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HAL Laboratory: Difference between revisions
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==History== | ==History== | ||
[[File:MSX Magazine 0 Iwata Ikeda photo.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Satoru Iwata (left) and Mikio Ikeda, photographed for issue 0 of ''MSX Magazine''. After HAL Laboratory spun off its non-Nintendo business into HAL Corporation, Iwata and Ikeda would head the two separated entities.]] | [[File:MSX Magazine 0 Iwata Ikeda photo.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Satoru Iwata (left) and Mikio Ikeda, photographed for issue 0 of ''MSX Magazine''. After HAL Laboratory spun off its non-Nintendo business into HAL Corporation, Iwata and Ikeda would head the two separated entities.]] | ||
===1980-1992, before ''Kirby''=== | |||
HAL Laboratory got its start in 1980 developing peripherals and games for personal computers, creating modest hits such as the ''[[wikipedia:Eggerland (series)|Eggerland]]'' series for the MSX. Starting in 1984, they would begin developing for Nintendo's hardware, collaborating on ''[[wikipedia:Pinball (1984 video game)|NES Pinball]]''<ref>[https://www.nsidr.com/archive/hal-laboratory-company-profile/2 HAL Laboratory: Company Profile - nsidr]</ref> and porting its ''Eggerland'' games to their consoles along with original titles such as ''Revenge of the 'Gator'' and ''New Ghostbusters II''. | HAL Laboratory got its start in 1980 developing peripherals and games for personal computers, creating modest hits such as the ''[[wikipedia:Eggerland (series)|Eggerland]]'' series for the MSX. Starting in 1984, they would begin developing for Nintendo's hardware, collaborating on ''[[wikipedia:Pinball (1984 video game)|NES Pinball]]''<ref>[https://www.nsidr.com/archive/hal-laboratory-company-profile/2 HAL Laboratory: Company Profile - nsidr]</ref> and porting its ''Eggerland'' games to their consoles along with original titles such as ''Revenge of the 'Gator'' and ''New Ghostbusters II''. | ||
However, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy by 1992, a typical victim of the [[wikipedia:Japanese asset price bubble|disastrous aftermath of the Japanese asset price bubble]] (an event so singular that Japanese media simply refer to it as [[wikipedia:ja:バブル崩壊|バブル崩壊]] or "''the bubble collapse''"). A legendary figure in this period of hardship was ''[[wikipedia:Metal Slader Glory|Metal Slader Glory]]'', a costly and elaborate adventure game that took somewhere between four and six years to develop.<ref name="shmuplations_msg">[https://shmuplations.com/metalsladerglory/ Metal Slader Glory – Developer Interview Collection], Peter Barnard's translation of two interviews with ''Metal Slader Glory'' director Yoshimiru Hoshi</ref><ref name="hobonichi_sakurai">[https://www.1101.com/about_iwatasan/sakurai/2020-01-30.html Shigesato Itoi's interview with Masahiro Sakurai about Satoru Iwata]</ref> The early days of this long development cycle happened to coincide with the heights of the bubble boom while the game would only be finished in time to release as the bubble was about to burst. Although the game's director would claim that the game was successful enough for the initial (and only) production run to quickly sell out,<ref name="shmuplations_msg"/> ''Glory'' was a focal point for HAL Laboratory's internal disarray, with Masahiro Sakurai recalling overhearing a furious Satoru Iwata in management discussions about how the company could possibly recoup ''Glory'''s development costs.<ref name="hobonichi_sakurai"/> While Iwata would later describe ''Glory'' as a mistake (「間違い」) strictly from a management perspective, he also recalled a larger vicious cycle at HAL Laboratory of pushing unsatisfactory games to release to recoup development costs, only for this to result in poor reception and sales that put further pressure on subsequent games to recoup costs.<ref name="shmuplations_iwata"/> | However, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy by 1992, a typical victim of the [[wikipedia:Japanese asset price bubble|disastrous aftermath of the Japanese asset price bubble]] (an event so singular that Japanese media simply refer to it as [[wikipedia:ja:バブル崩壊|バブル崩壊]] or "''the bubble collapse''"). A legendary figure in this period of hardship was ''[[wikipedia:Metal Slader Glory|Metal Slader Glory]]'', a costly and elaborate adventure game that took somewhere between four and six years to develop.