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114-511: It was a commercial success in arcades, becoming one of Japan's top two highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade games of 1986 (along with Sega's Hang-On ). Critically praised for its innovative graphics, gameplay and motion cabinet, Space Harrier is often ranked among Suzuki's best works. It has made several crossover appearances in other Sega titles, and inspired a number of clones and imitators, while Capcom and PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya cited it as an inspiration for him entering

228-412: A Yamaha DX7 synthesizer and wrote out the final versions as sheet music , as he had no access to a "real" music sequencer at the time. A Zilog Z80 CPU powering both a Yamaha YM2203 synthesis chip and Sega's PCM unit that was used for audio and digitized voice samples. Space Harrier utilized an analog flight stick as its controller that allowed onscreen movement in all directions, while

342-419: A holographic statue of Harrier and a flying dragon appear in the background. In addition, Shenmue character Ryo Hazuki pilots a flying Space Harrier sit-down arcade cabinet during airborne levels. Sega included an emulation of the original title as a minigame in several titles of their Yakuza series, such as the 2015 release Yakuza 0 , and the 2018 releases Yakuza 6: The Song of Life , Fist of

456-423: A torsion bar into an arcade game design—although the bar proved too difficult to implement in the final game design and springs were used instead. Suzuki was given the freedom to decide what kind of game to design, and as a fan of cars and motorcycles, he chose to design a game where the arcade cabinet simulated an actual motorcycle and players would have to move side to side on the motorcycle to turn. He also had

570-587: A "wholly 3D space using strictly 2D technology." In 1990, Suzuki brought out a spiritual sequel to After Burner called G-LOC . It featured the R360 , a gyroscopic motion cabinet that rotated 360 degrees to give players the realistic illusion of flying a fighter jet. Yu Suzuki introduced and spearheaded the Model series of arcade hardware which would help lay the foundation for 3D arcade games for AM2 but other arcade departments at Sega as well In 1992, they released

684-404: A 3D viewpoint, you have to build the graphic from scratch". During development, M2 president Naoki Horii sought opinions from staff members regarding the gameplay of the arcade original: "They'd say it was hard to tell whether objects were right in front of their character or not. Once we had the game in 3D, the same people came back and said, 'OK, now I get it! I can play it now!'" The port included

798-634: A December 1991 preview in Electronic Gaming Monthly and advertising designed by artist Satoshi Urushihara , Space Fantasy Zone was never released due to a legal dispute with Sega over NEC's unauthorized use of the Fantasy Zone property . However, bootleg copies were produced after a playable beta version of the game was released on the Internet. Opa-Opa is included in Planet Harriers as

912-468: A Ferrari, the player controlled a car that looked almost exactly like one. Out Run offered players a wide variety of driving paths and routes to complete the game, adding elements of nonlinear gameplay and increasing replay value. It also featured a radio with three songs to choose from as players drove through the wide variety of landscapes. At the Golden Joystick Awards , Out Run was awarded

1026-466: A band would play. This led to Kawaguchi writing four songs for the game, including "Theme of Love", the game's theme song. Kawaguchi made use of the hardware's PCM sampling and added drum samples to use Hang-On 's Yamaha YM2203 sound chip to its maximum potential and create a more realistic soundtrack featuring rock music, which was uncommon in arcade games at the time. He also created the game's sound effects. Kawaguchi did not program his own music into

1140-400: A concept that was soon rejected due to the extensive work required to project the aircraft realistically from varying angles as it moved around the screen, coupled with arcade machines' memory limitations. Sega developer Yu Suzuki therefore simplified the title character to a human, which required less memory and realism to depict onscreen. He then rewrote the entire original proposal, changing

1254-485: A desire to make his game better than Pole Position , a Namco game which had beaten out Sega's Turbo in popularity. In developing the game, Suzuki wanted to make his new motorcycle racing game a realistic experience. His initial desire was to create a 3D game, though the technology of the time made full 3D environments impossible. Instead, he specified the design of Sega's new Super Scaler arcade system board —initially known as Sega Hang-On hardware —enhanced from

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1368-481: A feature that allowed players to use the 3DS's gyroscope to simulate the experience of the original motorised cabinet by way of a tilting screen, compounded by the optional activation of the sounds of button clicks and the cabinet's movement. Horii recalled in a 2015 interview that he was intrigued by the possibility of crafting Space Harrier and past Sega arcade games for the 3DS using stereoscopic technology: "Both SEGA and M2 wanted to see what would happen if we added

1482-446: A hidden character, while one of three available endings in the 2007 PlayStation 2 release Fantasy Zone II DX has Harrier and Uriah attempting to eliminate a turned-evil Opa-Opa bent on destroying the game's eponymous Fantasy Zone. The arcade version of Space Harrier is included in the 1999 Dreamcast action-adventure title Shenmue as a minigame, and as a full port in the 2001 sequel Shenmue II . Sega Superstars Tennis and

1596-400: A large moai -like floating stone head, because the designer "had a really big head". Three different arcade cabinets were produced: an upright cabinet, a sit-down version with a fixed seat, and its best known incarnation: a deluxe cockpit-style rolling cabinet that was mounted on a motorised base and moved depending on the direction in which players pushed the joystick. Sega was hesitant to have

