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THE iDOLM@STER (アイドルマスター Aidorumasutaa) is the first video game in the THE iDOLM@STER series of games, and the first title in the 1st Vision era. It was first released in the arcades on July 26, 2005, developed by Metro (best known for the Bust a Groove series) and published by Namco. It marked the beginning of the THE iDOLM@STER franchise and introduced most of its earliest characters.
Running on PlayStation 2-based Namco System 256, the game's network service was powered by Sega/Namco's ALL.Net standard. It is commonly recognized as "アケマス (Akemasu)", a portmanteau between the words "arcade" and "iDOLM@STER". It is the second title in the Rewriteable Stage arcade cabinet series, with Dragon Chronicle being the first one, serving its cabinet and host base for THE iDOLM@STER.
In 2007, an Xbox 360 port of this game was released, also under the same title, and it was developed entirely by the in-house Namco studio instead of Metro. This re-release has overhauled graphics, adds new songs, the tenth idol, reworked lessons, and other quality of life changes.
On September 1, 2010, the game's online service was retired to coincide with the development and marketing of THE iDOLM@STER 2.
Contents
- 1 Story
- 2 Gameplay
- 3 Characters
- 4 Songs
- 5 Development
- 6 Pre-release and unused content
- 6.1 Idol Game Gallery
- 7 References
- 8 Links
Story
THE iDOLM@STER follows the career of a producer who works for the fictional 765 Production studio and has to work with a selection of nine prospective pop Japanese idols.
Gameplay
Arcade machines of the game use a touch screen interface for all command inputs. A player's game data is recorded onto two different types of magnetic cards known as Producer Cards and Idol Cards. The Producer Card details such things as Producer Rank, and one card can be used for up to 50 different idol units. The Idol Card details the status of an idol unit that the player is producing, and so the player will have an Idol Card for every idol unit that they have. These are provided by the machine if a player does not possess one or the other. A player can also provide their mobile e-mail address to the game in order to receive text messages to that address from their idol unit.
There are three primary activities in the game: Lessons, Communications, and Auditions. Lessons level up the stats of the idols, Communications increase the amount of "memories" the player can use during auditions and concerts, and Auditions increase the idol's fan count, thereby allowing the player to raise their Idol Rank. There is a limited amount of time within which the player must raise their Idol Rank. If this time limit runs out and the player does not succeed in that period, a retirement concert will be held for that idol unit, and the player will have to start over. The photos taken during the concerts that are held after a successful audition can be printed on to the player's Idol Card.
The player can also change their idol's costume for performances.
Characters
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Songs
Below is a list of ten songs introduced in this game. These are the first songs in THE iDOLM@STER series and have made appearances in nearly every subsequent game. However, minor changes have been made to their choreography since their debut, most notably Here we go!!, Mahou o Kakete!, and Positive!.
THE iDOLM@STER Arcade Songs | |||||
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Development
In the early 2000s, there were arcade games already in use that allowed players to save their progress on magnetic stripe cards to continue playing later, such as Sega’s magnetic cards for certain racing games (INITIAL D ARCADE STAGE, F-ZERO AX), Konami’s early e-AMUSEMENT card system (first used in GUITARFREAKS 8thMIX & drummania 7thMIX), and even Namco using said system for games such as Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune. In 2001, Namco designer Akihiro Ishihara chose to create an arcade game that used that technology. Ishihara wanted to make a game that would make players want to come back to play every day, which would be tied to the growth of arcades. Ishihara realized that players would need an emotional attachment to the game for them to play it every day. With the target audience being male players, Ishihara thought that a raising sim where players could befriend girls and young women would lead players to form a strong emotional attachment to the game.
To effectively use the competitive culture that surrounds arcades, Ishihara thought about various themes for the game, including professional wrestling and volleyball. Ishihara finally settled on a game featuring pop idols, who players would raise and compete against other players' idols to reach the top of the entertainment industry. The popularity of the talent search show Asayan partially influenced Ishihara in deciding on idols for the subject of the game, although he was still unsure if it was the right decision at the time. Video game producer Junichirō Koyama also points out that the concept of developing a simulation game featuring girls was influenced by the positive reception of bishōjo games such as Tokimeki Memorial and the horse raising simulation game Derby Owners Club. Some members of Namco thought it would feel awkward to play THE iDOLM@STER in public and that it would not be well received by players. However, when the game was first tested in arcades, there were long lines of people waiting to play. As word spread and its popularity grew, rival game companies said they had wanted to be the first to create a game like THE iDOLM@STER.
The goal of the development team was to create a raising simulation game that would have gameplay distinctive of arcade games at the time, including making use of a large touchscreen and a national online network. Koyama suggested that it would be interesting to have a touchscreen so that players could touch the girls at certain times during gameplay and get interesting reactions. While developing the game, Koyama realized that most bishōjo games at the time focused on specializing characters for players' specific tastes, which he felt was detrimental to the community surrounding such games. Therefore, one of Koyama's goals in developing the game was to restore a community where players would discuss what parts of which characters they like or find cute. Ishihara focused on developing realistic characters because of his view that there were too many bishōjo games at the time that had characters who were developed to be convenient for the player. Ishihara wanted to place the burden of an idol's mistakes on the player for not training her enough to deepen the player's attachment to the idol.