<ref name="shmuplations_msg">[https://shmuplations.com/metalsladerglory/ Metal Slader Glory – Developer Interview Collection], Peter Barnard's translation of two interviews with ''Metal Slader Glory'' director Yoshimiru Hoshi</ref><ref name="hobonichi_sakurai">[https://www.1101.com/about_iwatasan/sakurai/2020-01-30.html Shigesato Itoi's interview with Masahiro Sakurai about Satoru Iwata]</ref> The early days of this long development cycle happened to coincide with the heights of the bubble boom while the game would only be finished in time to release as the bubble was about to burst. Although the game's director would claim that the game was successful enough for the initial (and only) production run to quickly sell out,<ref name="shmuplations_msg"/> ''Glory'' was a focal point for HAL Laboratory's internal disarray, with Masahiro Sakurai recalling overhearing a furious Satoru Iwata in management discussions about how the company could possibly recoup ''Glory'''s development costs.<ref name="hobonichi_sakurai"/> While Iwata would later describe ''Glory'' as a mistake (「間違い」) strictly from a management perspective, he also recalled a larger vicious cycle at HAL Laboratory of pushing unsatisfactory games to release to recoup development costs, only for this to result in poor reception and sales that put further pressure on subsequent games to recoup costs.<ref name="shmuplations_iwata"/> | ||
It was against this background of financial difficulty and management conflicts that Sakurai was developing a beginner-friendly platforming game called ''Twinkle☆Popo'', which Nintendo would then offer to market and publish once the game was reborn as ''Kirby's Dream Land''. On a larger scale, Nintendo would help HAL Laboratory repay its ¥1.5 billion debt on the condition that Iwata was appointed as President of HAL Laboratory. Nintendo was already familiar with Iwata, who had driven HAL's entry into Famicom game development, and his leadership and Nintendo's investment (including into the sales and marketing of HAL's games) would see HAL Laboratory focus on breaking the vicious cycle that led to the company's financial hardship.<ref name="shmuplations_iwata">Interview with Satoru Iwata in [https://retrocdn.net/images/3/33/UsedGames_JP_12.pdf ''Used Games'' magazine, volume 12 (1999 autumn)] ([https://shmuplations.com/iwata/ shmuplations.com translation])</ref> | ===1992-present, with ''Kirby''=== | ||
It was against this background of financial difficulty and management conflicts that Sakurai was developing a beginner-friendly platforming game called ''Twinkle☆Popo'', which Nintendo would then offer to market and publish once the game was reborn as ''Kirby's Dream Land''.<ref>{{cite person|quote=あのタイトルでゲームボーイのソフトとして出す予定でしたが、「もったいない」と宮本茂さんがおっしゃって、調整して、任天堂発売の『星のカービィ』に変わるんですね。" Translation: "We were going to release it under that title, but then Shigeru Miyamoto-san said 'mottainai' ''['it would be a shame', or even 'what a waste' in its most direct use]'', so we tuned it up and changed it into the Nintendo-published Kirby of the Stars [Kirby's Dream Land].|name=[[Satoru Iwata]]|url=https://www.1101.com/president/iwata07.html|title=ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞 - 社長に学べ！}}</ref> On a larger scale, Nintendo would help HAL Laboratory repay its ¥1.5 billion debt on the condition that Iwata was appointed as President of HAL Laboratory. Nintendo was already familiar with Iwata, who had driven HAL's entry into Famicom game development, and his leadership and Nintendo's investment (including into the sales and marketing of HAL's games) would see HAL Laboratory focus on breaking the vicious cycle that led to the company's financial hardship.<ref name="shmuplations_iwata">Interview with Satoru Iwata in [https://retrocdn.net/images/3/33/UsedGames_JP_12.pdf ''Used Games'' magazine, volume 12 (1999 autumn)] ([https://shmuplations.com/iwata/ shmuplations.com translation])</ref> | |||
