Interview] "City Connection MD" Development Secrets: Key Personnel Discuss Why They Tackled ROM Cartridge Software in the Age of 2025

In this action game, a beautiful girl named "Clarice" drives her beloved car, "Clarice Car," around the world. The game features 12 stages in the arcade version, and the "City Connection" game was released in 1985 for the arcade version and the Famicom (NES) version. The arcade version had 12 stages, and the "Clarisse Car's" advanced technique, "turn jump," was difficult to control.

The NES version had better control of the "Clarisker" but consisted of six stages, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

City Connection MD" was a dream port that combined the best of both worlds, with 12 stages, easy turn jumping, and six hidden features whose activation conditions had been unknown for 35 years.

The product consists of a ROM cartridge, an instruction manual, and a case that holds the ROM cartridge, all of which are reminiscent of those days. This product, including its sales format, has attracted a great deal of attention from retro game fans.

Why Cartridge Real Cartridge now in 2025? How were the phantom hidden features found? We asked these questions to Nobuhiro Yoshikawa, president of City Connection Corporation, which inherited JALECO's IP including "City Connection," and HABIT SOFT's representative Mr. T天井, who is in charge of software development and ROM cartridge production.

The MD version of "City Connection MD" is an "IF of history" that was made possible by the search for a hidden feature of the game.

--City Connection MD" is a game that is a "historical fiction" that has been realized in the MD version. First of all, please tell us how you came to develop "City Connection MD".

Tianjing: HABIT SOFT was in charge of the development of "Burnero‼Professional Baseball Home Run Contest GB" (a port of the arcade game "Burnero‼Professional Baseball Home Run Contest" released in 2022 as a GB Color exclusive software), which received a good reputation. This connection led me to consider making a GB version of "City Connection," but I came to the conclusion that the GB specs would not allow for the double scrolling of the background and foreground characters that is a feature of the game. So you suggested to President Yoshikawa that the MD version might work.

Yoshikawa: I was not worried because "Burning Pro Baseball Home Run Contest GB" was very good, but it is the game that gave us our company name, so we could not release it unless we had someone who understood the game and supervised it properly. However, Mr. Tomei is a man of action and breakthrough ability. He would casually mention "City Connection MD" in another conversation, and in many other ways, I feel he gave us permission to do so (laughs).

Nobuhiro Yoshikawa, President of City Connection

--I imagine that the MD version of "City Connection" must have been a lot of work, since it was an IF that never existed in the first place.

Yoshikawa: If it had been a project that promoted the rarity of a title that had originally been released on MD and was now being reissued on MD, we would not have given permission for development. It is not interesting, and there is no reason to ask Mr. Tianjing to do it. If we were to create an MD version that did not exist, I can foresee that it would be very difficult to formulate a direction, go through the trouble of eye-copying and ear-copying from the original arcade version, and deal with the phantom hidden features that I will talk about later. My supervision will also be held to the strictest standards in the world, as this is a game bearing the company's name. I will be challenging myself there, but if you are still willing to do it, I would ask you to develop the game. Personally, I thought that Tianjing would do it.

--How did you decide on the direction of "City Connection MD"?

Yoshikawa: The concept that Mr. T ceiling came up with was "to faithfully reproduce the original arcade version, but to make the play style more modern and easier to play. In hindsight, I can see that this was a necessary step.

Tianjing: The arcade version had to be finished in a certain amount of time because of the turnover rate at arcades, and the controls were very demanding. On the other hand, the Famicom (NES) version has better operability due to the lack of such restrictions, and is generally associated with this image. Therefore, if "City Connection" were to be released today, it would be difficult to maintain the same controls as the arcade version. So we decided on the concept of keeping the look and number of stages similar to the arcade version and the controls close to the NES version.

--I see. So you took the best parts of the arcade version and the Famicom version.

T ceiling: If we were going to pursue an MD port, we thought it would be better to make the game easier to play. Thanks to the positive feedback we've received, I think this is the right balance for now. If you want to play the original, there are other options such as Hamster's "Arcade Archives" or Nintendo's "Family Computer Nintendo Switch Online" that faithfully reproduce the original.

