Konami's Jun Yoshimuro discusses the conception, planning and development of the PC Engine Mini, as well as some of the hidden extras revealed today game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview…🇯🇵
why make the PCE Mini? in short: there were lots of PCE fans at Konami, Nintendo's Famicom Classic was a hit, the "mini" boom was fun as a sort of revival of the old hardware wars and it seemed an effective way to circulate legacy games for active IP like Bomberman & Momotetsu
the response to the PCE Mini announcement @ E3 was particularly positive in Japan; Yoshimuro thinks announcing with a wide array of software covering the gamut of PCE hardware spec, including CD-ROM2, SGFX & Arcade Card, let people know they were taking the project seriously
for the PCE Mini, Konami handled production, licensing, etc as well as general direction/supervision; there weren't many internal staff on the project, but between M2 on software, Hori on hardware an Amazon on sales/distribution, the overall head count was reasonably high
there are still some ppl @ Konami from the Tokimemo/Rondo days but they weren't officially involved
Yoshimuro did consult the creators of many classic games, including Momotetsu's Akira Sakuma & Tengai Makyou's Joe Hisaishi, on how to best curate their games, box art, etc
Yoshimuro did consult the creators of many classic games, including Momotetsu's Akira Sakuma & Tengai Makyou's Joe Hisaishi, on how to best curate their games, box art, etc
they also spoke to a lot of old Hudson ppl about both software & hardware; veteran Hiromasa Iwasaki (Ys1&2, Tengai Makyou 2, etc) was an official advisor & was able offer insight on the limitations faced by the programmers of the day & how they might fix/improve tings on PCE Mini
(they offhandedly mention how they slightly adjusted the display for this version of YsI&II—this article doesn't go into detail but I haven seen a little discussion on it elsewhere... I thought it was an overscan adjustment but now I'm not sure, I'll have to check sometime)
how'd they choose the game lineup? they cross-referenced user surveys with what did/didn't have rights issues; STG notwithstanding, they tried to include noteworthy/signature games & an even genre spread, as well as games like Appare! Gateball that you wouldn't find anywhere else
one tricky issue when making the PCE Mini: originally, Run+Select worked as as a soft-reset but it brings up the menu on the Mini, so they had to rewrite the reset routines for each game; there's no common reset routine between software so they had to manually analyse every game
similarly, every game with multi-tap support had a unique routine for handling the extra pads, so they had to unify those routines for the Mini—it might be emulation-based but there isn't a single game on the PCE Mini that wasn't manually modified in one way or another
the option to add a reset button to the hardware was there & there was serious discussion about it for a while, but Yoshimuro thought it'd be unreasonable to expect ppl to have to press the button on the unit (esp. as the controller cable's 3m long) so they went with Run+Select
Hori's pad was created via thorough analysis of a legit PCE pad, graphing resistance, rebound, etc; they managed something within 1% accuracy (a first for Hori)
they initially chose to add some xtra resistance to the rubber but had to revise the pad 3-4 times due to fan feedback
they initially chose to add some xtra resistance to the rubber but had to revise the pad 3-4 times due to fan feedback
Hori also handled the external hardware design; they 3D-printed a version of the PCE at 85% size and settled on that for both the PCE & CoreGrafx Mini early on; there was some concern that the TurboGrafx mini was still quite big at 85% size but they decided to keep them at parity
as for why they made three versions to begin with, they basically just wanted people anywhere in the world to get the version they grew up with, with region-appropriate packaging and so on
as for secrets: in addition to the ones announced today, Yoshimuro says there's a way to play Force Gear & Twinbee Returns (two Tokimeki Memorial minigames) as standalones, & they also modified the Super Star Soldier cheat code so it doesn't overlap with the Run+Select menu input
(icymi, these were the big secrets announced today )
part of the reason they chose to work with M2 on the PCE Mini was for value-adds like those; Konami made all the big calls & Sega obviously had to be consulted on the Fantasy Zone-related extras but everyone was united in wanting to surprise their respective fans
the frontend was made hand-in-hand with M2; Konami restored all the cover art, did the game loading animations, menu music, CDROM2 drive sound effects, etc & M2's director Matsushita proposed & drew the little anthro PCEs that run around the menu
the TG16 Mini menu music was created using an authentic dev environment; given that the PCE-CD was the first big CD-based game console, they were also conscious about trying to preserve the in-game audio environment of the time with regards to elements like Dolby surround sound
on game manuals, they're not available on the Mini but they are available on the website, and Yoshimuro says that some manuals will also include other behind-the-scenes material on a per-game basis (Snatcher is one such game)
on whether they did anything through emulation to address common issues like sprite flicker or slowdown: certain games like the aforementioned YsI&II did get little tweaks but basically, no, as they wanted to present the game as people remembered them
...and that's pretty much it, Yoshimuro signs off by inviting peoples' feedback on the PCE Mini, which games they like, what else they want to see, typical stuff
Konami... is Cool...?
Konami... is Cool...?
