Hiroshi Kubota
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Hiroshi Kubota is a Japanese composer, sound designer, and sound programmer known for his numerous works with Sega. He joined the company in 1989 and was assigned to their Genesis development. His first work was for the Mega Drive version of Nihon Falcom's Sorcerian. He not only faithfully arranged music from the original version, but also, with the help of Tokuhiko Uwabo, composed new tracks for the Mega Drive version, which were highly acclaimed. On top of his talents for composition and arrangement, he learned sound programming from Shigeharu Isoda and programmed the 68000 version of Sega's SMPS sound driver software. He also got two PCM sounds to play simultaneously for his work on Ristar. Kubota is known for his works in games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Heavenly Symphony, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. Kubota left Sega in 1994 and became a jazz pianist for several bands.
Kubota also played as a jazz pianist in the Shigeru Ukon Trio (右近茂トリオ). He has since retired as a musician due to health issues.
Contents
Music Development
Genesis / Mega Drive
Kubota wrote his own sound driver and wrote the music in assembly on a PC-98 computer. Then the music was assembled on the Genesis. Along with Tokuhiko Uwabo, Kubota's sound driver was used by many third party Japanese developers.
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
Kubota said it was difficult working on Moonwalker because he had to learn Michael Jackson's music by ear and transplant it into his sound driver.
The song Thriller is used in the prototype, but removed from the final release. According to Kubota, this was because someone from Sega America informed Sega Japan they couldn't use the song due to the rights of the song not belonging to Michael Jackson, as the song was written by Rod Temperton.
Also, Takayuki Nakamura stated that he did the boss music.
Gameography
| Released | Title | Sample | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990-02-24 | Sorcerian (SMD) (ソーサリアン) | ||
| 1990-08-24 | Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (GEN) (マイケル・ジャクソンズ・ムーンウォーカー) | |
Arranged Michael Jackson's music. |
| 1991-06-17 | Advanced Daisenryaku: Deutsch Dengeki Sakusen (SMD) (アドバンスド大戦略 -ドイツ電撃作戦-) | ||
| 1991-06-23 | Sonic the Hedgehog (GEN) (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ) | |
Sound Program |
| 1992-11-20 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (GEN) (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ2) | |
Sound Assistant |
| 1992-??-?? | Kiss Shot (SMD) (キスショット) | With Naofumi Hataya. | |
| 1993-04-23 | Panic! (MCD) (スイッチ) | With Masaru Setsumaru, Tomoko Sasaki, and Shinji Kawahira. | |
| 1994-04-23 | Formula One World Championship: Beyond the Limit (MCD) (ヘブンリーシンフォニー フォーミュラーワン ワールド チャンピオンシップ 1993) | Sound Programmer | |
| 1995-02-15 | Ristar (GEN) (リスター・ザ・シューティングスター) | Sound Program |
Picture Gallery
Facebook.
Links
- jimita.com - Official.
- mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,45142/ - MobyGames.
- facebook.com/kubota.hiroshi.58 - Facebook.
- w.atwiki.jp/gamemusicbest100/pages/6904.html - Atwiki.jp (Japanese).
