GameCenter CX

Season 1

Episode 6: Derby Stallion

The most popular horse-raising-and-racing series in Japan is unquestionably Enterbrain’s (formerly ASCII’s) Derby Stallion. Arino visits the developer Parity Bit for this episode. He steps into the unmarked office of the company chief (and Derby Stallion creator) Hiroyuki Sonobe. Sonobe of course was always a great fan of horse racing, but his first game was Tank Battle for the FM-7 computer. He joined ASCII and helped create the Famicom game Best Play Pro Baseball, and then in 1991 created Best Play Keiba: Derby Stallion. Sonobe’s inspiration for the game was Tecmo’s Captain Tsubasa, with its cinematic, RPG style and play-by-play commentary. But his favorite game by far is Dragon Quest III.