is a Japanese

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

. A programming prodigy, Nakamura gained fame while still in high school; in 1982, he entered

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

's first national programming contest and claimed runner-up prize with his entry, ''

Door Door is a single-screen puzzle-platform game developed by Enix and published in Japan in 1983. Originally released for the NEC PC-8801, it was ported to other platforms, including the Family Computer. Controlling a small character named Chun, the p ...

''. In 1984, he founded the video game company Chunsoft, where he remains its president.

Early game development

Nakamura was a member of the math club at Marugame High School in

Kagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the southwest and Tok ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. There he wrote a version of the video game '' Galaxy Wars'' in the

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

programming language on a Tandy

TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

. In order to play games such as ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who ...

'' that were ported to the

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

PC-8001 by Geimu Kyoujin from ''I/O'' magazine, Nakamura bought a PC-8001 using money he'd saved up by delivering newspapers. It was on that PC-8001 that he developed his program submissions. He submitted a

machine code In computer programming, machine code is any low-level programming language, consisting of machine language instructions, which are used to control a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Each instruction causes the CPU to perform a very ...

input tool to ''I/O'' magazine, which was published in the February 1981 issue as his debut publication, earning him ¥20,000 for his work. During spring break of his first year in high school, Nakamura cloned the

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arca ...

Space Panic is a 1980 arcade game designed by Universal. Predating Nintendo's ''Donkey Kong'', and lacking a jump mechanic, ''Space Panic'' was the first game involving climbing ladders between walkable platforms. The genre was initially labeled as "climbi ...

'' as ''ALIEN Part II''. It was published in the May 1981 issue and released on

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

, earning ¥200,000 in royalties. In the January 1982 issue, his clone of Konami's ''

Scramble Scramble, Scrambled, or Scrambling may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * ''Scramble'' (video game), a 1981 arcade game Music Albums * ''Scramble'' (album), an album by Atlanta-based band the Coathangers * ''Scrambles'' (album) ...

'' (later renamed to ''Attacker'') was also released on cassette, earning royalties of ¥1 million. A clone of '' River Patrol'', called ''River Rescue'', was published in the ''Maikon Game Book 4'' special edition of ''I/O'', bringing Nakamura's total high school earnings from submissions to ''I/O'' to over ¥2 million. Due to his activities with ''I/O'', he became known among young PC enthusiasts. Nakamura entered the first Annual Hobby Program Contest held by

during his 3rd year of high school in 1982. Submitting his first original game, ''

'', Nakamura was selected as the runner-up prize winner for programming excellence, and received ¥500,000 in prize money.

Career

In 1983, Nakamura moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and entered the

University of Electro-Communications The is a national university in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. It specialises in the disciplines of computer science, the physical sciences, engineering and technology. It was founded in 1918 as the Technical Institute for Wireless-Commu ...

. Porting ''Door Door'' to various computers, his annual royalties as a university student exceeded ¥10 million. Nakamura released his 2nd PC game '' Newtron'' and founded the 5-person Chunsoft on April 9, 1984, during spring break of his 2nd year of university. He started to work out of a room in a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...

in Chōfu, Tokyo. The first Chunsoft release was the 1985

PC-6001 The NEC PC-6000 series is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced in November 1981 by NEC Home Electronics. There are several models in this series, such as the PC-6001, the PC-6001 MK2 and the PC-6001 MK2 SR. There is also an American versio ...

version of ''Door Door mkII''. Following that, joining Enix on the

Famicom The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redes ...

, Chunsoft began development on home

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

s. While the PC version had sold 80,000 copies, the Famicom version recorded sales of 200,000 copies, leading subsequent development to focus on home consoles. From that, fellow Enix program contest winner

Yuji Horii (also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...

joined Nakamura in collaborating on the Famicom port of ''

The Portopia Serial Murder Case , often translated to ''The Portopia Serial Murder Case'' in English, is an adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 in June 1983, and has since been ported to other personal computers ...

''. At the time, Nakamura and Horii were fans of the computer role-playing games ''

Wizardry ''Wizardry'' is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original ''Wizardry'' was a significant influence on early console role-playing ...

'' and '' Ultima'', and so set out to develop a full-blown Famicom RPG called '' Dragon Quest''. Prior to its release, Nakamura also cited

Masanobu Endō is a game designer, president of Game Studio and Mobile & Game Studio, and the director of Digital Games Research Association Japan. He formerly worked for Namco, where he created arcade games and is best known for ''Xevious'' and '' The Tower o ...

, creator of

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the maiden Ki f ...

'', as his favorite game designer. Nakamura continued development on the '' Dragon Quest'' series through to '' Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride'', before breaking away from Enix products.

Post-Enix

'' Otogirisō'' marked Chunsoft's debut brand. Following that, successive genre-trailblazing titles '' Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon'', ''

Kamaitachi no Yoru , released in English as ''Banshee's Last Cry'', is a visual novel created by Chunsoft. It was first released for Super Famicom (the Japanese version of the Super NES) and was later ported to other consoles. An English localized version of the ...

'', and '' Shiren the Wanderer'' established the company's good reputation. Nakamura himself had to move away from programming in order to run the company. For a time, the company's products were considered mediocre, but ''3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate!'' was a hit that showed signs of recovery.

SEGA×CHUN PROJECT

From 2005 to 2010, Chunsoft had tied up with

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's home video game business, where Sega funded and published eight games with Chunsoft. In one of them, Nakamura served as producer for the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

game '' 428: Shibuya Scramble''.

Game credits

References

External links

Koichi Nakamura
profile at MobyGames {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakamura, Koichi 1964 births Japanese video game designers Japanese video game directors Living people