1710-482: A little bit of spice to these titles, in the form of modern gaming technology. Would it enhance the entertainment factor? I think the reception that the releases have had from critics highlights that these games are as relevant today as ever, and that means we've succeeded". The game was commercially successful upon its initial arcade release. Sega unveiled Space Harrier at the 1985 Amusement Machine Show in Japan, where it

1824-647: A mobile game for the Virtua Fighter series, titled Cool Champ . In 2013, Suzuki designed a new shooting game, titled Shooting Wars with Premium Agency ; this was Ys Net's first original game unrelated to any of Suzuki's previous Sega franchises. In July 2013, Suzuki traveled to Monaco to attend the Monaco Animé Game Show. On March 19, 2014, Yu Suzuki held a Shenmue postmortem at the Game Developers Conference 2014, with Suzuki discussing

1938-420: A motorcycle racing game as a way to use a torsion bar in an arcade game. With market research suggesting GP 500 racing was popular, Suzuki took inspiration from world champion Freddie Spencer and his style of racing. The game's soundtrack was written by Hiroshi Kawaguchi , who used rock music that was uncommon in arcade games at the time. Hang-On was very popular at launch and sold well for Sega, becoming

2052-486: A rave review. She called it the most realistic arcade game to be released, citing the need to tilt the bike and the placement of the throttle and brake controls being where they are on a real motorcycle. She said it "combines the superb graphics of a Pole Position style race with the physical act of riding a bike". Sinclair User praised Hang-On for its simple-yet-fun gameplay, responsive controls and unique tilt-based arcade cabinet. Computer Gamer magazine's Game of

2166-655: A reason, but this was dispelled by Fantasy Zone director Yoji Ishii in a 2014 interview. A 1989 port of Fantasy Zone for the Japan-exclusive Sharp X68000 contains a hidden stage called "Dragon Land" that features Space Harrier enemy characters and is accessible only by following a specific set of instructions. In 1991, NEC Avenue developed Space Fantasy Zone for the CD-ROM , featuring Fantasy Zone's main character Opa-Opa navigating nine levels of combined gameplay elements and enemies from both franchises. Despite

2280-704: A voice sample speaking "Welcome to the Fantasy Zone. Get ready!", in addition to "You're doing great!" with the successful completion of a stage. The title player character , simply named Harrier, navigates a continuous series of eighteen distinct stages while utilizing an underarm jet-propelled laser cannon that enables Harrier to simultaneously fly and shoot. The objective is simply to destroy all enemies—who range from prehistoric animals and Chinese dragons to flying robots, airborne geometric objects and alien pods—all while remaining in constant motion in order to dodge projectiles and immovable ground obstacles. Fifteen of

2394-417: Is carried over into the next stage. Running off the track results in the motorcycle crashing and the rider is launched into the air. The game ends if the time runs out or all five stages are completed. Hang-On was the second game to be developed by Yu Suzuki , the first being 1984's Champion Boxing . Development of Hang-On began with a project brought to him by a colleague who asked him to implement

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2508-419: Is referred to as a taikan ("body sensation") arcade game in Japan. It is often mistakenly referred to as a hydraulic cabinet, as a pair of motorized linear actuators in the base tilted the cabinet in two axes. Space Harrier has been ported to numerous home computer systems and gaming consoles , with most early translations unable to reproduce the original's advanced visual or audio capabilities while

2622-422: Is used for the stage backgrounds while the character graphics are sprite-based. Suzuki explained in 2010 that his designs "were always 3D from the beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On . I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D . So I was always thinking in 3D". The game's soundtrack is by Hiroshi Kawaguchi , who composed drafts on

2736-632: The Game of the Year award. Suzuki had been interested in 3D technology since his days in college. Space Harrier and Out Run had graphics similar to 3D, but could not fully utilize the capabilities. Suzuki's later hits included the jet fighting After Burner series in the late 1980s and the roller coaster kart racer Power Drift in 1988. Improving on the "Super Scaler" technology and road scrolling effects of Hang-On and Out Run , Power Drift created "all of its track layouts with flat bitmaps " to simulate

2850-680: The Hang-On deluxe cabinet. Sega Enterprises USA introduced Hang-On to Sega's American and Canadian distributors at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose, California in October 1985. Orders were placed immediately for several hundred units. The success of Hang-On 's arcade cabinets, both upright and deluxe, were so great that the company struggled to keep up with demand. In Europe, the game was released in September, and

2964-466: The MSX in 1985. Sega had shipped approximately 7,000 arcade units worldwide by October 1985, costing about £5,200 or $ 6,700 (equivalent to $ 19,000 in 2023) each. In Japan, Game Machine listed Hang-On on their 1 August issue as being the most-successful upright/cockpit arcade cabinet of the month, and it remained at the top of the charts for about six months through January 1986. Internationally,

3078-521: The Master System was produced in the same year in Japan, and then was released year later in 1986 for North America, as the system's pack-in game along with Astro Warrior or Safari Hunt depending on the package purchased. An additional arcade version based on the Master System port, titled Hang-On Jr. , was released in 1986 for Sega's System E arcade system board. The game was also released on

3192-543: The Space Harrier emulation's "numerous audio issues that make it sound completely different from the way the original game sounds". Bob Mackey of USGamer was critical to Nintendo 3DS port. The game continues to garner praise for its audio, visual, and gameplay features. GameSetWatch 's Trevor Wilson remarked in 2006: "It's easy to see why the game is so well-loved to this day, with its blinding speed and classic tunes". In 2008, Retro Gamer editor Darran Jones described

