In the world of games/ there is no character more prolific than Megaman.
You might call him Rockman/ but however you say it/ this character has appeared in more
games/ more frequently than any other game series in history!
More than Mario/ or Sonic/ or well you name it.
Megaman has them all beat.
But how did Megaman even come about?
And what makes him so popular?
In this episode we'll take a look at the birth/ development and early history of the
Blue Bomber.
So/ grab an E-can and celebrate this incoming message: Megaman is 30!
OPEN
On December 17/ 1987/ Capcom released a game known as Rockman in Japan Soon after/ this
game would come to the West as Megaman.
You wouldn't know it then/ but that one game would be the genesis for one of the best
selling series of all time.
30 years later/ the Megaman franchise has over a dozen spinoffs and over 100 games overall.
To cover all of them would be a little too crazy/ but we will take a look at how how
Megaman/ the character and the series were created and how the success of these early
games laid the foundation for what Megaman has become today.
In the early 1980s/ Capcom had established itself as a leader of the arcade game industry
in Japan/ with games like 1942 and Commando becoming big successes.
As the home game market started to open up/ after the popularity of the Nintendo Family
Computer/ Capcom brought many of these titles home.
A group of six people were given the task in early 1987 to create a unique home game/
that would set itself apart from the arcade style games that Capcom were known for.
The games development team all contributed their parts equally/ and was not a top-down
project like most games.
One of those assigned to the project was planner/ Akira Kitamura/ credited in Megaman 1 as A.K.
In an interview about the early days of Megaman/ he said "Mega Man was developed in a different/
special way.
It wasn't made according to one mastermind's whims and fancies; it was a melting pot of
ideas from different people/ and I think that also helps explain its appeal."
2011 interviewed "Rockman Maniax Collection" Translation: Shumplations.
In the same interview Kitamura AKA A.K. explains the ground rules that were layed out for Mega
Man
All the game's stages should be cleared in an hour/ and be something that players
would come back to and play all over again.
Players should choose whichever stage they liked in any order they wanted.
Single/ weak little enemies would appear in "waves" of 3 or 4 and to the extent possible/
avoid mixing up multiple enemies Enemies would all use the same attacks;
Differences in terrain and enemy placement would adjust the difficulty of each area
The difficulty of each enemy in each wave would gradually rise/ but the last enemy to
appear would be easier.
These gameplay rules were created in part to create a level of difficulty that would
go against the Conventional Wisdom that games should increase in difficulty as you get closer
to the end .
Then came time to create the playable character/ who would come to be known as Rockman or Megaman.
In the earliest stages of the development/ Kitamura had said that/ originally/ "Cut
Man was the hero.
I imagined a game where you'd use those scissors on his head to cut down enemies and
other obstacles as you progressed through the stage.
After that/ more and more Robot Masters started coming to me."
After that the idea then came to him that he should create a hero capable of using different
power-ups collected from the Robot Masters in the game.
Those weapons would then exploit different weaknesses in enemies/ borrowing from the
concept of Rock Paper Scissors.
While the first Megaman game only has 6 Robot Masters as opposed to 8 in all the rest/ there
were plans originally for 8 in the first game.
A 7th Robot Master/ Bond Man/ witch the power of Super Glue was on the drawing board/ when
the team realized that the memory size restrictions put on the game would allow only 6.
An 8th Robot Master never materialized.
An interesting programming technique was to create Megaman on screen.
His body would be one sprite and his face would be another.
The two objects would move together and it allowed for Megaman to break the hardware
limitations given for just one sprite.
It allowed for Megaman to change his color for each power up and the separate face sprite
would blink and have facial expressions.
It helped give Megaman distinct traits that made its graphics impressive in the 80s and
90s and made it age well and look great today.
Blue was chosen as the main color simply because there were more shades of blue available on
the Famicom's color palette than anything else.
Blue also doesn't look as being seen as too weak or too menacing as well.
This design and the tricks behind it were the work of Nobuyuki Matsushima (H.M.D. in
the credits).
Like many people in the early days of gaming/ he had a background in a different field than
games/ and came from the field of industrial machinery.
In that field/ one small mistake could cost lives and so Matushima's strict work ethic
of "Zero Mistakes" carried over to the programming of Megaman.
While a few bugs have been found/ the design and movements of the Megaman are precise and
flawless/ thanks to him.
Matushima also had input on how Megaman would look.
He was responsible for the idea of Megaman changing colors depending on which power up
he was using.
Part of this was inspired by 1970s Tokusatu actions shows like Ninja Captor where each
hero has a specific power which is denoted by different colored suits.
One design aspect that was left on the cutting room floor however was showing the selected
weapons icon the helmet of Megaman.
This idea is retained in enemies like Cut Man and shows up in later games with Metal
Man/ Magnet Man and Ring Man for example.
a space for the weapon in Megaman's helmet is a remnant of that idea.
