The atmosphere in Sega's Third Development Department was both fervent and tense.
The handheld version of tetris had completed its final testing and was sent to the production department for stock, preparing for release at the start of summer vacation, aiming to capture a share of students' pocket money before their holiday spending was depleted.
Takuya Nakayama stood in the center of the work area, his gaze sweeping over the young faces, their eyes reflecting both excitement and a hint of trepidation.
"Everyone," Takuya began, his voice not loud, but clearly reaching everyone's ears. "I know the pressure on all of you is considerable."
He paused slightly, the corners of his mouth turning up in a faint smile that dispelled some of the tension like winter sunlight. "After all, what we are creating is an unprecedented game."
"But please believe that as long as we work together, we can definitely create a miracle," he said with certainty. "Because we have already done a lot of preliminary preparations and have well-prepared development plans."
His words were like a shot in the arm, invigorating the team. Team Leader Shimizu, standing beside Takuya, felt the team's morale lift, cleared his throat, and his booming voice rang out: "Alright, everyone, let's get to work!"
"Nakayama-san has already formulated a detailed development plan. Now, let's proceed step by step according to the plan!"
Programmers quickly returned to their respective workstations, their fingers flying across keyboards, the tapping like a rapid drumbeat. The art team, meanwhile, gathered around, intensely discussing the character design original art provided by Kurumada Masami, gesturing wildly, sparks of inspiration flying.
Takuya knew that the beginning of everything is difficult, and the core of a fighting game lies in collision detection that is precise to the millimeter. To allow the art team to intuitively and conveniently configure attack and damage hitboxes, he decided to personally take charge and develop a visualization tool internally codenamed "Collision Configurator."
"Team Leader Shimizu, Oyama-san," Takuya walked up to the two top programmers in the team, his tone sincere, "I'd like to ask you to work with me on the development of this tool."
"No problem, Nakayama-san, we will fully cooperate," Team Leader Shimizu immediately agreed, and Oyama also nodded in approval.
Over the next few days, the development department was lit up, and Takuya, Shimizu, and Oyama practically lived there. The three constantly discussed, experimented, and modified code. From how to efficiently process massive amounts of frame data to how to ensure the editor's precision and ease of use, even the shape of the hitboxes sparked intense debate.
"I believe we should use more complex shapes to simulate collisions more accurately," Oyama insisted, a perfectionist in technology.
"However, complex shapes will increase computation, affecting game performance," Team Leader Shimizu countered from a practical standpoint, emphasizing that performance optimization is the cornerstone of smooth game operation.
Takuya pondered for a moment and said, "My idea is to primarily use rectangular boxes, stacking multiple rectangles to form the overall collision block. The collision block doesn't need to precisely match the character's outline; leaving room for manual adjustment will allow it to adapt to all action animations. This ensures both accuracy and performance."
He patiently explained his reasoning. "As for the corners like character hair or clothing, we can appropriately ignore them."
After listening to Takuya's explanation, Shimizu and Oyama both found it reasonable; it was the optimal balance between precision and performance. The three then began development according to Takuya's plan.
After two weeks of tireless effort, the core functions of the editor began to take shape. The interface was still rudimentary, and the functions were relatively limited, but it could already import simple pixel art sequences and perform basic hitbox configuration.
During an internal demonstration, Takuya imported a simple stick figure punching animation and successfully configured the collision detection. When the stick figure's fist hit the "target," the collision area was clearly displayed on the screen. "It worked!" a cheer erupted from the development department, small but enough to boost morale. This marked the first milestone step for the fatal fury project.
At the same time, the team was actively exploring the characteristics of the Pre-System 16 board. Takuya clearly stated that they needed to squeeze the potential out of the dual M68000 CPUs to achieve a smooth 60Hz combat screen frame rate. "60Hz?" a young programmer asked, puzzled, "Nakayama-san, most arcade games now are 30Hz or even lower. Won't 60Hz be too much of a stretch?"
"I know it's difficult," Takuya nodded, his tone firm, "but for fighting games, a high frame rate is crucial."
"A higher frame rate means faster input response, more precise hit detection, and also provides enough room for action animation production and balance adjustments," he explained the importance of high frame rates for fighting games. "Only then can players truly experience the fun of fighting."
"We must do our utmost to extract the performance of the Pre-System 16 board to ensure no frame drops during high-intensity combat. This is also why I tried to simplify calculations as much as possible when developing the Collision Configurator."
The programmers felt Takuya's determination and expressed their full commitment. However, how to optimize the code while maintaining visual detail and fully exploiting the performance of the Pre-System 16 board became the primary challenge for the technical team.
A young programmer got stuck while optimizing CPU allocation, scratching his head in frustration. Takuya walked over to him, carefully examined the code, and briefly asked about his approach. "Here, you can try to simplify unnecessary background calculations," Takuya prompted, pointing to a section of code. "This data can actually be pre-calculated before the game starts, so it doesn't need to be recalculated every frame."
The young man's eyes lit up, and he immediately followed the suggestion, and the problem was quickly solved. "Thank you, Nakayama-san!" the young man said gratefully.
"You're welcome, keep up the good work!" Takuya smiled. "If you have any problems, let's discuss them together and brainstorm."
After a period of exploration and optimization, the team gradually mastered the characteristics of the Pre-System 16 board. They successfully assigned non-core combat elements like backgrounds and UI to an additional Zilog Z80 CPU, while the board's original Motorola 68000 CPU fully focused on character animation, combat logic, and hit detection calculations. Preliminary tests showed the game could run stably at over 50Hz, getting closer and closer to the 60Hz target.
While the technical team was overcoming difficulties, the art team was also busily experimenting with character pixel art.
Based on the character designs provided by Takuya, they collected countless demonstrations and fighting videos of various martial arts styles corresponding to each character. Combining these with the requirement for a "tough and passionate" style, they drew preliminary character pixel sketches and key action frames.
When Takuya reviewed the first drafts, he found that although the artistic skill was good, there was still a gap from the "fist-to-flesh" feel and unique dynamism he desired.
"Everyone's drawings are good, but they are not enough," Takuya said gently, looking at the art team members.
"The movements in fighting games are not just simple changes in posture; more importantly, they need a sense of power and impact."
He picked up a sketch and pointed to a character's punching motion.
"This punch looks soft and lacks any power."
"We need to use more exaggerated lines and more distinct colors to express the speed and power of the punch. Although the resolution available to everyone is not high, we can use some comic-style speed lines and other techniques to cleverly work around it."
To help the artists better understand his meaning, Takuya personally demonstrated, using simple diagrams, how to create visual deception with a limited number of frames.
He emphasized the importance of the "startup, active, and recovery" phases of an attack in animation.
"These three phases are indispensable. By allocating different numbers of frames to different stages of each action, you can clearly show the speed and rhythm of the movement. Especially by adding delay frames when hitting and simultaneously inserting attack hit effects, players can truly feel the 'fist-to-flesh' impact."
The art team members' minds were enlightened after hearing Takuya's explanation.
They began to make revisions according to Takuya's suggestions.
He looked at the highly motivated team members around him, his heart filled with confidence.