Page 1 of 2

How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:17 pm
by nesrocks
In 1991 alone, Konami released these games, according to wikipedia:

Amstrad CPC:
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op

Arcade:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
The Simpsons
Sunset Riders
Roller Games
Golfing Greats
Thunder Cross II
Vendetta
Detana!! Twinbee (Japan only)
Escape Kids
Xexex
Mario Roulette
Slime Kun
Tsurikko Penta

C64:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game/Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op
The Simpsons: Arcade Game

Amiga:
Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge
Predator 2
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op

Famicom/NES:
Wai Wai World 2: SOS!! Parsley Jō
Yume Penguin Monogatari
Ski or Die
Laser Invasion
Lagrange Point
Base Wars
Crisis Force
The Lone Ranger
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?
Pirates!
Rampart
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
Tiny Toon Adventures
Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge

PC:
J.R.R. Tolkien's Riders of Rohan
Killing Cloud
Mission: Impossible
Spacewrecked: 14 Billion Light Years From Earth
The Simpsons: Arcade Game
The Simpsons: Bart's House of Weirdness
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game/Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin-Op!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Manhattan Missions
Top Gun: Danger Zone

SNES:
The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Super Castlevania IV

x68000:
Parodius Da!
Detana!! TwinBee

ZX Spectrum:
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: The Coin Op

PC Engine:
Gradius
Salamander

Gameboy:
Operation C
Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge
Double Dribble
Cave Noire
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge
Blades of Steel
Nemesis II (called Gradius: The Interstellar Assault in North America.)
Ganbare Goemon: Sarawareta Ebisumaru!

Handheld games:
Bucky O'Hare
Garfield
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 Shredder's Last Stand
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Basketball

(no games by Konami for the Mega Drive prior to 1992, surprisingly)

I mean, wow, that's 61 games in a year... One game every 5 days. And they are mostly great or good games, well programmed, good music and graphics. What was going on exactly?

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:28 pm
by psycopathicteen
They probably had 100 people working there.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:34 pm
by adam_smasher
...or more. And many of those games may have been contracted out too.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 2:40 pm
by FrankenGraphics
Those things, and working overtime as a rule rather than exception.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:26 pm
by 93143
FrankenGraphics wrote:working overtime as a rule rather than exception.
I seem to recall that when Nintendo was working with Argonaut, they were baffled and annoyed that the Brits would simply quit at the end of the regular work day.

Perhaps their relationship with Rare was so good because Rare didn't do that...

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 3:29 pm
by Bregalad
FrankenGraphics wrote:Those things, and working overtime as a rule rather than exception.
Which makes me wonder who played all those games released in japan since people are expected to work 55+ hours a week there.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:36 pm
by ccovell
Anything on home computers / PCs except for the X68000 was programmed in the USA/Europe by contract developers. Those can be quickly excluded.

I think in an interview in Super Play maybe, Factor 5 mentioned that Konami had like 400 employees (or was it "developers"?) in the early 90s. They are / were a big company in the games world.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:12 am
by Fisher
93143 wrote:who played all those games
I can only think in kids, unemployed people and people who don't need or don't want to work so much.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 5:09 pm
by Marscaleb
93143 wrote:
Perhaps their relationship with Rare was so good because Rare didn't do that...
That made me laugh. Thank you.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:11 pm
by Banshaku
Each employee did the "Konami code" many time?

Go hide in my corner since the complete room is now frozen. ^^;;;

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 1:35 am
by Bregalad
Also some of the releases you listed are simple ports to new platforms of games they already did, so it's less work, and perhaps they could even outsource it.

Also you didn't mention it, but not only Konami did many games, but many great games. That's what makes them really deserve respect in my opinion. Releasing lots of shitty games isn't really an achievement (hem hem... Action 52...)

In the west they had to create companies such as Ultra Games or Palcom Software just to release Konami games, as Nintendo limited releases to a couple of games per companies per year.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 1:43 am
by nesrocks
Bregalad wrote:Also you didn't mention it, but not only Konami did many games, but many great games.
Yeah, I mentioned that!

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 3:06 am
by Bregalad
Ah sorry I didn't read the post past the long list of games... sorry agin, you definitely mentionned it.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:59 am
by Oziphantom
The C64 ports where done my Mirage Studios USA https://www.lemon64.com/games/details.php?ID=2612 the other home ports to non-Japanese systems would have also been not done by Konami.

Re: How did Konami do this?

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:36 am
by Memblers
On the NES/FC list, I know Pirates! was developed by Rare (there's some crazy mid-scanline effects going on in there), and Bill Elliot and Carmen Sandiego were by Distinctive Software. Even still, that's a lot of titles.