YUJI YASUHARA: ANOTHER UNSUNG GAME HERO
Wow, Yuji Yasuhara made Omega Boost for the PS1. Like, all of it.
www.timeextension.com/features/…
Also, he single-handedly made SPACE DEADBEEF, still the greatest shmup there ever was for iOS.
Can we give him and Shoji Kawamoto another shot at a proper Macross game?
Plus, why didn’t we get this artwork for the North American release? I would still hang this on my wall today.
SEGAGAGA (FINALLY) GETS AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION
If you’re a Sega Dreamcast fan, you know the legend of SEGAGAGA: a game about Sega’s triumph over rival game makers released right after Sega decided to stop making hardware.
(You can learn more about SEGAGAGA from Archipel’s excellent documentary – A DREAM CAST.)
A game without a home with deep references to Sega’s culture and Japanese humor? What Sega fan wouldn’t want to play this?
Thankfully, after many starts and stops, a Sega fan who goes by Exxistance took the lead on a team who fully translated SEGAGAGA into English:
https://github.com/ExxistanceDC/Segagaga-English-Translation
Apparently, a lot’s been made of the team’s use of AI for translation. I’m no AI sycophant, but the people and places I follow seem to gloss over this part in the translation team’s fully transparent AI Notice section. So I’m highlighting it here:
What I call the “playtesting translation” — a base translation that allowed the artists and playtesters to get started early and understand what they were working on — was developed using a combination of DeepL and ChatGPT 4o/4.5. That translation then went through a substantial, months-long human translator review. I don’t think that the end product feels “machine-translated,” but that’s ultimately for you, the player, to judge.
For the purists, we’re also offering the tools used to develop the translation, so if you are a translator who wants to do your very own translation of SEGAGAGA, you now have the means to do so! Check out the Resources section to get them.
The beauty of the fan translation community is that people are always refining and developing new translations and giving them back to the community. Go forth and prosper!
That’s the spirit of a good community at work. What an achievement.
My thanks to Exxistance and the entire SGGG Translation Team. I can’t wait to play this all the way through over and over again. And if you have a superior translation, put it out there, I’d love to play that one too.
CHRIS HOCKING – APPLE'S PRO APPS TEAM RONIN
Chris Hocking is one of the last true bastions for Final Cut Pro.
I mean, here’s fcp.cafe – an endless treasure trove of deep resources single-handedly curated and moderated by him. For example, when researching something recently, I found these two shiny gems:
Then there are his apps released under his LateNite production studio.
I just discovered he released a public beta for a new app called Keyframe Toolbox:
This and all the work Chris continues to do makes Final Cut Pro a better place. Plus, his kind, generous, and enthusiastic nature for all things filmmaking is infectious.
Don’t believe me? Check out this recent interview here:
No reason to write this. Just, thank you, Chris. 🙏🏽
If you’re an F1 fan and an Apple TV customer, this seems like a big deal:
FOR JOHN
On December 20, 2025, my family and I were cleaning the house for another round of guests. We just finished lunch when we got the call: our friend John had died.
John lived on the other side of the world. So in geographic, chronological, and emotional terms, this really became the darkest day of the year.
I first met John and his wife in 2012. My family and I recently moved to New York, and right from the start, they made us feel at home.
The first time I remember having them to our home was for lunch. My wife prepared a soup the night before. All I had to do was put it back on the stove and drop in some noodles before everyone arrived. Unfortunately, some bad weather knocked out our power for an extended period, so I improvised: I tried finishing the soup on our gas grill. Between the excess noodles and unpredictable heat, our soup became a casserole. Like any Midwesterner, I was hyper-apologetic. But in typical John form, he gently brushed off my faux pas with something like, “Ah, it’s all good. Soup’s overrated anyway.”
From that time on, we had what I can only describe as some of the best times of our lives with these two. Dinners, games, vacations, staycations – we absolutely loved being with John and his wife.
John was that rare sort of person for me: someone with shared sensibilities who innately excelled in all of them in every way. Hard work, creativity, kindness, humor, empathy – John had it all in spades.
Also, John was cool. Effortless. Sprezzatura. And he didn’t make you feel jealous about it. You just wanted to know how he consistently pulled it off.
