A new Kickstarter popped up that I thought would be of general interest to the community.
As I understand it, resident STG-YouTuber Shmup Junkie is teaming up with one Joseph Pierce to put together a Kickstarter to fund an extensive set of retrospective interviews with former Toaplan staff and others intimately involved in the late-80s, early-90s STG scene.
Here's a link to the Kickstarter (scroll past the Japanese for the English section): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jo ... to-toaplan
And here's a link to the English trailer for the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2JR_Qu ... =emb_title
Taken directly from the Kickstarter:
I'm endlessly fascinated by these developer interviews and attempts to historicize and contextualize the scene, so I really hope this gets funded. Thought some of you might be willing to throw in a bit to make it happen, too.What you say? A Toaplan documentary? That’s right! The company that set up us the bomb in Tiger Heli (which is to say, introduced the bomb mechanic into the shooting genre). The company, that with their last breath, created the first danmaku (bullet hell) with Batsugun and V-V (Grind Stormer). A company whose invaluable contributions to the shooting genre and fascinating exploits should be preserved. For Great Justice!
This first documentary will focus on the founding of Toaplan up until the release of Fire Shark in 1989. As the team behind this project consists of diehard fans of their work, we'll cover every game of the 80’s including lesser known games like Wardner, Rally Bike and Guardian (Get Star). The planned sequel will focus on the 90's and their remaining work, as we don't want to rush through Toaplan's history, which spans over ten years and over thirty games.
We would love nothing more than to create the definitive Toaplan compendium featuring their staff and industry veterans. So please support our work!
A bunch of interesting Kickstarter rewards to select from, but I'll let you all look those over.
Edit: Shmup Junkie posted a more detailed explanation in this thread and so I thought I'd elevate his response to the topic post:
I was just made aware of this thread and really glad the project is slowly making it's rounds through the community. So I wanted to drop in and provide some info straight from the source. The most exciting aspect of this documentary are the interviews and everyone involved, some of which is briefly touched on in the Kickstarter text and in my trailer. The director Joseph Pierce is close with both Uemura-san and Yuge-san and how this originally started. Joseph is a massive Toaplan fan and owns every single arcade PCB of their games. He's not a collector and owns them to play the hell out of them. And once the project reached a point where interviews were secured, permissions were granted, and the possibility was real, he touched base with me to help co-direct and edit the video.
Tatsuya Uemura is heavily involved in the project, and both he and Yuge-san will feature prominently. This is their story, told by them, along with a crazy amount of STG legends he's brought onto the project. That includes Manabu Namiki, Go Sato (Raiden), Horii Naoki (CEO of M2), Yuichi Toyama of former Compile/Raizing, artist Inoue Junya (Joker Jun) who is creating custom artwork for the Bluray... and that's just the very short list. They will all be on camera and interviewed for the documentary. Almost all of these folks have been posting on their social media trying to spread awareness of the project. There will be an entire second disc consisting of both Uemura and Yuge-san speaking at great length on various topics that they've been wanting to discuss for quite a while. Part of the plan and budget is the ex-Toaplan staff visiting all their old office locations, bars they used to drink together, restaurants they frequented, and talk about the entire experience of working at Toaplan during that time. So as unimaginable as it may seem to get this level of STG documentary in this day and age, this is the real deal.
The closest comparison I can make is the M2 Complete Works documentary by MLiG a while back, only the amount of STG legends lined up for this project is something I'm still wrapping my mind around. And it's going to happen if the project gets funded. Tatsuya Uemura himself is directly involved in it's production and wants to see it happen. We have footage of things like him and Yuichi Toyama playing Get Star (Guardian) together and just having a good time. We hope to do a live gameplay commentary, with both Uemura-san and Yuge-san discussing the game being played as it's happening and their insight into the mechanics and development. The amount of extra content and things the Toaplan staff directly want to do is overwhelming. To the point where it will be broken into two separate productions. One focusing on the beginning and through 1989, with the sequel being the 90s games and bankruptcy, what happened afterward etc. It's too much content for a single film or production. If the first part gets funded and does well, and once important interviews from players like Ikeda-san are confirmed for the later games, then it could proceed as well. It's true Tatsujin Corp. owns the rights, but that is their only role here. They have to approve things from a licensing perspective in the film. But they are not involved in the production. This is Joseph's and Uemura-san's baby, with myself brought in several months ago to help with the international side and for the editing work. None of us are doing it for profit, as the production costs are high, and the funding amount will be going to them. I joined this project completely pro bono for how insanely exciting it is to be part of. The thought of having Zoom meetings with these developers weekly and learning inside info from them isn't something I ever could have imagined. Yet here we are.
So I'll be yelling from the rooftops at anyone who will listen (and hopefully more effective methods to actually get funded) because this is not an opportunity that will come along again. At least not for Toaplan, a developer and games I have a real fondness and nostalgia for. While I'm inundated with work, I'll do my best to check in here again and answer questions others may have. It's still surreal in my mind that something like this is happening, or could potentially happen. And what a missed opportunity it will be if it doesn't.