Junko Ozawa
Junko Ozawa (better known as Zunko) is a Japanese composer, sound designer, and sound programmer. She was a sound designer for Namco from 1983 to 2008. She is also a graduate from the Kunitachi College of Music.
Junko originally wanted to work for Namco because she enjoyed the Nyamko character from the game Mappy. She wrote a song during her training for Namco, which was liked by Masanobu Endo, and she was eventually assigned to their coin-op division. There, she wrote music for several of the company's arcade games. Later, when the company started working on the NES, and after Nobuyuki Ohnogi departed Namco, she started doing the music and sound for Namco's NES conversions of arcade games such as Mappy and Pac-Man.
Ozawa was an integral part of Namco's audio. Not only because she composed several notable games and songs for the company, but also because she programmed the sound drivers for most of the platforms the company developed for such as the NES, Game Boy, and SNES.
Some of Ozawa's notable works include The Tower of Druaga, Sky Kid, Toypop, and Rolling Thunder.
Contents
Music Development
ARC
Junko said, specifically for Rolling Thunder, that she wrote the music in assembly on the MC6809 CPU.
She used Namco's FM sound driver by Junichi Mizutari.
Game Boy
Ozawa programmed a sound driver, in which music was written in assembly. Her driver was used in three games; Heisei Tensai Bakabon, Jantaku Boy, and Mr. Driller, the latter being the only game released outside of Japan to use the driver.
NES
Junko originally wrote the music in assembly using a sound driver by Nobuyuki Ohnogi and Fukashi Ohmorita. Later she learned NES programming and modified Ohmorita and Ohnogi's sound driver.
SNES
Junko said that because there was no MIDI to work with, she programmed her own sound driver and wrote the music in assembly. Unlike Namco's first driver by Shinya Yamada, which was based off of Nintendo's Kankichi-kun driver, Ozawa's sound driver is original.
Her driver allowed users to make their own instrument samples, but Junko sampled instruments from her Ensoniq keyboards she owned at the time.
Gameography
Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1983-??-?? | Libble Rabble (ARC) (リブルラブル) | Arranged Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn. | |
1984-08-30 | Tank Battalion (MSX) (タンクバタリアン) | ||
1984-??-?? | Cosmo Swat (ARC) (コスモスワット) | ||
1984-??-?? | Gaplus (ARC) (ギャプラス) | ||
1984-??-?? | The Tower of Druaga (ARC) (ドルアーガの塔) | ||
1984-11-02 | Pac-Man (NES) (パックマン) | |
Arranger [1] |
1984-11-14 | Mappy (FC) (マッピー) | |
Arranger [2] |
1985-??-?? | Dig Dug II (ARC) (ディグダグII) | With Yuriko Keino. | |
1985-??-?? | Sky Kid (ARC) (スカイキッド) | ||
1985-07-12 | Warpman (FC) (ワープマン) | With Nobuyuki Ohnogi and Yuriko Keino. | |
1985-08-06 | The Tower of Druaga (FC) (ドルアーガの塔) | ||
1985-09-09 | Battle City (FC) (バトルシティー) | ||
1986-04-18 | Dig Dug II: Trouble in Paradise (NES) (ディグダグⅡ) | ||
1986-??-?? | The Return of Ishtar (ARC) (イシターの復活) | ||
1986-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (ARC) (ローリングサンダー) | |
|
1986-??-?? | Sky Kid Deluxe (ARC) (スカイキッドデラックス) | ||
1986-??-?? | Toypop (ARC) (トイポップ) | ||
1986-08-22 | Sky Kid (NES) (スカイキッド) | ||
1987-??-?? | Pac-Mania (ARC) (パックマニア) | |
|
1987-??-?? | Quester (ARC) (クエスター) | Sound Driver with Takatoshi Kobayashi. | |
1987-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (AMI) | Arranged by Mark Tait. | |
1987-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (AST) | Arranged by Mark Tait. | |
1987-04-02 | Sanma no Meitantei (FC) (さんまの名探偵) | Music Assistant | |
1987-04-24 | Family Jockey (FC) (ファミリージョッキー) | ||
1987-12-04 | Star Wars (FC) (スターウォーズ) | Sound Driver | |
