb back into the boat and get a three point bonus. While the game is being played it makes a ticking sound; reminds one of a time bomb and adds to the sense of tension and panic. When the octopus gets you the game makes a buzzing raspberry sound and the remaining diver(s) do a left shift in the boat in preparation for the leftmost one going down next. Game A and B are the same except the tentacles move faster in game B.
It's quite fun. It's difficult enough to keep you coming back but not to difficult to frustrate you. The design of the characters is very humorous. The octopus has a sappy, lugubrious expression. When the diver is grabbing some of the treasure it's arm moves back and forth from the treasure chest to the bag it's stuffing it into. When it gets back into the boat it's arm swings up and down with the bag to show it unloading the treasure. They have comical positions when walking over to the treasure. When the octopus gets one of the divers he pulls it up towards him and the diver flails its arms and legs frantically.
Features: As mentioned before it has a clock. When the game isn't being played it can stand up on your desk as a clock with the time displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. While in clock mode the display is active with the divers marched down to the treasure and pranced around until the octopus gets them but it is all done silently with no ticking or beeping. It also has an alarm. The clock and alarm are 24 hour.
Misfeatures: to set the clock or alarm requires a thin object to poke the recessed buttons. A paper clip straightened out will do. It remembers the highest score but setting the clock causes it forget it. There is no on/off switch (being LCD I suppose that's not a misfeature).
Iwata's such a superfan. In a recent interview he talked about having a GBA 3D prototype in his dresser drawer.Zoc said:Iwata: Amazing! This is a precious document... This is "Chef," isn't it?
Izushi: You're making fun of me! This is just an old, tattered notebook.
Yes, that's the one!Bentendo said:Is this the review you're talking about? From the Handheld Game Museum? Note to readers: it's a review from 1982:
Fixed, as 1万 is 10.000, not 1000.Zoc said:"Iwata: Turning to the topic of sales, I had it researched for this interview, and it turns out that Game & Watch sold 12.87 million units domestically, and 30.53 million units abroad, for a total of 43.4 million."
Datschge said:Thanks for doing the translations, Zoc!
Fixed, as 1万 is 10.000, not 1000.
Wow, I was thinking the numbers were a little low, but wow.Datschge said:Fixed, as 1万 is 10.000, not 1000.