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I picked up a children's picture book at the local library recently. Some of you might be thinking, "Why would you take out a Japanese picture book? Are your Japanese language skills that atrophied?" Well, this happened to be a very special book, because it showed kids how Nintendo games are made, from start to finish. With some fantastically juicy pictures! And not only that, the game it focussed on was Super Mario Bros. 3!
The book was published in late 1989, based on a tour and interview session at Nintendo of Japan in July of that same year (this will become evident in a later picture). They interview Shigeru Miyamoto, Koji Kondo, all the major players in Nintendo's games.
I've scanned all the pages of the book and have presented them below. Also, the text for each page is here in Japanese and English (translated by me, Chris Covell) for your reading pleasure.
社会科 はこばれてくるしくみシリーズ―11 ファミコンゲームの主役たち ゲームソフトの制作と流通 ● ● 監修 慶応義塾大学教授 鴫口充輝 文 村田栄一 PHP研究所 |
Social Studies "Step-by-Step Process" Series
11 The Stars of Famicom Games Game Software Production and Distribution Editor Futsuaki Shimaguchi, Professor, Keio University |
●目 次● スーパーマリオの生みの親にいろいろきいたぞ…………2 ファミコン企画室に侵入してみた…………………………6 おしゃべりやあそびもゲームをつくるのにたいせつ……8 基盤をつくる工程……………………………………………12 頭の中はコンピューターのリズム…………………………14 成型をつくる工程……………………………………………16 主人公たちの動き方もくふうする…………………………18 ゲーム機をつくる工程………………………………………20 作戦変更をまとめる役目……………………………………22 DISKをつくる工程………………………………………24 ゲームは全部写して調べる(検品)…………………………26 海外への出荷がふえた(出荷)………………………………28 デパートのファミコン売り場………………………………30 ニューヨークのこどもたちもファミコン大好き…………32 NESをつくる工程と検品…………………………………34 世界の人たちにむけて出発…………………………………36 |
Table of Contents |
Below they show the desk and chair that Miyamoto sits at every day
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And here's his desk with lots of interesting things to see! He's got games in development all around his desk, and some tantalizing design documents sitting on his shelves.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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Apparently Miyamoto doesn't care that he's posing for a kids' book as he lights up for a smoke.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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Here, the calendar (and Miyamoto's schedule book
& Game Boy) indicates that the photo was taken in July 1989. (1989
because of the arrangement of the dates.) |
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Here's Takashi Tezuka (A.K.A. "Ten Ten"), director and designer, consulting with Miyamoto. If you look at the items above their desks, like the fan, manga, and mini-speakers, you can see that Tezuka's and Miyamoto's desks are back-to-back.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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Naughty you, Tezuka! You've got a nifty little Sega
Mega Drive collection going, including Altered Beast (twice), Super
League, Osomatsu-Kun, and Phantasy Star II. |
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This could also be a proto... or not. |
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Tezuka shows off the workstation used for designing Famicom graphics. Wow, one can see from pictures on the web that he's really gotten chubby recently.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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Oddly, he's looking at a March
4, 1988 copy of Famitsu, turned to the Winter CES page. I wonder
if he's getting inspiration from some U.S. game covers... |
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For some reason they jump to the factories on the next two pages. Perhaps half a dozen pages of only bespectacled men gets boring or something?
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Koji Kondo, composer of Mario, Zelda, and many others. He's got a lot of cool musical stuff in his room, but it must be disheartening to be an accomplished musician but still have to dress in Japanese engineers' blues.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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What's that EPROM socket thing doing in Mr. Kondo's studio, eh? Hmmm? WELL, that's a SPC-700 (SFC's audio CPU) ICE hardware emulator made by Mitec, sitting atop a Sony NEWS computer workstation. These devices are how Mr. Kondo would compose music and upload them to the actual audio hardware for a listen. |
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These are the machines that build the outer Famicom casing (it says), but all I see are large plastic bins...
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Spindly arms and bad hair can only mean you've entered the programmers' lair. Toshihiko Nakago (alias "Nakazoo") is probably the lead programmer of this motley crew.
LET'S PLAY "SPOT
THE CLOSE-UP!" |
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These men are using HP 64000 mainframe computers (circa 1979) to do their programming on. These computers could share data and processing on a network, could burn EPROMs using a built-in burner board, and could even run 6502 emulation with diagnostic hardware and software. An interesting (if depressingly archaic) method of development. |
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Continued on Page 2 |
e-Mail Chris: chris_covell@yahoo.ca