A part of the original company split off in 1992 to become HAL Corporation,<ref name="halcorp_corpinf">[http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060624/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Company/ 株式会社ハル・コーポレーション会社概要] (Wayback Machine snapshot from 1998; note in particular the date of establishment, 設立 : １９９２年８月３日)</ref> which would continue previous work on non-Nintendo products, such as new entries to the ''Eggerland'' series for [[wikipedia:Microsoft Windows|Windows]] computers,<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20020219085405/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/soft/newegg/index.htm HAL Corporation page for 「復活！エッガーランド」]; the company also featured artwork of [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060611im_/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Items/Amusment/EggerLand/Images/infololo.gif Lolo] and [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060556im_/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Items/Amusment/EggerLand/Images/rara.gif Lala] on [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060459/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/ its website]</ref> and updated versions of the 1990 Good Design Award-winning Crossam 2 universal remote.<ref>A press release about the Crossam 2 Plus, circulated to publications like [https://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/328/328627/ ASCII] and [https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20020117/hal.htm AV Watch], would be one of the final pieces of news from HAL Corporation.</ref> This entity appears to have gone defunct sometime in 2002.<ref>[http://fryguy64.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=classic&thread=3972 To what extent is HAL Laboratory "Nintendo"? | NinDB Boards Jun 26, 2011]</ref><ref>While no official source exists to confirm the timing of HAL Corporation's demise, both [[wikipedia:ja:エッガーランド#シリーズの歴史|the Japanese Wikipedia page on the ''Eggerland'' series]] and [https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/27616.html Aniwota Wiki's entry on HAL Laboratory] suggest that the company dissolved in 2002, supported by the company's website becoming inaccessible beyond March of 2002 ([http://web.archive.org/web/20020311000000*/http://www.halcorp.co.jp:80/download/index.htm example]).</ref> | A part of the original company split off in 1992 to become HAL Corporation,<ref name="halcorp_corpinf">[http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060624/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Company/ 株式会社ハル・コーポレーション会社概要] (Wayback Machine snapshot from 1998; note in particular the date of establishment, 設立 : １９９２年８月３日)</ref> which would continue previous work on non-Nintendo products, such as new entries to the ''Eggerland'' series for [[wikipedia:Microsoft Windows|Windows]] computers,<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20020219085405/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/soft/newegg/index.htm HAL Corporation page for 「復活！エッガーランド」]; the company also featured artwork of [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060611im_/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Items/Amusment/EggerLand/Images/infololo.gif Lolo] and [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060556im_/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/Items/Amusment/EggerLand/Images/rara.gif Lala] on [http://web.archive.org/web/19980629060459/http://www.halcorp.co.jp/ its website]</ref> and updated versions of the 1990 Good Design Award-winning Crossam 2 universal remote.<ref>A press release about the Crossam 2 Plus, circulated to publications like [https://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/328/328627/ ASCII] and [https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20020117/hal.htm AV Watch], would be one of the final pieces of news from HAL Corporation.</ref> This entity appears to have gone defunct sometime in 2002.<ref>[http://fryguy64.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=classic&thread=3972 To what extent is HAL Laboratory "Nintendo"? | NinDB Boards Jun 26, 2011]</ref><ref>While no official source exists to confirm the timing of HAL Corporation's demise, both [[wikipedia:ja:エッガーランド#シリーズの歴史|the Japanese Wikipedia page on the ''Eggerland'' series]] and [https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/pages/27616.html Aniwota Wiki's entry on HAL Laboratory] suggest that the company dissolved in 2002, supported by the company's website becoming inaccessible beyond March of 2002 ([http://web.archive.org/web/20020311000000*/http://www.halcorp.co.jp:80/download/index.htm example]).</ref> | ||
