WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en-US

00:00:01.380 --> 00:00:04.209
- [Norman] In 1990, Capcom
and Hi-Tech Expressions

00:00:04.209 --> 00:00:08.026
released Mega Man, on DOS.

00:00:08.026 --> 00:00:10.500
It's a strange game,

00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:14.010
especially when compared
to the NES titles.

00:00:14.010 --> 00:00:16.260
The bosses are wacky,

00:00:16.260 --> 00:00:19.020
the enemies seem out of place,

00:00:19.020 --> 00:00:21.540
and gameplay feels sluggish.

00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:23.070
The game is infamous

00:00:23.070 --> 00:00:25.080
within the Mega Man fandom.

00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:28.710
Even Capcom wants fans to forget about it.

00:00:28.710 --> 00:00:31.298
In the "Mega Man: Official
Complete Works" book,

00:00:31.298 --> 00:00:34.860
Mega Man on DOS is missing.

00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:36.780
But behind the game is a story

00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:38.220
about a Mega Man fan

00:00:38.220 --> 00:00:40.170
who followed his passions.

00:00:40.170 --> 00:00:41.760
Programmer Stephen Rozner

00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:43.680
worked on it by himself,

00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:46.350
in his spare time after work.

00:00:46.350 --> 00:00:48.739
One could argue that Mega Man on DOS

00:00:48.739 --> 00:00:51.470
is an early example of a fan game,

00:00:51.470 --> 00:00:54.150
that actually got published.

00:00:54.150 --> 00:00:55.680
And if you can believe it,

00:00:55.680 --> 00:00:59.520
Rozner and his brother made a sequel, too.

00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:00.989
Let's dive into the strange world

00:01:00.989 --> 00:01:03.813
of Mega Man games on DOS.

00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:10.200
This episode of the Gaming Historian

00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.240
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Throughout the '80s,

00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:18.900
the average price of the personal computer

00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:20.130
kept coming down,

00:02:20.130 --> 00:02:23.310
which made PCs more and more accessible.

00:02:23.310 --> 00:02:24.551
This brought computer programming

00:02:24.551 --> 00:02:26.400
to the masses.

00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:28.433
Suddenly, everyday people were learning

00:02:28.433 --> 00:02:30.150
how to make software,

00:02:30.150 --> 00:02:32.430
including video games.

00:02:32.430 --> 00:02:35.100
Stephen Rozner of
Thousand Oaks, California

00:02:35.100 --> 00:02:36.810
was one of these people.

00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:38.280
He taught himself to program

00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:39.720
with whatever computer he could

00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:41.220
get his hands on.

00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:46.220
The Apple II, a TRS-80,
the Commodore Vic 20.

00:02:46.320 --> 00:02:47.610
He ported the game Berzerk

00:02:47.610 --> 00:02:50.880
to his friend's old S-100 bus computer,

00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:52.650
the same type of computer found

00:02:52.650 --> 00:02:54.630
in the movie "War Games."

00:02:54.630 --> 00:02:56.586
- That's pretty much what told me

00:02:56.586 --> 00:03:00.240
programming was going to be my deal.

00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.913
And then my dad, after seeing this,

00:03:03.780 --> 00:03:07.680
he paid the $600 for the Commodore 64

00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:08.880
when it first came out.

00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:11.532
And another $600 probably

00:03:11.532 --> 00:03:13.200
within a year or two

00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:16.050
to get the disc drive for it.

00:03:16.050 --> 00:03:17.340
That's pretty much how it started.

00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:19.440
And it was really just doing little games

00:03:19.440 --> 00:03:20.910
and trying to come up with things

00:03:20.910 --> 00:03:23.940
that would help us play
Dungeons and Dragons.

00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:25.020
- [Norman] After high school,

00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:27.272
Rozner enrolled in community college.

00:03:27.272 --> 00:03:28.639
But he quickly learned

00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:31.230
that he was ahead of the curve.

00:03:31.230 --> 00:03:32.400
- When I got into college,

00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:34.470
I probably got like at least

00:03:34.470 --> 00:03:35.790
an associates degree work,

00:03:35.790 --> 00:03:37.443
but I never finished.

00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:41.790
Occasionally, I would know
more than the teacher.

00:03:41.790 --> 00:03:44.173
I remember dropping a class after

00:03:44.173 --> 00:03:46.110
I corrected the teacher twice,

00:03:46.110 --> 00:03:48.273
I knew I wasn't going to get a good grade.

00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:51.240
There was that, so I was like,

00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:53.223
pretty much self-taught.

00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:55.260
- [Norman] At the same time,

00:03:55.260 --> 00:03:57.690
Rozner got a job at Hughes Aircraft,

00:03:57.690 --> 00:04:00.030
through his father's connections.

00:04:00.030 --> 00:04:01.500
He programmed databases

00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:03.025
for the accounting department.

