Editing Kōichi Sugiyama (section)

==History with Dragon Quest==
Sugiyama started composing with a Japanese home computer called the PC-8801 in the early 80's to experiment with new technology, and also took up an interest in the emerging market of video games around the same time. One specific title that caught his attention was "Kazuo Morita's Shogi" (森田和郎の将棋), which was published by [[Enix]] on the PC-9801 in August of 1985, and Sugiyama found himself hooked on the simple but addictive nature of the title. The game also came packaged with a questionnaire postcard for player feedback: Sugiyama filled it out on a whim in a cheeky manner, leaving the questionnaire on his desk before stepping away for other business. In a moment of pure chance, his wife Yukiko saw the card and slotted it into their mailbox as she stepped out to go grocery shopping<ref>"（笑）。そのアンケートはがきには 「終盤は強いけど、序盤の駒組みがイマイチ」みたいに、 ちょっと生意気なことを書いて、 そのままほったらかしにしておいたんです。 そしたら、たまたまうちのカミさんが それを見つけて、買い物に行く途中に ポストに放り込んだみたいなんです。" https://archive.fo/pz7E3</ref>. The questionnaire was later presented to Enix producer [[Yukinobu Chida]], who was surprised to find that it was filled out by a celebrity because all of the names were written in hiragana, something to be expected of an elementary school student. Intrigued, Chida sent out an Enix representative to contact Sugiyama to see if he would be interested in composing music for a game: Sugiyama immediately replied and after a meeting in Shinjuku was arranged he was hired to write for "Wingman 2: The Resurrection of Kitaklar" (''ウイングマン2 -キータクラーの復活''), which would be released in April of 1986.

The original ''Dragon Quest'' was in development at the same time as the second Wingman game, and Chida would approach Sugiyama to write music for it as well as the Enix employee felt that the score written by the staff of developer [[Chunsoft]] was not satisfactory. Sugiyama was intrigued by the project, but his inclusion was strongly opposed by the president of Chunsoft [[Koichi Nakamura]]. This was due to Chunsoft being an extension of a school club and the young programmers were wary of a man in his 50's writing music for a video game.

It would be up to Chida and Yuji Horii to act as intermediaries between the staff of Chunsoft and Sugiyama, with the latter lightening the mood by speaking casually about his obsessions with analog games such backgammon, bingo, and especially pinball. Sugiyama would relate how he would frequently drive to Yokohama after work to play pinball for hours at a time, and the hesitant Chunsoft staff began to see him as a fellow gamer who just so happened to be born in the previous generation<ref>ニンテンドードリーム2005年11月号</ref>. With the age gap bridged Sugiyama was formally accepted as the game's composure, and he was asked to begin writing a rock-styled soundtrack to match Nakamura's vision for the game. He hesitated at this approach and asked Nakamura the nature of the game's setting and stylistic tone, and explained that classical music would much better suit a medieval fantasy world than contemporary rock.

The actual production of the game's soundtrack progressed very smoothly and was completed within one week, with the ''Overture'' in particular being conceived and finalized in short order. Sugiyama would joke that it took him "54 years and five minutes to write this song" (''54年と5分で出来た曲''), referencing the [https://jgcontemporary.art/blogs/news/picassos-napkin-story story of Picasso's napkin]<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20140222200104/http://sugimania.com/says1.html</ref>. This jovial attitude belies the seriousness Sugiyama gave to the project, as he determined that the overworld and battle themes would need to be exceptionally well-crafted due to the frequency in which the player would hear them<ref>「すぎやまこういち VS 田尻智」『ドラゴンクエストIV マスターズクラブ』JICC出版局、1991年2月10日、13頁。ISBN978-4-7966-0084-2。</ref>. In addition to his official designation as the game's composer Sugiyama also assisted in debugging and balance adjustments for the project to give a different perspective compared the group of men in their early twenties. This further tightened the sense of camaraderie between the key staff of ''Dragon Quest'', cementing a friendship that would last for decades.

Once the game was released on May 27th 1986, Sugiyama would then assert himself as the very first video game composer to record his video game music with a live orchestra. In 1986, the CD "[[Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite]]" was released, utilizing the Tokyo Strings Ensemble to interpret Sugiyama's melodies.

In 1987, he composed for {{DQ2}}, and then held the very first video game music concert in the world. "Family Classic Concert" was arranged and conducted by Sugiyama himself. It was performed by the Tokyo Strings Ensemble on August 20, 1987 at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan. "Dragon Quest I Symphonic Suite" and "[[Dragon Quest II Symphonic Suite]]" were performed. The "Family Classic Concerts" have done exceptionally well with audiences every time; since then, Sugiyama has held them annually up to 2019.

Sugiyama continued to compose for video games from 1987 to 1990.  In 1991 he introduced a series of video game music concerts, five in all, called the Orchestral Game Concerts, which were performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. The performances included music from over eighteen different video game composers such as Koji Kondo, Yoko Kanno, Kentarou Haneda, Nobuo Uematsu, Keiichi Suzuki, as well as Sugiyama himself.  These concerts were held from 1991 to 1996; during this time, Sugiyama composed for other video games and arranged some of them to be performed in the Orchestral Game Concerts.

In September 1995, Sugiyama composed the [[Dragon Quest Ballet]], which was choreographed by Minoru Suzuki.  It premiered in 1996, and has since been performed regularly over the years the Star Dancers Ballet. During those years, he also released the Symphonic Suites for the ''Dragon Quest'' games he had worked on thus far. As this was the very first ballet inspired by a video game in the world, Sugiyama was awarded a place in the Guinness World Records book for his accomplishment.  

In late 2004, he finished and released the {{DQ8}} Original soundtrack, and the "[[Dragon Quest VIII Symphonic Suite]]" as well.

In 2005, he was holding a series of concerts in Japan with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for {{DQ8}}, as well as his classic compositions from the past. In August 2005, his music from {{DQ}} was performed live at the European Symphonic Game Music Concert. There, for the first time, his music was presented in a live symphonic concert outside Japan.

From 2006, he also worked on diverse projects, one of them being the music for {{Dragon Quest Swords}}. On August 19, 2006 Sugiyama announced {{DQ9}}'s production in Japanese video game magazine Famitsu as saying "I'm not sure when {{Dragon Quest IX}} will be released, but it seems that progress is continually being made. I'm personally excited."

On January 26th, 2016, Sugiyama received his second award from ''Guinness World Records'', celebrating his status as the world's oldest video game composer at age 85.