Hitoshi Akamatsu

Hitoshi Akamatsu was the head director of the creation team behind the original Castlevania and it's also known that he and his team were in charge of the creation of Simon's Quest, Dracula's Curse, and the non-canonical Snake's Revenge for the American Nintendo Entertainment System.

Unfortunately, during the 8-bit era, all Japanese video game developers had to go by pseudonyms, probably in an attempt of game companies to diminish head-hunting by rival companies. One of the downsides of having those fake credits was that nobody actually knows who created the Castlevania series. The best guess is a Mr. "Hitoshi Akamatsu", but unfortunately he seems to have disappeared from the gaming industry during the early '90s. There is, however, a small record of the games he collaborated in. Many attempts have been made to track down Mr. Akamatsu, but to date there have been no successful results.

In an interview with game creator and director, Masahiro Ueno, he confirmed that the same team was responsible for the development of the three Famicom Castlevania games: Castlevania, Simon's Quest and Dracula's Curse. In an unpublished interview with the creator of Haunted Castle, he said that the head of the original Castlevania was Hitoshi Akamatsu, the same as the sequels.

Presumably, he also worked on Time Pilot while working at Konami.

Design

 * Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989) (Director)

Programming/Engineering

 * Snake's Revenge (1990) (Programmer)
 * Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (1989) (Programmer)

Writers

 * Castlevania (1986) (Screenplay)

Other

 * Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) (Invicibility)