3306-479: The Space Harrier tribute stage from Bayonetta in their 2013 selection of "the trippiest video game levels". Also in 2013, Hanuman Welch of Complex included Space Harrier among the ten Sega games he felt warranted a "modern reboot", citing its "kinetic pace that would be welcome on today's systems". Space Harrier spawned two home-system sequels in 1988. The Master System exclusive Space Harrier 3-D utilized Sega's SegaScope 3-D glasses , and featured

3420-602: The Virtua Fighter franchise. In the fall of 2010, Suzuki returned with Shenmue City , developed by Sunsoft and Ys Net (Yu Suzuki's new studio) for Yahoo Games . In December 2010, 1UP posted an interview with Yu Suzuki. It was his first English interview in several years. It was also a career retrospective conducted by former 1UP Editor in Chief James Mielke with Tak Hirai (both employees at Tetsuya Mizuguchi 's Q Entertainment ). In March 2011, Yu Suzuki

3534-485: The arcade video game industry out of its slump during the mid-1980s, and Play Meter also credit Hang-On and other Japanese video games with helping the US arcade market recover from 1985. According to video game journalist Ken Horowitz, Hang-On is remembered more for its gameplay than its sales, in part because it was unique in arcades at the time, and that it was an example that "when it came to arcade innovation, Sega

Space Harrier - Misplaced Pages Continue

3648-450: The velocity of the character's flight is unchangeable. The degree of push and acceleration varies depending on how far the stick is moved in a certain direction. Two separate "fire" buttons are mounted on the joystick (a trigger) and on the control panel; either one can be pressed repeatedly in order to shoot at enemies. The deluxe arcade cabinet is a cockpit-style motion simulator cabinet that pitches and rolls during play, for which it

3762-534: The video game industry . Space Harrier has been ported to over twenty different home computer and gaming platforms , either by Sega or outside developers such as Dempa in Japan and Elite Systems in North America and Europe. Two home-system sequels followed in Space Harrier 3-D and Space Harrier II (both released in 1988), and the arcade spin-off Planet Harriers (2000). A polygon -based remake of

3876-409: The "Taikan" trend, the use of motion-controlled hydraulic simulator arcade cabinets in many arcade games of the late 1980s, two decades before motion controls became popular on video game consoles . The three-dimensional sprite / tile scaling was handled in a similar manner to textures in later texture-mapped polygonal 3D games of the 1990s. Suzuki stated that his "designs were always 3D from

3990-593: The "quite good" 3D effects, and the cockpit simulator cabinet. The July 1986 issue of Japanese magazine Gamest ranked Space Harrier at number one on its list of best Sega arcade games. The game was also positively received upon its home releases. The home computer conversion of Space Harrier was in the top five of the UK sales chart in December 1986, and was tied as runner-up with the Commodore 64 title Uridium for Game of

4104-525: The 2010 action-adventure game Bayonetta feature Space Harrier -inspired minigames. The title is available as an unlockable game in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (2009), for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 , though with sound emulation differences. In the 2012 title Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed , a remixed version of the Space Harrier main theme plays during the "Race of Ages" stage, in which

4218-523: The 2010s. Former Sega arcade director Akira Nagai has credited Hang-On as one of the titles that helped to bring arcade games out of the 1982 downturn in Japan and created new genres of arcade games. Sega Enterprises USA’s Tom Petit credited Hang-On with helping the North American arcade market recover during the late 1980s with its "high level simulation" technology. Hang-On and Out Run have both been credited by Famitsu with helping to lift

4332-452: The 20th anniversary of the franchise, and was composed of all the official series releases "to go with the various generations of our customers", according to Yosuke Okunari. Bonus content included a record-and-replay feature and an arcade promotional-material gallery, in addition to images of Hiroshi Kawaguchi's sheet music and notes for the original game's soundtrack. The 1991 Game Gear port is hidden therein as an Easter egg . Space Harrier

4446-497: The 3D Formula 1 racer Virtua Racing , which was considered one of, if not the most, realistic-looking arcade games on the market at that time. GameSpot listed it as one of the 15 most influential video games of all time, commenting: "It wasn't the first fully polygonal game on the market ... but along with Virtua Fighter , Sega's 1993 release on the same hardware, it was one of the games alongside several others from different rival company developers that popularized polygonals to

4560-481: The 3D fighting game genre, and more generally, demonstrating the potential of 3D polygon human characters (as the first to implement them in a useful way), showing the potential of realistic gameplay (introducing a character physics system and realistic character animations for the time), and introducing fighting game concepts such as the ring-out and the block button. After developing the Sega Model 1 , he worked on

4674-536: The Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System, which was followed by Pony Canyon 's 1987 Famicom release Attack Animal Gakuen and other Japan-exclusive games such as Namco 's Burning Force , Asmik 's Cosmic Epsilon , and Wolf Team 's Jimmu Denshō , all released in 1989. According to AllGame , Nintendo 's Star Fox (1993) "was influenced by early first-person 3D shooters such as" Space Harrier . According to The One magazine in 1991, Sega "arguably pioneered

Space Harrier - Misplaced Pages Continue

4788-526: The Games Industry of 1995", Next Generation summarized that "Nobody has pushed arcade gaming as far as Yu Suzuki, and Suzuki just keeps on pushing." Suzuki's Shenmue for the Dreamcast gave rise to a new style of adventure games , bending it away from the typical mold most games of its nature seem to fit into, with Suzuki's own concept denoted as " FREE " ("Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment"). Shenmue

