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Visionary Nintendo President Yamauchi Dies

Posted by timothy on from the value-added dept.

First time accepted submitter trickstyhobbit writes "Former Nintendo president and majority stockholder Hiroshi Yamauchi has died. He was president of the company for over 50 years and saw the development of the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, and GameCube among other devices." His career at Nintendo is worth reading about.

13 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Very intuitive by HalAtWork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This guy had a lot of intuition. He didn't like to play video games, tried a couple but was annoyed and frustrated. Yet he still had sole approval whether or not a game should be licensed on the Famicom/NES. Someone would sit down and demo the game and he'd say yes or no based on that! Coming from the Atari crash, quality was important and this guy had an eye for that. Not to take away from Yamauchi but I must say RIP Gunpei Yokoi who sadly committed suicide, but was incredibly important in Nintendo's success as well. I recommend reading Game Over and 1UP - How Video Games got an Extra Life.

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    1. Re:Very intuitive by RicardoGCE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Gunpei Yokoi was hit by a car, he didn't kill himself, nor was he murdered (the other urban legend regarding his passing.)

    2. Re:Very intuitive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Gunpei Yokoi had a "window seat" by that time, due to the failure of the Virtual Boy.

      For those that don't know what a "window seat" is, it's what the Japanese do with older, well-respected company men who fuck up a major project and lose the company money. They're grateful for the good times, respectful of experience, and not about to let another project go down the drain. So instead of firing the manager of the failed project, they give him a nice office somewhere away from where real work is being done, and where he can't fail again. A "window seat".

      Gunpei Yokoi had a good string of successes: the "grabber" toy he was first promoted to management for, several game projects, including Metroid and Kid Icarus, and the Game Boy. Then he had the Virtual Boy. Then he had a "window seat".

      His death was unfortunate, though. "Window seats" aren't always permanent, and I'm sure within a short time he would've probably gotten another chance at a big project, or maybe come up with something new. Instead, he was killed by a bus while changing a flat tire on the side of the road. There's no telling what cool stuff we lost that day.

  2. But he gets two more lives, right? by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Too soon?

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  3. Re:slight correction. by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does everyone badmouth that system? It wasn't the Playstation, but it wasn't that bad either. If you *really* want something to forget, the Virtual Boy and Power Glove are much better candidates.

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    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  4. Re:slight correction. by dingen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, don't get it either. Best Zelda they ever did was on the N64. And Mario 64 kicks ass too. N64 rocks.

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  5. Re:slight correction. by Aerokii · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The N64 had some downright amazing games, and this is the first time I've seen any real hate/badmouthing for it. It's hard to dislike the console that brought us Mario 64, LoZ: Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask, Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye 007, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Starfox 64, Mario Kart 64, Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros, and... well, the list just goes on.

    That being said, this is sad, sad news. This is one of the men to whom I owe a large part of my childhood, and can blame part of my adulthood on as well.

  6. Re:slight correction. by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah, PlayStation got a lot of attention for using discs, because it meant they could have actual recorded audio tracks and lots of shiny looking cutscenes. But those characteristics really don't make a game that enjoyable. I still miss the fast load times of cartridges. Haven't played Wii U, but it seems that Nintendo has always put good load times ahead of "ooooh shiny". The Gamecube used smaller disks, and many games had almost no noticeable load times. Meanwhile, everyone was waiting minutes for things to load on PS2 and XBox. The first party titles for Wii also had great load times. It's not impossible to have quick load times on a disc based system. I don't know why so many developers don't pay attention to this aspect.

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  7. Re:Nintendo surviving on fumes... by Aerokii · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ugh, Nintendo Potatoes are so casual.

  8. Re:slight correction. by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 5, Informative

    And I don't think anybody has forgotten Goldeneye 007 on the 64.

  9. Blow on him? by yorgo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did anyone try blowing on him?

  10. Re:slight correction. by Psyborgue · · Score: 4, Informative

    I have a Wii U. I haven't really noticed a huge difference between load times on disk versus the external USB2 hdd. From what I've read, the transfer rate is comparable and most game data is sequential. For most first party games (Nintendo land, NSMBU, Pikmin 3) the loading times been fantastic. Third party games have been good as well (such as Rayman Legends), with the possible exception of Lego City Undercover (off the hdd) where the load times are noticeably bad.

  11. Re:slight correction. by blahplusplus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Yeah, don't get it either. Best Zelda they ever did was on the N64. And Mario 64 kicks ass too. N64 rocks."

    The problem wasn't FIRST PARTY games, the problem was the LACK of games and franchises from the super nintendo and their non-existence on the N64 because of nintendo's bone headed move to stick with cartridges. The storage size of a CD allowed games like Final fantasy 7. JRPG's like FF, Xenogears, Fighting games like street fighter and derivatives totally skipped the N64. THAT IS A HUGE DEAL. Only an idiot that didn't play any third party franchises would say the N64 was wonderful. It was the key event in Nintendo's history that lead to Nintendo's long deflation and decline as a game company with much intelligence.

    They became more about selling console hardware and not enough about supporting game developers. They are a technically illiterate bone headed game company. Why would you not go with DVD standard for the gamecube and make porting games from other platforms a huge chore/time sink for everyone? Another total idiot move. They make totally idiot technological moves every console generation. This is what caused me to stop buying their consoles. They don't grasp game development from a third party developer perspective. Not to mention how bad they screwed up Metroid with Other M and then the huge clusterfuck with the Starfox franchise, SF assault was just a travesty.

    That is why the N64 was the worst decision in Nintendo's history they went from #1 game company with the super nintendo with all the popular franchises and they lost ALL the third parties that were pushing the gaming envelope OVERNIGHT to a brand new competitor with no track record. Nintendo didn't grasp their also ran status because they never took third party developers that make you successful seriously.

    Many of us old timers fondly remember the super nintendo era and we hate what those dumbasses running nintendo did with the N64, the gamecube, and just anti-developer practices in general did to videogaming.