Advance Communication Company
| Advance Communication Company | |
 |
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| Founded | ca. 1988 |
| Closed | ca. 1993 |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Other Names | ＡＣＣ |
Advance Communication Company (アドバンス コミュニケーション Adobansu Komyunikeeshon, 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) (action games). 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 (RPG games). However, most of these games only ever saw release in Japan. The company also ported games to consoles, such as Last Armageddon, Ys, and Tiger Road. In addition, the company was also known for having developers contract them for sound (titles such as Jack Nicklaus' Greatest 18 Holes of Major Championship 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.
Games
Audio Development
NES
In Moeru! Oniisan, Sound Routine No. 4 is credited. This is most likely what the composers used. They either wrote the music in Music Macro Language or assembly. 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.
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.
Audio Personnel
The following composers worked at Advance Communication Company:
- Asei Kobayashi (Contractor from Astro Music; scored Niji no Silk Road: 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 (Contractor? 1992)
- Tomohiro Endou (Contractor from Cube)
- Yoshiaki Kubodera (Contractor from Cube)
Links
- smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Advance_Communication - GDRI (Game Developer Research Institute).