4902-468: The North Star: Lost Paradise and Judgment . The success of Space Harrier resulted in the development of other first/third-person rail shooters that attempted to emulate its three-dimensional scaling, visuals, and gameplay capabilities, causing them to be labeled " Space Harrier clones ". One of the most notable examples was the 1987 Square title The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner for

5016-606: The Pioneer Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards . While studying at university, Yu Suzuki had written an undergraduate thesis on the subject of 3D computer graphics in video games . Suzuki joined Sega in 1983 as a programmer . In his first year, he created a 2D boxing game called Champion Boxing for Sega's first home game console, the SG-1000 . According to Suzuki, the executive staff at Sega found

5130-499: The PlayStation's 3D graphics hardware. According to SCE's former producer Ryoji Akagawa and chairman Shigeo Maruyama, the PlayStation was originally being considered as a 2D focused hardware, and it wasn't until the success of Virtua Fighter in the arcades that they decided to design the PlayStation as a 3D focused hardware. 1UP listed Virtua Fighter as one of the 50 most important games of all time. They credited it for creating

5244-460: The UK and the other from the USA. M2, in collaboration with Sega CS3 , ported Space Harrier to the handheld Nintendo 3DS console in 2013, complete with stereoscopic 3D and widescreen graphics—a process that took eighteen months. Sega CS3 producer Yosuke Okunari described the game's 3D-conversion process as "almost impossible. When you take a character sprite that was originally in 2D and bring it into

5358-801: The US Play Meter arcade charts in December and April 1986. Hang-On went on to become the highest-grossing arcade video game of 1985 in the United States, and then the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in both Japan and the United States. In the United Kingdom, it was the second highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in London, just below Gradius . The ride-on cabinet was later Japan's ninth highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game of 1987. Sega sold 20,000 arcade machines worldwide, making it Sega's best-selling arcade simulator up until then. However,

5472-406: The Year honors at the 1986 Golden Joystick Awards . Ed Semrad of The Milwaukee Journal gave the Master System port a 9/10 rating, and Computer Gaming World deemed it "the best arcade shoot-'em-up of the year ... as exciting a game as this reviewer has ever played". Phil Campbell of The Sydney Morning Herald praised the 1989 Amiga conversion as "absorbing" and "a faithful copy of

5586-460: The Year Awards nominated it for best coin-op game of the year , which it lost to Capcom 's Commando . Computer and Video Games and Mean Machines reviewed the Master System port and scored it positively. ACE praised the quality of the Master System conversion, though noted there were some minor graphics jerks compared to the original as well as the loss of the crashing graphics of

5700-703: The arcade version in 1994 for the 32X add-on for the Sega Genesis . Both games featured box art by Marc Ericksen. Other releases were developed for non-Sega gaming systems such as the TurboGrafx-16 and the Famicom , while Europe and North America saw 8-bit home computer ports by Elite Systems for the ZX Spectrum , Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64 in 1986, and later in 1989 for the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST . The Commodore 64 received two conversions, one originating in

5814-423: The arcade version, and was "a nice trip down memory lane", while Next Generation dubbed it as decent, solid game. AllGame called the game "a must-have" title for 32X system. Lucas Thomas of IGN rated the 2008 Wii port a 4.5 score out of 10, citing its "poor visuals and poor control" and "dulled" color palette. Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb , in his review of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection , criticized

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5928-457: The arcade version. British magazine Sega Pro called the Master System port "a damn fine racing game". An arcade sequel, Super Hang-On , was released in 1987, was famously ported to a range of platforms. A polygon-based sequel developed by Genki was released for the Sega Saturn , named Hang-On GP . In a 1995 interview, Suzuki said he felt Hang-On was his most impressive game at

6042-418: The backdrops therein were omitted, leaving just a monochromatic horizon and the checkerboard floors. An exclusive final boss was included in a powerful twin-bodied fire dragon named Haya Oh, who was named after then-Sega president Hayao Nakayama . The 1991 Game Gear port is based on its Master System counterpart, but with redesigned enemies and only twelve stages, while Rutubo Games produced a near-duplicate of

6156-508: The beginning. All the calculations in the system were 3D, even from Hang-On. I calculated the position, scale, and zoom rate in 3D and converted it backwards to 2D . So I was always thinking in 3D." He soon followed with the 3D-esque third-person shooter game Space Harrier later that year. Showing his interest in Ferraris, Suzuki created the driving simulator Out Run , which was released in 1986. Although it didn't officially feature

6270-446: The bike while the bike is leaning, which Suzuki had read in a Japanese bike magazine. Suzuki later learned the technique was called "hang off" in North America, but he chose to keep the former name. Hang-On is considered well-regarded for its music, which was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi . He came to Suzuki's attention after Suzuki heard he played in a band. Suzuki wanted songs for the soundtrack to Hang-On that would be like what

6384-439: The body, which was a departure from conventional controls that only required using the fingers, as well as its real-time graphics which displayed greater speed and detail than other video games. Hang-On had a mass-market release in Japan several days later on 5 July. At its debut in Japan, Hang-On 's deluxe cabinet was criticized as being inappropriate for Japanese culture . Suzuki recalled in an interview about criticisms of how

6498-540: The button and things die, but Suzuki is a very conscious designer. He has a very specific vision behind each of his games, and nothing in them is ever left to chance". In a 2013 Eurogamer retrospective on the series, Rich Stanton observed: "The speed at which Space Harrier moves has rarely been matched. It's not an easy thing to design a game around. Many other games have fast parts, or certain mechanics tied to speed—and it's interesting to note how many take control away at this point. Every time I play Space Harrier  ...

