This article was originally published in the Christmas 2000 issue of Edge (E92).
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Generation Y
Net Yaroze – the PlaySation dev kit Sony offered to the public – provided many of its owners with the means and inspiration to enter the game industry. Edge talks to some of them, and reflects upon a groundbreaking experiment which may never be repeated
Back in January 1997, E41 reported 'a development with the potential to change the face of videogaming forever'. In retrospect, Ken Kutaragi's brainchild, the Net Yaroze, may not have matched such grandiose expectations, but by inspiring a new generation of bedroom coders to enter the videogame industry, the unit – essentially a cut-down PlayStation development kit – may yet reward the faith of the company behind it. Veterans of the Yaroze Scene now occupy positions with developers ranging from Codemasters to Reflections, to SCEE itself. The sense of community that grew up around the device, deliberately fostered by Sony, was a key factor for these individuals, who organised regular gatherings to socialise and share ideas since the unit's inception. Edge attended a recent event in order to discuss Sony's unprecedented foray into home programming with several of those who were spurred on to pursue professions designing and coding videogames through owning and using a Net Yaroze.
When it was launched, £550 paid for a modified black PlayStation, a serial cable to connect to a PC or Mac, a C compiler, PlayStation development libraries, examples of code, and, perhaps most importantly, access to a members-only Web site supported by Sony. The kit was limited by the fact that streaming video or data from CD wasn't supported, and only fellow Yaroze owners were able to play games developed on the machine. However, the inclusion of the best examples of code on Official PlayStation Magazine's cover disc provided non-members with a chance to try the titles, and members with a huge incentive to produce serviceable games.
There is no doubt that many of those that bought into the Yaroze phenomenon would have been just as well served with a C textbook, but for those with the basic programming skills or the dedication, the device proved to be an enormous stimulus. "When the price dropped the second time, there seemed to be an influx of people to whom 'programming capability' seemed like a nice add-on to an all-region PlayStation," points out James Rutherford, currently working on Stuntman at Reflections. "I think a few found themselves quite out of their depth – in fact, throughout the project, many of the allocated Yaroze members didn't ever make an appearance on the Net, so maybe many were in that position." Indeed, despite his own rudimentary knowledge of programming, he himself found it hard going at times: "I was a bit discouraged at first – there's quite a steep learning curve in terms of tools and getting used to the documentation." Nick Ferguson, who went on to work at Creature Labs and Rare, didn't have the safety net of background knowledge, but nevertheless found the Yaroze useful. "I didn't know much about programming, but I taught myself C from a couple of books and within six months I had written my first decent game. It's a myth that you have to be a super-genius to be a programmer – the basics are easy enough to pick up, and you'll soon realise anything is possible with perseverance."
A stable platform
The advantages of learning to develop games on the Yaroze, for both veteran and novice, were numerous. The most obvious was that it was a stable platform designed specifically with games in mind. There was no convoluted Windows API, and there were no moving targets, as James Shaughnessy, currently a game design programmer with Codemasters, points out: "There is a fixed CPU speed, a fixed amount of memory, and a standard controller type, which means for one thing you know that what you see when your game runs is what everyone else will see. It also removes a load of problems you face with the PC, such as compatibility, and the lack of standard controllers, graphics and sound cards, and CPU speeds."
Another was that Sony engineers were available, at least initially, to help out the Yaroze community. "In the early days the SCEE engineers who lurked on the newsgroups were pretty invaluable," agrees Ferguson. "As the project went on, a real body of knowledge built up (on members' sites, the newsgroups, various FAQs) and Sony's presence seemed to dwindle. Net Yaroze was the community, in my mind. Those people who bought the machine, fiddled with it and lurked on the newsgroups without ever contributing or asking questions were not real members." By contrast Robert Swan, who has just finished working on This is Football 2, and is preparing to help out with the graphics in The Getaway, was very much a committed member: "I tried to help out on the newsgroups when I could – even if it was sometimes a case of the blind leading the blind. Sometimes it's just helpful to know you're not banging your head against a brick wall on your own, which is why the Yaroze community worked pretty well. It's never nice to work in a vacuum, and seeing the other people making progress was sometimes all that was required." Summing it up, he says: "The setup meant development wasn't as quick as on a PC, and the number of resources were dwarfed completely by huge availability of PC source, but it offered what turned out to be worth more – the knowledge that real support was available if required."
Community support
While the Yaroze community may have appeared intimidating to outsiders, or indeed reticent newcomers, the exclusivity of the club also worked in the device's favour. "The fact that you had to pay to work on the Yaroze eliminated a lot of the dross you get in any web community that are there to spoil the atmosphere," argues Swan. "That isn't to say many people didn't buy a Yaroze and then contribute nothing to the project, but I guess they didn't understand how hard programming can be and how much time is required to create anything satisfying."
For those who were willing to take up the challenge, the Yaroze community provided an excellent education, with a number of competitions and the constraints encouraging experimentation with a range of game genres. "Working within the limitations of the libraries and mainly our own time and resources forced us to do stuff which was quick to do and fun to play. Many of the games had more in common with the 16bit days of fun 2D games than anything else," states Charles Chapman, whose company Live Media, recently produced David O'Leary's Total Soccer Manager on the Game Boy Color. As Ferguson puts it: "The Yaroze taught me that technical slickness and gameplay are two completely separate things. Some of the most playable Yaroze games were the simplest, technically – and some of the most impressive and ambitious were a disaster to play."
