GS: You were talking about personalities. I actually don't know what [company spokesperson] Takahashi Meijin’s title is.

JG: I don't know it either!

JL: Marketing promotions.

JG: Is it? Definitely marketing division. I didn't know if he was head or not. He did a lot of work with the Bee studio which we had.

GS: How about the Virtual Console stuff? How did it actually come about?

JG: That really came about I think, because Nintendo saw a great opportunity to give consumers a flashback - that you could do that on today's broad band lines without overbearing it.

Nintendo is concerned about a great user experience. They’ve proved that over and over and over. They're very true to their customer and so they didn’t want to put out everything on the broadband line, just the classics. There's certainly always going to be a demand for the Turbo Grafx, Genesis and the Super Famicom stuff so I don't think that they could miss on that. And obviously Hudson controlled the Turbo Grafx gate, and so they came to us and asked us to do that.

We're obviously very close to Nintendo. They've always been a big supporter of Hudson, and we’ve supported them. And they own shares of Hudson. So I can't think of a better mentor than Nintendo and we've always been respectful of that and deals like this come about because of this long term relationships.

For us the benefit of the Virtual Console is bringing all these old games back into the public eye, because you can re‑launch brands off of this, it offers such a great opportunity.

More from Hudson's game archive.

GS: Has there been any consideration to bring over some of the PC Engine titles that didn't make it here?

JG: I think so. We're going to work on the Turbo Grafx titles, but there were 600 some-odd PC Engine titles, and there were only 150 or so Turbo Grafx titles, so I think that if people tell us they want these games, absolutely.

So we'll blow this up, we'll make it very visible, and we want people to tell us what they think. We've set up an 800 number for help, and that kind of thing, so we'll be able to hear what people really want, and I think there's a lot of demand for it. Wouldn't you say? [laughs]

GS: I would. I've got about 200, or probably more.

JG: Really?

GS: Yeah.

JG: Turbo Grafx, or PC Engine games?

GS: Everything. It's a mix.

JG: So you can play CDs on both, but you can't play [PC Engine] HuCards [on American systems]...so you've got an adaptor?

GS: Well, I do have an adaptor, but it doesn't work too well anymore, but I have two things. For one I have both Japanese and U.S. consoles. The other thing I have is this aftermarket product. You probably don't want to hear about it.

JG: No, I do!

JL: We actually probably use it. [laughs]

JG: [laughs] Yeah, I was going to say!

GS: Well, it allows you to load ROMs onto it, and you put it into a U.S. system cart slot. And, I forget who makes this one, but I’ve never used it, because I have most of the games that I want, anyway.

JG: Do you have Kato and Ken?

GS: No.

JG: No? You don't have it?

GS: Oh wait, yes I do. I have JJ and Jeff [the American version of Kato and Ken], I don't have the original.

JG: Try to get the Japanese one, that's a great game.

GS: I know...

JG: They ruined that game.

JL: I did. I picked one up for myself when I was last in Japan. I saw it, and it was the only one left...

JG: Oh really? You got one? How much?

JL: 35 bucks. It was a good deal.

JG: Really?

GS: Man, I thought it was worth less than that.

JL: They've been going up, that's for sure.

GS: Yeah, I've played the ROM a couple times. I would like to own it, though.

JG: The NEC U.S. side said, "Oh you can't do that, you can't have people shitting on each other. You can't have people farting on each other." Why not? You know, kids would love that.

GS: Of course they would!

JG: So they just ruined that game.

JL: Ever since Beavis and Butthead, now it's expected.

JG: Yeah, all right. Exactly, it's like why wouldn't you?

GS: It's like Toilet Kids, the Taito game that was also out for PC Engine, with kids flying on toilets. It was a vertically scrolling shooter with kids.

JG: That one I don't know, unfortunately. [laughs]