00:04:03.025 --> 00:04:04.950
It was a mundane job

00:04:04.950 --> 00:04:06.900
that didn't pay much.

00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:08.850
Rozner hoped that, eventually,

00:04:08.850 --> 00:04:09.870
he could work his way

00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:12.180
into the video game industry.

00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:14.763
Then came a very lucky break.

00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.491
- I was toying around with a karate game.

00:04:19.491 --> 00:04:21.142
It was a Karateka or whatever,

00:04:21.142 --> 00:04:24.600
one of the very first karate games was.

00:04:24.600 --> 00:04:26.400
I basically made a copy

00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:29.490
of that on my Commodore.

00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:30.360
And then some friends

00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:32.820
who had started a pizza joint

00:04:32.820 --> 00:04:35.430
delivered to a little company

00:04:35.430 --> 00:04:37.200
out near Thousand Oaks.

00:04:37.200 --> 00:04:38.047
And the guy said,

00:04:38.047 --> 00:04:39.812
"Hey, if you know anybody who programs

00:04:39.812 --> 00:04:42.900
"just give them the business card."

00:04:42.900 --> 00:04:46.650
So I went over there with this game

00:04:46.650 --> 00:04:49.503
that I was making as a demo.

00:04:50.357 --> 00:04:51.450
- [Norman] Rozner interviewed

00:04:51.450 --> 00:04:53.070
at a small software company

00:04:53.070 --> 00:04:54.960
named Pacific DataWorks,

00:04:54.960 --> 00:04:57.159
which primarily did contract work.

00:04:57.159 --> 00:04:58.715
One of their biggest clients

00:04:58.715 --> 00:05:01.080
was Capcom USA,

00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:04.140
located in Sunnyvale, California.

00:05:04.140 --> 00:05:06.051
The company was the US subsidiary

00:05:06.051 --> 00:05:08.010
of Capcom Japan,

00:05:08.010 --> 00:05:09.750
and brought over their coin-op games

00:05:09.750 --> 00:05:12.480
for distribution in the United States.

00:05:12.480 --> 00:05:15.300
But in 1986, Nintendo of America

00:05:15.300 --> 00:05:16.673
chose Capcom USA

00:05:16.673 --> 00:05:19.260
as one of the first four licensees

00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:20.820
for their new console,

00:05:20.820 --> 00:05:23.400
the Nintendo Entertainment System.

00:05:23.400 --> 00:05:25.320
Capcom USA learned quickly

00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:26.430
that the real money

00:05:26.430 --> 00:05:28.500
would be in consumer sales.

00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:30.690
Executives put Joe Morici,

00:05:30.690 --> 00:05:32.114
a regional sales manager,

00:05:32.114 --> 00:05:36.210
in charge of Capcom
USA's consumer division.

00:05:36.210 --> 00:05:37.770
They ported their most popular

00:05:37.770 --> 00:05:40.230
coin-op games over to the NES,

00:05:40.230 --> 00:05:42.930
brokered a licensing deal with Disney,

00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:44.432
and hired subcontractors

00:05:44.432 --> 00:05:45.660
to port titles

00:05:45.660 --> 00:05:47.730
to the personal computer.

00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:51.390
One of those companies
was Pacific DataWorks.

00:05:51.390 --> 00:05:52.740
Capcom hired the company

00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:54.270
to port Street Fighter,

00:05:54.270 --> 00:05:55.967
a popular arcade fighting game,

00:05:55.967 --> 00:05:58.203
to the Commodore 64.

00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.050
So when Stephen Rozner interviewed

00:06:01.050 --> 00:06:03.150
for the job at Pacific Dataworks

00:06:03.150 --> 00:06:05.670
and presented his karate game demo,

00:06:05.670 --> 00:06:07.260
they immediately hired him

00:06:07.260 --> 00:06:09.600
to help program Street Fighter.

00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:10.710
- There's two versions.

00:06:10.710 --> 00:06:11.970
There's one that came out of the UK

00:06:11.970 --> 00:06:13.470
that's not very good.

00:06:13.470 --> 00:06:14.970
And then there's my version,

00:06:14.970 --> 00:06:17.100
which it doesn't have the last guy

00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:18.150
because he was too big

00:06:18.150 --> 00:06:22.050
to get the Sprite system to build.

00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:24.270
So rather than make something poor,

00:06:24.270 --> 00:06:27.630
we decided just leave out Sagat.

00:06:27.630 --> 00:06:28.843
But it was actually

00:06:28.843 --> 00:06:32.310
a very good Commodore 64 port.

00:06:32.310 --> 00:06:34.110
- [Norman] In addition to Street Fighter,

00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:37.407
Rozner worked on Bionic
Commando, Hat Trick,

00:06:37.407 --> 00:06:39.750
and even an unreleased

00:06:39.750 --> 00:06:41.442
NES version of Street Fighter.

