In August 1985, Endō left Namco to found his own company, Game’s Studio. Doing the same trick in Super Xevious brings “Special thanks for you by game designer EVEZOO” onto the screen. Xevious happens to contain one of these easter eggs as well, which is revealed by going to the far right and bombing away at the beginning of the game: “NAMCO ORIGINAL program by EVEZOO”. It’s actually a problem the industry still struggles with – people still frequently talk about games in terms of “a Capcom game”, instead of “a game designed by Yoshiki Okamoto”.
In the Atari age, programmers used to hide in-game secret messages (the term “Easter Egg” was coined in 1981, some two years after Warren Robinett hid his name within the Atari 2600 classic Adventure) to get some much-deserved credit for their work, which otherwise would have gone just to the manufacturer. He was one of the first programmers to take pride in referring to himself as a “game designer”. Joining Namco in April 1981, he became one of Japan’s most respected game creators, later responsible for the equally successful Namco classic Tower of Druaga. It was designed and programmed by Masanobu “EVEZOO” Endō, who graduated from Chiba university in 1959. Like with all of their successful properties, Namco keeps up the legacy with frequent reappearances on compilations and other releases. Upon its release, it became an instant hit, and in the following years it was ported to many 8-bit home systems. Most people reading this have probably already heard about the arcade game Xevious.
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