I decided to go crazy and buy a batch of PCE mags. I'm having a pretty good time exploring this old stuff, so why not? I don't have access to a scanner, but the meat is the text anyway, so it shouldn't matter much.
Luckily enough, I was able to get ahold of the first issue of PCE Fan from December 1988, and in the back is a nice set of introductions for various developers. A lot of it is history and PR fluff, which I won't translate, but I'm going to try to get anything anyone says about the PC Engine. I'll start with Hudson.
This is a direct translation, and not a particularly polished one, but it's good enough. There's not a lot of groundbreaking info, but this should give you an idea of what the vibe around the PCE was like in its early days.
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Hudson
There are a lot of people who, upon hearing the word "Hudson", think of that company where Takahashi Meijin works. Among software houses, Hudson's achievements rank alongside the best, and we can hope for them to be plenty active in the PC Engine world. Mr. Naoki Hirai, the PR chief of Hudson's main development planning department, spoke to us about the direction of the company.
--A development structure that is always forward facing.--
In Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood, Hudson's branch office sits facing a street lined with cherry blossoms. It was there that we spoke to Mr. Hirai.
Their headquarters is in Sapporo, Hokkaido, and that's where their games are developed. [note: this is far north in Japan, in what most would consider the boonies.] That being the case, we reporters hoped to depart for Sapporo, but Mr. Hirai quickly said "if you're looking for something to report, just ask me." Oh well...
From the outside, their building looks like it was modeled after the
Sapporo Clock Tower, and while it's seated snugly among the other buildings, it also stands out among the local scenery.
Nobody was at the reception desk when we arrived. I picked up the phone to ask through the office line for someone to meet us. Moments later, Mr. Hirai appeared. We were guided to a reception room with a large window that commanded a view of the street, and Mr. Hirai lit a cigarette.
We started with a stiff topic. "How exactly is your organization structured?" A stiff question indeed.
"We divide it into three parts: thinking, creating, and selling. We plan, we develop, and we put things on sale. That's the basic structure of our organization. That's the core."
When it comes to creation, three or four years ago, Hudson used only their internal staff. Recently, however, outside groups have been fairly involved. Scenario writing, music, graphics, working with these kinds of outside specialists gives their results a new flavor.
"When it comes to our structure of development as a software house going into the future, I think a key thing is going to be whether we are able to recruit the most talented outsiders."
Mr. Hirai choked on his cigarette smoke, but he kept talking.
"By the way, Mr. Hirai, we would like to take your picture."
With that, our cameraman started right to work taking photos. Mr. Hirai, being who he is, was so used to it that he didn't flinch. Without pausing, and with cigarette in hand, he started talking again.
"In particular, fields related to CD-ROM are expanding, and getting specialists from each of those fields is probably going to be a necessity."
There it is! For those of us already captivated with the PC Engine, the topic that really perks up our ears is the CD-ROM.
I mean, we can't even imagine a game that uses such a massive amount of memory as 540 megabytes. Even a commercial (i.e. arcade) game. The fact that we can barely take a shot at guessing what will happen is what excites us.
"Of course there will be games, but just wait until you see what else we have up our sleeves. Ha ha ha!"
Mr. Hirai says this with a curious smile. You can bet that he means it.
"For example, do you mean like a game with conversations in four different languages? Or a digital map that you load into your car and you can also play games there?"
When I ask this, I suddenly remember. There is a rumor that Tengai Makyo, a game they're currently developing, is going to have music provided by the famous Ryuichi Sakamoto. This must be what he's talking about.
[note: Ryuichi Sakamoto was one of the three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, which were kind of like a Japanese Kraftwerk, and massively popular in the 80s. I'm a fan. To me, they sound like Japan in the same way that the Beach Boys sound like California.]
-Make the software cheap to have a good balance-
Well, readers, that's Hudson, the company that never forgets to provide entertainment for all users. From here on out, it sounds like they won't hold back when it comes to bringing in the most prominent people.
Of course, they can also push the the present Hucard system up to its maximum (8M), and that's still enough to provide a lot of new software. In the end, we're thinking that the Hucard will be the foundation, and the CD-ROM system will be the expansion.
For users, what everyone really wants to know is how things will proceed regarding price. There are a lot of cases of Hudson games being 4500-5000 yen, while other companies charge over 5000.
"Some Famicom games cost 10,000 yen. We want to keep our games at as low a price as possible, and make users feel glad that they bought them." It almost moves us to tears.
--Putting developers to the test--
-A machine many levels further evolved than the Famicom-
"In the PC Engine business, what is your greatest strength? Could you tell us your opinions and feelings toward the industry?" We said sitting seiza-style in our chairs...ha ha, of course that's just a joke. But we did straighten our posture.
[note: seiza is that painful way of sitting where your knees are together in front of you and your butt rests on your ankles. It's a formal way of sitting in Japan]
"It's fair to say that as a console, the PC Engine is more evolved than the existing Famicom. Actually, since its release in October of last year and right now as well, you could rank it as the single most superior hardware out there."
"In what ways is it superior?"
"Let me tell you...Wait, just a sec..."
Mr. Hirai went to greet another guest. Three minutes later, he was back.
"Heh, sorry about that. What were we talking about?"
"How the PC is superior."
"Right, right. It's got better color and better sound than the Famicom. Furthermore, it's equipped with expandability for peripherals. We call this a "core concept". In terms of the hardware itself, this makes a big difference.
-Asking about the strength of PC Engine developers-
"So, that only leaves the problem of games, right?"
"That's right. It's easy to develop a game on a Hucard, and I think whether a developer can get the most out of the hardware just depends on how he uses it."
Now he's getting into it.
"In other words, developers are put to the test on the PCE. How high the quality of their work is, and how cheaply they can price it, is a matter of their own abilities."
That's what we like to hear. Someone pounded the table and cheered, and it turned out to be our cameraman. He blushed, and hurried out to take some pictures of the reception area.
--Amazing software coming soon--
"Whether you're talking about the Famicom or the PC Engine, I believe we have taken on the role of being pioneers. We're the kind who take a zero and turn it into a one. "
To make something from nothing is truly a difficult thing. You have to keep making new developments even when the risks are high.
At the same time, you have to be flexible enough to take the lead with support for new hardware.
"Regarding hardware, we're going to support anything that's good. In short, we want to have an adaptability that's centered around users."
In the current PC Engine world, selling a PC Engine game is, you could say, not very difficult. The Famicom is overcrowded with software, and not many games sell more than 100,000 copies. On the other hand, in the PC Engine world, where there still aren't very many games, developers are lining up to join in one after another. The current amount of support for the PC Engine is, in a way, a kind of merit.
"We at Hudson are going to do all we can to put our know-how to use as we plan further games. In partucular, in the near future (next spring) we are going to put out some amazing software for you all. We want you to look forward to it. And while you're at it, we'd sure like you to buy a CD-ROM system this Christmas or over New Year's."
(on the lower left, there's a box advertising nationwide events throughout Japan. Hudson put them on in 85 and 86, and last year they did a special tie-up with Katochan and Kenchan the TV show. This year, they're doing a caravan in 40 locations, and holding a contest with the game Power Ring.)
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Next up: Namco