00:06:41.442 --> 00:06:44.079
Porting games proved challenging.

00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:47.100
- When I was working
at Pacific Data Works,

00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:48.780
literally what you would do

00:06:48.780 --> 00:06:51.750
is you would play the arcade game

00:06:51.750 --> 00:06:54.570
and then you would basically copy

00:06:54.570 --> 00:06:56.130
as best as you could.

00:06:56.130 --> 00:06:58.203
The artists would redraw everything,

00:06:59.070 --> 00:07:00.780
you would reprogram everything,

00:07:00.780 --> 00:07:02.550
the whole nine yards.

00:07:02.550 --> 00:07:03.930
- [Norman] Eventually, Rozner

00:07:03.930 --> 00:07:05.130
and two other employees

00:07:05.130 --> 00:07:06.690
left Pacific Dataworks

00:07:06.690 --> 00:07:09.150
and joined another software company,

00:07:09.150 --> 00:07:11.250
Riggs International.

00:07:11.250 --> 00:07:14.580
They only made one game, Pocket Rockets,

00:07:14.580 --> 00:07:16.560
a motorcycle racing game.

00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:18.720
Not long after, Capcom USA's

00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:20.880
Joe Morici offered to acquire

00:07:20.880 --> 00:07:22.140
Riggs International

00:07:22.140 --> 00:07:24.120
and make them Capcom USA's

00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:26.280
internal development team.

00:07:26.280 --> 00:07:28.320
They accepted, and soon Rozner

00:07:28.320 --> 00:07:30.990
was working for Capcom.

00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:34.290
- The motive of the three of us

00:07:34.290 --> 00:07:37.530
that actually got brought into Capcom

00:07:37.530 --> 00:07:40.140
was the idea that Capcom USA

00:07:40.140 --> 00:07:42.690
would start actually trying

00:07:42.690 --> 00:07:44.010
to develop stuff.

00:07:44.010 --> 00:07:46.083
It was generally going to be PC games.

00:07:46.950 --> 00:07:48.000
- [Norman] Unfortunately,

00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.679
the internal development
team never materialized.

00:07:51.679 --> 00:07:53.517
- There was a couple of little projects

00:07:53.517 --> 00:07:55.380
that were being worked

00:07:55.380 --> 00:07:56.280
on when we got there

00:07:56.280 --> 00:07:58.410
that never actually saw

00:07:58.410 --> 00:07:59.243
the light of day.

00:07:59.243 --> 00:08:02.160
There was a little World War I aircraft,

00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:04.110
it was basically the Allies

00:08:04.110 --> 00:08:05.237
versus the Germans

00:08:05.237 --> 00:08:08.952
and a little barnstorming game.

00:08:08.952 --> 00:08:10.710
I don't think I really worked

00:08:10.710 --> 00:08:12.630
on anything or got anything produced

00:08:12.630 --> 00:08:14.490
while I was at Capcom,

00:08:14.490 --> 00:08:16.980
or published while I was at Capcom.

00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:18.840
- [Norman] Instead, Rozner had to review

00:08:18.840 --> 00:08:22.050
PC titles from external developers.

00:08:22.050 --> 00:08:25.590
He missed his true passion, Programming.

00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:27.690
With nothing on the horizon at work,

00:08:27.690 --> 00:08:30.630
Rozner programmed something for himself.

00:08:30.630 --> 00:08:31.830
In his spare time,

00:08:31.830 --> 00:08:33.280
he developed a DOS version

00:08:33.280 --> 00:08:34.831
of one of his new favorite

00:08:34.831 --> 00:08:36.910
NES games, Mega Man.

00:08:36.910 --> 00:08:39.493
(arcade music)

00:08:48.300 --> 00:08:51.450
Mega Man was one of
Capcom's newest characters,

00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:54.450
and it became a powerhouse franchise.

00:08:54.450 --> 00:08:55.950
Mega Man graced the covers

00:08:55.950 --> 00:08:57.660
of video game magazines,

00:08:57.660 --> 00:08:59.700
had a starring role in cartoons,

00:08:59.700 --> 00:09:00.960
and was consistently

00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.400
a top-selling game on

00:09:02.400 --> 00:09:04.749
the Nintendo Entertainment System.

00:09:04.749 --> 00:09:06.987
- The fact that you had to learn

00:09:06.987 --> 00:09:08.575
to understand what weapon

00:09:08.575 --> 00:09:10.316
would damage somebody.

00:09:10.316 --> 00:09:13.170
And so you had to create an order

00:09:13.170 --> 00:09:15.497
in which you would go and do things.

00:09:15.497 --> 00:09:17.460
And this is before the advent of books

00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:18.690
that would tell you exactly

00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:19.890
what order to do stuff, right?

