Micronics

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Micronics
NoLogo.png
Founded 198?
Headquarters Japan
Other Names Khaos

Micronics (マイクロニクス Maikuronikusu) was an infamous Japanese game developer that developed mostly Nintendo games. The company was notorious for their poor quality video games which were ridden with bugs, glitches, and overall egregious gameplay. It has been rumored that the company was founded by a Japanese college student and while he wanted to create his own games, most of them were only ports and he never tested the games. Much like Tose, they didn't credit themselves in most of their games.

While the company is not known outside Japan, they developed the NES version of Ghosts 'N Goblins for the NES, as well as the NES adaptation of Thundercade. They have also produced some obscure titles like '89 Dennou Kyusei Uranai. A man by the name of Kazuo (Kazzo) Yagi was the main programmer for their games during the NES era.

Fortunately, the company made a wise choice in the audio department and hired professional musicians to compose music for their games such as Tsugutoshi Goto, Kimio Nomura, and Joe Hisaishi. Unfortunately, the sound programmers did not do such a great job with the NES' sound chip.

The company started to develop SNES games, again uncredited. However, some of their games credited Khaos in the ROM, which is believed to have been Micronics's name while developing SNES games.

Games

Note: Micronics was not a publisher.

Audio Development

It would appear that the composers would write their songs on sheet music paper and sent it to the company. The music was then coded in an unknown format by the programmers, possibly by Kazuo Yagi.

Genesis

Atomic Robo-Kid uses the banked Z80 version of SMPS precursor. The game has no credits, so it is unknown who programmed the sound driver. However, the game F1 Circus '91 MD gives credit to Kazuo Yagi, a game which uses the standard Z80 version of SMPS.

Super Volleyball had its audio outsourced to Video System's Naoki Itamura and Kenji Okuda, using a custom sound driver, possibly by Yagi.

NES

Micronics had a few different sound drivers.

Zoids credits a "K. Sasaki" for music data, which suggests he was the music arranger, but he may have also contributed the sound driver as well. Otherwise, it was likely programmed by Kazuo Yagi.

The Japanese release of Twin Cobra credits Takahiko Nagaya for sound. This was his only audio credit, as Nagaya was usually credited as a programmer, suggesting he may have programmed the game's sound driver.

'89 Dennou Kyuusei Uranai, Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 3, Mottomo Abunai Deka and Zoids 2: Zenebasu no Gyakushuu use a shared sound driver, presumably by Kazuo Yagi, as the latter two games credit him as programmer. This driver originally used dull square waves, but an updated version was later made which used custom instruments. This later version was used in games such as Daiku no Gen-san 2 and Bloody Warriors. This sound driver is tuned at approximately A=445Hz.

Ghosts 'n Goblins is thought to use a sound driver by Yagi as well. However, Capcom's Harumi Fujita told the VGMPF that the driver was programmed by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi. This driver is different from the iconic-sounding driver Sakaguchi programmed for Capcom.

SNES

For the Micronics games, the company outsourced audio to Copya System. These games use Copya's SOSDRV sound driver. For the Khaos games, they outsourced the audio to various developers.

Audio Personnel

These composers either worked at Micronics itself or a developer/publisher affiliated with the company:

Links

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