The now-defunct Hudson Soft – creator of the Bomberman series – was founded 50 years ago, and some of the company's former developers and game directors assembled in Japan over the weekend to mark the anniversary.
The intimate event took place in Loft+1 in Kabukicho, Shinjuku, and was attended by a small selection of developers behind some truly seminal Hudson Soft properties on the PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16.
Sadly, recording was not allowed, and while some of the attendees have noted that a cameraman was present, it is not known if the footage will be made available online.
It seems that plenty of stories and anecdotes were shared, however, including one relating to the proliferation of different hardware options produced by NEC and Hudson during the height of the PC Engine's success in Japan; Chris Covell notes that, at one point during the discussion, it was noted that "NEC [was] producing too many pieces of hardware (SGX, Shuttle) souring the consumer."
The PC Engine launched in 1987 and was a joint venture between Hudson and electronics giant NEC. It was a considerable success in Japan, even outselling the Sega Mega Drive, but the subsequent PC-FX system was a commercial flop, forcing NEC to exit the console market and Hudson to rely totally on third-party publishing.