6612-452: The cabinets built due to high construction costs; Suzuki, who had proposed the cabinet designs, offered his salary as compensation if the game failed, but it would instead become a major hit in arcades. Suzuki had little involvement with the game after its initial release: the Master System port was developed by Mutsuhiro Fujii and Yuji Naka , and they added a final boss and an ending sequence which were included in subsequent ports. The game

6726-443: The charts again in October. Overall, the Space Harrier rolling type cabinet was Japan's second highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade cabinet during the first half of 1986 (below only Hang-On ), and the overall highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade game during the latter half of 1986. It was later Japan's seventh highest upright/cockpit arcade game of 1987. The arcade game was positively received by critics upon release. Reviewing

6840-502: The concept stage. It involved a western surrealist art style, and revolved around pet and human relationships. In the spring of 2009, rumors surfaced that Yu Suzuki would step down from Sega after 26 years of employment. However, an article written by Brendan Sinclair, a reporter for the American video game journalism website GameSpot , stated the rumors to be false and that an anonymous representative for Sega of America revealed that Suzuki

6954-575: The controls were switched from analog to digital. The first port was released in 1986 for the Master System ( Mark III in Japan), developed by Sega AM R&D 4 . The first two- megabit cartridge produced for the console, the game was given a plot in which Harrier saves the "Land of the Dragons" (rather than the "Fantasy Zone") from destruction, with a new ending sequence in contrast to the arcade version's simple "The End" message. All eighteen stages were present but

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7068-653: The critically acclaimed Shenmue series. As a hardware engineer, he led the development of various arcade system boards , including the Sega Space Harrier , Model 1 , Model 2 and Model 3 , and was involved in the technical development of the Dreamcast console and its corresponding NAOMI arcade hardware. In 2003, Suzuki became the sixth person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame . IGN listed him at #9 in their Top 100 Game Creators of All Time list. In 2011, he received

7182-477: The deluxe ground-ride cabinet cum video game with classics such as" Space Harrier . Sega went on to produce "bigger" and "better" motion simulator cabinets for arcade flight games such as After Burner (1987) and the R360 cabinet for G-LOC: Air Battle (1990). Hideki Kamiya , the director of PlatinumGames and creator of the Devil May Cry series, cited Space Harrier as an inspiration for his entering

7296-581: The development of Shenmue . In June the same year, Yu Suzuki received a "Legend Award" in Barcelona, Spain during Gamelab Barcelona 2014. On June 16, 2015, Shenmue III was revealed at E3 as a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. It became the fastest game ever to reach the one million dollar funding mark on the Kickstarter platform, ultimately raising 6.33 million dollars. Suzuki began his work as director of Shenmue III' s development immediately following

7410-427: The development of the Sega Model 2 . He acquired Lockheed Martin 's military texture mapping technology that cost millions and managed to engineer it down to $ 50 per chip, which he used to introduce texture-mapped 3D characters with Virtua Fighter 2 . The game industry gained mass-produced texture mapping as a result. Virtua Fighter 2 (1994) also introduced the use of motion capture animation technology, which

7524-581: The existing VCO Object system board that would use multiple CPUs and back end DSP compatibility to create 3D effects , while using 16-bit graphics. The game achieves its 3D effects using a sprite -scaling technique. In designing the game, Suzuki had to decide on a style of motorcycle racing for the game. Suzuki himself was a fan of dirt bikes, along with motocross and Enduro , and dirt bikes would later be used in Suzuki's Enduro Racer , but Sega's market research concluded that road-based GP 500 racing

7638-435: The field of art and entertainment. Suzuki also oversaw most of the home console conversions of AM2's arcade games. As a producer, he worked on games such as Daytona USA , which featured texture filtering in 1993, and Virtua Cop , which in 1994 introduced 3D polygons to light gun shooters , and influenced the seminal 1997 first-person shooter GoldenEye 007 . Listing him in their "75 Most Important People in

7752-517: The first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics and uses the Super Scaler arcade system board , created with design input from Yu Suzuki , as technology to simulate 3D effects . The deluxe cabinet version also introduced a motion-controlled arcade cabinet , where the player's body movement on a large motorbike-shaped cabinet corresponds with the player character's movements on screen. Yu Suzuki began development of Hang-On after deciding to design

7866-519: The first auteurs of video games, he has been responsible for a number of Sega's arcade hits, including three-dimensional sprite -scaling games that used "taikan" motion simulator arcade cabinets , such as Hang-On , Space Harrier , Out Run and After Burner , and pioneering polygonal 3D games such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter , which are some of the games besides others from rival companies during that era credited with popularizing 3D graphics in video games; as well as

7980-422: The game as "difficult", but "a thing of beauty [that] even today ... possesses a striking elegance that urges you to return to it for just one more go". That same year, IGN 's Levi Buchanan opined: "Even today, Space Harrier is a sight to behold, a hellzapoppin' explosion of light, color, and imagination". Eric Twice of Snackbar Games noted in 2013: "It's easy to just see it as just a game in which you press

