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MIni NES Interview: Yoshio Sakamoto Interview on Game&Watch, Balloon Fight, and Iwata

S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Nintendo has been hosting a series of fascinating interviews with some of the legendary creators responsible for some of the classics games featured in the Mini NES. Unfortunately, they have not been officially translated (list most of the topics.nintendo.co.jp interviews), but here is a good run down of some the information revealed so far.

Part 1 (https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/cb4c1aca-88fb-11e6-9b38-063b7ac45a6d.html) Miyamoto on Donkey Kong
- Miyamoto was a designer on the Famicom launch sports games like Baseball, Tennis, and Golf.
- The Famicom versions of Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong ported by another team. He wasn't involved much.

Part 2 (https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/d2425573-9043-11e6-9b38-063b7ac45a6d.html) Sakamoto on Balloon Fight
- Sakamoto worked on Snoopy, Donkey Kong Circus, and Mario Bombs Away for Game & Watch (Panorama Vers).
- Sakamoto worked with Miyamoto on Donkey Kong Junior. Sakamoto worked on the logo, title screen, and drawing Donkey Kong trapped in a cage.
- Sakamoto worked on Vs. Wrecking Crew
- Sakamoto worked on Vs. Balloon Fight (arcade) and home version (famicom) of Balloon Fight with 2 different program teams at the same time.
- Sakamoto designed Balloon Fight on Famicom with Iwata in a special room prepared by Nintendo.
- For Balloon Fight - the bubbles coming from water, and balloon trip were ideas that Gunpei Yokoi had. Sakamoto drew them, and Iwata programmed in 3 days!!!

Part 3 (https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/5470f000-967b-11e6-9b38-063b7ac45a6d.html) Tezuka, Kondo, Miyamoto on Super Mario Bros.
- Miyamoto and Tezuka worked together on Devil World, Excitebike, and Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 2 was the first game Tezuka directed solo (co-director previously)
- Tezuka also director of Super Mario Bros. 3
- Miyamoto says early Famicom games, the team size was 7-8, by Super Mario Bros. 3 it increased to about 30!

Part 4 (https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/)
- The Legend of Zelda Coming Soon
 
A

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Thanks for this. I'm really surprised there's no English equivalent of Nintendo Topics yet. It would go a long way to fill the massive hole left by Iwata Asks.
 
Grok4Spock

Grok4Spock

Member
Really hope Nintendo translates those interviews, I'd really like to read them without Google translate butchering them...
 
S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
MK-96.jpg

Donkey Kong Circus

TB-94.jpg

Mario Bombs Away
 
P

Peltz

Member
So amazing that these guys were able to produce so many charming games in such a short time period.
 
A

AntMurda

Member
I hope they do one for Metroid, Kid Icarus, and Excitebike. What other classic first party games are on the NES Mini?
 
A

AntMurda

Member
The interviewer does ask good questions. Nintendo just has no interesting in publishing these world wide. There was a good Star Fox Zero one as well.
 
@

@MUWANdo

Banned
AntMurda said:
The interviewer does ask good questions. Nintendo just has no interesting in publishing these world wide. There was a good Star Fox Zero one as well.
Click to expand...

Prima's NES Classic book is set to contain developer interviews and while I don't know for sure, I suspect they may end up being translations of these blog posts.
 
G

giant_frying_pan

Member
Many thanks for this. Still praying for a printed compendium of Iwata Asks!
TQUOTE=Boney;222291959]I love how all these legendary designers were artists and engineers and everybody did everything.[/QUOTE]
Things are trending back towards this with indie development. I love that bedroom coding is essentially back!
 
L

Luigiv

Member
How did I miss these? These are great. Really hit's that Iwata Asks nostalgia button.

Edt:
Balloon Trip is a single-player side-scrolling game in Balloon Fight. Apparently, Iwata-san made it in just three days.

Sakamoto: That's right. It came from an inspiration Yokoi-san had. He told us what kind of vision he had for the game and Iwata-san basically made it in three days. About the time the game was reaching completion, Yokoi-san came up to Iwata-san and myself. He and Iwata-san were acquainted by that time, so after a brief greeting he started playing Balloon Trip. And as usual, he played for a long time.

Of course! (laughs)

Sakamoto: Then, after playing through, he told Iwata-san a bunch of things he'd like to have fixed, but they weren't easy fixes. I say this because at the time, programmers would put out on paper what they had programmed and then do corrections while consulting a stack of paper as thick as a phone book.

Those were difficult times.

Sakamoto: Just fixing a few places would take at least an hour, so Yokoi-san must have intended to go back to his desk and have a cup of coffee or something until the revisions were finished. But when he stood up to leave, Iwata-san said, "Just hold on a sec," and began typing away on the keyboard. Then he said, "All done!"

Whoa!

Sakamoto: I was amazed that he could make the revisions so quickly, and even today I remember how Yokoi-san exclaimed, "Already?!"

That's incredible…I'm speechless!

Sakamoto: Iwata-san had memorized the program.

Everyone considered Iwata-san a genius programmer, but hearing that story makes me realize it all over again.

Sakamoto: Yes, it really does.
Click to expand...

This little anecdote was great.
 
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