The History of Sunsoft

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

This seemed worth a new thread, since many of us here enjoy the awesome games Sunsoft delivered, especially during the NES/FC days. These extensive articles have been published in vgarc.org since April of 2017, and they are not done yet. I hope some of you can enjoy it. I will try to update with new articles as they come out.

http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... e-sunsoft/
http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... ft-part-2/
http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... ft-part-3/
http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... ge-part-2/
http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... ge-part-3/
http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... ge-part-4/

http://shmuplations.com/historyofsunsoft/
Last edited by soprano1 on Sun Oct 21, 2018 8:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BIL »

Definitely thread-worthy, these own.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

Thanks, BIL. The compilation CD "Rom Cassette Disc In SUNSOFT" is great listening while reading these. :)
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
Stevens
Posts: 3799
Joined: Thu May 01, 2014 11:44 pm
Location: Brooklyn NY

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Stevens »

Thanks for posting this:D Will give it some time this weekend.
My lord, I have come for you.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

It seems each article gets small updates to fix errors and add interviews with images. Cool stuff.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

No update yet, and I think they take quite a while, so here's an interesting podcast episode of Retro Game Audio about the Sunsoft 5B chip, used on Gimmick! There is also some cool discussion about the game itself, besides the more technical stuff on the 5B. Enjoy:
https://soundcloud.com/retrogameaudio/t ... mr-gimmick
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
GaijinPunch
Posts: 15646
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:22 pm
Location: San Fransicso

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by GaijinPunch »

Very cool shit -- will give this a read.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

Part 4 has been added to the first post. It covers the year of 1992, and the end of the NES/FC years. Enjoy.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
Steamflogger Boss
Posts: 3075
Joined: Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:29 pm
Location: Eating the Rich

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Steamflogger Boss »

soprano1 wrote:Part 4 has been added to the first post. It covers the year of 1992, and the end of the NES/FC years. Enjoy.
Glad this got bumped so I noticed it.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

Steamflogger Boss wrote:
soprano1 wrote:Part 4 has been added to the first post. It covers the year of 1992, and the end of the NES/FC years. Enjoy.
Glad this got bumped so I noticed it.
I'm doing my best to keep at it. :mrgreen:
The Sunman stuff is actually interesting.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BIL »

Glory days. So bittersweet I almost can't stand it. Image
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... -master-2/
Short article on the MD/Genesis Blaster Master 2.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
BrianC
Posts: 8859
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:33 am
Location: MD

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BrianC »

soprano1 wrote:http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/th ... -master-2/
Short article on the MD/Genesis Blaster Master 2.
wow. Sunsoft of America dropped the ball on that one. Blaster Master was more popular in the west, so let's hand it to a western team that hasn't played the original and give them no time to plan or research the original game.
bigbadboaz
Posts: 1135
Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:08 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by bigbadboaz »

Good 'ol corporate decision-making.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

Added quite an extensive article originally published in The Mid-Japan Economist Journal in 2011. Translated by Thomas James and published in blackoak's shmuplations site.
Last edited by soprano1 on Sun Oct 21, 2018 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
Turrican
Posts: 4690
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 5:28 am
Location: Landorin
Contact:

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Turrican »

You know, Super Arabian is kind of fun on the FC. More than I expected to be.

Articles are good, thanks for this.

The Software Creations one gets a lot of bad rep basically for not having Naoki Kodaka in it :) but as far as europlatformers go, it's not a bad effort on their part.
Image
X - P - B
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

soprano1 wrote:This seemed worth a new thread, since many of us here enjoy the awesome games Sunsoft delivered, especially during the NES/FC days. These extensive articles have been published in vgarc.org since April of 2017, and they are not done yet. I hope some of you can enjoy it. I will try to update with new articles as they come out.
Thanks for posting about my articles :D
User avatar
Shelcoof
Posts: 1520
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:36 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Shelcoof »

Gazimaluke wrote:
soprano1 wrote:This seemed worth a new thread, since many of us here enjoy the awesome games Sunsoft delivered, especially during the NES/FC days. These extensive articles have been published in vgarc.org since April of 2017, and they are not done yet. I hope some of you can enjoy it. I will try to update with new articles as they come out.
Thanks for posting about my articles :D
I've enjoyed your work
Thanks for putting in the time :D
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

Shelcoof wrote: I've enjoyed your work
Thanks for putting in the time :D
Thanks for reading them. I have been researching Sunsoft for 3 years now. Unfortunately there will be no more articles since I decided to write a book instead.
User avatar
soprano1
Posts: 3029
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 4:44 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by soprano1 »

Didn't expect the author himself to show up here, that's for sure! Please keep up the good work, lots of Sunsoft fans here. :wink:
ChurchOfSolipsism wrote:I'll make sure I'll download it illegally one day...
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

I just Googled The History of Sunsoft to find posts I made in other forums and found this post.

