Hiroyuki Masuno
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Hiroyuki Masuno is a Japanese programmer and sound composer and was the main audio designer at Kemco. He is best known for his soundtracks for Deja Vu (NES), Shadowgate (NES), and Uninvited (NES). Masuno started his video game music career around 1985 when he worked for Kemco as a sound composer and programmer. His first work there was to convert the music from Doughboy (C64) to the Nintendo Famicom. While working at Kemco, he wrote the sound drivers and worked on the music and sound to all of their games. Since the company usually made games based on anime and television, he would arrange the original soundtracks to the Famicom. When more composers started working at Kemco, Masuno started to compose less music for them and became more of a sound producer. After 10 years of working for Kemco, Masuno left the company in March 1998 and started working for Compile as an executive producer. After three years working for Compile, he left and became the CEO of ICA Corporation where he programmed and translated video games. In January of 2004, Masuno started working for Zoom Inc. as a programmer and eventually became the vice president, and chief technical officer. In January 2006, he worked for Sonic Blue, working as a game designer, programmer, and sound programmer. After that, he started working for Cyclone Zero doing the same job.
Ever since April 2009, Hiroyuki Masuno has been working for Arc System Works as a game designer, programmer, and sound engineer. Masuno also worked on a game called BlazBlue, and created a program that lets players create their own music. He currently works for E4 on 0D Beat Drop and the NAX Music Player.
Audio Development
NES
Masuno created MIDI-like files on an Apple II. Since the Apple II and NES use the same assembly language, it was easier to convert the files to the NES.
Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular! uses two songs from Nangoku Shirei!! Spy Vs Spy which was also composed by Masuno.
Masuno rearranged Ryu Hasegawa's music for the NES/Famicom, but he is not credited for some reason.
SNES
Masuno created the sound driver and probably created a custom music macro language to go along with it. The instruments were provided by Sony, manufacturers of the S-SMP sound chip.
Gameography
| Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985-12-11 | Dough Boy (FC) (ダウ・ボーイ) | ||
| 1986-04-26b | Spy Vs Spy (NES) (スパイＶＳスパイ) | |
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| 1986-09-25 | Space Hunter (FC) (スペースハンター) | ||
| 1986-12-26 | Electrician (FDS) (エレクトリシャン) | ||
| 1986-12-26 | Toki no Tabibito: Time Stranger (FC) (時の旅人 タイムストレンジャー) | Movie Soundtrack Arranger/Sound Effects | |
| 1987-03-27 | Nangoku Shirei: Spy vs. Spy II (FC) (南国指令!! スパイＶＳスパイⅡ) | |
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| 1987-10-20 | Indora no Hikari (FC) (インドラの光) | ||
| 1987-12-22 | Superman (NES) (スーパーマン) | Arranged Ryu Hasegawa's music. US release borrows soundtrack from Indora no Hikari. | |
| 1988-04-28 | Desert Commander (NES) (砂漠の狐) | ||
| 1988-06-27 | Sanada Juu Yuushi (FC) (真田 十勇士) | ||
| 1988-12-21 | Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (FC) (銀河英雄伝説) | ||
| 1989-09-22 | Snoopy's Silly Sports Spectacular! (NES) (ドナルドダック) | Arranged Ben Daglish's music from Alternative World Games (C64). | |
| 1988-11-22 | Déjà Vu (NES) | |
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| 1989-02-16 | The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (NES) (ロジャーラビット) | |
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| 1989-03-31 | Shadowgate (NES) (シャドウゲイト) | |
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| 1989-07-14 | Ghost Lion (NES) (ホワイトライオン伝説) | ||
| 1989-09-05 | The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle (GB) (ミッキーマウス) | Composer | |
| 1989-09-29 | Uninvited (NES) (悪魔の招待状) | |
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| 1989-12-01 | Rescue: The Embassy Mission (NES) (ホステージ) | ||
| 1989-12-28 | Sword of Hope (GB) (セレクション 選ばれし者) | ||
| 1990-02-23 | Kiteretsu Dai Hyakka (FC) (キテレツ大百科) | Sound Driver | |
| 1990-04-28 | Snoopy no Magic Show (GB) (スヌーピーのマジックショー) | ||
| 1990-08-03 | The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (NES) (ハッピーバースデーバッグス) | |
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| 1990-09-21 | North and South (NES) (ノース＆サウス わくわく南北戦争) | |
Arranged Charles Callet's music with Y. Kawakami. |
| 1990-12-01 | Ka-Blooey (SNES) (ボンバザル) | ||
| 1991-05-24 | Drakkhen (SNES) (ドラッケン) | ||
| 1991-08-09 | Dragon Wars (FC) (ドラゴン ウォーズ) | ||
| 1992-03-27 | Top Gear (SNES) (トップレーサー) | |
Instrument samples |
| 1992-05-02 | Mad Magazine's Official Spy vs. Spy (GB) (とらっぱーず天国) | ||
| 1992-08-07 | Phalanx (SNES) (ファランクス) | Sound Driver | |
| 1992-09-30 | Kid Klown in Night Mayor World (NES) (ミッキーマウスIII 夢ふうせん) | |
Sound Performer Composer of localization music? |
| 1992-11-?? | X-Zone (SNES) (エックス ゾーン) | Sound Driver | |
| 1994-09-?? | Kid Klown in Crazy Chase (SNES) | Sound Performer | |
| 1995-02-?? | Top Gear 3000 (SNES) (プラネットチャンプ ＴＧ３０００) | Sound Driver | |
| 1996-12-21 | Snoopy no Hajimete no Otsukai (GB) (スヌーピーはじめてのおつかい) | Arranger | |
| 1999-01-?? | Shadowgate Classic (GBC) (シャドウゲイトリターン) | Composer | |
| 1999-10-15 | Déjà Vu I & II: The Casebooks of Ace Harding (GBC) (ディジャヴ) | Composer of Deja Vu I's music. |
Aliases
In order to there not being enough cartridge space, Kemco obscured their employees' first names from staff rolls in their SNES games, with only the employee's first initial + last names shown (H. Masuno).
Picture Gallery
His Facebook and LinkedIn.
Left, with Toshimichi Mori.
Left, with Toshimichi Mori.
At E3 2013.
Links
- mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,164728 - MobyGames.
- jp.linkedin.com/pub/hiroyuki-masuno/20/162/475 - LinkedIn.
- twitter.com/HiroyukiMasuno - Twitter.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/6819.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese)
- www16.atwiki.jp/gmclw/pages/47.html - Japanese Gameography.
