Sunsoft Famicom and NES

[Doommaster1994]

I'm pretty sure it uses Blaster Master's engine because it's easier to re-use a game engine rather than completely make a new one from scratch. As for why it exists, I have no idea. I'm also wondering why it never got a release in Japan as well as Spy Hunter/Xenophobe? Sunsoft was pretty good at releasing their games in Japan. I'm thinking it was because they didn't think they would have sold well enough.

[dragon1952]

Sunsoft as well as other companies do not release games that they believe have no market in Japan. Art is an issue since the Japanese judge everything by their eye. Artwork style and licenses that are not favorable to the Japanese eye are not sold there. Even Warner Bros. style is not so favorable, but Disney is. Anime or Manga style is generally accepted in the Western world, so it is easier to sell games that have global appeal.

"Fester's Quest" and other titles were due to Sunsoft of America Directors that loved to wine and dine Hollywood for expensive often stupid license material!

Yes, it is common for an engine to be utilized over and over. Sunsoft is no different from Konami or others in that respect.

"Super Spy Hunter" or "Battle Formula" was a great title that utilized interesting technology in the form of the FME-7 chip.

[L___E___T]

Gotta love that FME-& chip

I can easily see what you mean with some of these point, reading between the lines.  So David what do you think would have been the next step for chip expansion on the Famicom? 

The FME-7 allows for mroe sprites and more processing, what would have come after do you think?  Even more processing, or more sound channels or more colours even??  Very interested in your thoughts on that one!

[Bob-Bob]

Sunsoft as well as other companies do not release games that they believe have no market in Japan. Art is an issue since the Japanese judge everything by their eye. Artwork style and licenses that are not favorable to the Japanese eye are not sold there. Even Warner Bros. style is not so favorable, but Disney is. Anime or Manga style is generally accepted in the Western world, so it is earlier to sell games that have global appeal.

So how did games like Happy Birthday Bugs, Tiny Toon Adventures and Roger Rabbit (Crazy Castle) get released there? And what about games based on movies like Rambo, RoboCop and Predator? I thought those movies were big in Japan.

"Fester's Quest" and other titles were due to Sunsoft of America Directors that loved to wine and dine Hollywood for expensive often stupid licence material!

So basically Sunsoft of America bought the Addams Family license for no apparent reason and decide to make Sunsoft of Japan make a game out of it? That's it? 

[Doommaster1994]

Kemco owned Disney licenses in Japan and Warner Bros. licenses in the USA, so they developed Disney games in Japan and released them based on Looney Toons (mainly Bugs Bunny) characters in the USA. I think Disney is a big thing in Japan (hence the Kingdom Hearts games) so that's how they got released in Japan, and as I mentioned, Kemco probably thought the games sold well. Whether they did or not in Japan I'm not too sure.

As for Tiny Toons, that have been a thing in Japan, too. Not too sure about games like that being in Japan.

[macbee]

Mr. Siller,
Do you know why all Sunsoft games based on 'Batman the Movie' (Famicom, Game Boy, PC-Engine and Mega Drive) had 100% original soundtracks?
Not even the famous movie theme (composed by Danny Elfman) was present in any of these games. Was there a special reason for this?

Thanks!

[dragon1952]

L_E_T:
The point is not what technology can do, but rather what can creativity accomplish. The reason that Konami and Sunsoft pursued enhanced chips was because the famicom needed the help. Of course more color palettes and better sound were the natural extensions as well as greater sprite manipulation. It was not possible to add channels to the famicom, but having a better "Yamaha" style synthesizer was. It was inevitable that newer hardware would eventually come and take over the marketplace. It would not have evolved much further than that, but we can only speculate.

Bob-Bob:
Every company decides what to do and where to sell their "licensed" stuff and some would sell anywhere they could so they could recoup the development costs to cover the license fees. Not all were successful even when offered in Japan.