John didn’t shout. He owned the room without stealing the mic. In fact, you wanted to give it to him. He knew how to tell a story, take you somewhere, and let you enjoy the ride.
I saw this over and over again too: John loved people. He was just as comfortable with everyday folk as he was with people in high station. He knew how to read the room and treat people the way they should be treated, even in high stakes, high-pressure situations.
Finally, in John, I found family. He was an uncle to my two kids, a trusted confidant to my family during some tough times, and a brother to me.
To John’s Wife
Since John’s death, I’ve flipped through some photos and footage of better times. The time he played spoons with our kids in the pool. That time I asked him to do a voiceover for another one of my silly videos. That time we double-dated for an anniversary dinner.
But then I remembered we have these.
When we visited John’s folks, we mentioned we still had your old dining room set. His mother affectionately asked, “You mean the one with the bench?” She made us feel like we were entrusted with a family heirloom.
We can’t wait to share another meal with you around this table.
We love you very much.
Hey you! Get your isaact.co merch here:
And some recent articles that’ll pair nicely with your new gear:
- On DaVinci Resolve: Local, Cloud, and Network Project Libraries
- DaVinci Resolve: Optimizations and Workflows
Represent!
I came across this blog – Animation Obsessive.
They have this piece on Patlabor 2: The Movie, one of my all-my time faves, and they absolutely nail The Why and The How for one of my favorite sequences in the whole movie.
https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/life-under-martial-law
And that Kenji Kawai music cue… 🤌🏽🤌🏽
Fascinating and well-researched.
WAVE by Masaki Mizuno, CEO of Khaki
Here are some Making Of… comments from the artist:
The last time I felt this way about something was when Spike Jonze made an ad for KENZO.
DOING DETECTIVE WORK WITH DTRACE (OPENSNOOP AND RWSNOOP)
If you’ve ever wondered:
- What happens when I launch my app?
- What is my app doing right now?
- Why is my app taking so long to do something?
Then you’ll want to know a little bit about using DTrace.
If you’re an artist or creative professional, DTrace itself might feel a bit tricky to use. Thankfully, some helper apps exist to make it more approachable.
Let’s talk about two of them:
opensnooprwsnoop
We’ll use these helper apps to answer those questions using one popular app: Adobe Premiere Pro (25.5, as of this writing).
Using macOS? Let’s start by making sure you can actually run DTrace.
Enabling DTrace in macOS
Using DTrace or any of its related apps means you’ll be using a command line in Terminal.app.
If you try using opensnoop straight away, you’ll learn:
DTrace requires additional privileges- you’ll need access to a local Administrator account’s password.- DTrace requires you to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) on your Mac.
If that scares you a little, it should (a little).
But fear not.
Did you know you can selectively disable SIP for DTrace usage?
csrutil enable --without dtrace
Once you add this exception to your Mac’s SIP, restart, log back in, and confirm you successfully modified SIP with this command:
csrutil status
If it was successful, you’ll see a System Integrity Protection status: unknown (Custom Configuration) report with DTrace Restrictions: disabled.
And when you’re finished using anything DTrace-related? Head back into Recovery mode and fully reenable SIP on your Mac.
csrutil enable
Now you’re ready to see some stuff.
opensnoop
I work with a lot of Premiere Pro teams these days.
They frequently ask:
What is Premiere Pro doing right now?
opensnoop may give you some answers.
What does opensnoop do? (In Terminal, man opensnoop, then press Return)
Snoop file opens as they occur. Uses DTrace.
How do you use it?
- If Premiere Pro is open, save any open work and quit Premiere Pro.
- Launch
Terminal.app. - Resize that Terminal window to be as wide as possible.
- Copy/paste this command and press
Return:sudo opensnoop -v -n "Adobe Premiere Pro 20XX"(where XX is the year of Premiere Pro you’re using) - Launch Premiere Pro, and you’ll see that Terminal window start scrolling (and scrolling) with lines of information.
What can you learn?
- While Premiere Pro is launching – you’ll see what it initially opens as part of its app resources: fonts, Motion Graphics Templates (
.mogrt), etc. - When you open a Project – the full path to your
.prprojwill appear. Also, ifEnable project lockingunderPreferences > Collaborationis checked, you’ll see the path to that.prlockfile appear shortly thereafter. - While playing back a Clip or Sequence – the full path to the underlying media will appear.