00:09:19.890 --> 00:09:21.450
You had to literally parse

00:09:21.450 --> 00:09:22.950
these things out by just playing

00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.140
the game 10,000 times.

00:09:25.140 --> 00:09:28.503
So I thought it an
extremely intelligent game.

00:09:29.460 --> 00:09:30.810
The fact that you had

00:09:30.810 --> 00:09:32.160
to put all this thought into it,

00:09:32.160 --> 00:09:34.563
you couldn't just willy-nilly go through.

00:09:35.478 --> 00:09:36.322
For his new Mega Man game,

00:09:36.322 --> 00:09:38.010
- [Norman] Rozner did everything himself.

00:09:38.010 --> 00:09:41.160
Graphics, sounds, level design,

00:09:41.160 --> 00:09:42.760
enemy and boss patterns.

00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:44.640
It was a daunting task

00:09:44.640 --> 00:09:46.770
for one person to complete.

00:09:46.770 --> 00:09:48.600
But he pressed forward.

00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:51.000
The game has an electricity theme.

00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:53.760
Mega Man must enter a top-secret compound,

00:09:53.760 --> 00:09:56.040
take down three robot masters,

00:09:56.040 --> 00:09:58.491
and defeat the evil Dr. Wily.

00:09:58.491 --> 00:10:00.503
Previous Mega Man games began

00:10:00.503 --> 00:10:02.430
with a stage select to choose

00:10:02.430 --> 00:10:04.110
which Robot master players

00:10:04.110 --> 00:10:05.670
wanted to fight.

00:10:05.670 --> 00:10:07.060
But Mega Man on DOS begins

00:10:07.060 --> 00:10:09.930
with an introduction stage.

00:10:09.930 --> 00:10:11.130
Mega Man must get past

00:10:11.130 --> 00:10:12.090
the security gate

00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:13.770
and a robot guard dog before

00:10:13.770 --> 00:10:15.990
reaching the stage select screen.

00:10:15.990 --> 00:10:17.430
This is a way for the player

00:10:17.430 --> 00:10:18.570
to get used to the game

00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:20.940
before jumping into a level.

00:10:20.940 --> 00:10:23.010
Over the years, the Mega Man games

00:10:23.010 --> 00:10:24.780
have become somewhat famous

00:10:24.780 --> 00:10:26.760
for having opening stages,

00:10:26.760 --> 00:10:29.250
Mega Man X in particular.

00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:31.170
Mega Man on DOS's opening stage

00:10:31.170 --> 00:10:33.180
is by no means great.

00:10:33.180 --> 00:10:35.040
The guard dog takes a lot of hits

00:10:35.040 --> 00:10:37.860
to kill and instantly re-spawns.

00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:40.110
It's best to just run through it.

00:10:40.110 --> 00:10:41.592
But it is, technically,

00:10:41.592 --> 00:10:43.830
the first Mega Man game

00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:45.930
to have an introduction stage.

00:10:45.930 --> 00:10:49.080
There are only three robot masters.

00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.260
Dyna Man, Volt Man, and Sonic Man.

00:10:52.260 --> 00:10:54.510
Levels feel somewhat empty,

00:10:54.510 --> 00:10:55.890
but that could be because

00:10:55.890 --> 00:10:57.600
there is no music.

00:10:57.600 --> 00:10:59.097
Control-wise, Mega Man feels

00:10:59.097 --> 00:11:01.740
pretty close to the NES games.

00:11:01.740 --> 00:11:04.140
He even has that little foot shuffle

00:11:04.140 --> 00:11:06.450
when you press on the D-Pad quickly.

00:11:06.450 --> 00:11:07.830
One of the big differences

00:11:07.830 --> 00:11:10.200
between this game and the NES games

00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:12.690
is how players progress through levels.

00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:14.310
Due to technical limitations,

00:11:14.310 --> 00:11:16.110
the Mega Man games on NES

00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:17.850
had horizontal scrolling,

00:11:17.850 --> 00:11:20.010
but no vertical scrolling.

00:11:20.010 --> 00:11:21.780
Stages were sort of chained

00:11:21.780 --> 00:11:23.760
together into sections.

00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:25.165
But Mega Man on DOS has

00:11:25.165 --> 00:11:27.180
both types of scrolling

00:11:27.180 --> 00:11:28.440
and so the stages feel

00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:30.360
like one big level.

00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:32.607
The enemies are somewhat strange.

00:11:32.607 --> 00:11:35.100
Mega Man fights against rats,

00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:37.950
mosquitoes, birds, and bees.

00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:39.300
There are a few familiar

00:11:39.300 --> 00:11:41.220
enemies like Sniper Joe,

00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:43.410
but they rarely pop up.

