I'm going to meet Tomomi Sakai, designer behind the one and only, Gimmick

[Protoman]

This is a bit surreal, but it's happening.
Tomomi Sakai, the creator of Gimmick, runs a blog called Electric Sheep (http://www.electricsheep.co.jp/blog.php?id=392), where I went and sent a message
through the mail/message section. I didn't know if he'd respond but to my surprise he did. He lives in Nagoya and I'm in Kyoto, I'm going to go visit
a friend of mine in Nagoya soon anyway so I combined them so to speak and now I'm going to meet mr Sakai on september 1st.
Since I do Youtube I thought it would be quite awesome if I could do an interview, but unfortunately he's a bit... eccentric I suppose, and doesn't want
to "reveal himself to the world" via picture or even sound. The guy who did the history of Sunsoft already did a text interview with Sakai, but even so
I will ask my own questions. Suggestions welcome.

And he agreed to sign my Gimmick cart as well 

[fcgamer]

That's amazing, congrats!!! I'm extremely happy and excited for you, it's going to be one of those special moments you never forget
Post Merge: August 23, 2018, 11:51:33 pm
You deserve it mate

[famiac]

that's really freaking cool...

I have some suggestions for questions I would love answered. I would appreciate it if you used a couple!

Serious questions:
Was the music written before or after the levels were programmed?

What inspired the star mechanic for the main character?

Why was there so much detail in this game compared to other games?

How were you hired for Gimmick! at such a young age?
(he was 19 when he coded and designed the game for sunsoft)

Dumb question:
What color are yumetaro's feet?
they're white on EU box art, brown on JP box art

[nensondubois]

Wow, that's really incredible! Take advantage of the rare once in a lifetime opportunity to ask some very important questions like:

What made Sunsoft decide to use the FME-7 Sunsoft5b sound chip in Gimmick! and why wasn't the noise generator hardware used? Also, were other games planned to use the FME-7? And How long did it take to convert the music over to the western version of Gimmick that doesn't contain the FME-7. Lastly, why wasn't Gimmick! released in the US?

I would love for him to sign my Minty Gimmick CIB but damn that's impossible! 

Good luck and have fun with the visit!

[Gazimaluke]

The chip was mainly made for Gimmick. Say hi from me ^^

[P]

Yeah and I don't think it's so strange that the music composer didn't use every feature of the chip (especially as the Famicom APU already has a noise channel). It's a Yamaha YM2149 which is a common off-the-shelf sound chip used in many other devices as well (it's the main sound chip in MSX computers for instance).

I have a question too!
What is the nature of Yumetarou? In the backstory he hids himself in a toyshop among toys that happens to look exactly like himself and the girl's father confuses him for a toy. Is there any thought behind this or is it just a funny coincidence?
In the Swedish release he is apparently an old magical artefact called a "gimmick", but I think that was made up by the localizers. Note that I haven't beaten the game.

[Gazimaluke]

The gimmick och Gimmick is the gimmicks in the world basically. The Mr. Gimmick story was most likely made up by some marketing person at Sunsoft of America (probably Karen Shadley). Sakai doesn't like the name Mr. Gimmick since Yumetaro isn't Mr Gimmick. The gimmick is the special things that happens in the world. Sakai left Sunsoft before the game was released so after that the people that did anything with the game really didn't understand it.

Gimmick wasn't the first games Sakai worked on. He was sub-programmer on Freedom Force and then lead programmer on Fester's Quest. I haven't updated my articles with the stuff he told me about Fester's Quest though. Then he made Gimmick for three years.

[P]

Yeah the Japanese manual explains the English word "gimmick" and the philosophy behind the game. It's quite clear that Yumetarou isn't the gimmick of the game (that reminds me that we still haven't completed the English translation of the manual yet).

I'm wondering a bit more about the world that is drawn up in the backstory though. The fact that there are toys that looks like Yumetarou is one interesting thing. He doesn't seem to be a toy himself at all though, just pretending to be one to avoid sticking out or something. The toys doesn't care about that though and become jealous of him when they see how much the girl likes him.
But it could also be that he IS a toy and hides among the plush toys when people come because toys aren't supposed to be seen walking around department stores like that. His nature is mysterious and it interests me if there is any thought behind it that isn't explained anywhere.

Oh I should really go on reading your Sunsoft interviews Gazimaluke. I'm still at the first page...

[MWK]

That is awesome Protoman and I know exactly how you feel, since I've met a couple of VIPs myself in a past few months, of course in terms of Polish Pegasus manufacturing and stuff from back in the days, one of them Mr. Jerzy Tatarek (guy who made PSUs for our Pegasus Famiclone and still is running his company to this day) even made to visit us at our 10th anniversary fCON party this year!

All in all it really is a unforgettable experience to meet such ppl from the past.
Are you planning to record some audio/video feed from the meeting?
Good luck!

[Gazimaluke]

I think very few fans have meet Sakai in person. So it's really cool.

[Yelir]

I would be super grateful for that experience! Have a great time. 

[Protoman]

Are you planning to record some audio/video feed from the meeting?

I wanted to but he doesn't want to 'reveal' himself to the public via picture, video or even sound. So only a written interview is possible.
I will respect his wishes of course even if I think it's a little eccentric for a man who is famous for one game back in 1992.

[Protoman]

Met Mr Sakai yesterday, and you can see the results above

Had a nice talk about Gimmick and Sunsoft, at least to the extent that I could follow it(at this point I understand maybe up to 70% of any given conversation). Since I couldn't record anything I can't verify anything after the fact either.

Gaizmaluke, want to compare notes?

Sakai said one thing I want to share right now, he said that there's a shortcut somewhere you can take in stage 1 to get to stage 2 quicker(possibly it's a shortcut in stage 2 to get to the boss quicker, not sure if I heard that right), and thereby when you get to the boss(the pirate guy), he's asleep and gets woken up by one of his underlings! That sounds adorable and I wonder if people are already aware of it?

[Gazimaluke]

Yes I would very much like to compare notes.
The boss on the second stage are sleeping if you get to it fast. There is an alarm clock that wakes him up. Another fun detail on that boss is when he dies his sword flies up and lands with it point in the wooden floor. But if it hits the metal it bounces off. There are so many details like that.

[famiac]

That's so awesome. Congrats man