Masato Ishizaki
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Masato Ishizaki is a Japanese composer and sound designer who is known for his several musical scores composed for games by Irem. Masato started out playing guitar in middle school so he could play various acoustic songs. When he was in high school, he liked listening to western blues music, and wanted to pursue music. After college, Masato applied for several jobs, all of which he did not get. However, he saw an ad for Irem looking for software developers. He was not too familiar with video games, but he applied and was subsequently called in for a job interview. During the interview, he told them that he couldn't design games. They asked him about music composition. Masato had never composed music before, but he knew how to improvise on his guitar, so the company hired him around December of 1983. While he watched the development of some of their games, he wasn't involved with the titles, and his first project was composing the audio for The Battle Road.
At the time he worked at Irem, there were only PSG chips and no special audio tools, so he would have to code the music and sound in assembly, usually for the AY-3-8910. When Masato started to master writing to the PSG, the company had implemented FM synthesis into their arcade games. Masato wasn't bothered by this though, because he liked learning about the technology.
Ishizaki appears to have composed his last game in 1990.
Gameography
| Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984-??-?? | The Battle Road (ARC) | ||
| 1984-??-?? | Kung-Fu Master (ARC) (スパルタンＸ) | ||
| 1985-06-21 | Kung Fu (NES) | |
Music arranged by Koji Kondo. |
| 1986-??-?? | Kaiketsu Yanchamaru (ARC) (快傑ヤンチャ丸) | ||
| 1987-07-?? | R-Type (ARC) (Ｒ―タイプ) | ||
| 1988-06-?? | Meikyuu Jima (ARC) (迷宮島) | ||
| 1990-??-?? | Major Title (ARC) | ||
| 1990-01-01 | Vigilante (ARC) (ヴィジランテ) |
Aliases
At the time Masato worked for Irem, the company either didn't put credits in their games or forced their staff to use aliases when they did. Masato sometimes used the name S.Clap. In an interview, Masato explained how he got the name. The letter S originates from the last letter in Blues, the style of music which Masato liked. Clap refers to the famed blues musician Eric Clapton, who was very influential to Masato.
Links
- facebook.com/gegege01 - Facebook.
- shmuplations.com/rtypesound/ - Interview.
