Masato Hatakeyama

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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.

Links

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