qaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I got into contact with Nagao, he speaks english and wrote music for Sonic 3 and K. AAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'd like to do a formal interview with him but I would like someone to speak Japanese fluently (maybe not fluently, but with confidence). He can speak english, but I think he would feel more comfortable speaking in his native language.
Thank you for finally solving this mystery. I saw his picture on his Twitter earlier and he's definitely his own person. Feel free to update all of the wiki pages to suit. If you can, ask him where he draws his influence from! Also, if you can get composer credits for each individual song he did, that'd be lovely. I'll try and see if I can get anyone who knows fluent Japanese to help you out (I know Shoemanbundy is one of those people—you up for helping out?).
Good job evilhamwizard! Not easy at all to find that guy. Please be careful when asking music questions about Sonic 3. Right now, the best approach is to ask him what music he made for Sonic 3. Do NOT ask what other people did for Sonic 3 (that's mistake number 1). After he has told you, then you can ask if he knows which music other people did, as well as ask other questions. Mix questions with other games he has been part of, just to not make it too much Sonic 3. We pretty much only need to know what these people composed (in this order): Masayuki Nagao Sachio Ogawa Tomonori Sawada Tetsuyuki Maeda ... To get a pretty good idea of which people did what. Everyone needs their own interview to be asked.
LOL! So true! The best way is probably to not mention anyone other than Masayuki Nagao. Composers as artist only want to hear about themselves. I wish I knew Japanese. I would probably have found them all by now. Why don't we have any Japanese visitors that can help? Isn't Retro big enough? I don't want to bug my only Japanese friend to do Sonic interviews for me, I better save that moment when we really really need it.
Nice job everyone. Now let's bring it on home. How about this for a structure. I. Opening Words II. Inspirational background III. Games A. Shinobi III (Represent his Santos/Megasoft days) 1. Bring up how sites like this credit him for "Opening" 2. Also bring up how this game's music was fully released and how specific information relating to him, Murasaki and Akiyama was absent. 3. Lastly, bring up Opus Corp and what his role was there B. Game Gear game representative 1. Either Sonic Chaos or Sonic Drift C. Sonic 3 - *Where many people know his name from* (using Sonic Drift 2 as leverage for this [and by extension, the other three themes that use that composition] and this) 1. If the former (Invincibility) is found to be his, bring up how the theme in general was reused by Senoue in Sonic 4. 2. If the latter (Boss) is found to be his, then please make an effort to bring this one up as well. Tell him you think the keyboard in it is his (since you know he is a keyboardist). That should get his attention. D. A Post-Sega work 1. Ask about his "Story" credits in the "Evolution" series. IV. Non-game work (Bring up the stuff I brought to your attention, like the birthday performance and the English lyrics for 4ROCKAMBOS. Again, do your homework and show you know what it all means.) V. Closing remarks The rest (Toki, Sonic Chaos (for the most part), Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, the rest of Sonic Drift 2, etc.) can be ignored, as there is very little priority in them. Good luck, guys.
How about first trying to figure out how busy is him? He may not want to answer all that many questions at once... or maybe he's on the other side and would give out a full interview. You don't know, you'd need to find out first.
Also I would like to see questions about what type of hardware synths he has, uses, likes and which ones are his favourites, even other stuff like drumpads, controllers, virtual instruments and what was music like for him writing it back then compared to now. Also if he would like to donate sound samples at higher bitrates for the archives here so we all got better quality for remixes of his stuff.
Our news team are spending money creating gold ring models to make a joke. I am upset by what the news has turned into, all we need is a studio audience to clap and laugh.
Wordplay time! Slight spoilers: the final level of Sonic Colors is "Terminal Velocity". This refers to: The concept of terminal velocity in physics. Makes a bit of sense, since Sonic is running downward toward the planet below, although since he's in space, he can't reach a traditional terminal velocity due to the lack of air drag. "Terminal" as in "deadly". The black hole and everything. It's also the end (terminus) of the game. "Terminal" as in "the loading station of a transportation line" - the space elevator is essentially a vertical bullet train, and the characters are rushing to the upper terminal in Act 1.
If it's a one-shot question then just make an introduction with adequate background information and ask about Sonic 3 using the aforementioned Sonic Drift 2 leverage as your basis and reasoning. Simple as that. Even if it's as simple as sending Youtube links on his Twitter, then just send them little by little (I'd personally send any of the following: Title (S3)*/**, Angel Island Act 1**, Marble Garden Act 1, Mushroom Hill Act 1, Lava Reef Act 1***, Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace, Act 2 Boss****, Final Boss**** and The Doomsday****). *Sonic Drift 2-based confirm that affects 4 tracks **Sonic 10th Anniversary CD-based confirmation (if he confirms both of these are his, then that also confirms that Tomonori Sawada composed Sky Sanctuary Zone) ***If Drossin didn't compose Lava Reef then maybe Nagao did ****Sonic Drift 2-based confirm that affects the other two tracks because of their high similarities. Also, similar to how I mentioned Sonic 4 above, if he says yes to that composition (or most of the others I just listed), you can say how they were reused in Sonic Pocket Adventure. On the other hand, if Nagao says no to a particular set of them, it might make the remaining tracks easier to figure out pattern-wise. For example, the S&K Knuckles Theme might not have been used because it was 100% Drossin's, but the 1-Up and Invincibility jingles from S&K were probably used because they were arranged by Setsumaru (and therefore completely his). Nagao could possibly follow a similar pattern with the S3 theme; the Invincibility and 1-Up jingles from Sonic 3 weren't used despite the Title and All Clear music because they were his arrangements and therefore his tracks (of course this conflicts with Senoue's reuse of 1-Up in Sonic 4).
evilhamwizard, it is important not to make Nagao remember stuff that we feed him before he answers the important questions. Telling him who made what in Sonic 3 before getting his answer is not good. E.g. telling him two music sound the same between Sonic 3 and Sonic Drift 2 is not good. We want an honest answer without influence from the Sonic Community such as rumors. During the SageXPO Howard Drossin chat (which I wasn't part of), he was pretty much raped by Sonic fans for stupid rumors and ideas (long before he had even opened his mouth), and the only things he said was not new to us (at least me), thanks to that An example of rumor is saying Nagao is Naofumi just because it has been written in Retro wiki for years, or give him links to Youtube videos of Sonic 3 music where every track is credited by MJ or some Buxer 3000 (ok I made up the last one, but you get the point). We shouldn't be afraid of him saying he made something we know he didn't do, by feeding him information. Such conclusions can be made after he has said/answered his stuff. Most of the really good music in Sonic 3 are uncredited, and we can get alot of answers without complicating things, so it is better to move slowly that rush unknown or uncredited information down his throat. I hope I made any sense.
Ugh, the whole OCRemix wave? Don't remind me, the interview was completely flooded with Lover Reef questions >_>' The only thing we got out of that was that he didn't make the Icecap music and some Comix Zone stuff I can't remember right now (then Senn logged in and the entire interview went to hell).
Yeah, you should let him think about what he can remember, rather than feeding him the info you want to hear from him. Something in the lines of "What music tracks do you remember doing when you were at SEGA? We're trying to document who made which, so it would be interesting if you could shed some light into that part of the games' development.". Where's the mindblowing part? That they didn't call it "Damn Fast Zone"?
That's still too direct, isn't it? Maybe asking him just about how it was to compose music back in the day would be better.
Yeah, it's direct, but that's the info we want first, isn't it? I feel we should have him remember his stuff before he starts re-documenting himself by reading fansites or the Wikipedia. There's time for asking him about anything else in later emails.
