Natsume

Natsume
Founded	1987-10-20
Headquarters	Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Website	natsume-game.com

Natsume (ナツメ（株） Natsume Kabu = Natsume Co., Ltd.) was a Japanese video game developer. They are known for creating the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games. Their name is Japanese for the tree known as a Jujube.

Games

• Games developed by Natsume.
• Games published by Natsume.

Music Development

NES

Natsume had many sound drivers for their NES and Famicom games. The first sound driver was by an unknown programmer and used only in one game, Touhou Kenbun Roku. This driver may have been created by the sound designer credited in the game, Nobita.

When Iku Mizutani joined Natsume, he programmed two different sound drivers. The first one was used only in two games; Dungeon Magic and Heroes of the Lance. The rest used a new refined driver by Mizutani. His driver required the use of binary numbers for musical notation.

When Kiyohiro Sada joined Natsume, he programmed his own sound driver as well. Sada's driver took advantage of the DPCM channel of the 2A03 for drum samples. According to Sada, music was written in assembly macros. His driver has a similar sound to Konami's sound driver; not surprising, as he had just left Konami to work for Natsume, like Mizutani.

SNES

According to Hiroyuki Iwatsuki, he used a tool similar to a tracker which was provided by Nintendo. Iku Mizutani would create MIDI files and convert them to the SNES.

Game Boy

The composers at Natsume reprogrammed the NES sound driver, and music was written in assembly.

Some games used sound driver by Act Japan.

Game Boy Advance

The composers at Natsume used a custom sound driver. This driver might be a reprogrammed version of the company's Game Boy sound driver to support the GBA's DirectSound channels. Again, music was written in assembly.

For Shawn Palmer's Pro Snowboarding, Yoshio Watanabe uses Nintendo's MP2K sound engine.

Audio Personnel

• Banbi - Composer for Power Blade (NES).
• Hana Yamucha - Composer for Touhou Kenbun Roku (FC).
• Hiroyuki Iwatsuki - Composer.
• Hisako Mizutani
• Iku Mizutani - Lead composer and sound programmer.
• Kana Takahashi - Composer.
• Kaoru Mizutani
• Kinuyo Yamashita - Composer.
• Kohei Matsuoka
• Koichi Yamanishi - Composer.
• Kiyoshi Kusatsu
• Kiyohiro Sada - Lead composer and sound programmer.
• Minako Adachi
• Nobita - Sound Designer for Touhou Kenbun Roku (FC).
• Noriko Fujimura
• Shinya Kurahashi
• Tetsuari Watanabe
• Yoshio Watanabe

Links

• natsume-game.com - Official.
• mobygames.com/company/natsume-co-ltd - MobyGames (Japan).
• mobygames.com/company/natsume-inc - MobyGames (USA).
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natsume_%28company%29 - Wikipedia.