Those members of the Yaroze community that are now working in the industry provide a range of glowing testimonies to the role played by the device. "Being responsible for every aspect of a game provided a great chance to work in every area of game design and creating art assets," explains Ferguson. "That said, I think having to work as part of a team on their first commercial game was a rude awakening for many Yarozers." Rutherford agrees: "For me, it was invaluable. In no particular order it provided education in getting used to tools, working to hardware constraints, putting C into practice, getting projects finished, working to (competition) deadlines, giving and accepting comments or criticism, and code sharing. I was lucky to have my Edge competition entry burnt on to a real PlayStation disc with some others – ideal for job interviews."
Higher education
For those like Swan, who were lucky enough to be on one of the several university courses that Sony supported with the Yaroze, the benefits were equally, if not more pronounced. "I got involved through Middlesex University," he says. "I took the games programming strand of my degree, and was delighted to see it was working on the PlayStation. Otherwise I would never have known about Yaroze, and probably wouldn't have the job I have now." One of the particular advantages for those on the course, as Swan points out, was time: "I was programming on the Yaroze all day and made quicker advances than those doing it as a hobby. I think it prepared me as well as any non-industry experience could have done. It meant I wasn't put off by working on PlayStation when I got my job – I had other things to worry about, like learning to work in a team and working in a modular style."
Given the extraordinary success of those who graduated from programming the Yaroze, it would be a shame not to see the experiment repeated. But with the unit no longer available for purchase from Sony, and given the company's recent difficulties keeping the support site up and running, it seems unlikely that it will be resurrected. When Sony was busy rewriting the ground rules for marketing consoles to previously untapped audiences, wooing technological 'evangelists' was a key part of the company's strategy, as Phil Harrison pointed out at the time. With the launch of PlayStation2, it is no longer clear that this is the case. "I doubt that there will be a Net Yaroze 2," says Ferguson. "That said, there has been a lot of clamouring for 'NY2' on the Yaroze newsgroups – bizarrely, most from people who achieved very little with the original machine." Tom Madams, currently a student at Bristol University, concurs: "I think that it's unlikely that anything like the Yaroze will be seen again, although I hope I'm wrong. With the growing complexity of next-gen consoles, I don't think one person has the time to produce a game that would stretch the consoles capabilities."
To be continued?
So where does this leave the next generation of bedroom coders? "If it does fade away with no replacement, then it would be a shame, since for the people who have been involved it has surely been a success, with virtually everyone who wanted to get into the industry from it having now done so," points out Chapman. But as Robert Shand, a student at the University of Abertay Dundee, rightly argues, the economic incentive for companies like Sony are limited: "Maybe it was just a unique experiment from a company that didn't have to do anything like it did. They supported the end users, and let them try new and interesting things, with commercially sensitive information. Maybe some other companies should take a leaf out of Sony's book." Or as Swan puts it: "I think it shows that there are people looking to get into the industry who need a logical step forward, which only until recently wasn't even supported by universities. If Sony created a plan that would offer this obvious step into the industry it could end up with a new loyal programmer base, and be widely respected for it."
Of course, any regrets about the demise of the Net Yaroze must be tempered with the awareness that there are far more opportunities open to those who wish to enter the industry than was the case when the unit was launched. Edge's own annual 'Playing The Game' supplement attests to the growing panoply of university and college courses available. And as Rutherford contends: "There are always opportunities out there, and I think those that are dedicated enough will sniff them out – like Yaroze."
Could it be then that the best way forward for companies like Sony – which relies on the skills of talented artists, designers and programmers to ensure the commercial success of its software and the hardware on which it is played – is to provide educational institutes with access to the sort of stripped down development kits that were available to the public in the Net Yaroze? Swan's experience on the first university course to use Yarozes outside of Japan would certainly indicate that there is potential in such an approach: "It was exciting and very relevant to the career I wanted. As time goes by I hope that the courses will mature, and with a library of working code this will allow teams of students to concentrate on particular areas, and also learn the art of teamwork and communication." Shand's current experience at Abertay would also indicate that more work is needed in this respect: "As for degree courses I think they are a great idea, but they need more support from games companies. We need more companies coming to us and telling us what they want. We need more offers of placements, we need people to come and talk to us."
Whatever the ultimate fate of the Yaroze, Sony's disregard for short-term commercial gain in attempting to reap the rewards of encouraging creativity and spontaneity in the next generation of developers deserves the utmost respect, and should be noted by the company's vociferous critics, and indeed its competitors. If there is one lesson to be learnt from the Yaroze, it is that there is a huge seam of potential videogame developers that may not find their way into the industry otherwise. As Ferguson concludes: "The fact that so many members have gone on to work in games is testament to how serious we all were about it, and how much we wanted to be a part of the industry we love." It would seem foolish not to do something about it.
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ネットやろうぜ
