[game_preservation] Hironobu Takeshita on MM9

[Mike Melanson]

Captain Commando wrote:

> For one, MM9 is not made using Famicom tools - but it is done in the 

> Famicom style. In fact, MM9 is much too big and complex to fit on an NES 

> cart anyway. This tells us something interesting: that the development 

> tools for those old systems, they're not really used anymore (and it's a 

> stretch to ask whether or not Capcom even has original Famicom dev kits 

> still). So to begin with, the old technology is not readily available 

> for work.


Somewhere, I have an ancient issue of Nintendo Power magazine that shows 
some photographs of Nintendo developers working on the graphics and 
music for a game. As an aspiring game designer, I studied those photos 
carefully.


> However, you can still make an NES-style game today because the 

> technology allows us to make something that 'emulates' (or rather, 

> replicates) the style of the past. However, knowing what the hardware 

> could do is important still for making an 'authentic' Famicom game 

> versus simply replicating the look and feel. However, there are still 

> people today who make NES games (and not by hacking existing ones). I 

> don't recall the name of the team, but I believe it was led by a guy 

> named Snowbro who is legendary for his NES hacking abilities.


Also, check out Retrozone:

   http://retrousb.com/

They sell a variety of components that allow you develop software on an 
actual NES console. This is perhaps their crowning achievement-- a 
Flash-based NES cart which lets you just download your program:

   http://retrousb.com/index.php?productID=133

I bought one a year ago but still have not put it into service.


> Second, the people who are making games today do not know how to make 

> the games the way they did 25 years ago. This is another interesting 

> point for preservation, because now from a design perspective, we 

> wouldn't be concerned just with development environments but rather with 

> techniques. Who teaches people today to make games like this? Only the 

> people who made games 25 years ago and who are now in producer or lead 

> design roles.


I was about to protest that I *do* know how to make games for the NES. 
However, I realize that I know how to make them with today's tools. I 
wouldn't know what the tool set looked like 20 years ago.

-- 
	-Mike Melanson