How could this be helpful?
Some have asked me, “If I work with proxy media, does Premiere Pro open both the original media and the proxy media at the same time?”
Using opensnoop, you’ll find the answer is, “No.”
Try this:
- In Premiere Pro, make a Sequence with one Clip based on your original media.
- Use your favorite encoder/transcoder app to create a proxy media file. Make sure to name that file with something like “_Proxy” at the end.
- In Premiere Pro, attach that proxy media file to your Clip.
- Find the
Toggle Proxiesbutton in yourProgramorSource Monitorand toggle it On.
Play your Clip or Sequence, and you’ll see the full path to your proxy media appear. You can even Toggle Proxies On or Off during playback, and see Premiere Pro changes which media file it’s using on playback.
Does this feel like a Rube Goldberg device for something simple? Perhaps.
But you can Toggle Proxies with or without proxy media attached to your Clips, and Premiere Pro will playback your Clip or Sequence without any clear indication of whether proxy media is attached or not.
And, yes, you can enable three Bin columns (Control-click on a Bin column, choose Metadata Display…, search for “Proxy”) to help you see if proxy media is attached. But I’ve yet to meet a Premiere Pro user who knew about those columns without a web search.
So if you want the definitive answer to, “Is Premiere Pro playing my original or proxy media?”, use opensnoop. It’s worth the effort.
But some apps won’t allow opensnoop to do its thing. What then?
rwsnoop
rwsnoop can provide some clues when opensnoop can’t.
What does rwsnoop do? (man rwsnoop, then press Return)
snoop read/write events. Uses DTrace.
How do you use it?
- Launch
Terminal.app, or create a new Terminal window (Command-N). - Copy/paste this command and press
Return:sudo rwsnoop -v -n "Adobe Premiere Pro 20XX"(where XX is the year of Premiere Pro you’re using) - If it’s not open, launch Premiere Pro.
What can you learn?
rwsnoop will show you which files are being read (R) or written (W) in the D (for Direction - read or write) column.
You’ll also see how many BYTES of that file were read or written.
Unlike opensnoop, rwsnoop won’t display the full path to the file being read. But if you want a clear, focused view of which media files Premiere Pro references during playback, you can Toggle Proxies On or Off during playback, and you’ll see a tidy list of filenames Premiere Pro is referencing here.
Questions
Where can I find the correct process name to feed opensnoop and rwsnoop with -n?
- Launch
Activity Monitor.app. - In Activity Monitor, search for the name of your app, then double-click the name in the list.
- Locate the
Executable Path. The last item in the path is the process name you’ll use after-n.
Can I save opensnoop and rwsnoop results to a file?
Yes!
Just add this to the end of the command…
> ~/Desktop/NameOfApp_Results.txt
…and you’ll see a text file appear on your Desktop.
For example:
sudo opensnoop -v -n "Adobe Premiere Pro 20XX" > ~/Desktop/PremierePro2025_Results.txt
However, anecdotally it seems DTrace won’t record all events to a file as it would if you were monitoring its output in Terminal.
You can use the excellent (and free) TextMate editor to open and live monitor this text file as opensnoop or rwsnoop writes to it.
Where can I find more DTrace helper apps/scripts?
In Terminal, copy/paste this command, and press Return:
apropos dtrace
Credits
If you get to the bottom of any man page for a DTrace script, you’ll see this name: Brendan Gregg.
We’ve never met, but thank you, Brendan, for all of your work over the years to make DTrace more approachable and useful for macOS users:
Also, check out this article by Colin Jones – A Few DTrace Gotchas and Workarounds on OS X:
https://8thlight.com/insights/a-few-dtrace-gotchas-and-workarounds-on-os-x
- Particularly this section: SIP Strikes Back.
We’ll use this to look at why opensnoop won’t do the detective work on certain apps in a future installment. ✌🏽
DJV - AN IMAGE SEQUENCE VIEWER AND COMPARISON TOOL BY DARBY JOHNSTON
Ever needed to open an OpenEXR sequence before? Chances are, you’ve heard of RV and Open RV. But have you tried DJV?
