Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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SuperDeadite
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by SuperDeadite »

I'd like to get real information on the pre-compile name days. Back when they went by "Programmers 3" and made A.E. and E.I. for MSX. Anything on E.I. would be cool really as it's the precursor to Zanac.

Sylphia is another game I'd love to get any real info on.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BrianC »

SuperDeadite wrote:I'd like to get real information on the pre-compile name days. Back when they went by "Programmers 3" and made A.E. and E.I. for MSX. Anything on E.I. would be cool really as it's the precursor to Zanac.

Sylphia is another game I'd love to get any real info on.
I'm curious how A.E. ended up being ported to other computers, including Apple II and Atari 800.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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SuperDeadite wrote:I'd like to get real information on the pre-compile name days. Back when they went by "Programmers 3" and made A.E. and E.I. for MSX. Anything on E.I. would be cool really as it's the precursor to Zanac.

Sylphia is another game I'd love to get any real info on.
Compile had nothing to do with Programmers 3, they were an unrelated Japanese developer for Apple II games that Compile ported to the MSX.

edit:

And A-E was originally an Apple II game.

edit2:

I think the Atari 800 A.E. port was by white folks

edit3:

lol now actually I can't figure out where I found the compile interview where someone said that stuff so yeah double check, but I swear I've read that Programmers-3 was a separate group of guys and I know for a fact that A.E. is originally an Apple II game
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by d0s »

What I think is missing info here for people is that the Apple II was pretty popular among serious Japanese computer nerds before Japan came out with decent computers of their own, some famous Apple II games are by Japanese devs like Apple Invader, Apple Galaxian, Star Blazer, and yeah A.E.

The Apple II is the reason Broderbund hooked up with Japanese devs and you see things like Hudson Lode Runner, they caught on to the quality of Japanese games quick and were one of the first publishers to ever bring Japanese games to the US, and they brought some US games over there and licensed others to JP devs
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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GSK wrote:I will say that you shouldn't go in thinking he'll be able to go deep on each and every topic you mention--not only are these decades-old games but he wasn't the driving force behind most of them, even the ones that credit him as director.
Yeah I'm sure he only remembers so much, and he mentioned in another (older) interview from the 90's that there was one guy in particular in the company (although he didn't name him) that programmed and thought up most of their shooters. But in reading some of his other interviews he seems to have a lot of info and remember quite a bit. If anything, he's the best chance we have to get some of these questions answered...

That being said, I'm going through these questions and realize that I have WAY too many. Between you guys, Twitter and my own questions about The Guardian Legend (and one about Godzilla), I've got almost 40! So I'm going to have to narrow them down... Maybe you guys can help me? I'll post ALL of the questions below, if any of you feel so inclined, read through them and give me your feedback. I tried to paraphrase most of the ones you guys gave me plus the ones from Twitter I got. Also, bear in mind that the Guardian Legend questions are from me. If you can think of perhaps better ones for that particular game, by all means, I'm open to suggestions.

My friend from Japan and I are doing the interview Wed morning which is about 36 hours from now. So I have to get these finalized by tomorrow evening at the latest. Here are the questions, feel free to take a look and give me suggestions/feedback:

General Questions:

-What is your history with games. What led you to want to become a programmer/game developer?
-How much did a Famicom game typically cost to develop?
-Do you have any prototypes that you would have liked to see finished?
-What is your favorite game you’ve worked on?
-How much thought was given to the North American audience when developing games? Did this idea evolve over time?
-Do you have a game that was never released overseas that you wish had been?
-What was a troublesome aspect of developing a game on the NES or MSX that you wouldn’t have to deal with today?
-Compile is famous in the gaming community for pushing the limits of the machines they developed games for. What can you tell us about this?
-Zanac X Zanac was released in 2001, if Compile had survived, would the company have returned to making shooters?
-Do you have any specific memories or thoughts on developing for the SG-1000?
-Compile wasn’t given credit for quite a few games they developed such as Ghostbusters on the Mega Drive and Godzilla on the Famicom. Why?
-What can you tell us about Randar, what is the story of his creation?
-Many are wondering how you felt about the creation of the company MileStone Inc.
-There were programming references in games like Jaki Crush and Gun Nac at the high score and options screen. What is the story behind that?
-Did Compile have anything to do with the game Yuureikun (Mr. Ghost)?
-What can you tell us about the games you are working on now?