Keiji Inafune/ often referred to as the "Father of MegaMan" was brought into the project
mid-development.
His duties for the first MegaMan game were to polish up the original designs of Megaman
for print and to design enemy characters/ with Yasuaki Kishimoto contributing as well.
Naoya Tomita (aka TOM-PON) named the enemies in the first game.
The music was done by Manami Matsumae.
Known as Chanchacorin.
Under Kitamura's direction she developed soundtracks based on the theme of the robot
master/ such as Elec Man stage having a pulse and Cut Man stage having a metallic drum feel
to it.
The backstory to the first Megaman game/ and the series as a whole was given serious thought
and consideration.
Rockman bears a strong similarity to the 1950-60s anime series Mighty Atom/ known in English
as Astro-Boy.
Roll was based slightly on the anime character Candy Candy.
Dr Wily was based on Albert Einstein.
And Dr. Light was designed to resemble Santa Claus.
There are news articles that pop-up from time to time that claim the first Megaman game
was to be a licensed Astro-Boy game/ but that the deal fell through and the game was changed
enough to avoid legal trouble.
The characters and robotic Sci-Fi futuristic themes look very similar.
But in a 2013 interview with Eurogamer/ Keiji Inafune refutes it.
Stating/ "people are looking at the silhouette of the character and thinking 'oh/ it's the
same/' but it's really not.
Is Astro Boy the same character as Mega Man?
I would answer no."
Jeffrey Matulef Eurogamer.
Benn Judd: Inafune's translator.
Many people don't know it/ but there was an Astro Boy game released in February 1988 by
Konami/ so a licensed Astro Boy game made at this time did actually see release.
It would be remiss if I didn't mention that Astro Boy is heavily influenced on the classic
tale of Pinocchio.
And all three/ Megaman/ Astro Boy and Pinocchio are about an elderly man building a young
boy then embarks on an adventure.
Character profiles for these characters were developed/ even if they never made on screen
in the game until much later.
Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert W. Wily met at the Robot Institute of Technology.
After Dr. Light beat out Dr. Wily for a Nobel Prize in Physics/ Dr. Wily ended their friendship
and disappeared.
Dr. Light began to develop and build advanced robots for different uses including Rock/
as a lab assistant/ and Roll as a housekeeping robot.
After several more robots were built/ Dr. Wily reappeared/ stole many of Dr. Light's
robots and reprogrammed them/ making them use their special abilities to cause havoc.
In order to stop them Rock volunteered to become upgraded into Rockman and save the
world.
All of these elements came together over the course of 1987 and as the year came to a close
the game was finishing up and being readied for a release.
On December 17/ 1987/ Rockman was released for the Nintendo Family Computer in Japan.
The game was loved by people who had played it/ but the sales were not at the level of
a best-seller.
Kitamura addressed this by saying "One of the weaknesses of Mega Man was that it didn't
have a lot of shelf appeal.
You wouldn't know it was fun until one actually played it."
He's right/ as a game with no history of being in the arcade/ with gameplay styles
not used before and competing for sales with other best selling titles of that time/ Rockman
was left somewhere in the middle.
Not a bomb but not a hit.
However.
it was successful enough for Capcom to allow the game to go to America.
When we come back/ Rockman goes stateside/ gets a new name and work on a sequel gets
underway.
BREAK!
Even though in 1987 it was common place for a game from in Japan to be released much later
on in America/ the wait for Megaman stateside/ was actually quite fast.
After the initial manufacturing order of Rockman sold out/ plans were quickly put in motion
to bring the game stateside.
One thing that helped was that no translation was needed in game/ leaving Capcom USA the
duty of localizing the game's manual and artwork.
A product had already existed with the Rock Man trademark in the US.
The Rockman headphone amplifier was released in 1981.
SR&D/ maker of the Rockman amp owned the rights to use the name Rockman.
Its a great coincidence that the Rock Man amp using the same color as Megaman's body
The decision to use the term MEGA/ to illustrate the power of the character/ as well as the
catchiness of the name then ensured that the name Rockman stay in Japan forever.
Capcom's then-Senior Vice President Joseph Marici/ created the name Mega Man saying as
a title/ Rockman "was horrible.
So I came up with Mega Man/ and they liked it enough to keep using it for the U.S. games."
Megaman was released soon after the Japanese Rockman/ and was also well received by gamers.
However/ while the game was liked and selling moderately in Japan and the US/ Capcom had
no imminent plans for a follow up.
The original team of 6 were upset to hear the news/ as they had always expected Megaman
to become a full series.
In his 2011 interview/ Kitamura said he had always planned from the start for Megaman
to become a long running series.
He said/ "I knew right away that this would become a series.
The gameplay system was really well done/ and I felt that it would be easy for another
developer or team could make a sequel and keep that high level of quality."