The ultimate focus was to create a game with a "cool, club-like image" that would be close to the feel of a music game. Originally, the protagonist was going to be put in the role of the idol's manager, but it was later changed to the idol's producer because the latter was perceived to be "cooler". The basic concept of the game dealing with a producer training a prospective idol to reach the top of the entertainment industry was only solidified late in the development process. The development team had many problems with creating a game that had no close equivalent or preceding game that involved training idols, so trial-and-error served to lengthen the development process. The balance between the graphics, music, and gameplay system had to be adjusted to lessen concerns about players being embarrassed to play the arcade game. The staff wanted to strike a balance with the character designs so they would not appear too moe. It was decided from the start the characters would be rendered using 3D graphics, so Toshiyuki Kubooka was chosen to do the character design because his art could be easier translated into 3D. The developers employed motion capture to present a realistic view of the characters—not only during normal gameplay but also during performances, which were rendered using motion capture from professional dancers. It was originally planned that the game would include 13 idols, and at least two of these extra characters (Takane Shijou and Hibiki Ganaha) also had character designs, but were not featured in the final game and were featured in later games. The idols of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume were used as an influence to create the character types in THE iDOLM@STER.
THE iDOLM@STER features 10 songs in the arcade version written and composed by a variety of songwriters. Ishihara asked Hiroto Sasaki, one of the music composers, to compose normal pop songs that would not sound odd or similar to songs "from bishōjo games." The music staff was otherwise given the freedom to compose what songs they wanted. The composers were first introduced to the characters, and then personally chose which girls they wanted to compose songs for. In the arcade version, the nine songs for the idols were composed first as the theme music for each girl, followed by Koyama asking for one more song with a "European" feel to be composed. Since each idol can sing any of the songs in the game, this resulted in 90 separate recording sessions for over two months. Due to the large amount of song recordings needed, the recordings were split into two phases. The first phase took place in February 2003 and consisted of Taiyou no Jealousy, Aoi Tori, Here we go!!, 9:02pm, and Ohayou!! Asagohan. The second recording session occurred in June 2003, and consisted of THE IDOLM@STER, First Stage, Positive!, Agent Yoru o Yuku, and Mahou o Kakete! While not a part of the initial song lineup, THE IDOLM@STER was requested to be the game's theme song.
Pre-release and unused content
The game's working title was Idol Game (アイドルゲーム Aidoru Geemu), and was first playable at the 40th Amusement Machine Expo in 2002 for testing. Concept art from this version also appeared in "THE iDOLM@STER Platinum Album". There were noticeable changes from the final version:
- Yukiho was originally named Megumi. In pre-release shots, Chihaya and Ritsuko's names were accidentally swapped.
- Haruka and Yukiho were shown wearing costumes not in the final game.
- School clothes for Haruka, Chihaya, Yukiho, and Yayoi were designed but never used.
- Some recolors were eventually brought back as the "School Wear" costume in the Xbox 360 version.
- Chihaya, Makoto, Yayoi, and the Futami twins' casual clothes differed slightly in color and detail from the final version.
- Several recolors were eventually brought back as the "Another Casual" costume in THE iDOLM@STER Live for You!.
- Takane and Hibiki were two planned idols to be in the game, but were ultimately cut from the final release due to difficulty animating their designs into 3D models.[2]
- Takane: A sophisticated, quarter-European daughter of a company CEO. She is proficient in German and the piano.
- Hibiki: A cheerful and vivacious child of the southern Isles. She is an Okinawan of bright and active disposition.
- Aspects of Takane and Hibiki were combined into the character of Miki Hoshii for the Xbox 360 remake, and they were both eventually revived with the release of THE iDOLM@STER SP.
The second playable version, now under the final name of THE iDOLM@STER, was available through a series of location tests held months before the game’s release to give players an opportunity to give feedback for development. During the first of these held in December 2004, a unique bad ending was available. In this ending, the player would be scowled at by their producing idol, and then they would leave. Many players received this ending, calling it "traumatic" or crying after receiving it.[3] This was removed in future location tests and was not available in the final game. It was labelled as the "Z-End", as players reported that they were given an evaluation of "Z" upon receiving it.
Unused in-game files from THE iDOLM@STER SP depict endings where each idol shows regret for disappointing their fans after performing badly in their last concert, and they decide to give up being idols.[4] This is speculated to have been the "Z-End."
Each of the location tests were received well, with people lining up in the cold and waiting for up to two hours for their turn to play it.[5]
Idol Game Gallery
Haruka and Chihaya's initial design.
Iori's initial design.
Takane's original design.
Hibiki's original design.
Yukiho's original school uniform design.
THE iDOLM@STER Logo original designs.
Original game art.
Original game cabinet.
Original art and screenshots.
Promotional art.
Idol Game exhibit.
Touch Event screenshot.
Communication Event.
References
Links
- THE IDOLM@STER WEB (1st Vision website)
- Original Arcade Website (official archive)
- "WIRED" Blog Post About IDOLM@STER Arcade Gameplay
- A fan website featuring many fanmade MVs of THE iDOLM@STER
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