Hirokazu Tanaka
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Hirokazu Tanaka is a Japanese composer, sound designer and programmer. He is known for his several contributions to Nintendo.
Hirokazu was first enrolled at the Yamaha Music School in Japan at the age of five. From nine to eleven he primarily studied piano. Early in his life he became interested in rock music and he began to study guitar, drums, and keyboard.
Tanaka went to college majoring in electrical engineering to better his understanding of the electronics used in creating music. During college Tanaka was in a band that made it all the way to the finals of a music competition. However, in 1980, Tanaka quit the band in order to start work for Nintendo.
Tanaka started with sound effects on Nintendo's early arcade games, but by 1984 when Nintendo began work on the Famicom, Tanaka became the primary music composer for the R&D1 division of Nintendo. During his early years, he usually worked with Yukio Kaneoka. At first, Tanaka contributed sound effects and Kaneoka took on music composition, but as the years went on, their roles gradually switched.
Aside from his music composition, Tanaka also wrote code for a few games, helped design the audio hardware of the Game Boy, and designed the Game Boy camera and printer.
In 1998 Tanaka left Nintendo because they refused to allow him to continue work on the Pokémon project. He then went to work for Creatures, Inc. the company that produced the Pokémon trading cards. Since 2000 he now works as president for the company.
Tanaka has several popular soundtracks under his belt. These include Metroid, Dr. Mario, Tetris, Super Mario Land, EarthBound, Kid Icarus, Wrecking Crew, and Gyromite, among many others.
Contents
Audio Development
Tanaka said he was greatly influenced by reggae music. This can be supported by the many dotted eighth notes followed by sixteenth notes in his music.
Also, Tanaka did something unusual; when using a square wave to echo the other square wave, he would have the first square wave echo and the second square wave be the lead, whereas most other composers did it the other way around.
Tanaka has reused some songs in his video game music career, such as using the VS high scores theme in Barker Bill's Trick Shooting, the Nintendo World Championships 1991 song in Hello Kitty World, and Balloon Fight in Balloon Kid.
ARC
Hirokazu programmed the sound engine used in Nintendo's arcade games in 6502 assembly.
Game Boy
Tanaka programmed his own sound driver in Z80 assembly language and wrote the music in hexadecimal notation, similar to his NES music. Because of the popularity of Super Mario Land and Tetris, his sound driver is probably the most popular driver heard in Game Boy music.
NES
Tanaka originally used Yukio Kaneoka's sound driver, but later reprogrammed it for his own use. According to Tanaka, the music and sound were written in 6502 assembly. His driver used custom instruments with various velocity settings, as heard in Tetris.
SNES
Hirokazu used Nintendo's in-house Kankichi-kun sequencer.
Gameography
Most of these games have been verified to have been composed by Hirokazu Tanaka via Square Enix's website: http://www.squareenixmusic.com/composers/tanaka/projects.shtml
| Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980-??-?? | Space Firebird (ARC) (スペースファイヤーバード) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1980-??-?? | Helifire (ARC) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1980-??-?? | Radar Scope (ARC) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1981-??-?? | Donkey Kong (ARC) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1982-??-?? | Donkey Kong Jr. (ARC) | ||
| 1982-11-12 | Mickey and Donald (GW) | ||
| 1983-03-07 | Donkey Kong II (GW) | ||
| 1983-28-09 | Donkey Kong 3 (ARC) (ドンキーコング3) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Donkey Kong Jr. (GW) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Mario Bros. (ARC) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1983-07-15 | Donkey Kong Classics (NES) | Arranged by Yukio Kaneoka. | |
| 1983-09-09 | Mario Bros. (NES) (マリオ ブラザーズ) | Sound effects only. | |
| 1983-??-?? | Mario's Bombs Away (GW) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Mario's Cement Factory (GW) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Pinball (GW) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Popeye (GW) | ||
