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Monday, January 4, 2010

Romero Chats With Game Programming Legend Nasir

Even if you don't remember seeing his uncommon name, you've likely played some of Nasir Gebelli's games. The famed programmer first attracted gamers' attention with his Apple II titles for Sirius Software like Space Eggs and Gorgon, and later worked at Square, where he helped create 3-D Worldrunner, Rad Racer, Final Fantasy I-III, and Secret of Mana.

Game industry veteran John Romero, a self-admitted Nasir fanboy (he even made a poster with a collage of photos to hang in his office), brought the programmer in for an Apple II Reunion event he hosted in 1998 and recorded a chat between them. In the above clip, you can hear Nasir's disbelief that people actually remembered his work.

I've embedded another clip after the break, from the same interview but uploaded years ago, in which the former Square developer talks about how he started working at the RPG publisher in its salad days. You can also read Romero's praising of Nasir and criticisms of Secret of Mana at his personal site.

[Via Derek Yu]

Comments

I absolutely loved Secret of Mana in my childhood days (if you asked me when I was 12, I would have called it my favorite SNES game), but my one attempt to replay it in recent years resulted in the same kind of problems Romero describes.

I wonder why I was so immersed by it when I was younger, but couldn't help losing interest as an adult? I think my overactive imagination may have filled in a lot of the blanks and less interesting parts of the game.

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