Advance Communication Company
| Advance Communication Company | |
 |
|
| Founded | ca. 1988 |
| Closed | ca. 1993 |
| Headquarters | 2-22-18 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107 Fukuyoshicho Annex 401 , Japan |
| Other Names | ＡＣＣ |
Advance Communication Company (アドバンスコミュニケーション株式会社, also known as just Advance Communication) was a Japanese game developer which was founded by Takahisa Takezaki. The company developed a good deal of games mostly on the Nintendo Entertainment System. They are known for developing games that had been received poorly by critics, including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (NES) and Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (TG16). However, ACC has also developed several titles received favorably by critics such as the NES and SNES adaptations of the Ys and Sansara Naga series. However, most of these games only ever saw release in Japan. The company also ported games to consoles, such as Last Armageddon and Tiger Road. In addition, the company was also known for having developers contract them for sound (titles such as Jack Nicklaus Turbo Golf (TG16) and Oishinbo (FC)). They would usually work with publishers Toho, Bandai, Takara, and Victor Musical Industries.
The company developed games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and TurboGrafx-16. They also did sound for one Mega Drive title, and developed one game for the MSX2 and Game Boy. It is possible the company may have developed more titles on some of these consoles, but since their name doesn't appear in-game, and most of these games lack the polish of staff credits, it's hard to confirm. Sometimes, they are credited in the instruction manuals as their abbreviated name.
In addition, some of their games that have credits, give credit to composers who only received credit once or twice, so it's hard to know if said composers were contractors, or in-house.
Advance Communication developed their last known game in 1993 and closed their doors at an unknown date. Some ACC staff would leave to work at AIM.
Contents
Games
Audio Development
Genesis
The company's two Mega Drive games used a custom sound driver.
NES
In Moeru! Oniisan, Sound Routine No. 4 is credited. This is most likely what the composers used. The code for the driver is based on Michiharu's sound driver, which in turn is based on the code used in Yoshiaki Inose's sound driver.
Some games using the sound driver are tuned to approximately A=450Hz. The frequency registers are exactly the same as some early Hudson Soft TurboGrafx-16 games such as China Warrior (TG16), J.J. & Jeff (TG16), Shanghai (PCE), and Victory Run (TG16). It is believed Advance Communication got this from Hudson, as the two companies had worked on the TurboGrafx-16 launch title Keith Courage in Alpha Zones (TG16) which also shares the same frequency registers, as well as the game Seirei Gari (FC). For the games that use normal tuning, the developers did not take into account to change the lowest octave, and so the lowest A, A#, and B notes are still tuned to A=450Hz.
The music was most likely written in 6502 assembly, as Michiharu said this was the method he used in the previous drivers, and the sound code also seems to support this.
SNES
Advance Communication used a couple different sound drivers for their SNES development. The first known driver is a variant of Nintendo's Kankichi-kun sound driver. Ys III: Wanderers from Ys appears to use the Standard version of the driver, while the rest of ACC's games appears use their own unique build.
Ys IV: Mask of the Sun had its audio outsourced to Cube.
TG16
A sound driver was created by an unknown programmer. The music was most likely written in HuC6280/65C02 assembly machine code, similar to ACC's NES music. The first game to use it, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones was tuned to approximately A=450Hz, similar to their NES music. The rest of the games use standard tuning.
Audio Personnel
The following composers worked at Advance Communication Company:
- Asei Kobayashi (Contractor from Astro Music; scored Niji no Silkroad: Zigzag Boukenki (FC))
- Hiroyasu Nishiyama (Contractor? 1990; scored Kattobi! Takuhai-kun (PCE) and Last Armageddon (FC))
- Junko Yokoyama (Contractor? 1990-1992)
- Kenji Kawai (Contractor from Victor Musical Industries; scored Sansara Naga (FC) and Sansara Naga 2 (SFC))
- Kunihiro Someya (Contractor? Composer for Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (SFC))
- Masaaki Harada (Main in-house composer 1988-1992)
- Masanori Hikichi (Contractor from Cube)
- Masumi Takimoto (Contractor from Cube)
- Michiharu Hasuya (Main in-house composer 1987-1994)
- Miyoko Takaoka (Contractor from Cube)
- Nobuhito Nakayama (Contractor? 1989-1990)
- Osamu Kasai (Main in-house composer 1988-1992)
- Ryoko Kihara (Contractor; arranged Asei Kobayashi's music in Niji no Silkroad: Zigzag Boukenki (FC))
- Shigeo Kihara (Contractor from Astro Music; music director for Niji no Silkroad: Zigzag Boukenki (FC))
- Shinji Nakayama (Contractor from Victor Musical Industries? 1990)
- Takashi Tsurutani (Composer; 1991-1992)
- Tomohiro Endo (Contractor from Cube)
- Yoshiaki Kubotera (Contractor from Cube)
Image Gallery
Logo from Osamu Kasai's business card.
Osamu Kasai's business card from ACC.
The Fukuyoshicho Annex, which once housed the company.
Links
- smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Advance_Communication - GDRI (Game Developer Research Institute).