HABIT SOFT representative, Mr. Tianjing

--I had the chance to play the game, and I felt that the operability was improved over the NES version, and specifically, the turn jump (changing direction during a high jump), in which the lever is pushed to the opposite side during a high jump, is very easy to do. Ceiling

Tianjing: The arcade version had a 4-way lever, but in reality, the 8-way lever was an easier technique to use. The appeal of this technique is that it creates a sense of unity in the game when it is done well, but the input (in the arcade version) was very strict. City Connection MD" solves the frustration of not being able to perform the turn jump when you want to, and makes it easier to play as a game. We were very careful to achieve this balance.

--The look and feel of the game is a recreation of the arcade version, and you can make a lot of difficult turn jumps, so I felt like I was getting better at the game than when I played in real time.

Tianjing: I didn't want people to dislike the game "City Connection. Many people have played the NES version and are probably aware of the arcade version. So, since you were going to release the game as a late port in this state, you thought you should improve the feel of the controls.

Yoshikawa: The behavior of the "Clarisker" and the timing of when enemies appear had been changed, making it easier to play, so it was fresh.

--The timing of when the enemies appear has also been changed.

Yoshikawa: In the latter half of the arcade version, police cars flew at you with the force of a suicide squad, and even from an objective point of view, some of the stages seemed too difficult. But "City Connection MD" is arranged in such a way that the difficulty level does not go up that high. The balance of "City Connection MD" is the most enjoyable when you consider that you enjoy flying around as you please with balloons (*) and then trying to find hidden features in the stages ahead.

*"Balloons"...balloons that appear throughout the stage; when three are collected, they randomly warp to another stage.

--Did you and Mr. Yoshikawa have any discussions about this direction?

Yoshikawa: After we gave our permission to Tomei, the next time we were contacted, the game was ready. I know this because I often borrow IP from other companies for development, but normally I would get a preliminary confirmation of the tuning concept and report on the progress of the project. But Tianjing came out with a game that they had created all at once, and if it was not good enough, they had to rework it, so I wondered what they would do if they said it was not good enough (laughs).

(Laughs) -- I had to first make something that had some form so that the concept of the game would not become blurred, but even so, it was amazing.

TEMIYO: I didn't want to release something that was half-baked.

Yoshikawa: It was refreshing to play what Ceiling had put out from a flat perspective, because it was solid and easy to play. Even for the concept of "If "City Connection" had been released on MD," it would have simply been something with background music played on the MD sound source and graphics drawn on the MD palette. However, when I actually touched the game, I could tell that Tomei was taking on the challenge of difficulty, operability, and the fact that it was a late port for home video game consoles. Also, the dot picture of Clarice that appears when clearing a stage has become cute (laughs). If it had come out on MD back then, it might not have been so cute.

--Was the idea of displaying the percentage of fill in the screen something that you had in mind from the beginning?

Tianjing: We were thinking of including it from an early stage. In the NES version, you paint block by block, so you can tell at a glance if there is any leftover paint. However, in the arcade version and "City Connection MD," the paint units are much finer, so it would be easier to understand if the percentages could be checked. During development, I also used it as a confirmation when playing the game myself. Also, with compatible consoles such as the Retro Freak, it is possible to check the remaining paint on the clear HDMI output, but with portable compatible consoles with small screens, or for those who play on the actual MD console, it is difficult to check because the video output blurs the screen.

--I personally felt that the percentage display was a well-balanced feature that was convenient, but not too convenient. So, what did you pay attention to in the development process?

TEMIYO: Since this is not a program analysis but an eye-copy, we were careful about how much of the arcade and old "City Connection" feel we could bring out. The MD has an FM sound system, so we could make the music sound more like the arcade version, but there is no score, so it was like starting from an ear copy, which was also a challenge.

-I miss the idea of a port that is done by hand. That must have been why it took so much time and effort. What were some of the difficulties?

TEMIYO: When we started development, we thought it would be difficult because of the double scrolling and the fact that we had to include six stages that were cut from the NES version, but when we actually started working on it, there were even more difficulties. There are several patterns of scaffolds to be painted from the second stage onward, but at first we did not know this and proceeded with the development. We created the game by eye copying, but when we compared it with the arcade version, we found that the scaffold shapes were completely different. Moreover, if there are multiple shapes for two sides, there are multiple shapes for three sides and multiple shapes for four sides, and they are all intricately intertwined. Although I declared to President Kikkawa that I would do it, I felt regret that I had said such a terrible thing.