I am always happy to talk about Sunsoft stuff. For some reason not many people are very willing to talk about it
^^
User avatar
Shelcoof
Posts: 1520
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:36 pm
Location: Canada

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Shelcoof »

Gazimaluke wrote:I just Googled The History of Sunsoft to find posts I made in other forums and found this post.

I am always happy to talk about Sunsoft stuff. For some reason not many people are very willing to talk about it
^^

You can count on the good old shmup forum to do that :D
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

Sunsoft really didn't do any proper shmups. Battle Formula/Super Spy Hunter is probably the closest to a shmup.
User avatar
BIL
Posts: 18989
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 12:39 pm
Location: COLONY

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BIL »

Great work, Gazimaluke. :smile:
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

BIL wrote:Great work, Gazimaluke. :smile:
Thanks. One reason why I stopped making the articles and updating the old ones was that I got new info all the time so I thought writing a book would make more sense. I am rewriting most of it. I got a bit to carried away with using qoutes even if they weren't very good to read out loud :p Some times just writing about what a person said gives you the opportunity to elaborate more.

And 5 months ago I got my second child so it has been a little slow with the Sunsoft stuff. But I have gotten more info on many games and stuff that are in the articles. I had the former director of Sunsoft Kiharu Yoshida to answer questions (and hopefully he'll answer the 30 more I sent him. But that was in May and I haven't heard how the answering is going).
User avatar
blackoak
Posts: 1066
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:43 am

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by blackoak »

I'm a fan, as you know--I loved reading the Batman section of the Sunsoft history in particular. It's so great there's someone dedicating the time to one specific developer like this. Hopefully I can help your research out by getting to some of those other Sunsoft interviews in the shmuplations archive soon. 8)

I'd love to see someone make this effort for the early Konami stuff. Even the Japanese don't really know wtf was up with the making of first three Castlevania games, afaik.
shmuplations.com - translated game developer interviews and more
support shmuplations on patreon!
User avatar
FinalBaton
Posts: 4461
Joined: Sun Mar 08, 2015 10:38 pm
Location: Québec City

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by FinalBaton »

Thanks for your efforts Gazimaluke :) They are really appreciated.
-FM Synth & Black Metal-
User avatar
BrianC
Posts: 8859
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:33 am
Location: MD

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BrianC »

Nice article! I niced some Sunsoft games were included in Hamster's Arcade Archives series. The latest is Route 16. I was especially surprised to see a Shanghai game get re-released on PS4. It even got a US release.
User avatar
Gazimaluke
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2018 4:06 pm

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by Gazimaluke »

blackoak wrote:I'm a fan, as you know.
And I am a fan of your work as you know. If I ever could get a day of from life I would spend it on shmuplations.com.
BrianC wrote:Nice article! I niced some Sunsoft games were included in Hamster's Arcade Archives series. The latest is Route 16. I was especially surprised to see a Shanghai game get re-released on PS4. It even got a US release.
Yes Shanghai Refresh is basically a new version of a phone game they made some years ago. Mahjong Solitar is what tjej call Shanghai sometimes. It's interesting. Activision owns Shanghai all over the world except in Japan where Sunsoft owns the full rights.

I think it's cool that they released Ikki and Route-16. But I really think they have some older arcade games that would be much more interesting. Like Markham, Speak & Rescue(Stratovox) and 3d Planet that is almost forgotten.
User avatar
BrianC
Posts: 8859
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:33 am
Location: MD

Re: The History of Sunsoft

Post by BrianC »

Interesting! I didn't know about Shanghai Refresh. I was referring to Arcade Archives Shanghai III.
Post Reply