00:11:43.410 --> 00:11:44.310
On the surface,

00:11:44.310 --> 00:11:46.050
Mega Man on DOS feels like

00:11:46.050 --> 00:11:47.970
an outlier in the series.

00:11:47.970 --> 00:11:49.854
But it has unique origins.

00:11:49.854 --> 00:11:51.930
It was a fun side project

00:11:51.930 --> 00:11:53.880
made by one programmer.

00:11:53.880 --> 00:11:57.360
And Rozner received no
assistance from Capcom.

00:11:57.360 --> 00:11:59.100
He made what he wanted.

00:11:59.100 --> 00:12:02.430
It was, essentially, a fan game.

00:12:02.430 --> 00:12:05.580
- I just made the game, period.

00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:08.190
Everything, sound, graphics.

00:12:08.190 --> 00:12:09.390
I see, every once in a while,

00:12:09.390 --> 00:12:10.223
on the things,

00:12:10.223 --> 00:12:11.558
when people talk about it,

00:12:11.558 --> 00:12:13.170
they just don't get it.

00:12:13.170 --> 00:12:14.430
Well, my name's on everything

00:12:14.430 --> 00:12:16.830
because literally I had to do

00:12:16.830 --> 00:12:19.590
all of the audio bleeps and bloops,

00:12:19.590 --> 00:12:21.240
I had to do the artwork.

00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:22.410
And the design of it was

00:12:22.410 --> 00:12:24.480
just something I did.

00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:26.395
it mimics other Mega Man games

00:12:26.395 --> 00:12:27.820
in the fact that you have

00:12:28.891 --> 00:12:30.060
to get weapons

00:12:30.060 --> 00:12:31.410
to defeat different bosses.

00:12:31.410 --> 00:12:34.293
But yeah, I was just me.

00:12:35.452 --> 00:12:37.140
- [Norman] While working on the game,

00:12:37.140 --> 00:12:38.465
Stephen Rozner realized

00:12:38.465 --> 00:12:41.070
he couldn't stay at Capcom.

00:12:41.070 --> 00:12:43.623
He wanted to make games
for a living again.

00:12:44.520 --> 00:12:46.380
- I guess it would be,

00:12:46.380 --> 00:12:48.274
boredom's not the right word.

00:12:48.274 --> 00:12:51.510
It was just missing programming.

00:12:51.510 --> 00:12:55.110
I really, really, really
liked programming.

00:12:55.110 --> 00:12:57.060
I couldn't tell you exactly why.

00:12:57.060 --> 00:12:59.501
I think it's got both artistic

00:12:59.501 --> 00:13:01.380
and logical sides

00:13:01.380 --> 00:13:04.743
and my brain was always both.

00:13:06.060 --> 00:13:09.120
- [Norman] When Rozner told
Joe Morici he was leaving,

00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.890
he got a surprise.

00:13:10.890 --> 00:13:12.600
Morici knew that Rozner

00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:14.430
was working on a Mega Man game

00:13:14.430 --> 00:13:16.860
for DOS as a side project.

00:13:16.860 --> 00:13:19.200
Because the series was so popular,

00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:21.120
Morici wanted to get Mega Man

00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:23.670
on as many platforms as possible,

00:13:23.670 --> 00:13:26.610
for exposure and extra revenue.

00:13:26.610 --> 00:13:29.040
He offered to publish the game.

00:13:29.040 --> 00:13:31.214
So in 1990, Capcom and publisher

00:13:31.214 --> 00:13:33.210
Hi-Tech Expressions released

00:13:33.210 --> 00:13:35.220
Mega Man for DOS.

00:13:35.220 --> 00:13:36.900
To save money on the cover,

00:13:36.900 --> 00:13:38.136
Capcom slightly altered

00:13:38.136 --> 00:13:41.970
the box art from Mega Man III on NES.

00:13:41.970 --> 00:13:43.380
This art was also used

00:13:43.380 --> 00:13:44.400
for the Game Boy game

00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:47.490
Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge.

00:13:47.490 --> 00:13:50.640
Rozner was back to making video games.

00:13:50.640 --> 00:13:52.410
He started doing freelance work

00:13:52.410 --> 00:13:53.820
for various companies under

00:13:53.820 --> 00:13:56.130
the name "Rozner Labs."

00:13:56.130 --> 00:13:59.340
Rozner worked on The
Great Waldo Search on NES,

00:13:59.340 --> 00:14:02.760
and Darkwing Duck for the Turbografx-16.

00:14:02.760 --> 00:14:04.320
He even ported the Ninja Gaiden

00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:06.810
arcade game to computers.

00:14:06.810 --> 00:14:08.093
Soon, his brother William,

00:14:08.093 --> 00:14:09.420
who had a background

00:14:09.420 --> 00:14:10.874
in art and architecture,

00:14:10.874 --> 00:14:14.070
joined him to assist with development.

