Hiroshi Yamauchi dies at 85

[Skykid]

Farewell to modern gaming's founding father. Unscrupulous, shrewd, unrepentant, brilliant: a god of business who knew a good game when he saw one, without even needing to play it.

Thanks for the legacy Mr. Y, from the bottom of my heart.

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/hiroshi ... lvet-glove

[trap15]

A great retrospective of a great man. May he rest in peace.

[Necronopticous]

http://www.castle-vidcons.com/2013/09/1 ... ll-endure/

[soupbones]

An awesome man - was always fascinated by him when I was a youngling reading EGM magazine.

He will be missed.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Farewell to modern gaming's founding father.

Eh? That`s as much of an over exaggeration as "Nintendo saved videogames". It`s simply not true. Ultima, Wizardry, Dune II, Eye of the Beholder, X-Com, Doom and many other genre defining experiences that would influence the industry for decades to come would`ve still existed irrespective of Yamauchi and Nintendo.

[louisg]

Farewell to modern gaming's founding father.

Eh? That`s as much of an over exaggeration as "Nintendo saved videogames". It`s simply not true. Ultima, Wizardry, Dune II, Eye of the Beholder, X-Com, Doom and many other genre defining experiences that would influence the industry for decades to come would`ve still existed irrespective of Yamauchi and Nintendo.

I bet home gaming would've ended up more computer-focused without Nintendo, at least in the US. Yeah, there's *a lot* of influential videogames of that era outside of the NES. I think this is often the perspective of someone from my generation who grew up with the NES-- it was so hugely popular here that to a lot of people that *was* videogames.

Still, Nintendo did rescue the console market in the US. Atari, for example, had the designs for the 7800 done but sat on it until after Nintendo's success. I wonder how that might've changed things had they been able to launch the 7800 earlier and knew how to get it into stores.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

From what I can recall, Atari Corp. did release the Atari 7800 (allocated to a mere 500 consoles which all sold out rather quickly) for sale as a small batch in 1984 (I, personally, never did see it for sale whatsoever during that time period but did come across the "cool but little heard of" Sears Video Arcade III console during that year.)

What's interesting was that Atari Corp. designed and manufactured the Sears Video Arcade III console (whilst Sears Roebuck was in charge of handling the retail sales of it in general) with the same telltale console design-wise as the 7800 but with 2600 gaming compatibility from the get-go (it couldn't play 7800 games anyways) + the slick 2-in-1 joystick & rotary paddle contraption with two fire buttons {one per side} (slide the switch up and it becomes a fully functional 8-way digital joystick -- slide the mechanical switch downwards & the joystick locks in place to unlock the rotary paddle mechanism). Talk about some impressive mechanical engineering with that particular innovative SVA-III joystick/paddle combo controller right there -- I've tried one out back in 1984 when a local Sears store had a demo kiosk set up for the general public to try it out. It was available at retail for a short while (and get this, it was available for purchase during the Great Video Game Crash of '83-'84 fiasco going on during that moment in time -- a time when it was easy to scoop out all sorts of brand new & boxed console games for mere pennies on the dollar if you will).

It wasn't until 1987 that Atari Corp. decided to start selling it's Atari 7800 ProSystem console to compete against the likes of Nintendo's NES and Sega's Sega Master System consoles, thus starting off the infamous 8-bit gaming console wars in the USA. Sure, there's handful of dedicated 2600 carts that won't run properly on a 7800 setup including the 2600 port of David Crane's classic "Pitfall 2". So if you see some Atari 7800 games with a 1984 copyright date when booted up on a TV monitor screen, it's a relic from that '84 era.

The 7800 shmup port of Xevious has such a notable 1984 copyright date when powered on/booted up on a typical 7800 console but wasn't released at retail until 1987.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Mortificator]

I've heard Yamauchi's name many times, but I didn't know much about him until now.

RIP

[Skykid]

Farewell to modern gaming's founding father.

Eh? That`s as much of an over exaggeration as "Nintendo saved videogames". It`s simply not true. Ultima, Wizardry, Dune II, Eye of the Beholder, X-Com, Doom and many other genre defining experiences that would influence the industry for decades to come would`ve still existed irrespective of Yamauchi and Nintendo.

I think Nintendo laid a groundwork in the 8-bit era that formed the entire modern games industry and still echoes strongly today. I credit Yamauchi with much of that business achievement.

Your examples have no relevance in relation to that, irrespective of whether or not they would have existed without Nintendo rebuilding a dead industry and reinventing the parameters of console gaming, so I'm not sure why you mentioned it.

