How did Japanese developers create their artwork?

[elmer]

The PCE can put so many colors on screen at once ... but you often don't see anywhere near that many displayed in games, especially early ones.

Does anyone have an idea what graphics tools were available to developers at the time?

I'm going to guess that the standard development tool would have been a PC98 computer ... but they didn't get 256-color graphics cards until one single "multimedia" model, the PC98GS, appeared in October 1991, follow one year later by the launch of the PC9821-series in October 1992 with 256-color graphics as standard.

I guess that the artists could have used the Sharp X68000, which had 256-color graphics back in 1987, but those were very expensive at the time ... OTOH, since Hudson played a significant part in the X68000, it would make sense for them to write some custom graphics editors for it.

Does anyone know what the official development systems plugged into?

Do any of the original Hudson graphics tools exist?

[ccovell]

Does anyone know what the official development systems plugged into?

I don't know about all companies, but the official dev systems were connected to PC-9801 computers.  Who knows how they handled the colour limitations of computers in the '80s...?  But here's a link and video footage to give some hints:

http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/PCE_1989Q4.html#pcedev

https://youtu.be/YDgEMeubib4?t=466

Do any of the original Hudson graphics tools exist?

Yes!  I think they were found in the ISO of ACD Art of Fighting or somesuch.

[Michirin9801]

My guess is that the artists could only see one palette at a time while making their graphics, but then again what do I know? I've done no research...

[Groover]

Does anyone know what the official development systems plugged into?

I don't know about all companies, but the official dev systems were connected to PC-9801 computers.  Who knows how they handled the colour limitations of computers in the '80s...?  But here's a link and video footage to give some hints:

http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/PCE_1989Q4.html#pcedev

https://youtu.be/YDgEMeubib4?t=466

Do any of the original Hudson graphics tools exist?

Yes!  I think they were found in the ISO of ACD Art of Fighting or somesuch.

Great video showing them making the game. I thought of this video when I read the question and this is the answer.

[esteban]

Covell! Your scan with the Ultra Box image reminded me of the TurboPlay article on ICOM development of Addams Family!

I am curious about what development hardware/software/tools from Japan may have found there way to US...

BELOW: Japan circa 1989/1990...UltraBox ( http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/PCE_1989Q4.html#pcedev )
 
 
ABOVE: US circa 1991...Addams Family

Am I silly for thinking this is the same graphics editor?





If you read the short article from TurboPlay:

(1) I am really curious if anyone can figure out what the "IBM PC" (as stated in the article) is specifically referring to?

(2) Was the graphics editor software ported? Emulated? Is the article mistaken? (Is ICOM actually is using PC-98/X6800)?

The article does mention:

(3) ICOM had their own software for taking Studio 8 (Mac) art assets --> ______________

(4) ICOM developed a way to stream data from CD to reduce frequency/length of loading sessions and achieve "smooth scrolling" --> "...so there is no need for upgraded SCD" (this sounds like marketing/sales copy, but who knows?)

(5) This article holds up well, I think.


The Making of Addams Family:
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-06.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-07.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-08.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-09.jpg

TurboPlay: http://archives.tg-16.com/turbo_play_0009.htm#p06

[ParanoiaDragon]

Hmmmm, it does look similar!

[ccovell]

Am I silly for thinking this is the same graphics editor?
(2) Was the graphics editor software ported? Emulated? Is the article mistaken? (Is ICOM actually is using PC-98/X6800)?

You are silly but for unrelated reasons.  ;-D

It probably is the same software, and I think Hudson made MS-DOS versions of their software for Western developers.
NEC also charged an arm and a leg for the devkit and the software was reportedly totally crap to boot.  IIRC, Mike Dailly, who programmed Ballistix and Shadow of the Beast for the PCE/TG, wrote about this.

Here: http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/DMA3_5.htm
http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/DMA4_1.htm

[esteban]

Am I silly for thinking this is the same graphics editor?
(2) Was the graphics editor software ported? Emulated? Is the article mistaken? (Is ICOM actually is using PC-98/X6800)?

You are silly but for unrelated reasons.  ;-D

It probably is the same software, and I think Hudson made MS-DOS versions of their software for Western developers.
NEC also charged an arm and a leg for the devkit and the software was reportedly totally crap to boot.  IIRC, Mike Dailly, who programmed Ballistix and Shadow of the Beast for the PCE/TG, wrote about this.

Here: http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/DMA3_5.htm
http://www.javalemmings.com/DMA/DMA4_1.htm

Thanks

I had fun just now reading all the pages, not just the TG-16-themed ones.

I think you linked to this before, but I didn't read everything until now.

[elmer]

I don't know about all companies, but the official dev systems were connected to PC-9801 computers.  Who knows how they handled the colour limitations of computers in the '80s...?  But here's a link and video footage to give some hints:

http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/PCE_1989Q4.html#pcedev

https://youtu.be/YDgEMeubib4?t=466

The Making of Addams Family:
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-06.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-07.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-08.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/TURBOPLAY/TP-09-09.jpg

Thanks guys, those were all really interesting!

I've never seen one of those devkits in use.

Weren't Hudson's offices a mess! 

Am I silly for thinking this is the same graphics editor?
(2) Was the graphics editor software ported? Emulated? Is the article mistaken? (Is ICOM actually is using PC-98/X6800)?

You are silly but for unrelated reasons.  ;-D

It probably is the same software, and I think Hudson made MS-DOS versions of their software for Western developers.

I finally dug out the docs ... yep, it was ported for Western developers.

It ran in DOS on an IBM PC/AT, and had a ISA card with an 8255 chip on it for interfacing with the Hu7 devkit.

The graphics editor described is the same one thats in all those pictures, and it supported displaying the sprites/maps on the TV screen that was connected to the devkit.

So that's how Japanese developers were able to see more than the one 16-color palette as they were creating their background maps.

That would probably be a bit difficult to work with, but, as-the-saying-goes, where there's a will.

It would certainly explain why ICOM were creating their background maps on a Mac II with its 256-color screen and Electronic Arts' Studio/8, and then running everything through their own conversion tools.

Do any of the original Hudson graphics tools exist?

Yes!  I think they were found in the ISO of ACD Art of Fighting or somesuch.

Ah ... yep ... some-kind-soul-here gave me a dump of those files a while back. 

I hadn't looked at them seriously because I thought that they were PC-98 programs.

But, just-in-case, I fired-up a copy of DOS in VirtualPC 2007, and as Chris presumably already knows ...







Wow! 

With a 1993 version date, this is probably one of the final DOS versions of the editor before Hudson made their Windows editor (that we see as the "AGE" editor in the PC-FX SDK).

[Michirin9801]

This stuff is seriously fascinating!

[Black Tiger]

There's some more Turbo dev info here:

http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com/2010/03/lords-of-turbo-pantheon-icoms-dave.html?m=1

[elmer]

There's some more Turbo dev info here:

Thanks! That was a good-read, too. 

[esteban]

This thread blossomed in the past few days!

Thanks for all the info, comrades!

I love this stuff.

[Bock]

Hello,

I am Bock/Omar, this is my first post (recently put the Off the Wall dump online, I am also the developer of The Dragon's Trap remake).

I met a PC Engine era artist recently, who worked in Hong Kong, and he said he had some related software to send me soon. He says the tools are for DOS. I'll let you know what I have and if he is happy with me releasing them.

-Omar

[Punch]

Omar, thanks for joining us, and thanks for looking into that, too. Please let us know how it goes