Crush Pinball Games:

-What can you tell us about the Crush Pinball games? How did they come about?

Power Strike II:

-What can you tell us about the development of Power Strike II?
-Some consider Power Strike II to be the most advanced game on the Sega Master System. Do you feel this is true?
-Why was the game only released in Europe in limited quantities?
-Was the story and setting of Power Strike II inspired by the movie Porco Rosso?

Aleste:

-Which version of Aleste would you consider to be definitive. The Sega Master System or MSX?

Super Aleste (Space Megaforce):

-Most Super Famicom games were known for having slowdown issues due to the slow processor. How were you able to overcome this for the development of Super Aleste?

Ghostbusters:

-What is the story behind the Mega Drive Ghostbusters game? It is unique in all of Compiles library of games.

Godzilla:

-What can you tell me about the development of Godzilla on the Famicom?

Guardic Gaiden (The Guardian Legend):

-Guardic Gaiden was ahead of it’s time in many ways, such as the mixture of different genres. Now almost all games mix genres together such as action games with RPG elements. How does it make you feel that you were a trailblazer in this area?
-How did Compile come up with the concept for Guardic Gaiden? Were there any games that directly influenced the creation of the game?
-What can you tell us about the development of Guardic Gaiden?
-Was Irem involved in the development at all? Or were they just a publisher?
-A common theme in Guardic Gaiden is sea life. What inspired this decision?
-Since Guardic Gaiden is basically two games in one, was the production time twice as long?
-Why does Randar have such a prominent role in the game?
-Why was the decision made to use a female lead character?
-Did you have any control over the cover art? Why was it changed from region to region?
-Guardic Gaiden was massive for a Famicom game, how did you create such a large game with such little space?
-Why was the Blue Optomon boss made so much harder than all the other bosses?
-Was a sequel to Guardic Gaiden ever planned?
-Finally, Guardic Gaiden has never seen a re-release. Do you have the means to make this happen?
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by d0s »

personally I would avoid the "tell me about how you wanted to become a game dev" style questions, it's in like every interview and he's answered that elsewhere. would rather see more nerd questions about compile mysteries. he's an otaku, he'll get it
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by SuperDeadite »

Thanks for the info on A.E. But what about E.I.? It's basically a prototype of Zanac. Did Compile come up with it themselves?
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Koa Zo »

Regarding the SG-1000, a more specific question could be to ask how Compile got the opportunity to make games for Sega. Did Sega solicit programs/developers for their hardware or did Compile produce a game first, and then present it to Sega for publishing? (I'm not sure what their first SG-1000 game was. Hustle Chummy?)
...
Ya'know what, actually that question could be expanded out to all hardware.
It is notable that Compile developed for many different platforms. Did Compile choose this diversity simply as a business oportunity, or were they keen on seeing what they could do with the different hardware?
What were the steps taken to get a game developed and published back then?
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BrianC »

d0s wrote: The Apple II is the reason Broderbund hooked up with Japanese devs and you see things like Hudson Lode Runner, they caught on to the quality of Japanese games quick and were one of the first publishers to ever bring Japanese games to the US, and they brought some US games over there and licensed others to JP devs
Speaking of that, they also happened to be the US publisher of TGL. I wonder what the story is behind that box art.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by ruchoer »

Not releated to Shrumps but

cloud you ask Why is the PC98 version of Madou Monogatari 123 so mature compared to the original MSX version of 1989
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BrianC »

ruchoer wrote:Shrumps
Is that what you get when you combine Shmups with Smurfs?
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

In the classic PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 STG known as Gunhed/Blazing Lazers, was there any discussion on creating the various stages and the ultimate decision to end it at nine stages (in retrospect, seems a bit too long nowadays for a modern-day STG title)? If some stages could be omitted & do away with fighting prevoius bosses on stage 9, wouldn't it make for a leaner/meaner version in the end? (A Gunhed port with five or six stages seems to be the "sweet spot" these days.)