8094-463: The game at the 1986 Amusement Trades Exhibition International in London , Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games hailed it as a "crowd stopper" due to its "realistic" moving cockpit, graphical capabilities and "amazing technicolour landscapes" but cautioned: "Unless you are an expert, you will find it very difficult". Mike Roberts of Computer Gamer magazine praised the "extremely good" graphics,

8208-615: The game became a major global arcade hit upon release in Summer 1985. In North America, it was so successful that the coin mechanism had to be modified for higher-value coins due to the high number of coins being inserted into the machines, while in the United Kingdom each machine was estimated to be earning up to £200 or $ 257 (equivalent to $ 728 in 2023) per day. It topped the US RePlay arcade chart for new upright cabinets in November, and topped

8322-400: The game inspired him to become a video game music composer. He considers Space Harrier composer Hiroshi Kawaguchi to be one of Sega's best ever composers. Hang-On Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System . In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of

8436-579: The game painful to play. Another problem was the viability of the machine in a modern arcade environment due to arcade operators preferring cheaper cabinets with more standard inputs. Shenmue Online was part of Sega's initiative to penetrate the rising Asian MMO RPG markets. With the withdrawal of Sega's online division in China, development of Shenmue Online was quietly cancelled. The development of Shenmue Online cost Sega and JCEntertainment almost $ 26 million. Another MMO called Pure Breed never got past

8550-411: The game so impressive that they released it in arcades as-is by simply installing an SG-1000 into an arcade cabinet. He was promoted to project leader while still in his first year at the company. Then, Suzuki began working on another arcade game which would prove to be the big stepping-off point of his career. "To develop this game," Suzuki told G4TV , "I rode on motorcycles a lot. When we came up with

8664-424: The game was impacted by piracy, with Sega estimating 20,000 to 30,000 counterfeit arcade machines sold illegally. The arcade game received positive reviews from critics upon release. Mike Roberts and Steve Phipps of Computer Gamer magazine called it "one of the best arcade games ever" with particular praise for the bike cabinet and physical controls. Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games magazine gave it

8778-407: The game's eighteen stages contain a boss at the end that must be killed in order to progress to the next level; the final stage is a rush of seven past bosses encountered up to that point that appear individually and are identified by name at the bottom of the screen. The two other levels are bonus stages that contain no enemies and where Harrier mounts an invincible catlike dragon named Uriah, whom

8892-404: The game. I asked them why [ 3D shooters ] didn't succeed and they told me it was because the target is too small. Based on that, my conclusion was that I basically had to make sure the player could hit the target. So, I made a homing system that guaranteed that the target could be hit. When the target was close, it would always hit, but when the target was in the distance, the player would miss. So

9006-468: The game; he instead wrote out his soundtrack by hand, made a demo, and gave that to the sound programmer. He has said this was because he did not own a sequencer , and that this method was faster for him. Sega debuted Hang-On at the Hotel New Otani Tokyo on 2 July 1985. It drew attention for its innovative ride-on cabinet that realistically simulates a motorcycle and requires the player to use

9120-407: The gameplay style of the franchise but featured four new selectable characters each possessing distinct weapons, in addition to five fully realized stages and a new option of purchasing weapon power-ups . However, Planet Harriers had only a minimal presence in the United States due to its faltering arcade scene, and it was never given a home release. In 2003, a remake of the original Space Harrier

9234-447: The highest-grossing arcade video game of 1985 in the United States and then the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in both Japan and the United States. It received a positive critical reception for its realism, graphics, bike cabinet and physical controls, though there was some initial controversy in Japan over modesty concerns involving female players with the bike cabinet. The game started the trend of "taiken" motion simulator games in

9348-405: The late 1980s, which Sega followed with hits such as Space Harrier (1985), Out Run (1986) and After Burner (1987); this helped the arcade video game market recover during the late 1980s. Hang-On has been recognized as a well-remembered and influential arcade game. Several sequels were later made for arcades, as well as video game consoles. Using a behind the motorcycle perspective ,

9462-532: The masses." In 1993, Suzuki created Virtua Fighter , the first 3D fighting game , which became enormously popular and spawned a series of sequels and spinoffs. It inspired many 3D fighting games such as the Tekken and Soul Calibur series. Some of the Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) staff involved in the creation of the original PlayStation console credit Virtua Fighter as inspiration for

9576-492: The original game was released by Sega for the PlayStation 2 as part of their Sega Ages series in 2003. Space Harrier is a fast-paced rail shooter game played in a third-person perspective behind the protagonist, set in a surreal world composed of brightly colored landscapes adorned with checkerboard -style grounds and stationary objects such as trees or stone pillars. At the start of gameplay, players are greeted with

9690-458: The original". Computer and Video Games called the port "an entirely unpretentious computer game full of weird and wacky nasties". Paul Mellerick of Sega Force wrote that the Game Gear version was "amazingly close to the original ... the scrolling 's the speediest and smoothest ever seen". GamePro commented that the 32X version had "straightforward controls", graphics relatively close to

9804-412: The player during gameplay. The original Space Harrier was packaged with three of Yu Suzuki's other works— After Burner , Out Run , and Super Hang-On —for the 2003 Game Boy Advance release Sega Arcade Gallery . The Space Harrier Complete Collection ( Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 20: Space Harrier II in Japan), developed by M2 for the PlayStation 2, followed on October 27, 2005 to commemorate

