Ikari Warriors, Guerilla War, and The SNK Golden Age
Added 2018-11-21 22:01:34 +0000 UTChttp://shmuplations.com/snkgoldenage/
In this long and candid interview from 2001, SNK alum Koji Obata describes the company’s early-’80s struggles, their re-emergence as an arcade powerhouse, the self-proclaimed “SNK golden age” and his own role in the production of several of SNK’s most cherished and innovative products including TANK, Ikari Warriors, Guevara and the humble “loop lever”.
Also discussed is SNK’s transition away from discrete arcade PCBs and towards the Neo Geo, a move that brought them massive profits and market penetration at the arguable expense of developer freedom, be it freedom of creativity, freedom of subversive expression or simply the freedom to copy another company’s game if one felt like doing so.
This interview was translated as research material for the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, a carefully-selected anthology of pre-Neo Geo SNK games spanning both arcade and consoles that contains a massive museum of behind-the-scenes documents, promotional material, trivia and info on every game made and released (or not!) by SNK from 1978 to 1990.
[[note: this interview was a commissioned translation, but the client has given permission for it to be posted free here for all to enjoy]]