The team begged the management at Capcom to commission a sequel/ and they did allow it/
though under the condition that it be done alongside other existing projects.
That meant while the rest of Capcom's 1988 and 89 linueup were being were being made/
Megaman 2 would be developed in the team's free time.
Keiji Inafune commented in 2004 about the making of the game: "we worked really/ really
hard/ you know/ just 20-hour days to complete this/ because we were making something we
wanted to make.
… that was the best time of my working at Capcom/ because we were actually working toward
a goal/ we were laying it all on the line/ we were doing what we wanted to do.
And it really showed in the game/ we put all our time and effort and love/ into it."
Play Magazine 2004
Keiji Inafune would take on a larger role for Megaman 2 and also mentor new staff members
coming into the project and drove the direction of the series from then on.
While Kitamura was still on board/ he had envisioned a darker tone with Mega Man as
a darker and tragic character.
Inafune instead turned the sequel into a brighter and anime themed game.
In addition to the team having to create the game on the side/ they had a very short time
to get it done.
The development time was less than four months.
Many elects from the first game were quickly reused.
One of the things that became a staple of the series/ Capcom accepted designs for the
8 boss enemies in the game.
In the end over 8/000 designs had been sent in/ with Inafune tweaking the designs to his
liking.
It was a nice way to connect with fans/ and very likely/ saved a lot of time as well.
One thing that was also added were a few Easter eggs that would give the game some free press/
crucial for a game series on the bubble.
Metal Man taking two hits of his own weapon to be defeated and holding start and select
to turn the flying stars into birds were ways to get the game put in magazines and increase
word of mouth advertising.
Rockman 2: Wily no Nazo (Dr. Wily's Mystery) was released for the Nintendo Family Computer
on December 24/ 1988.
The game was a success/ and the team's hard work had been validated.
The game was sent overseas to America as MegaMan 2 and was released in June 1989/ and Europe
in early 1990.
By then/ the American market had expanded greatly.
The game graced the cover of Nintendo Power and had a multi page spread.
Electronic Gaming Monthly and others had given the game positive reviews.
Fans of the original game quickly picked it up.
Newcomers were greeted with an amazing game that had them wondering/ "if this game is
so great/ wheres part 1?"
In the end/ Megaman 2 had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
Capcom had no choice but to fully embrace the series.
Plans were put in motion for Rockman 3.
This time with a team fully devoted to the game and ample time to make the best game
possible.
Kitamura would part ways with Capcom before the development on Rockman 3.
Keiji Inafune was put fully in charge and ran the series for the next 20 years.
When we come back/ the series expands farther than anyone ever imagined and Mega Man comes
alive in the present day.
BREAK
On September 28/ 1990/ Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo?!
(The end of Dr. Wily?!) was released in Japan.
Released later in 1990 in America and in 1992 in Europe as simply Megaman 3.
Rockman 3 came to establish the character Blues/ known as Protoman in the West and Rush/
Megaman's loyal sidekick.
Much of the backstory that was previously only mentioned in game manuals was also filled
in and made complete.
The game was backed with a full promotional campaign and received positive reviews just
as Megaman 2 had.
Wether 2 or 3 is the better game/ is for you to decide!
From then on/ Megaman would be a permanent fixture in the gaming world/ and still is
to this day.
Three more games would be released for the Family Computer and NES as Megaman 4/5 and
6.
The series expanded to the game boy with Dr. Willy's revenge in 1991. four sequels would
follow
Megaman would go 16 bit in the spin-off X series/ set about a century after the original
series.
The mainline series would also continue on in Megaman 7 and 8.
Megaman would go 3D for the first time in Megaman Legends for the PlayStation.
There were other unique attempts to adapt Megaman to other games such as Megaman Soccer
and Rockboard.
Anime series/ action figures/ clothes/ food and a ton of other goods would follow as the
game series just kept on rolling/ expanding to different storylines and hardware as time
went on.
The mainline series would be revived after going dark for over a decade/ when in 2008/
to the surprise of everyone/ Megaman 9 was announced as a throwback title/ embracing
the original 8-bit style of the first 6 games/ and especially recreating the gameplay and
difficulty of Megaman 2p..
A sequel would follow in 2010.
With a total of ten numbered titles/ Megaman hold the record for the highest numbered platform
game series ever.
The original series and especially the first Megaman game would go on to be remade and
rereleased and since The Wily Wars/ has been available on every mainstream piece of hardware
since.
In fact there are soooo many games across sooo many series/ Only the most die hard fan
would be able to name them all.
To close out this video/ Here's a list of all of them set to/ probably everyone's
favorite Megaman stage music.
I hope you've enjoyed this video celebrating 30 years of Megaman.
I only hope we can get another 130 or so Blue Bomber games between now and 2047.
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