00:14:14.070 --> 00:14:14.910
- We were pretty much,

00:14:14.910 --> 00:14:16.920
were co-developing.

00:14:16.920 --> 00:14:18.450
I would do the programming.

00:14:18.450 --> 00:14:19.826
I would create the tools

00:14:19.826 --> 00:14:22.470
to do the artwork and everything,

00:14:22.470 --> 00:14:23.560
and then Bill would pretty much do

00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:25.890
all of the artwork

00:14:25.890 --> 00:14:28.380
and stuff that would go into things.

00:14:28.380 --> 00:14:30.450
- [Norman] While porting
games brought in money,

00:14:30.450 --> 00:14:31.283
it was not as fulfilling

00:14:31.283 --> 00:14:33.450
as making an original game.

00:14:33.450 --> 00:14:35.070
So the Rozner brothers came up

00:14:35.070 --> 00:14:36.120
with a concept for

00:14:36.120 --> 00:14:37.470
an environmentally-themed

00:14:37.470 --> 00:14:39.630
game called Eco-Man.

00:14:39.630 --> 00:14:42.120
Players took control of Eco-Man,

00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:43.740
a little guy in a hazmat suit,

00:14:43.740 --> 00:14:44.909
who went around oil rigs,

00:14:44.909 --> 00:14:47.250
underwater caves, and boats

00:14:47.250 --> 00:14:50.910
transforming mutated
enemies back to normal.

00:14:50.910 --> 00:14:51.870
They worked on the game

00:14:51.870 --> 00:14:53.190
for several months before

00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:54.420
pitching it to publisher

00:14:54.420 --> 00:14:56.550
Hi-Tech Expressions.

00:14:56.550 --> 00:14:57.573
Hi-Tech Expressions,

00:14:57.573 --> 00:14:59.130
which had an exclusive

00:14:59.130 --> 00:15:01.110
licensing deal with Capcom,

00:15:01.110 --> 00:15:02.430
agreed to publish the game

00:15:02.430 --> 00:15:04.500
under one stipulation.

00:15:04.500 --> 00:15:07.620
Change Eco-Man to Mega Man.

00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:09.000
Rozner Labs agreed

00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.880
and began making the necessary changes.

00:15:11.880 --> 00:15:14.880
In 1992, Capcom and Hi-Tech Expressions

00:15:14.880 --> 00:15:19.138
published Mega Man III:
The Robots are Revolting.

00:15:19.138 --> 00:15:21.120
Many people find the title

00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.010
of the game confusing.

00:15:23.010 --> 00:15:25.530
What happened to Mega Man II?

00:15:25.530 --> 00:15:28.560
There is no Mega Man II for DOS.

00:15:28.560 --> 00:15:31.200
The game was only titled Mega Man III

00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:32.910
because of the cover art.

00:15:32.910 --> 00:15:34.980
One of the bosses from the NES version

00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:36.660
of Mega Man III closely

00:15:36.660 --> 00:15:38.149
resembled one of the bosses

00:15:38.149 --> 00:15:41.010
from the Mega Man III DOS game.

00:15:41.010 --> 00:15:43.440
So once again, to save money,

00:15:43.440 --> 00:15:45.600
Capcom re-used the box art

00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:48.300
and called the game Mega Man III.

00:15:48.300 --> 00:15:49.890
If people thought the first

00:15:49.890 --> 00:15:51.898
Mega Man DOS game was strange,

00:15:51.898 --> 00:15:54.630
Mega Man III was even stranger.

00:15:54.630 --> 00:15:55.770
But that's because the game

00:15:55.770 --> 00:15:57.660
was originally never supposed

00:15:57.660 --> 00:15:59.370
to be a Mega Man game.

00:15:59.370 --> 00:16:02.031
The levels are massive, living worlds.

00:16:02.031 --> 00:16:04.110
Enemies don't re-spawn,

00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:06.690
even if Mega Man loses a life.

00:16:06.690 --> 00:16:08.760
This time around, the robot masters

00:16:08.760 --> 00:16:12.960
are Bit Man, Shark Man, Wave Man,

00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:17.040
Oil Man, Blade Man, and Torch Man.

00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:18.330
Their portraits are based

00:16:18.330 --> 00:16:20.820
on bosses from the NES games.

00:16:20.820 --> 00:16:22.380
For example, Blade Man

00:16:22.380 --> 00:16:24.270
is a modification of Metal Man's

00:16:24.270 --> 00:16:27.540
portrait from Mega Man II on the NES.

00:16:27.540 --> 00:16:28.740
Another surprise is that,

00:16:28.740 --> 00:16:30.481
for the first time ever,

00:16:30.481 --> 00:16:32.820
Mega Man can swim.

