Thank you, Mario! That was killing me. Yeah, they used a different reading of the 'moto' kanji for the name. Which is weird.
I had always heard that game companies didn't want to credit their designers identifiably, out of fear that other companies would hire them away. Except for... Electronic Arts, who made a big deal of promoting their designers.
Apple Computer still does that. They even forced other companies that made recently-released iPod games (including Electronic Arts) to omit game credits.
!!!!!!!!!, you win 4/5 for the first few. I read one of his books a few years ago when researching a paper on video games, individuality, and Japan.
Mario and !!!!!!!!!, you each win one half point for #4. He was credited as Miyahon. The second character of his name is 本, which is normally read as moto in names. It was changed to hon as a security measure. This kept rival game companies from trying to steal people.
Of course, any Japanese person could probably see through that, but hey, Miyamoto stayed with Nintendo, so it must have worked.
Edit: Although, the shortage of space to fit the entire romanization of Japanese names could be a good reason too. I hadn't heard of that one. That would certainly make sense.
Apple Computer still does that. They even forced other companies that made recently-released iPod games (including Electronic Arts) to omit game credits.
Apple Computer still does that. They even forced other companies that made recently-released iPod games (including Electronic Arts) to omit game credits.
... What? Sure, game credits can be annoying in games like Star Fox Command where you have to sit through them every time you win and you have to win multiple times to really complete the game, but to omit the credits altogether?! That's assinine. Just make it so you can skip the credits.
Comments
I had always heard that game companies didn't want to credit their designers identifiably, out of fear that other companies would hire them away. Except for... Electronic Arts, who made a big deal of promoting their designers.
Atari was big on not crediting programmers. That's how we got the first easter egg in a video game.
Mario and !!!!!!!!!, you each win one half point for #4. He was credited as Miyahon. The second character of his name is 本, which is normally read as moto in names. It was changed to hon as a security measure. This kept rival game companies from trying to steal people.
Of course, any Japanese person could probably see through that, but hey, Miyamoto stayed with Nintendo, so it must have worked.
Edit: Although, the shortage of space to fit the entire romanization of Japanese names could be a good reason too. I hadn't heard of that one. That would certainly make sense.
That's also part of why a bunch of Atari designers left and joined Activision!
... What? Sure, game credits can be annoying in games like Star Fox Command where you have to sit through them every time you win and you have to win multiple times to really complete the game, but to omit the credits altogether?! That's assinine. Just make it so you can skip the credits.