Were there plans to do a proper PC Engine sequel to Gunhed/Blazing Lazers on Hu-Card/CD-Rom2/Super CD-Rom2/Arcade CD-Rom2 formats?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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SuperDeadite wrote:Thanks for the info on A.E. But what about E.I.? It's basically a prototype of Zanac. Did Compile come up with it themselves?
I would really like to know this as well, and also for the Compile/Programmers-3 thing to be cleared up by Moo himself.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BrianC »

Why was the cute priestess girl blocked out of the US Gun Nac?
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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The questions are endless!
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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BrianC wrote:Why was the cute priestess girl blocked out of the US Gun Nac?
this was just really typical "de-japanification" common all through the 80's and 90's done by US localizers
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Aggro Sky »

Image

Interview went great! Mr. Niitani is a SUPER nice guy who is full of life, energy and stories. Due to his limited English we just decided to have him give his answers in Japanese. So a lot of it will need to be transcribed, because he would go on for minutes at a time and I had no idea what he was saying! My friend Jimmy would do his best to paraphrase a translated answer to me, but he is going to go back and translate the whole interview so we can get all the details.

Mr. Niitani was able to answer some of the questions you all presented to me, although some of the REALLY specific ones he didn't know, simply because he didn't work on every game they released. Although he did know most of the broader details. Here are a couple takeaways...

-You may notice in the screen shot that we are all laughing. That is because I showed him the NA Guardian Legend box art. He had in fact, never seen it before and laughed for a good two minutes. He said that was all Irem and had nothing to do with Compile at all. The publishers dealt with the marketing and that was obviously a decision made by the publisher. One he didn't approve of I might add...

-While Mr. Niitani says that they were all fans of Ghostbusters, the game wasn't their idea. It was purely a commission job they took from Sega for money. That's it. There is no deeper story to it. They chose to make it a platformer because that is the genre they felt the subject matter would fit into the best.

-Compiles name didn't appear in some games they created because they were a developer for hire. The publisher would give them a budget, they would produce a game. Sometimes that game was a completely original idea that they came up with (like The Guardian Legend) and other times it was licensed stuff like Ghostbusters and Godzilla.

-Rander is representative of the three founders of Compile which includes himself.

-He frequently talked about a coding "Wizard" in the company (he gives his name but I don't have it in front of me) that he referred to as a genius. He has mentioned this guy before in a couple other interviews as the brains behind most of their shooter titles. I'm pretty sure he went into more detail but the interview will have to be translated first.

-Powerstrike II was a pet project of this "coding wizard" guy. Mr. Niitani had almost nothing to do with it so he wasn't able to answer that much about the game.

-One of Compiles company mottos, from the very beginning was to push every piece of hardware they worked on past the limits of it's power. This is why there was little to no slow down in Super Aleste, and why many of their NES games were so impressive from a technical standpoint. He said they strived for this in almost every game they released. It was something everyone at Compile agreed on.

-The company was named "Compile" simply because that is what you do with code. Imagine that! :D

-He gave specific numbers as to how much the production budgets of games were back then but I won't know the specifics until the interview has been fully translated.

-He talked quite a bit about the SG-1000 but I don't know the details yet.

-He told some stories about the early days and everyone working 24/7 at the offices for weeks at a time. He sometimes slept under his desk.

-Perhaps not surprisingly, at that time, they gave almost no thought what so ever into how a game would do overseas. He says they were 100% focused on just making a game the way they wanted to make it and how it would appeal to the Japanese audience. This never really changed.

-He talked a bit about MileStone as well... Let's just say, that he politely said that since they are no longer in business, it proves that there could only be ONE Compile. I got the feeling though that he wasn't happy about Milestone being created without his involvement.

-He also isn't a fan of Compile Heart or the types of games they make

-Also, at the end we talked about his new projects. His new puzzle game will be released on the Nintendo Switch next year in all regions. It's a puzzle game, but really cool! He coded the prototype himself!

