Nasir Gebelli was an Iranian-American programmer who traveled to Japan on a piece visa to work for Sq. within the late ’80s and early ’90s, the place he was instrumental within the creation of the Ultimate Fantasy collection. Gebelli’s code is so well-regarded that John Romero referred to as him “my primary programming god, my idol” in Honoring The Code: Conversations with Nice Recreation Designers. He is the one answerable for Ultimate Fantasy 3’s airship, which hoons alongside above the overworld map so quick that different programmers weren’t in a position to recreate it.
Following his work on Secret of Mana, Gebelli retired, making uncommon public appearances just like the time he was interviewed by Romero at an Apple II reunion in 1998. Nevertheless, he not too long ago spoke to NHK World, as noticed by GamesRadar, and talked about his time at Sq.. Previous to that, Gebelli had labored primarily on motion video games for the Apple II just like the 1981 Defender-clone Gorgon. Going from that to the NES wasn’t as a lot of a leap as you would possibly suppose.
Japanese nationwide TV managed to trace down and do a uncommon interview with Nasir Gebelli, the genius Iranian-American Programmer that programmed the primary Ultimate Fantasy sport! #FinalFantasyHe lead the programming for the primary 3 Ultimate Fantasy video games. What a legend! pic.twitter.com/GnGkWeLeTnJanuary 11, 2025
“I assumed it was fairly much like what I used to be doing for Apple,” Gebelli mentioned, “the identical processor, and I already knew nearly each machine code for that processor.” Each ran on the MOS Know-how 6502, the workhorse behind many residence computer systems and consoles of the ’80s. “So so far as coding it was fairly easy. There was no studying curve. However I might by no means seen any roleplaying video games till Ultimate Fantasy [was] introduced up.”
Within the Eighties, video games like Ultima and Wizardry had been much more area of interest than RPGs are at this time, although Dragon Quest had been a sufficiently big hit in Japan that Hironobu Sakaguchi might persuade Sq. to let him lead improvement on the sport that turned Ultimate Fantasy. An absence of expertise with the style in all probability wasn’t that a lot of a hindrance, since they had been serving to to put its foundations. “It was a problem,” Gebelli mentioned, “however on the identical time it was thrilling to have the ability to do one thing totally different. And it was additionally enjoyable to work with the staff, particularly Sakaguchi-san.”
On the finish of the interview, Gebelli sits down at a TV to play Ultimate Fantasy. The airship races alongside. He seems at it thoughtfully, then suggests it might look higher “if it was a minimum of like 10% slower.”
You’ll be able to watch extra footage from the documentary, which known as Legendary Video games Chronicle: Ultimate Fantasy, in English at NHK World’s web site.
