外山 雄一
Born in 1967 (Nagasaki), member since 2016
Programmer, Game Producer, Director
Début game:
1985 – Vilzam (LogIn magazine)
Main gamography:
1988 – Herzog (Technosoft)
1990 – MUSHA (Compile/Toaplan)
1992 – Spriggan Mark 2 (Compile/Naxat)
1993 – Sorcer Striker (Raizing/Eighting)
1996 – Terra Diver (Raizing/Eighting)
Statement from the member:
Games are connecting people… Preservation is passing on human connections to posterity.
Not only games but all creative works have the power to connect people. Developers and players, players and other players, developers and other developers interact through games, and, in so doing, create a flowing link between each other. The games that are now bringing novelty to the market are somehow built on the foundations of works of the past, and even these new games will become old before long, while no one is looking. It is impossible to preserve every one of the innumerable games that have been created thus far, but if no one is preserving them, they will just keep disappearing.
Preserving images and music is certainly not simple, but the thorough preservation of games is more difficult, as you need to account for the medium and the operating environment. There are also people who record game history in different places, and that is necessary. However, people’s memories change with time, so a specific story may get to diverge from what has been recorded. It is for this reason that keeping the digital information of a game as-is is so crucial for preservation.
There was once a game that had a sentence inside the disk, reading: “May my game, at some point, slightly upset your life.” In fact, it was not the case at all for that one, but I believe that all of you have a game that changed your life. It would be sad for that game to disappear. The one game that steered the life of someone, maybe a player, a developer, or whoever got in touch with it, ever so slightly in a better direction—I hope that that game keeps existing for as long as possible. I appreciate and support the activities of the Game Preservation Society to maintain those games that connect people, passing them and the connections they create down to future generations.
Biography:
After working part-time at Technosoft on the ROM cartridge port for the MSX version of Jan’yū, Tomoyama entered Compile as a collaborator for D’ (‘D Dash’), Herzog, Shin Kugyoku Den [The New Legend of the Nine Stones], and Feedback for MSX2. He was also involved in the development of MUSHA (Sega Megadrive), as well as Seirei Senshi Spriggan and Spriggan Mark 2 (PC Engine).
After that, he moved to Raizing and worked on the Sorcer Striker series and on Terra Diver. He is currently employed at Taito, where he works as a director for games such as Space Invaders Invincible Collection.
Other works:
Space Wars (LogIn Magazine)
Mahjong Friends [MSX port] (Technosoft)
Shin Kugyoku Den [MSX2 port] (Technosoft)
D’ (Technosoft)
Feedback (Technosoft)
Seirei Senshi Spriggan (Compile/Naxat)
Kingdom Grand Prix (Raizing/Eighting)
Darius Cozmic Collection (Taito)
Related contents:
[gei·mɯ] File #1 – Yūichi TOYAMA ～Pioneer of Modern Real-Time Strategy Games～
Portrait: Nicolas DATICHE
Page updated on: 2024-12-08