Michael Jackson has traveled to Japan many times during his lifetime. In addition to visiting Tokyo Disneyland every time, he has another fixed itinerary, which is to spend half a day visiting Sega .
In 2009, Michael Jackson (hereinafter referred to as MJ)'s long and sudden death undoubtedly brought incalculable losses to the entire world. As a symbol of contemporary popular culture, MJ's influence is by no means limited to the field of music. Therefore, his death has also prompted future generations to go back to his career and try to sort out the context of his shaping of popular culture.
Visiting Sega's MJ
MJ, who is already fond of video games, has also attracted attention in its influence on the game industry. Among them, the well-known Japanese game manufacturer Sega can be said to have played an important role. In the last 20 years of life, the close communication between MJ and Sega created many classics that players can't forget, and the closeness between the two parties on the emotional level has also created an industry story. From acquaintance to acquaintance
until the relocation of the entire group in 2018, the office of Sega’s main development department has been located across the water from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for many years, and the name of the nearest station is "Otorii" "It has always been an industry idiom used by industry peers to refer to Sega itself.
In the late 1980s, Sega's First Research and Development Department, located in Hall 2 of the "Otorii", became famous for its 500 billion yen annual revenue of arcade games and somatosensory amusement facilities, and its business reached North America. . At that time, Sega’s powerful technical skills and game expressiveness were even impressed by popular king Michael Jackson. When he visited Sega’s amusement facilities, he took the initiative to make Sega use himself as the protagonist. game. This proposal directly contributed to the later "Michael Jackson's Moon Walker" was born.
"Michael Jackson's Moon Walker" (MD, 1990)
Although both are based on the music film "Moon Walker" starring MJ, the game of the same name has three distinct versions. In addition to a top-view action game on the PC platform developed by a British manufacturer earlier, the other two were designed and produced by Sega. They are divided into MD and arcade versions and are developed by two teams at the same time. Perhaps it was because Sega was pushing the 16BIT host Mega Driver, and all its elites devoted themselves to the development of the MD version. As a result, the arcade version was actually in charge of a new employee, Tsurumi 600.
In the words of this former Sega employee, the arcade department that made a lot of money at that time can fully afford the loss of development failure, so this arcade game is like a trial and error project to make way for the MD version. Can be discarded. However, this situation has changed a little as MJ himself "joined" the development of the game.
Tsurumi six hundred. The picture shows him introducing to the media during an interview that MJ visited Sega and participated in game development in 1989. MJ came to Otorii in 1989, and it was Tsurumi 600 who received him. During the visit, MJ put forward many amendments to the development members of the arcade version. He expressed his hope that this game can be loved by children with better quality. Its subsequent actions also proved the sincerity of his wishes. Soon after MJ returned to China, Tsurumi received a fax from Sega North America, with the beginning of the letter: "Mr.Jackson says……"
includes many subsequent faxes, the content is what MJ wants to achieve in the game Imagine, for example, try to avoid actions that hurt people, or make the bullet marks of machine guns line up in an M shape on the wall, and so on. At the same time, the game architecture and content design of the arcade version also need to be conveyed by Sega North America to obtain his approval. Although the development of the MD version also claims to have MJ's participation, from the promotional copy of Sega that year, MJ may not be exposed to the game DEMO until the eve of the release. Therefore, this arcade version may have more of his personal expectations. .
"Michael Jackson's Moon Walker" (Arcade, 1990)
in MJUnder the supervision of Tsurumi, under pressure, Tsurumi and his temporary newcomer team finally completed the development work successfully. Not only that, this unexpected game development experience also made the relationship between MJ and Sega quickly approached and became familiar with each other, and visiting Sega became his regular itinerary every time he came to Japan. Sega employees once jokingly called MJ "the real person in charge of Sega North America", which shows the frequent exchanges between the two parties.
from front to behind the scenes
MJ's emphasis on the arcade version of "Moonwalker" has largely conveyed his preference for arcade frames and even large-scale amusement facilities. An obvious fact is that every time he visits Sega, he has to personally experience the latest arcade games. In the early 1990s, when Tsurumi 600 was in charge of receiving MJ for the second time, he sat at the table with him and experienced the arcade game "Star Wars" which was still in development.
The 90s was also a period when Sega devoted all its efforts to somatosensory amusement equipment. Although in terms of results, in the first VR boom at the time, even the Nintendo Virtual Boy handled by Yokoi Junpei would inevitably be the victim of technical trial and error, but with the strong economic strength of the arcade industry as the support, Sega was very supportive of its new development. "AS-1", a large-scale amusement equipment incorporating VR, is confident. Moreover, Sega at the time still held the trump card of MJ.