00:16:32.820 --> 00:16:34.230
The feature wouldn't return

00:16:34.230 --> 00:16:35.400
until Mega Man VIII

00:16:35.400 --> 00:16:37.260
on the Sony PlayStation.

00:16:37.260 --> 00:16:38.550
William Rozner stated

00:16:38.550 --> 00:16:40.922
"Capcom didn't hate it, otherwise,

00:16:40.922 --> 00:16:43.680
"we would have had to change it out."

00:16:43.680 --> 00:16:45.360
After Mega Man III's release,

00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:46.890
Stephen and William Rozner

00:16:46.890 --> 00:16:49.470
officially incorporated Rozner Labs

00:16:49.470 --> 00:16:51.870
as Rozner Labs Software Group.

00:16:51.870 --> 00:16:53.580
They attended trade shows,

00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:54.990
looking to elicit work

00:16:54.990 --> 00:16:56.610
from bigger companies.

00:16:56.610 --> 00:16:59.280
They aimed to get
high-paying console work,

00:16:59.280 --> 00:17:01.440
but their specialty was porting games

00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:02.850
to the computer.

00:17:02.850 --> 00:17:04.080
They continued to work

00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:06.450
with Hi-Tech Expressions and Capcom

00:17:06.450 --> 00:17:08.490
on various projects.

00:17:08.490 --> 00:17:11.670
One of those projects was Mega Man X.

00:17:11.670 --> 00:17:14.280
Capcom had recently re-invented Mega Man

00:17:14.280 --> 00:17:16.380
with a new franchise that took place

00:17:16.380 --> 00:17:19.530
100 years after the original games.

00:17:19.530 --> 00:17:20.607
Mega Man X came out

00:17:20.607 --> 00:17:24.030
on the Super Nintendo in 1993.

00:17:24.030 --> 00:17:26.215
Joe Morici, still at Capcom,

00:17:26.215 --> 00:17:28.110
approached Rozner Labs

00:17:28.110 --> 00:17:30.480
about porting the game to the computer.

00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:31.680
And this time,

00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:33.637
Capcom was willing to help.

00:17:33.637 --> 00:17:35.160
- That one was great because

00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:37.840
I think we got DAT tape audio,

00:17:37.840 --> 00:17:40.170
we got the graphics.

00:17:40.170 --> 00:17:43.890
We basically got most everything

00:17:43.890 --> 00:17:48.890
although I couldn't get
the code for Mega Man X.

00:17:49.560 --> 00:17:52.740
So with that, that was one where,

00:17:52.740 --> 00:17:54.690
literally, we had to play

00:17:54.690 --> 00:17:55.966
the Super Nintendo

00:17:55.966 --> 00:17:59.610
and recreate everything

00:17:59.610 --> 00:18:01.380
from the ground up.

00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:02.310
- [Norman] Capcom released

00:18:02.310 --> 00:18:05.670
Mega Man X for DOS in 1995.

00:18:05.670 --> 00:18:08.970
It came packaged with a
six-button controller.

00:18:08.970 --> 00:18:10.410
The game sold well,

00:18:10.410 --> 00:18:13.050
but it is by no means a perfect port

00:18:13.050 --> 00:18:14.700
and has some minor differences

00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:16.710
from the Super Nintendo version.

00:18:16.710 --> 00:18:19.080
Bosses feel more aggressive,

00:18:19.080 --> 00:18:20.887
X controls much differently,

00:18:20.887 --> 00:18:23.820
and all the Ride Armors are missing.

00:18:23.820 --> 00:18:26.160
But if players didn't
have a Super Nintendo,

00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:29.850
it was a way to get in
on the Mega Man craze.

00:18:29.850 --> 00:18:31.710
- Again, it was a whole different market.

00:18:31.710 --> 00:18:33.100
There weren't really a lot of PC games

00:18:33.100 --> 00:18:35.610
and a lot of the PC games weren't great.

00:18:35.610 --> 00:18:37.110
I think that's why a lot of people,

00:18:37.110 --> 00:18:38.010
if you see the people

00:18:38.010 --> 00:18:40.140
who really like the Mega Man PC games,

00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:42.300
it's like what was out

00:18:42.300 --> 00:18:44.820
there was really not great.

00:18:44.820 --> 00:18:46.020
Ports that were out there

00:18:46.020 --> 00:18:48.679
were really, really horrible.

00:18:48.679 --> 00:18:51.240
Where, yeah, people just coded it

00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:52.920
as poorly as possible.

00:18:52.920 --> 00:18:54.360
I was told on a number of ports

00:18:54.360 --> 00:18:55.717
that I worked on,

00:18:55.717 --> 00:18:56.550
"Do it fast.

00:18:56.550 --> 00:18:59.790
"It doesn't matter if
it really is horrible,"

00:18:59.790 --> 00:19:02.947
and even with bugs, they would say,

00:19:02.947 --> 00:19:05.316
"No, we're just going to push this out."

