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born August 15, 1964 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 founded Spike Chunsoft and served as the company's president. After Chunsoft merged with Spike in 2012, Nakamura served as chairman of Spike Chunsoft until he left the company in 2020.
In order to play games such as Galaxian that were ported to the NEC PC-8001 by Geimu Kyoujin from I/O magazine, Nakamura bought a PC-8001 using money he'd saved up by delivering newspapers. It was on that PC-8001 that he developed his program submissions. He submitted a machine code input tool to I/O magazine, which was published in the February 1981 issue as his debut publication, earning him Japanese yen20,000 for his work.
During spring break of his first year in high school, Nakamura cloned the arcade video game Space Panic as ALIEN Part II. It was published in the May 1981 issue and released on Compact Cassette, earning ¥200,000 in royalties. In the January 1982 issue, his clone of Konami's Scramble (later renamed to Attacker) was also released on cassette, earning royalties of ¥1 million. A clone of River Patrol, called River Rescue, was published in the Maikon Game Book 4 special edition of I/O, bringing Nakamura's total high school earnings from submissions to I/O to over ¥2 million. Eikyuu Hozon-ban Minna ga Kore de Moeta! NEC 8-bit Personal Computer PC-8001/6001, 2005, ASCII, pp.62-65 interview w/ Nakamura Due to his activities with I/O, he became well known among young PC enthusiasts. Game Maestro, Vol. 1: Producer/Director Edition (1) by Hidekuni Shida, 2000, p.138 interview w/ Yuji Horii
Nakamura entered the first Annual Hobby Program Contest held by Enix during his 3rd year of high school in 1982. ( Translated by Shmuplations. Archived on 2018-09-29) Submitting his first original game, Door Door, Nakamura was selected as the runner-up prize winner for programming excellence, and received ¥500,000 in prize money. Eikyuu Hozon-ban Minna ga Kore de Moeta! NEC 8-bit Personal Computer PC-8001/6001, 2005, ASCII, p.65
Nakamura released his 2nd PC game Newtron and founded the 5-person Spike Chunsoft on April 9, 1984, during spring break of his 2nd year of university. He started to work out of a room in a condominium in Chōfu, Tokyo. The first Chunsoft release was the 1985 PC-6001 version of Door Door mkII. Following that, joining Enix on the Famicom, Chunsoft began development on home video game consoles. Terebi Geemu no Kamigami: RPG wo Tsukutta Otoko-tachi no Risou to Yume by Yutaka Tama, 1994, Koei, pp.102-104 While the PC version had sold 80,000 copies, the Famicom version recorded sales of 200,000 copies, leading subsequent development to focus on home consoles. From that, fellow Enix program contest winner Yuji Horii joined Nakamura in collaborating on the Famicom port of The Portopia Serial Murder Case ( Translated by Shmuplations. Archived on 2020-01-20. Retrieved on 2023-03-14)
At the time, Nakamura and Horii were fans of the computer role-playing games Wizardry and Ultima, and so set out to develop a full-blown Famicom RPG called Dragon Quest. Geemu Ookoku Nippon: Kamigami no Koubou, 2000, Seishun Publishing, pp.102-104 Game Maestro, Vol. 2: Producer/Director Edition (2) by Hidekuni Shida, 2000, p.16 interview w/ Koichi Nakamura Prior to its release, Nakamura also cited Masanobu Endō, creator of action role-playing game The Tower of Druaga, as his favorite game designer. Nakamura continued development on the Dragon Quest series through to , before breaking away from Enix products.
For a time, the company's products were considered mediocre, but 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate! was a hit that showed signs of recovery.
| 1983 | Door Door | Game designer, programmer |
| 1984 | Newtron | Director, programmer |
| 1985 | The Portopia Serial Murder Case (Famicom port) | |
| 1986 | Dragon Quest | |
| 1987 | Dragon Quest II | Director, chief programmer |
| 1988 | Dragon Quest III | Director |
| 1990 | Dragon Quest IV | |
| 1991 | ||
| Tetris 2 + Bombliss | ||
| 1992 | Otogirisō | Director, producer |
| Dragon Quest V | Supervisor | |
| 1993 | Producer | |
| 1994 | Kamaitachi no Yoru | |
| 1995 | ||
| 1996 | ||
| 1997 | Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon | Supervisor |
| 1998 | Machi | Producer |
| Chocobo's Dungeon 2 | Supervisor | |
| 1999 | Executive producer | |
| 2000 | Shiren the Wanderer 2 | |
| 2001 | ||
| 2002 | Supervisor | |
| Kamaitachi no Yoru 2: Kangoku-jima no Warabe Uta | Executive producer | |
| Torneko's Great Adventure 3 | ||
| 2004 | Shiren Monsters: Netsal | Producer |
| 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate! | ||
| 2005 | Homeland | |
| 2006 | Kamaitachi no Yoru x 3: Mikatzuki-jima Jiken no Shinsō | |
| 2007 | ||
| Imabikisō | Executive producer | |
| 2008 | Shiren the Wanderer 3 | |
| Producer | ||
| 2009 | ||
| Executive producer | ||
| 2010 | Shiren the Wanderer 4 | |
| Trick × Logic | ||
| 2011 | Zombie Daisuki | |
| 2012 | ||
| Supervisor | ||
| Producer | ||
| 2013 | Executive producer | |
| Supervisor | ||
| 2014 | Executive producer | |
| 2015 | Etrian Mystery Dungeon | |
| Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon | Producer | |
| Grand Kingdom | ||
| Executive producer | ||
| 2016 | Zero Time Dilemma | Supervisor |
| 2017 | Executive producer | |
| 2018 | ||
| 2019 | Tech Tech Tech Tech | Producer |
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