Obviously there is a lot more info, but I'll have to wait until my friend can translate the entire interview. I will be releasing the first part of this interview on my website once he is complete. Hopefully before Christmas. The second part of the interview was exclusively about the Guardian Legend which he had quite a bit of interesting insight into as well. That part I'm going to save for my SHMUP Master video which will be released early next year.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, feedback and questions! Hopefully what I presented here will tide you over until I can get the entire interview up. I'll post it here once I have it done. Thanks!
Last edited by Aggro Sky on Wed Nov 22, 2017 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BIL »

Many, many thanks for this. So rad. :smile:
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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BIL wrote:Many, many thanks for this. So rad. :smile:
NP! It was a dream come true for me! And as you can see from the screen shot, we had a lot of fun! Mr. Niitani is a really fun guy. I just wish I spoke Japanese!
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by d0s »

Aggro Sky wrote: -He also isn't a fan of Compile Heart or the types of games they make
awesome
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by EmperorIng »

Can't wait to listen to the whole thing; it sounds like you guys had a blast.
Aggro Sky wrote:he politely said that since [Milestone is] no longer in business, it proves that there could only be ONE Compile.
Daaaamn, Nitani throwing down the gauntlet.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Koa Zo »

So awesome. Thanks for letting us chime in with our questions.
Very much looking forward to reading and watching the results of you guys' discussion.

I wish I'd been able to think of a question relating to Guru Logi Champ, one of my favorite games. Great to hear he has a new puzzle game nearing release - might even be a Switch system seller for me.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by BrianC »

d0s wrote:
BrianC wrote:Why was the cute priestess girl blocked out of the US Gun Nac?
this was just really typical "de-japanification" common all through the 80's and 90's done by US localizers
Probably so, though it's interesting how the scenes can still be accessed without a cheat device, though the dialog has been removed.

Thanks for the interview. Lots of neat information!
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Herr Schatten »

Thanks for doing the interview. I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Mortificator »

Nice work on the interview.
Aggro Sky wrote:He frequently talked about a coding "Wizard" in the company (he gives his name but I don't have it in front of me) that he referred to as a genius. He has mentioned this guy before in a couple other interviews as the brains behind most of their shooter titles.
This is probably Takayuki "Jemini" Hirono.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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Mortificator wrote:Nice work on the interview.
Aggro Sky wrote:He frequently talked about a coding "Wizard" in the company (he gives his name but I don't have it in front of me) that he referred to as a genius. He has mentioned this guy before in a couple other interviews as the brains behind most of their shooter titles.
This is probably Takayuki "Jemini" Hirono.
Thanks! And yes, I believe that is him. Although I'll make sure once the interview is translated.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Despatche »

Even superficially throwing MileStone and Compile Heart into the same box is stupid. Disrespect has been generated for this man.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Squire Grooktook »

We'll have to wait for the full translation, but it sounds more like he was asked about one, gave his opinion, then was asked about the other (as indicated by the separate "-" bulletpoints for both statements). I don't see any comparison between the two in his statement.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

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Despatche wrote:Even superficially throwing MileStone and Compile Heart into the same box is stupid. Disrespect has been generated for this man.
Naaa I don't think that was his intention. We started talking about the offshoot companies that happened after Compile shut down and I think he just expressed that he would have liked to be a part of Milestone, but for whatever reason, wasn't. Compile Heart was just mentioned briefly (don't remember who brought it up), and he just said he wasn't a fan of the type of games they make. He never said he wasn't fan of Milestone or the games they made. He was respectful in his answer as far as I could tell.
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Re: Interview with Moo Niitani, founder of Compile

Post by Despatche »

Okay. Throwing a "there can only be one Compile" at MileStone (referring to compile-o*) while also dashing Compile Heart against the rocks does not even remotely convey that.

I don't know what Niitani really would have done at MileStone anyway. He very quickly became a "producer", whatever that could have possibly meant at Compile, and probably had no real connection with "some of the Zanac X Zanac team that were newly hired" (he was even credited as just "executive producer" for that game, which somehow means even less). I don't really see his stake in this; even CAVE has stronger ties to Toaplan.

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