Written and maintained by Darby Johnston (a Lucasfilm alumnus) DJV lets you open, compare, and review OpenEXR sequences…
…and more.
- Timeline support with OpenTimelineIO
- Color management with OpenColorIO
- Multi-track audio with variable speed and reverse playback
- Experimental support for USD files
Like Open RV, it’s part of the Academy Software Foundation.
Unlike Open RV, you don’t have to build it from source (unless you want to 😄). Darby provides builds for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Need a test EXR sequence? The ASWF has you covered there too:
- NAS Sole Mates: https://dpel.aswf.io/solemates/
MDVx was quietly updated back in September. Update now before your annual sojourn to that favorite cabin in the woods.
D’Angelo’s music literally changed my life.
Tron: Ares… saw it yesterday in a real IMAX.
I enjoyed it. Still thinking about it.
If you’re a TRON fan, try to avoid the interviews and surrounding media and see it in the largest theater possible. Completely worth it.
So many layers to this. Classic Jimmy Fallon x The Roots moment.
Happy they did this in Detroit.
Being a self-described Man of No Nation, I can’t explain it, but this SNL piece scratches a very specific itch in my brain:
Also if you’re ever in Las Vegas, it’s a primer for your next visit to this exceptional Mexican restaurant:
Pro Tools user on macOS? Commit this name to memory: Pete Gates.
Pete makes three phenomenal helper apps for Pro Tools:
-
PG PT Prefs - petegates.com/pgptprefs…
-
PG PT Session - petegates.com/pgptsessi…
-
PG PT WAV Checker - petegates.com/pgptwav.h…
These apps are inexplicably free and extremely useful. But if you’re looking for a worthy place to donate funds, just hit the button at the bottom of Pete Gates' site.
I feel like I owe a lot to TRON. If TRON didn’t exist, I’d be in another line of work.
So Joachim Rønnning and team, I’m rootin’ for you. Hoping to see it in IMAX on (or close to) opening night. 📽️🍿
Light Cycle c/o Joseph Terronez.
SOL LEVANTE - A NETFLIX X PRODUCTION I.G COLLAB TO ADVANCE HDR AND 4K (AND BEYOND) WORKFLOWS
Still can’t believe Netflix worked with Production I.G on producing a short to push HDR and 4K workflows forward in Japanese animation.
And the final elements of the project (like Pro Tools Sessions and media) are available to view and download. (Perfect for testing file streaming on cloud storage. 😉)
Bringing 4K and HDR to Anime at Netflix with Sol Levante
netflixtechblog.com/bringing-…
(Shout out to Haruka Miyagawa & Kylee Peña!)
The Making of Sol Levante, a 4K and HDR hand-drawn anime short
Both Haruka & Kylee said this project was likely overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic (this article was published in April 2020), so here’s a direct download link to the Sol Levante assets and a link to the Netflix Open Connect site with even more projects.
I wish people would watch Light & Magic on Disney+ all the way through.
T2norway’s Japanese Music Discoveries series.
3 volumes.
3 years in the making.
This is how you do it.
Also see:
Slaps.
Went to HQ this week in Colorado. Hung out with some great people, inside and outside our team.
The day before I went back to New York, Craig Hering drops this on the office.
Suite Studios represent. 🎧
Hello! I’ve been swimming in workflows for weeks now, but a couple recent highlights from the realm of Suite Studios:
-
This lovely report by Kevin P. McAuliffe on his Suite experience: www.provideocoalition.com/in-depth-…
-
It’s official! You can use PostLab Pro on Suite: docs.hedge.video/postlab-1…
If you’re using Premiere Pro 25.2.x and you get a dialog box or a warning in your sequence that says:
Can’t access audio
The audio for {Filename} can’t be read quickly enough from storage. Please check your storage and try again.
It’s a known issue and Adobe’s addressing it.
The workaround?
- Uninstall Premiere Pro
25.2.x. - Reinstall Premiere Pro
25.1or earlier. - (Optional) Disable Auto-Update for Premiere Pro:
Creative Cloud > Preferences > Apps > Auto-update > Premiere Pro: Toggled to Off
More details in this Adobe Community thread:
