Masato Hatakeyama
Masato Hatakeyama (畠山昌人) is a Japanese video game programmer who worked at Nintendo in the R&D3 division from the 1980s to the 1990s. Due to R&D3 being the smallest department at Nintendo, and the fact that it primarily worked on hardware instead of games, Hatakeyama only programmed a handful of games making him one of the lesser-known developers at the company. However, Hatakeyama was the primary developer for two well-known Nintendo franchises — Punch-Out!! and StarTropics — and he also played a supporting role in the Donkey Kong Country games.
Personal
I was a big fan of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and, to a much lesser extent, StarTropics, so I'm quite familiar with Hatakeyama's primary work, and each of the games are solidly programmed. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is especially impressive because of its huge flicker-free sprites.
Gameography
Released | Title | Role |
---|---|---|
1987-10-?? | Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! | Sole programmer |
1990-12-?? | StarTropics | Programmer |
1994-03-?? | Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics II | Lead programmer |
1994-10-10 | Super Punch-Out!! | Lead programmer |
1995-06-?? | Donkey Kong Land | Special thanks |
1995-11-21 | Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest | Special thanks |
1996-06-23 | Pilotwings 64 | Special thanks |
1996-11-01 | Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! | Special thanks |
Because Hatakeyama was a one of the most important programmers in R&D3, it is likely that he also programmed the other games released by that division which do not credit their programmers including: Punch-Out!!, Super Punch-Out!!, Arm Wrestling, Volleyball and NES Play Action Football.