Kazuro Morita
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(1955 – July 27, 2012) was a Japanese
video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the rules and content of video games in the Video game development#Pre-production, pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the Video game development ...
known for his work on the ''Morita's Shogi'' video game series. Becoming interested in computer programming during high school, he entered magazine competitions during his university years, creating video game versions of board games. He won a competition organised by
Enix was a Japanese multimedia publisher who handled and oversaw video games, manga, guidebooks, and merchandise. It was founded in 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima as Eidansha Boshu Service Center, initially as a tabloid publisher and later attempting t ...
in 1982 with the video game ''Morita's Battlefield'', which was published the following year to great commercial success. Following this success he established Random House, developing his ''Shogi'' series and several other game projects, several published by Enix. From 1999, he remained as a programmer for Yuki Entertainment (later
Examu Examu, formerly known as Yuki Enterprise, was a Japanese video game company founded in 2000. It mostly produced fighting games for arcades and home consoles. It is known for owning Team Arcana, the developer of the original intellectual propert ...
) following their acquisition of Random House's properties. He continued acting as a company manager while contributing to the programming of titles including ''
Samurai Shodown V ''Samurai Shodown V'' is the eighth game in SNK's ''Samurai Shodown'' series of versus fighting game, fighting games. It was one of the last games to be released on the Neo Geo (system), Neo Geo. This title takes place two years before the firs ...
'' and '' VI''. Among those whom he was survived by are his wife Sakicho, and his brother politician Takashi Morita.


Early life

Kazuro Morita was born in 1955 in
Toyama Toyama may refer to: Places * Toyama Prefecture, a prefecture of Japan located in the Hokuriku region on the main Honshu island * Toyama (city), the capital city of Toyama Prefecture * Toyama Station, the main station of Toyama, Toyama * Toyama Sta ...
, capital of
Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 993,848 (1 January 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...
in
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
's
Chūbu region The , Central region, or is a region in the middle of Honshū, Japan's main island. In a wide, classical definition, it encompasses nine prefectures (''ken''): Aichi, Fukui, Gifu, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Shizuoka, Toyama, and Ya ...
; his family were established professionals in
internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...
and
obstetrics and gynaecology Obstetrics and gynaecology (also spelled as obstetrics and gynecology; abbreviated as Obst and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, and ...
. He was the oldest of three brothers, with one of his younger brothers being politician Takashi Morita. While attending Toyama Prefectural Toyama Chubu High School, he had the opportunity to work with a
programmable calculator Programmable calculators are calculators that can automatically carry out a sequence of operations under the control of a stored computer programming, program. Most are Turing complete, and, as such, are theoretically general-purpose computers. ...
, where he became interested in programming. After his high school graduation in 1973 he entered the
Tokyo Institute of Technology The Tokyo Institute of Technology () was a public university in Meguro, Tokyo, Japan. It merged with Tokyo Medical and Dental University to form the Institute of Science Tokyo on 1 October 2024. The Tokyo Institute of Technology was a De ...
's Department of Organic Chemistry, but dropped out in 1975 after having to repeat a year, and after another year in Toyama entered Saitama Medical University. During his second university year, he spent time working with an
NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...
TK-80 The TK-80 (μCOM Training Kit TK-80) was an 8080-based single-board computer kit developed by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1976. It was originally developed for engineers who considered using the '' μCOM-80 family'' in their product. It was ...
, using it to create his first project, an electronic version of the board game
Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...
. He took part in electronics magazine competitions with his work, using royalties from a successful submission to buy a
PC-8801 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the four major Japanes ...
for programming.


Career

Seeking game proposals following its entry into the video game market in 1982,
Enix was a Japanese multimedia publisher who handled and oversaw video games, manga, guidebooks, and merchandise. It was founded in 1975 by Yasuhiro Fukushima as Eidansha Boshu Service Center, initially as a tabloid publisher and later attempting t ...
organized a competition dubbed the "Enix Game Hobby Program Contest" in both computer and manga magazines, offering a prize of ¥1 million (US$10,000) for a game prototype which could be published by Enix. Morita 's submission was a
simulation video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
called ''Morita's Battlefield''. Morita won the grand prize, being among a notable group of designers who were accepted by Enix alongside
Yuji Horii is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger'', and '' The Portopia Serial Murder Case'', released in 1983 ...
and
Koichi Nakamura is a Japanese video game designer. Nakamura gained fame as a programming prodigy while still in high school; in 1982, he entered Enix's first national programming contest and claimed runner-up prize with his entry, '' Door Door''. In 1984, he fo ...
. ''Morita's Battlefield'' was published in February 1983, earning royalties of ¥5 million. Uusing the money Morita established Random House with a number of university friends. Beginning in 1983, Morita created a video game version of the board game
shogi , also known as Japanese chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as chess, Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi. ...
, with it being published in 1985 under the title ''Morita's Shogi'', and starting off a series of similar games. Enix would publish several of Random House's products over the coming years, including his ''Shogi'' series and '' Just Breed''. He was programmer for '' Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu'', which was his first time working on a
role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...
. Another notable project was ''Alphos'', which began development was a homage to
Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...
's ''
Xevious is a 1983 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released in Japan by Namco and in North America by Atari, Inc. Controlling the Solvalou starship, the player attacks Xevious forces befor ...
'' series, going on to receive permission to develop ''Alphos'' as a ''Xevious'' spin-off. In 1998, Random House was bought out by Yuki Entertainment (later
Examu Examu, formerly known as Yuki Enterprise, was a Japanese video game company founded in 2000. It mostly produced fighting games for arcades and home consoles. It is known for owning Team Arcana, the developer of the original intellectual propert ...
). Morita continued to work at Yuki Entertainment as a programmer and company manager. One of his notable contributions was help with the development work for ''
Samurai Shodown V ''Samurai Shodown V'' is the eighth game in SNK's ''Samurai Shodown'' series of versus fighting game, fighting games. It was one of the last games to be released on the Neo Geo (system), Neo Geo. This title takes place two years before the firs ...
''.


Personal life and death

Morita's video game work is characterised by being "thinking games", and making use of advanced or complex programming. One of his notable works was ''Alphos'', which he started as a programming exercise before it became an official commercial project. He was also noted by co-workers as a helpful and open person. For his work on the ''Shogi'' series, he was referred to as a foundational figure in shogi computer games. He was a 4th Dan at shogi, a 3rd Dan at Go, and a 2nd Dan at Othello. During his later years he suffered from unspecified ill health, having trouble walking. On one occasion he fell down and broke his arm, but continued to do programming work on one arm. Morita died on July 27, 2012. He had a private funeral attended by his immediate family, with his wife Sachiko as chief mourner. The death was not announced publicly until June 2013.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morita, Kazuro 1955 births 2012 deaths People from Toyama Prefecture Japanese video game designers Japanese video game programmers