About Axelay + Treasure developers myth

[antifrog]

Hi everyone o/

I'd like to have information about a story around Axelay on super nes.

The true end let see "AXELAY 2 COMING SOON!" an evident opening to a sequel. This one never appeared.
I've read on euro magazines and pages that this would have been the result of a massive demission of the team responsible to open a new studio, Treasure.
I didn't found any relevant fact about this story.

Someone told me that it would be highly unprobable cos if you compare the credits end from axelay to gunstar heroes (first game from Treasure)

Axelay :
Main program : "DREAMER" VEDA
Sub Program : S. TAMATE
Support program : "KöNIG" ISHIDA
Main design : KODAMA
Character design : "BONCHARU" YADA
Sub design : "FURITEN" NAGISA
1st help man : T. FURUKAWA
2nd help man : "KAGENIN" SASAKI
Opening ending : S. KUSHIBUCHI
Sound program : A. FUJIO
Effects & Ending : AKI
Music compose : TARO
ST2 Remix : M.C. ADA
Art design : PD. NAMBA
Special thanks : KUROKOTAI
Produce : Mr. KITAVE

Gunstar Heroes :
Main programmer : YAIMAN
Enemies programmer : 1993/NAMI
Treasure logo programmer : KöNIG ISHIDA
Cool character creator : HAN
Background art : IUSHI 6
Music : N. HANZAWA
Sound design : S. MURATA
Special thanks : HIROMI, NORIKO, NAZO² SUZUKI, K. SHINDOH
Supervisor : M. MAEGAWA

Ther's only one name matching, KöNIG ISHIDA which seem to have only a little role in the development of the two games.

Does anyone have some solid infos about that?

Thx to all

[Strider77]

What games were (or at some part at least) done by pre-tresure while at konami?

[antifrog]

That's the rumour around Axelay... so as far as I know, there would be Axelay
For others potential games I don't know.
Konami on super nes means the parodius, twin bee an gradius 3; but there are all in an absolutely different style than axelay.

[Strider77]

I always felt Conta 3, Castlevania 4, Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra HC, and Axelay seemed like they were. But common since told me the megadrive castlevania and contra games were not b/c that was after they left.

[antifrog]

I focused on shmups only, which is a mistake.
I'm going to search on the end credits of the Contra and castlevania series to check if some names are common / maybe it's only a story of pseudonym?

[ROBOTRON]

I focused on shmups only, which is a mistake.
I'm going to search on the end credits of the Contra and castlevania series to check if some names are common / maybe it's only a story of pseudonym?

Its almost impossible to tell with all the aliases used between the two titles.

[Xexyz]

I just recently finished up Rollergames on the NES and remember seeing Maegawa's name in the credits. IIRC, I also remember people saying Bucky O Hare for the NES being a pre-Treasure Treasure game. Those are two games worth looking into.

Thing is though, I'd be surprised if there are any Konami games strictly made by a team that would later become Treasure. Konami employees seem to be spread out quite a bit between titles. Also, both examples I gave also had Nobuya Nakazato credited in them, and he's a big time Konami game designer/director that's stayed with the company all these years.

[evil_ash_xero]

I read somewhere that the only game that was really made by a lot of Treasure members was the Bucky O'Hare game for NES.

[lgb]

Wikipedia claims Norio Hanzawa was composer of the first Castlevania Adventure. Most likely Namiki's taken that up for ReBirth but I don't know (hmm, Wiki claims that as well)

[MrMonkeyMan]

It's a shame SFKosmo is gone, or I could just point you there and you could easily see what games Treasure employees worked on. About the only thing I can remember is that Hideyuki Suganami worked on the sidescrolling sections of Contra 3 and Yaiman worked on the top down sections.

I don't think any Konami game had more than two Treasure employees in the credits and often one of them would be for music. You couldn't really say Treasure made any Konami games.


EDIT

Although, checking the NES Bucky 'O Hare credits it seems Maegawa, Suganami and Kouichi Kimura worked on it. Oh, and Rollergames had Maegawa, Kimura and NON, so I guess there were a few NES games with more than 2 Treasure employees.

Oh, and Castlevania Adventures also had Maegawa, Kimura and NON in the credits. Seems Maegawa and Kimura worked together a lot.

[WarpZone]

Hideyuki Suganami worked on the sidescrolling sections of Contra 3 and Yaiman worked on the top down sections.

Yaiman was also character programmer for Super Castlevania IV. To me, that and Contra III are the most notable connections.

Hard Corps and Bloodlines indeed had no Treasure involvement, although a HC designer sited Gunstar Heroes as an influence for the game.

[Raizen1984]

I've seen Hiroshi Iuchi credited for a few arcade games at Konami: Quarth, Aliens, The Simpsons, and Bucky o'Hare. Music composer N.Hanzawa also worked on Castlevania for Game Boy, Rollergames on NES, and I think a couple other things as well.

I would be interested in seeing a complete list of what pre-Treasure workers did at Konami though. A complete history of one of my favorite developers would be very interesting to read.

[MrMonkeyMan]

Hiroshi Iuchi actually has a complete list of his credits on his blog

http://www.vgmaterials.com

At Konami he worked on Quarth, Aliens, The Simpsons, Escape Kids and Bucky 'O Hare. Arcade versions only.

[Skykid]

Hard Corps ...indeed had no Treasure involvement, although a HC designer sited Gunstar Heroes as an influence for the game.

What, I could've sworn that game had Treasure writted all over it!

[antifrog]

Thanks a lot to everyone for the contribution I have some research tracks to follow now.
So on the end, this axelay legend was a semi hoax; some treasure people may have work on it but not the whole team.

[lynchesque]

http://web.archive.org/web/200806291549 ... lated.html

[Enhasa]

Treasure + Konami in general is mostly a myth. Blame some overeager new games journalist or something.

[Specineff]

^^ I think it was Gamefan. Which explains a lot.