9918-470: The player maneuvers to smash through landscape obstacles and collect bonus points. After all lives are lost, players have the option of continuing gameplay with the insertion of an extra coin. As Space Harrier has no storyline, after the completion of all stages, only "The End" is displayed before the game returns to the title screen and attract mode , regardless of how many of the player's extra lives remain. The market research department told me not to make

10032-406: The player races a linear race track divided into several stages within a limited time. Players have to lean the motorcycle to turn, with tighter corners requiring a further lean. A throttle similar to a motorcycle has to be twisted to accelerate the bike. The game has one track, pieced together in segments. Reaching a checkpoint at the end of each segment extends the time limit, and remaining time

10146-427: The prototype (for the arcades), I would ride on that prototype bike for hours and hours every day." His efforts culminated into the game Hang-On , released in 1985. Hang-On was a success as it broke new ground in arcade technology. It did not feature any traditional controls, as the movement of the on-screen avatar was dictated by the movements the player made with their body on the motorcycle cabinet. This began

10260-416: The public by the company's American arcade subsidiary, Sega Enterprises USA, headed by Tom Petit. Previously, Sega Enterprises USA had focused on selling refurbished arcade cabinets, and before the release of Hang-On , Petit was concerned that his division would be shut down due to competition when he was summoned to Japan to meet with Sega president Hayao Nakayama in 1985. Instead, he was brought to be shown

10374-407: The result of whether the player would hit the target or not was determined the second the player took the shot. The game was first conceived by a Sega designer named Ida, who wrote a 100-page document proposing the idea of a three-dimensional shooter that contained the word " Harrier " in the title. The game would feature a player-controlled fighter jet that shot missiles into realistic foregrounds,

10488-582: The same gameplay and visuals as the port of the original game while containing new stage, enemy, and boss designs. Space Harrier II was one of six launch titles for the Japanese debut of the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis), and released as such in the United States in August 1989. In December 2000, fifteen years after the original game's debut, Sega released the loose arcade sequel Planet Harriers , which again continued

10602-565: The scope of its urban sandbox exploration has been compared to later sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels, Sega's own Yakuza series, Fallout 3 and Deadly Premonition . The game also revived the quick time event mechanic and coined a name for it, "QTE". The mechanic has since appeared in many later titles, including popular action games such as Resident Evil 4 , God of War , Tomb Raider: Legend , Heavenly Sword and Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Conspiracy . Suzuki's arcade game Ferrari F355 Challenge

10716-402: The shyness of the Japanese people would mean no one would want to straddle a motorcycle in front of others, or how the motorcycle would be especially unsuitable for female players wearing miniskirts . These criticisms would eventually subside when players lined up to play the game. In North America, the game debuted on 22 July, followed by a mass-market release in August. It was introduced to

10830-459: The speed blows me away one more time. It is a monster". Eric Francisco of Inverse described the game's visuals in 2015: "Imagine an acid trip through an '80s anime, a Robert Jordan novel, and early Silicon Valley binge coding sessions". GamesRadar ranked the arcade original's bonus stage among the "25 best bonus levels of all time" in 2014, likening it to players piloting The Neverending Story 's dragon character Falkor . Kotaku named

10944-443: The style of the game to a science-fiction setting while keeping only the "Harrier" name. His inspirations for the game's new design were the 1984 film The Neverending Story , the 1982 anime series Space Cobra , and the work of artist Roger Dean . Certain enemies were modelled on characters from the anime series Gundam . Suzuki included a nod to the original designer in the finished product with an enemy character called Ida,

11058-447: The successful funding campaign in July 2015. On February 27, 2016, Suzuki appeared as a guest presenter at the annual Monaco Anime Games International Conferences (MAGIC), where he showed images and video clips of the development progress for Shenmue III to conference attendees. On June 22nd 2022, YS-Net released Air Twister exclusively to Apple Arcade . YS Net has continued to support

11172-713: The time of release. Retro Gamer cited Hang-On as the first example of a full-body experience game because of the deluxe cabinet's ride-on controls, and noted the game as being popular, though less impressive than Out Run . Hang-On started the trend of "taikan" motion simulator games in arcades during the mid-to-late 1980s, with "taikan" meaning "body sensation" in Japanese. Sega followed it with hydraulic motion simulator cabinets for rail shooters such as Space Harrier (1985), racing games such as Out Run (1986), and arcade combat flight simulators such as After Burner (1987). Sega have since continued to manufacture motion simulator cabinets for arcade games through to

11286-415: The video game industry in a 2014 interview: "There were so many trend-setting definitive games that came out [in the 1980s], like Gradius and Space Harrier . All these game creators were trying to make original, really creative games that had never existed before". Game composer Yuzo Koshiro was a fan of the game's music. He said Space Harrier was the first time he had heard FM synthesis music, and

11400-417: The way he hung on!" Two cabinet designs were made: a basic version with a handlebar and levers, and the deluxe cabinet which featured the full motorcycle to be tilted. Suzuki had additional features he wanted to implement that could not be done due to cost, including a gyroscope to simulate motorcycle acceleration and deceleration. The title is derived from when the biker is turning and has to "hang on" to

11514-663: Was a racing simulator created upon a strong partnership with Ferrari . Rubens Barrichello of the F1 Team Ferrari was quoted by Suzuki to "have considered to purchase one for practicing." The game was considered the most accurate racing simulation of the Ferrari F355 possible up until that time. After Shenmue II , he served as a producer for three last games, OutRun 2 and Virtua Cop 3 in 2003 and Sega Race TV in 2008. Hiroshi Kataoka succeeded him as head of AM2 department. After his departure from AM2, Yu Suzuki

