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Keiichi Matsunami has worked for Sega for over 20 years and is credited on several Hatsune Miku titles. He's been talking on social media about his first assignment for the company, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker, and has revealed some interesting facts about its development.
He credits "his mentor" Kazuhiro Goji, who did the concept design and overall direction for the game, while Matsunami was in charge of software direction. He also explains that he actually drove the legendary Route 66 in North America as research for the game. "We drove from New York to Key West for about 5 days straight, shooting the background with a video camera," he says. This calls to mind a similar trip made by Yu Suzuki during the development of Out Run in the '80s.
Matsunami also talks about the voice samples used by rival truckers:
I used to make the enemy voice say "Stupid Jerk!" and numerous other invectives, but it was pointed out that it was too vulgar, so I went with a milder version. I think it was a crazy driving game, blowing up police cars and destroying buildings.
Perhaps the most amusing aspect of Matsunami's recollections relates to the fact that, prior to working on the game, he didn't have a driver's license. "I was not comfortable producing a driving game without a driver's license, so I went to get a driver's license to produce 18W," he says. "The trailer programmer went to get a towing license for 18W."
18 Wheeler launched on Sega's Naomi arcade system in 2000 before being ported to the Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. A sequel, The King of Route 66, followed in 2002, which Matsunami also directed.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 9
A reasonable move. Although, working in other genres, getting a license to kill or license to fly into space is going to be a little harder..
@NinChocolate I was thinking the same thing! XD
I enjoyed this game a lot. I think it’s high time for a rerelease!
So weird I played this yesterday on Dreamcast still enjoy it from time to time just wish it was longer
I admire the dedication and attention to detail, and I appreciate how loose and casual game design was back in the day. No way that kind of research would get the green light for a game like that. I think it paid off for Out Run as I'm always amazed how convincing the car handling is in that one. I always liked this concept as an arcade game. I remember playing it when it was current in arcades and I was pretty satisfied I was able to park the thing on my first try for the bonus stage. I have been wanting to revisit the game on the Dreamcast.
One correction here. He may have actually driven route 66, but the New York to Florida trip would have been Interstate 95, which is famous/infamous as well. Route 66 goes nowhere near either NY or FL.
@NinChocolate I guess that's why the original Phantasy Star franchise ended.
It's been lovely seeing Keiichi Matsunami's tweets post-retirement from SEGA, and how emotional his memories can be. Personally liked his mentions of people like Kazuhiro Goji and programmer Kawaguchi (who for some reason he only named in the Japanese version of his thread.)
My buddy did his skydiving and wingsuit fieldwork, but hasn’t gotten around to making his video game yet lol
I still have a copy for GameCube. Definitely a fun arcade game and I still like to play it every now and then.
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