--I was sorry that I had said such a terrible thing, but when I proceeded with the project, problems that I had not anticipated came up. This time, I declared to the outside president that I would develop the project, so I couldn't give up so easily.

TERIAI: Certainly, during the development process, there were times when I thought, "We can't do this, can we?" But as we looked into it, we found that it was not possible. However, as I did a lot of research, I noticed that a person named HIRYU*, who has been playing "City Connection" for 38 years and is ...... personally called "City Connection Master," was uploading videos on X (formerly Twitter). I noticed that he was posting videos on X (formerly Twitter). So I contacted Mr. HIRYU and asked him to supervise the project.

Mr. HIRYU... click here for Mr. HIRYU's blog

--I was able to get in touch with a person who was deeply researching past games through SNS. It is an event only possible in this day and age.

TEMIYO: After all, the "City Connection Master" has been playing the game for 38 years, so he is very knowledgeable about the "Claris car" and the behavior of police cars. This speeded up the development process, but there was another problem. The next problem was a hidden feature, the conditions of which were not known at the time.

--In "City Connection," there is one hidden feature (trick) per stage, such as "In the Indian side, if you shoot two oils in front of the Taj Mahal, the field turns to dusk. Although there are 12 stages in total, only six were found at the time, and a total of six was considered the accepted theory.

Tianjing: As for the remaining six stages, HIRYU did not know about them, and President Yoshikawa did not have any documents at hand. I had no choice but to search the Internet to find someone who knew about the remaining six stages, but I still couldn't find anything.

--I was still unable to find them. - Maybe there really are six hidden features, maybe not.

Tianjing At a loss, I found someone who had analyzed the program for the arcade version of "City Connection" and personally ported it to an X68000 computer*. On his website, he wrote that he had found the remaining 6 hidden features and would upload them soon, but the date was about 10 years ago.

X68000... A personal computer released by Sharp in 1987. It had high specs and was able to port arcade games with high accuracy, and is still a beloved machine, with a reprinted version called the "X68000Z" being released in 2023. There were also cases where independent programmers personally ported commercial games, and these works were called "self-porting," and were distributed in various ways.

--The program was analyzed and it was confirmed that there were 12 hidden features, but without knowing the conditions, there was no way to reproduce the game.

Tianjing: I tried to find this person through people, but I couldn't find him in any way. In the meantime, the release date was approaching. We had no choice but to release the product with only the six currently known ...... and almost decided to announce the release date.

--I was almost ready to announce the release date with . - As expected, there was nothing we could do if we couldn't find the person in question.

Tianjing: This is where things took a sharp turn. When City Connection exhibited at the "Ikebukuro, Toshima, Seibu Line Retro 100 Currency Exhibition" held at the Seibu Ikebukuro main store in the summer of 2023, we put up a large poster, and this person happened to have seen it. And he published the information about the phantom hidden feature on our website.

--So you were able to get the information out just in time.

Yoshikawa: Since the public was told that there would be six hidden features, I thought it would be okay to leave it at six. But now that we know the conditions, we decided to postpone the release and include them in "City Connection MD" because it wouldn't be a complete version unless we could reproduce them. Actually, this sample version of the ROM cartridge (on hand at the time of the interview) contains only six hidden features.

--I see. This story makes me think about the preservation of information about games. Information about old games is rapidly being lost, and even if you try to port a game, there is no documentation left. I often hear these stories myself in interviews. There is no way to preserve the skills of expert players and the knowledge gained from them, or in this case, the behavior and feel of the "Clarisse Car" and the police car, unless they are documented again. As a game maker is also a company, it cannot devote budget and personnel to preservation that does not generate profit. However, since "City Connection MD" was ported as a business, it can be preserved, and in years to come, the knowledge gained from this project may be useful. In addition, the possibility that the phantom hidden features could not be found even by Mr. Hiryu, who has played the game for 38 years, and that they were "things that were not supposed to be found" put in by the programmers for fun, cannot be dismissed. However, we were able to solve the mystery of "City Connection MD" in the form of analysis, and we were able to leave the conditions of the hidden feature for posterity. Not only will people play this game, but there will also be people who will play the arcade version anew, and this is where the research could start. ......When you think about it, "City Connection MD" was a release that overcame some difficult challenges, and it seems significant.