11628-663: Was at GDC to receive a pioneer award for his body of work. Prior to the award ceremony, he participated in an open panel career retrospective hosted by Mark Cerny . Also at GDC he participated with MEGA64 to record his voice for a parody video on "how Shenmue was meant to end". In December 2011, Yu Suzuki flew to TGS (Toulouse Game Show) in France and participated in an open panel career retrospective. He also participated in an open with Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada . They talked about their games and fought each other in both of their respected fighting franchises. In 2012, Suzuki designed

11742-481: Was at the top of the industry". Suzuki also considered Hang-On to be a major milestone in video game music . He said "there had been games with short tunes and beeps, but I think Hang On was the first game to have a solid composition with a bass and drums". Yu Suzuki Yu Suzuki ( 鈴木 裕 , Suzuki Yū , born June 10, 1958) is a Japanese game designer , producer , programmer , and engineer , who headed Sega 's AM2 team for 18 years. Considered one of

11856-597: Was developed by Tamsoft as part of the Japanese Sega Ages classic-game series ( Sega Classics Collection in North America and Europe) for the PlayStation 2 . The graphics are composed of polygons instead of sprites while several characters are redesigned, and a selectable option allows players to switch to a "fractal mode" that replaces the traditional checkerboard floors with texture-mapped playfields and includes two new underground stages. Power-ups such as bombs and lock-on targeting fly toward and are caught by

11970-485: Was in fact not retiring, but staying "in a much more diminished capacity" than in the past. Suzuki planned to officially leave Sega in September 2011 to concentrate on his own development studio Ys Net, while retaining an advisory role within Sega. His last position at Sega was Creative Officer along with Toshihiro Nagoshi and Hiroshi Kataoka. As of 2019, Suzuki remains as a consult for Sega, and suggested that he might return to

12084-410: Was involved in three ill-fated projects as a director. PsyPhi was a touchscreen fighting arcade game, that initially had concepts of curved screens which never got past the concept stage. The game was however successfully completed with standard touchscreens, but was never shipped as it performed poorly at location testing. Players' fingers heated up from the friction of moving over the screen, making

12198-432: Was manufactured by Atari Ireland, a subsidiary of Atari Games (which in turn was a subsidiary of Namco at the time), while Sega Europe of London handled distribution in the region. A version of the game for the SG-1000 released in 1985 was marketed as a sequel, Hang-On II , though it was essentially a port of the original game simplified to work within the limitations of the console hardware. An upgraded port for

12312-417: Was more popular worldwide. While Suzuki was doing research for the game, he admired the riding style of Freddie Spencer , who had just become the youngest person to win a motorcycling world championship at 21 years old. According to Suzuki: "Freddie Spencer's riding style, it was so nice. And my game was like a homage. That's the reason I wanted to make it – Freddie Spencer, he rode a Honda bike, and I loved

12426-563: Was pleased to see it ported to the Nintendo 3DS . Space Harrier was one of the first arcade releases to use 16-bit graphics and scaled sprite ("Super Scaler") technology that allowed pseudo-3D sprite scaling at high frame rates , with the ability to display 32,000 colors on screen. Running on the Sega Space Harrier arcade system board previously used in Suzuki's 1985 arcade debut Hang-On , pseudo-3D sprite / tile scaling

12540-516: Was previously limited to the health industry. He then led the development of the Sega Model 3 , which debuted with Virtua Fighter 3 . In 1996, Computer and Video Games described Virtua Fighter 3 as "the most astounding display of video game graphic muscle ever in the history of this industry." The Virtua Fighter series was recognized by the Smithsonian Institution , as an application which made great contributions to society in

12654-505: Was re-released for Nintendo Switch , as part of the Sega Ages lineup. Space Harrier has shared an unofficial connection with another Sega shooter franchise, Fantasy Zone , which debuted in Japanese arcades in March 1986. Both series are believed to be set in the same universe; Space Harrier's opening line of dialogue at the start of gameplay ("Welcome to the Fantasy Zone") has been cited as

12768-552: Was the most expensive game to be developed until Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008, with the whole project costing US$ 70 million, equivalent to US$ 93 million in 2011. Shenmue was a major step forward for 3D open world , nonlinear gameplay , touted as offering an unparalleled level of player freedom, giving them full reign to explore an expansive sandbox city with its own day-night cycles, changing weather, and fully voiced non-player characters going about their daily routines. The game's large interactive environments, level of detail and

12882-446: Was the most popular game. In January 1986, Game Machine listed Space Harrier as being the top-grossing title on the monthly upright/cockpit arcade cabinet charts in Japan. It remained at the top of the upright/cockpit arcade charts for much of 1986, through February, March and early April, then returning to the top in May, remaining at the top through June, July and August, and then topping

12996-524: Was too successful for Sega to abandon the series, and other Sega staff, such as Naoto Ohshima (character designer for Sonic the Hedgehog ), Kotaro Hayashida (planner of Alex Kidd in Miracle World ), and Toshihiro Nagoshi (director of Super Monkey Ball ) have had involvement in various sequels. In a 2015 interview, Suzuki said that he would have liked to create a new Space Harrier by himself, and

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