I can't say why Sunsoft bought the "Addams Family" license as that happened at least two years before my time there, but a Director at Sunsoft, Rita Zimmerer, was hell bent to license everything she could and spent the money to do it. That is why she was fired when they could no longer tolerate that agenda.

Macbee:
I simply don't know as I was not there at that time. I would suppose that the original Batman theme would require an additional license that would make the costs unacceptable unless it was a HOT seller beyond what was possible.

[Doommaster1994]

Wow, never knew about Rita getting fired, but I've seen her name on countless Sunsoft games.
Speaking of which, I'm interested about Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday. The Beta version says Dark Technologies developed it, but the released version says Phoenix developed it, so I'm thinking they're the same company. They went under the Dark name when they made Lion King for the NES and GB.

[dragon1952]

Rita Zimmerer got fired because she was over zealous about spending or committing Sunsoft dollars for worthless licenses!

She fancied herself as one of the most powerful women in the Industry and she was out-of-control, so the enviable happened. She thought that everything good that happened at Sunsoft was because of her. After Sunsoft she claimed that she was the "development" guru that created "Aero the Acrobat" and everything else. She got several jobs in development but soon lost them because she could not do what she said she had done. Caused me a lot of grief. In the beginning she was tolerable, but it all went to her head and she did a lot of things that pissed everyone at Sunsoft off.

Even though Aero was MY creation, she had generated the cover for the packaging that was rendered and NOT truly representative of the character, but she said "too bad, it's too late to change it!"

[L___E___T]

I think there's somebody like that at every company - it's a very annoying character type to have to deal with.

Just had a look at that cover - that's a shame, it looks rushed and doesn't communicate what makes the character cool in my opinion.

Taking credit for work that isn't yours though, really makes my blood boil to see - sorry you had to deal with that nonsense. Reminds me of the Tim Langdell story - check that out if you haven't already read about it.

David a quick side question - how easy is it to code for the SMD - think you could still do it?

[dragon1952]

L_E_T:

My job was always "designer" and "producer", not programmer. My programming was limited to "Basic" which I would always use to write the programmers a logic script. That helped them understand how everything would work and correlate together. I did that for  "Crash Bandicoot" and Andy turned it into his own "GOOL" language and never even gave me any credit. GOOL stood for "Game Object Oriented Language".

In my career, I got ripped off and never properly credited for loads of stuff in the games business that I did or was responsible for. The games business has always been saturated with very fragile egos that love to claim what they did not do!

Doommaster 1994:

"Porky's Haunted Holiday" was developed in the UK by Phoenix. I believe that they did change their name (maybe), but they were Phoenix when I hired them to do my Porky Pig concept and they did a great job. They contributed the code to change and alter the weather every time the game was played. An innovation that had never been done before. WB did not appreciate what we tried to do with that game, but later they "got it!".

[Protoboy]

Dragon1952, I'd just like to take a moment to thank you for Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday. I've been reading the thread for a little while now, but it slipped my mind that Sunsoft developed that long-lost game from my childhood. I had no idea the weather thing was an innovation with that game! Thank you so much for all your hard work in the industry, it's so cool that you've made an account and are indulging us in the pleasure of seeing some of the inner workings of the industry back when the games you were making were shaping the special memories of our childhood we'll never forget. Now if I can just find the Porky Pig's Haunted Holiday soundtrack, that would be great!

[dragon1952]

Protoboy,

Thank you for the kind words! That is why those of us do what we do or did, because not everyone got rich doing it but that is not what it should be about. I was passionate and loved working in amusement game development and the true rewards and happiness was being successful at making a player customer enjoy themselves, if even for a short time. Maybe we can positively influence others to excel at their own chosen direction in life.

You made my day, my week,.. my month!

David Siller

[Gazimaluke]

Did this thread just die back in 2014?

[UglyJoe]

Yeah, pretty much.  Dragon1952 is still around.  Doommaster1994 hasn't logged in since 2014, although if you PM him he might see your message in an email (depends on his profile settings).