Yoshikawa: The hidden features that we have already found were accompanied by easy-to-understand changes, such as "hidden characters appear" in the U.S. and "the stage becomes evening" in India, but the phantom hidden features are clearly different in nature.

Tianjing: The conditions were unimaginable. For example, in Holland, "If you hold down the button to throw the oil can for more than 253 frames*, it will fly away even if it hits a cat.

A frame is the smallest unit of time used in a game. 1 frame is 1/60th of a second. The hidden feature mentioned in the example requires 253 frames = 4.21 seconds to hold down the button. Since the oil can is limited, the throw button is only pressed for a split second, and holding it down for 4 seconds is an operation that is rarely performed.

Yoshikawa: If someone happened to notice this, they might have thought it was a bug or a misunderstanding. I have never met the developers of the arcade version, but maybe they were not aware that it was a hidden feature. There are six official ones, and the other six may have been secretly planted so that no one would know about them.

-This is like saying that it's no wonder you haven't been able to find it for 38 years. Did you get permission for the recording?

TERIAI: Of course. Thankfully, they readily agreed. I was impressed by the fact that the person was also pleased to learn of the existence of "City Connection MD" and to release the information to us. I immediately contacted President Yoshikawa and said, "I found it! I contacted President Yoshikawa immediately.

Taking the user's wishes into consideration and delivering the substance of ROM cartridges and instruction manuals

--The "City Connection MD" was also a hot topic because of its sales format, which included a nostalgic ROM cartridge that could be run on an actual game machine and a paper instruction manual in a plastic case reminiscent of those days. Where would they be produced now? Is it overseas?

Yoshikawa: Certainly, other companies would have to outsource their manufacturing overseas. But you yourself manufacture ROM cartridges.

TEMIYO: It's hard work because I burn ROMs one by one*, check the operation, attach stickers to the ROM cartridges, and bind the printed manuals into booklets, all by hand (laughs).

Burning a ROM...Writing a program into a ROM (read-only memory).

--It is literally "handmade.

TEMIYO: My company, HABIT SOFT, is basically an indie company. That's why I want to see it through to the end, and I want people to feel the love I have for it. I am not a manufacturer, so I have to do the work by hand, and there are complaints, but I do it with a lot of things in mind, so the defect rate is very low, or close to zero.

--The quality of the products is maintained because you check every corner of the product yourself.

Tianjing: The people who buy our products also buy them because they have a passion for the game. I also like games, so I understand their feelings. That's why, as an indie, I want to stand in the shoes of the people who buy my games. For example, for "Burning Pro Baseball Home Run Contest GB," we prepare a paper box just like the one used for GB games at the time, and ship it so that it will not be crushed. If that doesn't work, we will send you a newly assembled paper box.

--It's a lot of work just to keep track of the materials: the ROM cartridge gaskets, the circuit boards and chips that make up the contents, the packages and jackets, and the instruction manuals before binding .......

TERIAI: I think you can guess that part. In the case of "City Connection MD," we need a plastic package for the MD, so it takes up an awful lot of space (laughs).

Yoshikawa: I think there are not many places that do in-house production on this scale, and since HABIT SOFT has been active for so long, and in addition to original software, we also receive requests from other companies, I honestly wonder how they do it (laughs).

(Laughs.) TEMIYO: Delivery deadlines and various other commitments are absolute, and we must not betray trust, so I want to be reasonable about that.

--I'm sure players responded to "City Connection MD" after its release, but was there anything that left a lasting impression on you?

TEMEI: We received many "thank you" comments about being able to release JALECO's game on MD. We also received quite a few purchases from overseas people living in Japan, and in their e-mails when they applied for the product, they sometimes wrote that they were sending what they bought to their friends overseas.

Yoshikawa: Real cartridges are popular outside Japan as well.