00:19:05.316 --> 00:19:06.660
- [Norman] Two years later,

00:19:06.660 --> 00:19:09.095
The Rozner brothers
sought new opportunities,

00:19:09.095 --> 00:19:11.673
and shut down Rozner Labs.

00:19:16.890 --> 00:19:18.210
Stephen Rozner bounced

00:19:18.210 --> 00:19:19.980
around the industry for a while,

00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:22.350
including a stint at Electronic Arts,

00:19:22.350 --> 00:19:25.320
where he worked on a
variety of sports titles.

00:19:25.320 --> 00:19:27.090
Today, the Rozner brothers

00:19:27.090 --> 00:19:29.021
are running their own company again,

00:19:29.021 --> 00:19:31.320
Fun Spray Games.

00:19:31.320 --> 00:19:32.970
Currently, they are working

00:19:32.970 --> 00:19:34.860
on their passion project.

00:19:34.860 --> 00:19:36.360
The Rozner brothers always

00:19:36.360 --> 00:19:38.820
wanted to make their own RPG,

00:19:38.820 --> 00:19:40.440
so together, they are working

00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:43.440
on one for Android and iOS.

00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:45.180
The Mega Man games on DOS

00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:47.310
are certainly strange when compared

00:19:47.310 --> 00:19:48.300
to the other games

00:19:48.300 --> 00:19:50.190
in the Mega Man franchise.

00:19:50.190 --> 00:19:52.567
And they aren't necessarily good games.

00:19:52.567 --> 00:19:55.020
The Awesome Games Done Quick charity

00:19:55.020 --> 00:19:56.550
has featured Both Mega Man

00:19:56.550 --> 00:19:59.280
and Mega Man III in it's lineup.

00:19:59.280 --> 00:20:01.740
Capcom has never officially acknowledged

00:20:01.740 --> 00:20:03.720
the games since their release.

00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:05.647
Although they have reused some boss names,

00:20:05.647 --> 00:20:08.280
like Oil Man and Blade Man,

00:20:08.280 --> 00:20:11.640
they have nothing to
do with the DOS games.

00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.980
- I mean, they are what they were.

00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:16.110
They're kind of like homages

00:20:16.110 --> 00:20:17.460
and what have you.

00:20:17.460 --> 00:20:18.990
Capcom has always been

00:20:18.990 --> 00:20:21.030
about fan art and whatever.

00:20:21.030 --> 00:20:22.080
If nothing else,

00:20:22.080 --> 00:20:25.541
I mean, it was a super early version

00:20:25.541 --> 00:20:28.413
of fan art programming.

00:20:29.250 --> 00:20:30.990
- [Norman] Capcom has since taken

00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:33.390
a neutral approach to fan games.

00:20:33.390 --> 00:20:34.260
They've stated that

00:20:34.260 --> 00:20:37.050
they can't legally sanction fan games,

00:20:37.050 --> 00:20:39.780
but they also won't go after them either.

00:20:39.780 --> 00:20:41.087
In 2012, they even officially

00:20:41.087 --> 00:20:43.418
licensed a fan game,

00:20:43.418 --> 00:20:45.930
Street Fighter x Mega Man,

00:20:45.930 --> 00:20:47.373
and released it for free.

00:20:48.330 --> 00:20:49.586
People love to make fun

00:20:49.586 --> 00:20:52.050
of the Mega Man games on DOS.

00:20:52.050 --> 00:20:53.792
But by looking at their backstory,

00:20:53.792 --> 00:20:55.664
it's easier to see these titles

00:20:55.664 --> 00:20:57.630
in a new light.

00:20:57.630 --> 00:20:58.463
At the time,

00:20:58.463 --> 00:21:00.060
Capcom was trying to expand

00:21:00.060 --> 00:21:01.350
its consumer division

00:21:01.350 --> 00:21:04.125
by porting popular games to the computer.

00:21:04.125 --> 00:21:06.120
There was little to no concern

00:21:06.120 --> 00:21:08.610
about continuity or quality.

00:21:08.610 --> 00:21:10.031
The Mega Man DOS games were,

00:21:10.031 --> 00:21:13.015
essentially, fan games that Capcom

00:21:13.015 --> 00:21:16.620
agreed to publish for a quick buck.

00:21:16.620 --> 00:21:17.760
That's all for this episode

00:21:17.760 --> 00:21:19.350
of The Gaming Historian,

00:21:19.350 --> 00:21:20.373
thanks for watching.

00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:23.790
- [Narrator] Funding for Gaming Historian

00:21:23.790 --> 00:21:27.240
is provided in part by
supporters on Patreon.

00:21:27.240 --> 00:21:28.073
Thank you.

00:21:30.087 --> 00:21:32.587
(light music)