#arsys software

Top 47K - Star Cruiser (X68000) (and BROK the InvestiGator!)

Arsys Software or later Cyberhead, was a video game software development studio. The company was located in Tokyo, Japan and it was founded on 11 November 1985. The company was active from 1985 to 2001. Originally, the company was founded as Arsys Software by Kotori Yoshimura and Osamu Nagano. Osamu and Kotori were both former employees at Technosoft. It was noted that they were mainly focused on PC game developing. In 1983 they developed a free-scrolling shooter game called Thunder Force. They were the originals creators of the game. In addition, they have also created another space racing game called Plazma Line. That game was developed back in 1984 and it was considered as the first computer game with 3D polygon graphics. These games were developed by the founders of Arsys Software back then when they were working at Technosoft.

The Start

After leaving Technosoft, Osamu Nagano and Kotori Yoshimura on 11 November 1985 founded Arsys Software. One year later, the company’s first game was the 3D role-playing shooter Wibarm. In 1987, Wibram was followed by Reviver: The Real-Time Adventure which was a free-roaming adventure game. Moreover, in 1988, they created Star Cruiser which is a first-person shooter role-playing game. When the game was officially released, Arsys Software only had 2 employees. Only 3 years later, in 1991, the number of employees grew to 12. Also, a fun fact is that when the company started working on Star Cruiser 2, by 2001, Arsys Software lowered the number of employees down to 3.

In addition to its own products, Arsys Software also ported games to computer platforms in Japan. The company ported several SystemSoft games and games like Prince of Persia. Arsys Software port for Prince of Persia for the NEC PC-98 came with improved visuals. For example, they introduced the Prince’s vest look and classic turban. In addition, that additional stuff that was added became the basis for Later Prince of Persia port games.  They were also included in the development for other games from different companies such as the racing simulator Gran Turismo for the PlayStation.

Silpheed was the first STG I ever played where the controllable ship felt like a fully realized character; the lovingly created polygonal wire frame model, the detailed art in the cutscenes, the diagnostic illustration in the load out screen and side bar, and even the on screen representation in game had seemingly more thought put into its design and had more personality showing through than in any other game I'd seen or played up to that point. The only other that I played around that time that came close was (unsurprisingly) Game Arts' own Thexder, though I never liked having to transform out of robot mode, which makes Silpheed the cooler ship of the two. My experience with the game obviously wasn't on a PC-88, but rather on a cheap IBM compatible as a childthing (of a sort). As cool as Silpheed and Thexder were, had I known of its existence, I would have lost it over Arsys Software's WIBARM back then, which gave you a rad transforming robot like Thexder, but also super technology pushing full polygonal dungeon crawling as well as side scrolling combat against awesome fleshy creepozoids... and was the brain child of the legendary trans game dev Kotori Yoshimura <3

WHOA, THIS EXISTS!? HOLY HELL, I WANT ONE OF MY OWN.

Eternal Move Spindizzy II (Sharp X68000) Composer: Toshiya Yamanaka and/or Tetsuya Nakano

You may have played Spindizzy Worlds on the Amiga and/or SNES---but unless you owned an X68000 or PC-98 (or played one via emulation), you've never heard it like this. Arsys Software's conversion of the game for those Japanese computers included an entirely original soundtrack... and what a soundtrack it is.

Sure, the original Amiga title theme may not be present (though this version has an equally catchy intro of its own to replace it). But in contrast to the Amiga version's complete lack of in-game music and the lackluster music of the SNES port, this version gives each of the game's 30 stages a unique background tune (!), and each of the game's two difficulty levels a separate set of menu and ending themes.

And despite the sheer quantity of music in this game, they didn't slouch on the quality, either from a compositional or technical perspective. There are some really neat FM synth tricks on display (in fact, the soundtrack is entirely FM, with no use of PCM samples whatsoever!), and the composition shows some strong jazz fusion influences (not entirely surprising, given Yamanaka's later work in Sin and Punishment for N64).

The track featured above is the ending theme from the game's hard mode. Thankfully for those who don't want to throw their controllers at the screen in frustration, it, and all of the other background music, is also available in an easy-to-access sound test that doesn't even require any hacking to get to.

Closed Beta testing is set to begin soon for #GranTurismoSport! #GT #PolyphonyDigital #SonyInteractiveEntertainment

Gran Turismo Sport will start its initial phase of closed Beta testing this month. Polyphony Digital Incorporated’s president Kazunori Yamauchi released this statement to players and fans;

“We are extremely excited at Polyphony to announce the Gran Turismo Sport Closed BETA. BETA participants will get a sneak peek at how Gran Turismo will pave the future of racing, competing in highly competitive…