Re: interview with Yuji Naka

From: mugg charles <cmugg1_at_gl.umbc.edu>
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 10:18:55 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 15 Apr 1996 RoBUTTnik_at_AOL.COM wrote:

> I dont know if any one cares but I came across an Interview with Yuji Naka
> (creater of sonic/robotnik) . Note this interview took place just before the
> relase of sonic 2.

Kiken here, well, Naka Yuji-san (or "YU2" as he likes to be called) did
create Sonic, but he didn't create Eggman. I believe that Ohshima
Naoto-san (or "Big Island" as he likes to go by) created Eggman.
  
> SV: What were some of the things you thought about when you first created the
> sonic character?
>
> NAKA: At first we used a character that looked like a rabbit with ears that
> could extend and pick up objects. As the game got faster and faster, we
> needed to come up with a special characteristic to give our character some
> power over his enemies. I rembered a character I had thought about years ago
> who could roll himself into a ball and slam into enemies. Hedgehogs can roll
> themselfs into a ball, so we decided to go from a rabbit to a hedgehog.

Jeez, talk about the "long and short" of it. There were over 200
original illustrations by the programmers and artists at Sega Enterprises
(Japan). After about one month, they managed to narrow the selection
down to four individual characters:

A wolf wearing a stars and stripes t-shirt (he looked very Sonic-esque)
A bullbog wearing a "cowboy" outfit
A roundish, egg-shaped human wearing loud hawaiian style clothes and
   carrying an airboard
And well, guess!

Its kinda obvious who made it in the final decision, but its interesting
to see how Eggman was originally intended to be the hero. I still think
that would have been odd, running around the screen with some large, round
guy.
 
  
> Sonic 2 is bigger, faster, more challenging, and more fun then the
> original. It has more levels, with a secret zone that you'll have to work
> hard to find, a new bonus rounds that youll have to get through to get the
> Chaos Emeralds.

Oh, that secret zone. Formerly called "Hidden Palace". Damn, they hid
it so well it wasn't even in the final program.

> Well hope you enjoyed.
>
> Gotta Speed Keed
>
> Sth JJ1 Sal+++! Son++ Tal++t Wes++^ P+ $++++ E27 A17 GM
 

Kiken signing off.
ASOBIWA...OWARIDA!
Sayonara.

This message from the Baltimore Ronin,
homepage at:
http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~cmugg1
Ikuze!

     /---/ |\ /\ "To live a life of power,
    / / | \ / \ you must have faith in what you
   / / | / / \ believe, even if others tell you
    ------- |/ /------\ you are wrong;
   / __ |\ __|__ The first step to living a life of
  / | | | \ | | | power is to find courage, you must
 / | _| | / |__|__| be prepared to reach beyond the
/ |_____| |/ | boundaries of time itself;
                   | / \ And to do that, all you need is the
                                     will to take that very first step."
 
                                                       Sonic


Received on Tue Apr 16 1996 - 10:52:21 PDT

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