AS-1
The picture shows MJ’s promo film for AS-1
AS-1 is a large-scale somatosensory device that can accommodate 8 people at the same time. One of its games is "Michael Jackson's Flight Training (Michael Jackson&39;s Scramble) Training)", equipped with VR glasses and joysticks to simulate flight and shooting training in space. At that time, MJ not only filmed the promotional video for Sega, but also played the role of "commander" in the game screen that players watched through VR glasses to provide players with game guidance.
In the subsequent AS-1 game "Megalopolis 2154 (Megalopolis 2154)", MJ appeared again, but the rapid decline of the VR boom itself made this work not really public.
MJ
in the filming gap of "Metropolis 2154" In addition to the above two games, MJ did not appear more in Sega's works of the same period; instead, he chose to use another form of "assisting" his favorite game company. This will mention Sega’s signature role- Sonic .
Sonic was born in 1990 and, like his "dead rival" Mario, is very biased towards the North American market in design. On this basis, Sega’s friendship with MJ may also be directly reflected in the design elements: According to its designer Naoto Oshima, Sonic’s shoes are actually derived from MJ’s music video "BAD". The pair of shoes worn. When MJ came to Sega in 1993, he left a precious photo with Sonic, which was also solemnly included in Sonic's chronology. The more well-known association between
MJ and Sonic
MJ and Sonic is a "rumor" that has been popular in North America for many years, saying that MJ had personally participated in the music production of "Sonic 3" released in 1994. This rumor was not confirmed until 2009 from the game music composer Brad Buxer. According to him, he and MJ used "Stranger In Moscow" as the blueprint for the game's ending song.
"Sonic 3" (MD, 1994)
Although the speculation in this rumor about whether MJ also produced other sound effects is still difficult to confirm, according to the memory of Sakazaki Nina Mayumi, who has been his popular consultant during his time in Japan, MJ She has always maintained close cooperation with "a certain manufacturer", and her interactions are recorded in the book "The Memories of Michael Jackson" written by her. This undoubtedly confirms what MJ did for Sega behind the scenes.
From company to individual
During his visit to Sega, Kuji Suzuki, who was in charge of reception many times, left a very deep impression on MJ. Suzuki, who was the managing director of Sega at the time and the head of the development department at the time, was regarded as one of theA trustworthy and respectable boss, and his unique attitude of dealing with others also won the favor of MJ.
MJ and Suzuki Kuji
It is said that Suzuki never mentioned any music-related topics in front of MJ. He even said, "I am neither a fan of yours nor your signature". Faced with this frankness, MJ, who needs to wear a "star mask" at all times, can finally relax his guard to accept this friend from a foreign country; and the two people who have been personally acquainted with Nitto have gradually exceeded corporate affairs. Category.
Since 1993, MJ has repeatedly invited Suzuki to his mansion "Never Land". Later, much discussed by countless players, MJ's surprise debut in "Space Channel 5" was caused by Suzuki's visit to Never Land.
"Space Channel 5" (DC, 1999)
At the end of 1999, the producer of "Space Channel 5" Mizuguchi Tetsu also suddenly received a contact from Kuji Suzuki who was in the United States at the time. On the other side of the phone, Suzuki said abruptly, "Michael" was very interested after watching the game DEMO and wanted his image to appear in the game. Hearing this, Mizumi pondered for a long time, but he didn't think of who this "Michael" was. What made him even more troublesome was that the development of this game was already nearing completion (the game was released on December 16, 1999. ), adding new characters at this time is tantamount to a major blow to the entire project.
As players later saw in "Space Channel 5", one of the NPCs in the game was replaced with MJ. In fact, this was a temporary "prevarication" plan that Shuikou came up with at the time. He thought that this kind of trivial cameo would be rejected directly. Unexpectedly, MJ readily agreed and took the trouble to record the dubbing of the character twice to achieve better results.
MJ (right) who appeared in "Space Channel 5"
's positive attitude and good relationship with Sega made MJ officially debut in the sequel. In "Space Channel 5 Part2" which came out in 2002, "Space Michael" became an important role second only to the heroine Ullala. In this work, the 3DCG-like MJ, a large number of classic dance moves, and his iconic voice left a profound impression on the players at the time, so much so that even today, people still feel: "MJ is not dead, he Just went to Space Channel 5." In the sequel "Space Channel 5 Part2" of
, MJ has become one of the important characters enough to be on the cover. This highlights the popular king’s love for video games. Although his own footprint in the game industry is scattered like stars, but for those fans who are both players, what is mentioned in the article is already a commendable gift. Therefore, his many-year friendship with Sega is even more precious.
Never Land
Now, it has been 30 years since Sega launched "Moon Walker", and "Space Channel 5" has already become a work several generations ago. However, the image of MJ in these games is intertwined in his many years of love with Sega, just like his music and stage performances, it has never faded.
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