Shinji Hosoe

, also known as Megaten and Sampling Masters MEGA, is a Japanese video game composer and musician most famous for scoring Ridge Racer, Street Fighter EX and many Namco arcade games between 1987 and 1996. He also runs the music production and publishing company SuperSweep, alongside long time collaborator Ayako Saso. Biography Early life Hosoe was born on February 28, 1967, in Gero, Gifu Prefecture, Japan. His family moved to Chōfu while he was in first grade of elementary school. At the age of 8, he bought Isao Tomita’s electronic music album The Planets. He also listened to electronic music by artists such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and Jean-Michel Jarre. During his teenage years, he played bass in a Yellow Magic Orchestra tribute band. At the time, he did not have a serious interest in music and received low grades in music classes. After graduating high school, he studied computer graphics at Japan Electronics College. Namco (1985–1996) Hosoe joined Namco in 1985 as a part-time game tester and CG artist, creating music in his spare time as a hobby. After showing his music to fellow co-workers, he was assigned the position of a composer in 1986. This led to him composing for Drago