Tianjing: So you have memories of being excited to see the box and the back side of the game at department stores and NES stores when you were a child, and then going home and pulling out the paper instruction manual. I think that having a physical box and instruction manual is a very strong reminder of this. Therefore, as HABIT SOFT, we have to be particular not only about the contents of the ROM cartridges, but also about the outer packaging. I think it is only when everything is in place that we can be particular.

--I think it is true that my memories of those days are strongly connected to the physical objects such as the box and the instruction manual. I can recall buying software at an electronics store, opening the box on the train on the way home and reading through the manual, and storing the software in a wardrobe box.

Tianjing: With the recent trend toward downloadable software, it may be against the times to insist on physical objects, but we at HABIT SOFT would like to keep this aspect of our business in mind.

--What is the age range of the buyers?

TEMIYO: At the retro game events I host around the country, the majority are in their 40s. Recently, the number of retro game lovers in their 20s has been increasing, and they seem to feel that retro games are something new and fresh that their generation doesn't have. Such younger generation of game lovers are welcomed in the retro gaming community, and I am surprised to see them improving their skills as players.

--Do you see any regional differences in the clientele at your real events?

Tianjing: Most of the event participants are from the Kanto area. Many young people attend in Okayama Prefecture. Also, people in Hokkaido tend to use mail order after the event, while people in Nagoya tend to buy things with cash. Kagoshima starts selling about 30 minutes after the event starts, while Osaka tends to focus on trial play rather than purchases, and start well-wishers meetings at the close of the event. ......

--It is interesting that the trend changes depending on the region.

Yoshikawa: Another event called "Game Legacy Vol. 3" (*) is scheduled for March 30, 2024 at the Fuji Community Center in Nagoya. We will be sponsoring and exhibiting, and exhibitors are being sought, so please check it out if you are interested.

*"Game Legacy Vol. 3"...Retro game doujinshi and exhibition scheduled to be held in Nagoya on Saturday, March 30, 2024. For more details, click here!

Ceiling We will continue to hold more events in the future and hope to make this a regular event in Nagoya.

--Will the tag team of City Connection and HABIT SOFT continue in the future?

Yoshikawa: "City Connection MD" was a project that we could not have done alone, and we have received many positive feedback that makes us glad we entrusted the development to HABIT SOFT. Also, as we have been talking about on SNS and through distribution, we still have "THE FREEDOM STAR (P-47II)" that JALECO was working on for its entry into the Mega Drive market, and we have plans to release it as a ROM cartridge. Another project is also in the works, so please stay tuned.

--So, the MD software that was once a mirage has passed through the ages and is now available on ROM cartridges.

Yoshikawa: "THE FREEDOM STAR (P-47II)" was an actual port of the arcade version of "P-47" to the Mega Drive, but for various reasons it was never released and became a fantastic game. The difference is that "City Connection MD" is an IF existence, whereas this one is presented as it was at the time.

--What advice would you give to beginners who want to play "City Connection MD"?

TEMIYO: Now that there are compatible devices like the Retro Freak, the hurdle to playing has been lowered. If you are interested, you may want to buy an actual MD machine and enjoy it. Once you get a feel for the atmosphere of retro games, the number of game consoles from that time will increase to one or two ...... (laughs).

--Then, finally, could you give a message to our readers?

Ceiling: Please remember the name HABIT SOFT! That's what I mean. There is a big movement with famous people like Mr. Yuzo Ancient* getting involved in the real cartridge area, and I can only be thankful to have famous people involved.

Mr. Yuzo Ancient...A legendary composer who has been involved in game music since the 1980s, he is currently developing a new work for MD, "Arcion.

Yoshikawa: HABIT SOFT and I are in different fields, and we cross paths about twice a year. At that time, we work together hard, and then return to each other's fields and continue to work together. The real cartridge community today is a culture that was unthinkable a decade ago. I hope we can continue to produce great titles in the future.

--Thank you very much.

(Text by Shinichi Yanamoto)

Game Information

City Connection MD

Now on sale

Price: 8,800 yen (including tax)

Manufacturer: HABITSOFT

Compatibility: MD

Player: 1 player

Genre: Action game