Hudson Soft
| Hudson Soft Co., Ltd | |
 |
|
| Founded | 1973-05-18 |
| Closed | 2012-03-01 |
| Headquarters | Midtown Tower, Tokyo, Japan |
| Other Names | Hudson |
Hudson Soft Co., Ltd was a Japanese game developer. They initially started in 1973 making software for personal computers, but branched into video game design early on. They had several successful franchises including Adventure Island, Bomberman, Bonk, Lode Runner, and Mario Party.
In 2012, Hudson was purchased by long-time partner Konami and absorbed by Konami Digital Entertainment, the video game division of the Konami holding company.
During its life, the company had several branches. Hudson Soft Co., Ltd was its primary Japanese branch and developer of all its games, but there were several publishing divisions as well. The most successful was Hudson Soft USA, Inc., their American publishing arm which exists from 1988 to 1995. Their European ventures weren't quite as successful with Hudson Soft Ltd lasting only from 1983 to 1984, and a second attempt with Hudson Soft Europe Limited publishing only a single game in 1995.
Games
Music Development
NES
There were several sound drivers programmed at Hudson Soft, mainly by Fumihiko Itagaki, Toshiaki Takimoto, and Katsunori Takahashi. These all required music to be entered in 6502 assembly language.
The NES game Lode Runner used a sound driver by Shinichi Nakamoto, as he was the sole programmer of the game.
TG16
All of Hudson's sound drivers for the TurboGrafx-16 were programmed by Takayuki Iwabuchi. Toshiyuki Sasagawa would convert the composers' music to the console via Music Macro Language.
Audio Personnel
When it came to music, Hudson usually hired professional musicians for better quality music.
These composers worked at Hudson Soft:
- Aya Tanaka (Composer; 1995-2003)
- Chieko Ohkubo (Composer for Castle Quest (FC) and Castle Quest (GB).)
- Daisuke Inoue (Composer: 1987-1997)
- Fumihiko Itagaki (Sound designer and programmer; 1983-2005)
- Gattuchan
- Hiroyo Murabayashi (Composer for Castle Quest (FC) and Castle Quest (GB).)
- Ichiro Shimakura (Composer; 1994-2008)
- Isamu Hirano (Composer for Lode Runner (NES) and Championship Lode Runner (FC).)
- Jun Chikuma (Composer; 1985-2001)
- Katsunori Takahashi (Sound designer and programmer; 1987-2001)
- Kazumi-Type (Kazumi Kato?) (SNES sound driver programmer)
- Kazunari Takemoto
- Kazuyuki Sekiguchi (Composer; 1987-1993)
- Keita Hoshi (Sound designer and programmer; 1989-2009)
- Kohei Tanaka (Composer)
- Makiko Tanifuji (Composer; 1992)
- Osamu Narita (Sound designer and programmer; 1990-2009)
- Takayuki Iwabuchi (Sound driver programmer for many consoles.)
- Takeaki Kunimoto (Composer; 1985-1989)
- Tomotsune Maeno (Composer; 1988-1990)
- Toshiaki Takimoto (Sound designer and programmer; 1987-2001)
Links
- mobygames.com/company/hudson-soft-company-ltd - MobyGames (Japan).
- mobygames.com/company/hudson-soft-usa-inc - MobyGames (USA).
- mobygames.com/company/hudson-soft-ltd - MobyGames (Europe 1).
- mobygames.com/company/hudson-soft-europe-limited - MobyGames (Europe 2).
- gamefaqs.com/features/company/74385.html - GameFAQs (Hudson Soft).
- gamefaqs.com/features/company/10642.html - GameFAQs (Hudson).
- gamefaqs.com/features/company/76067.html - GameFAQs (Hudson Entertainment).
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_Soft - Wikipedia.
- hudson.co.jp/index.html - Goodbye Message.