1987-12-11 | Family Tennis (FC) (ファミリーテニス) | ||
1987-12-22 | Pro Yakyuu: Family Stadium '87 (FC) (プロ野球ファミリースタジアム'87) | ||
1988-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (CPC) | Arranged by Mark Tait. | |
1988-05-20 | Pro Yakyuu World Stadium (PCE) (プロ野球ワールドスタジアム) | Composer? | |
1988-07-22 | The Quest of Ki (FC) (カイの冒険) | ||
1988-08-11 | World Court Tennis (TG16) (プロテニス ワールドコート) | ||
1988-12-20 | Pro Yakyuu: Family Stadium '88 - Nendoban (FC) (プロ野球ファミリースタジアム'88 年度版) | ||
1989-??-?? | Four Trax (ARC) (フォートラックス) | With Yoshie Takayanagi. | |
1989-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (C64) | Arranged by Mark Tait. | |
1989-??-?? | Rolling Thunder (NES) (ローリングサンダー) | |
Unknown arranger. Possibly Atsuko Iwanaga. |
1989-06-23 | La Salle Ishii no Child's Quest (FC) (ラサール石井のチャイルズクエスト) | With Takatoshi Kobayashi. | |
1989-07-28 | Famista '89 (FC) (ファミスタ '89 開幕版!!) | ||
1989-12-19 | Famista '90 (FC) (ファミスタ '90) | ||
1990-??-?? | R.B.I. Baseball 2 (NES) | ||
1990-08-31 | Dig Dug II (FDS) | ||
1990-12-21 | Famista '91 (FC) (ファミスタ '91) | ||
1991-03-08 | Namcot Mahjong III: Mahjong Tengoku (FC) (ナムコット麻雀Ⅲ マージャン天国) | Composer?/Sound Driver | |
1991-10-04 | Chibi Maruko-chan: Uki Uki Shopping (FC) (ちびまる子ちゃん うきうきショッピング) | Sound Driver | |
1991-12-06 | Heisei Tensai Bakabon (FC) (平成天才バカボン) | Sound Driver | |
1991-12-20 | Famista '92 (FC) (ファミスタ'92) | Sound Driver | |
1992-01-24 | Jantaku Boy (GB) (雀卓ボーイ) | Composition, sound effects, sound driver. | |
1992-02-28 | Heisei Tensai Bakabon (GB) (平成天才バカボン) | Sound Driver | |
1992-10-22 | Top Striker (FC) (トップストライカー) | Verified by composer. | |
1992-12-08 | Wagyan Land 3 (FC) (ワギャンランド3) | Sound Driver | |
1992-12-22 | Famista '93 (FC) (ファミスタ '93) | Voice | |
1993-12-01 | Famista '94 (FC) (ファミスタ '94) | Composer?/Sound Effects?/Sound Driver | |
1994-??-?? | Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (GEN) | ||
1994-03-25 | The Blue Crystal Rod (SFC) (ザ・ブルークリスタルロッド) | ||
1994-08-05 | J.League Soccer: Prime Goal 2 (SFC) (Jリーグサッカープライムゴール2) | Sound Driver | |
1994-12-16 | Wagyan Paradise (SFC) (ワギャンパラダイス) | Sound Driver | |
1994-12-22 | Yuu Yuu Hakusho: Special Edition (SFC) (幽☆遊☆白書 特別篇) | Sound Program | |
1995-01-27 | Cyber Sled (PS1) (サイバースレッド) | Sound Engineer with Hiromi Shibano. | |
1995-03-03 | Super Famista 4 (SFC) (スーパーファミスタ4) | With Takaki Horigome and Koji Nakagawa. | |
1996-02-29 | Super Famista 5 (SFC) (スーパーファミスタ5) | Sound Driver | |
1997-07-25 | Namco Gallery Vol. 3 (GB) (ナムコギャラリーVOL.3) | Family Tennis | |
1997-10-?? | LiberoGrande (ARC) (リベログランデ) | ||
1997-12-11 | Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1) (風のクロノア) | With Eriko Imura, Kanako Kakino, Tetsukazu Nakanishi, Kota Takahashi, Hiroshi Okubo, Tomoko Tatsuta, and Takaki Horigome. | |
1998-02-01 | Super Family Gerende (SFC) (スーパーファミリーゲレンデ) | Sound Driver | |
1998-??-?? | Family Bowl (ARC) (ファミリーボウル) | ||
1999-08-?? | Pac-Man: Special Color Edition (GBC) (ミスタードリラー) | ||
2000-06-29 | Mr. Driller (GBC) (ミスタードリラー) | With Hiromi Shibano, Hiroshi Okubo, and Tomoko Tatsuta. | |
2003-12-05 | The Tower of Druaga (GC) | ||
2003-12-12 | Donkey Konga (GC) | ||
2004-07-01 | Donkey Konga 2 (GC) | ||
2005-03-17 | Donkey Konga 3: Tabehōdai! Haru Mogitate 50 Kyoku (GC) | ||
2011-11-13 | Druaga no Meikyuu (ARC) (ドルアーガの迷宮) | ||
Unreleased | Rolling Thunder (LYNX) | Unknown arranger. |
Picture Gallery
Links
- facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008179032918 - Facebook.
- ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8F%E6%B2%A2%E7%B4%94%E5%AD%90 - Wikipedia (Japanese).
- atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/2150.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).