| 1983-??-?? | Snoopy (GW) | ||
| 1984-??-?? | Balloon Fight (VS) | ||
| 1984-??-?? | Duck Hunt (VS) | ||
| 1984-??-?? | Spitball Sparky (GW) | ||
| 1984-02-18 | Wild Gunman (NES) (ワイルドガンマン) | ||
| 1984-04-21 | Duck Hunt (NES) (ダックハント) | ||
| 1984-06-12 | Hogan's Alley (NES) (ホーガンズアレイ) | ||
| 1984-07-04 | Donkey Kong 3 (NES) (ドンキーコング３) | ||
| 1984-11-14 | Urban Champion (NES) (アーバンチャンピオン) | ||
| 1985-01-22 | Balloon Fight (NES) (バルーンファイト) | ||
| 1985-06-18 | Wrecking Crew (NES) (レッキングクルー) | ||
| 1985-07-26 | Stack-Up (NES) (ロボットブロックセット) | ||
| 1985-08-01 | M82 (NES) | ||
| 1985-08-13 | Gyromite (NES) (ジャイロマイトジャイロセット) | ||
| 1986-06-06 | Gumshoe (NES) (ガムシュー) | ||
| 1986-08-06 | Metroid (NES) (メトロイド) | |
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| 1986-12-19 | Kid Icarus: Angel Land Story (NES) (光神話 パルテナの鏡) | |
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| 1988-08-12 | Famicom Wars (FC) (ファミコンウォーズ) | With Kenji Yamamoto. | |
| 1989-02-03 | Wrecking Crew (FDS) | ||
| 1989-04-21 | GameBoy BIOS (GB) | ||
| 1989-04-21 | Alleyway (GB) | ||
| 1989-04-21 | Baseball (GB) | ||
| 1989-04-21 | Super Mario Land (GB) (スーパーマリオランド) | ||
| 1989-04-21 | Yakuman (GB) (役満) | ||
| 1989-06-14 | Tetris (GB) (テトリス) | |
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| 1989-07-27 | Mother (FC) | ||
| 1989-11-?? | Tetris (NES) | |
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| 1989-11-28 | Golf (GB) (ゴルフ) | Sound Effects and Sound Programming | |
| 1990-04-20 | Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken (FC) (ファイアーエムブレム 暗黒竜と光の剣) | ||
| 1990-06-05 | Knight Move (FDS) (ナイトムーブ) | ||
| 1990-07-27 | Dr. Mario (NES) (ドクターマリオ) | |
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| 1990-07-27 | Dr. Mario (GB) (ドクターマリオ) | |
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| 1990-08-?? | Barker Bill's Trick Shooting (NES) | ||
| 1990-09-07 | Backgammon (FDS) (バックギャモン) | |
Arranger/Sound Driver |
| 1990-10-?? | Balloon Kid (GB) | ||
| 1990-??-?? | Nintendo World Championships 1990 (NES) | |
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| 1991-09-20 | NES Open Tournament Golf (NES) (マリオオープンゴルフ) | Sound Driver | |
| 1991-??-?? | Nintendo Campus Challenge 1991 (NES) | ||
| 1992-03-14 | Fire Emblem Gaiden (FC) (ファイアーエムブレム外伝) | Sound Driver | |
| 1992-03-27 | Hello Kitty World (FC) (ハローキティワールド) | ||
| 1992-05-29 | X (GB) (エックス) | ||
| 1992-07-14 | Mario Paint (SNES) (マリオペイント) | With Kazumi Totaka and Ryoji Yoshitomi. | |
| 1993-01-14 | Sanrio Carnival 2 (FC) (サンリオカーニバル２) | |
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| 1993-03-19 | Sanrio Carnival 2 (GB) (サンリオカーニバル２) | Unknown arranger. | |
| 1994-08-27 | EarthBound (SNES) (ＭＯＴＨＥＲ２ ギーグの逆襲) | With Keiichi Suzuki. | |
| 1994-12-?? | Tetris & Dr. Mario (SNES) | With Kazumi Totaka and Yumiko Kanki. | |
| 1995-05-19 | Snoopy Concert (SNES) (スヌーピーコンサート) | With Minako Hamano. | |
| 1998-01-01 | Wrecking Crew '98 (SNES) (レッキングクルー'98) | Sound Director | |
| 1998-02-12 | Pocket Camera (GB) (ポケットカメラ) | Director / Composer | |
| 1998-06-01 | Pocket Printer (GB) (ポケットプリンター) | Director | |
| 1998-10-21 | Tetris DX (GBC) (テトリスデラックス) | Composer?/Sound Driver? | |
| 2000-07-31 | Balloon Fight GB (GBC) (バルーンファイトGB) | ||
| 2001-02-23 | Chee-Chai Alien (GBC) (ちっちゃいエイリアン) | Director / Composer | |
| 2008-01-31 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl (WII) | ||
| 2014-09-13 | Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (WIIU) | ||
| 2018-06-07 | Oyasumi Roonie (IOS) | Music Composer | |
| 2018-12-08 | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (NSW) | Music Composer |
Picture Gallery
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Links
- mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,47443/ - MobyGames.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirokazu_Tanaka - Wikipedia.
- facebook.com/hirokazu.tanaka.560 - Facebook.
- twitter.com/#!/hirokazutanaka - Twitter.
- soundcloud.com/hip_tanaka - Soundcloud.
- youtube.com/watch?v=F7J5GlE3YLQ - Interview with Hirokazu Tanaka by Red Bull Music Academy.
- youtube.com/watch?v=2gISEoMIe3c - Hirokazu performs an original song with 11 other people also named Hirokazu Tanaka.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/1419.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