That`s as much of an over exaggeration as "Nintendo saved videogames"

Is this a real quote? Genuine question, because I don't remember saying that (unless it's been used completely out of context.) Can you remind me of where it was I made the statement, and what it was in relation to?

[Specineff]

Brilliant businessman? Yes. Father of gaming? No. David Crane and Warren Robinett had made games that were equally or even more influential a few years earlier, just to show two examples.

[Skykid]

Brilliant businessman? Yes. Father of gaming? No. David Crane and Warren Robinett had made games that were equally or even more influential a few years earlier, just to show two examples.

You forgot the 'modern' part.

Pitfall's alright. Certainly influential, but still predated by Donkey Kong. Adventure certainly deserves some kind of recognition for visualising a text adventure, but it's still a remnant of a classic era and style of gaming that doesn't really exist anymore.

[drauch]

Isn't modern gaming now mainly FPS, MMORPGs, sports titles, and sims? Certainly is in the U.S..

[BryanM]

Isn't modern gaming now mainly FPS, MMORPGs, sports titles, and sims? Certainly is in the U.S..

Nah, it's about touching witches on our DSes.

It's for their own good, of course.

[EmperorIng]

It's a sad day for Nintendo fans to see the company's creator pass away - yes it existed before Yamauchi, but the Nintendo we know, and the Nintendo we knew at its zenith was his vision all the way.

What I really admire about Hiroshi Yamauchi most was his acute business sense, and his complete aversion towards playing video-games - I think he only ever played a few rounds of Tetris in his life. He clearly saw how big a hit it would be though, and spent loads of money and made a bunch of deals to secure its spot on the Gameboy's launch lineup, ensuring its instant success.

What I think we as gamers tend to forget is gaming existing in a larger picture, and in an economic framework as well (doubly so for shmup enthusiasts, as we tend to idolize companies with terrible financial and business acumen). Nintendo's successes in the early days were built on the shoulders of the particular philosophies of Yamauchi and his longtime collaborator Gunpei Yokoi, and these successes iterated from a standpoint of solid design and engaging gameplay.

What Ingram I think is missing, is despite the success and influence of those PC games, is the innovative and successful ways Nintendo managed, under Yamauchi's ruthlessly pragmatic approaches, to single-handedly revitalize the home console scene (this is incorrectly attributed as 'Nintendo saving gaming' when everyone at the time saw PCs and arcades doing just fine) - as well as turn Nintendo into a gleaming success almost instantaneously. I don't think it's a stretch to call him the father of modern console gaming. Yamauchi is an interesting bridge between the pre-crash industry and the post-Famicom industry, and many pioneering techniques of management, development, and marketing can be attributed to the early days at the Nintendo offices; it would be hard to deny that.

Yamauchi's belief in cheap, accessible hardware to play games with mass-appeal (taken from the experience in the arcades) is what gave Nintendo the push it needed to come out and capture the public's imagination. Now, this success was previously established by the Atari 2600. Yamauchi's genius was in that realizing that the 2600 market hadn't just 'moved on' (much like how we erroneously think today that demographics have 'moved on' to smartphones and tablets) but that Atari had failed to remain compelling to its consumers, and hadn't controlled the quality of software released for it. He was also brilliant in making deals to ensure that every store would stock a NES, and every consumer would WANT a NES. He had an uncanny sense of how people would react to a product (Virtual Boy notwithstanding), and consequently would seize the initiative.

I also admire his practice of creating competing teams of developers, and only letting the 'winners' publish games. Yes, hell for developers, but what a great way to ensure competition and quality control, ha ha. I think games today are much richer thanks to the misery of Nintendo employees!

As far as legacy goes, Nintendo's successes are built off of the beliefs of Yamauchi and Yokoi - NES, SNES, Gameboy, Wii, and DS. Its failures are the results of abandoning the early strategies (mass appeal, low cost of entry, solid design principles) and focusing on less the technical aspect of "making a product" and more on the artistic "creating an experience" side of development. I can only hope Nintendo gains another Yamauchi in the future!

[Jonathan Ingram]

Is this a real quote? Genuine question, because I don't remember saying that (unless it's been used completely out of context.) Can you remind me of where it was I made the statement, and what it was in relation to?

Not your quote, it`s a belief commonly held by people alien to the PC gaming scene in the 80s and 90s.

I think Nintendo laid a groundwork in the 8-bit era that formed the entire modern games industry and still echoes strongly today.

... has come to be dominated almost entirely by Western developers who had made personal computers their home for decades before migrating to consoles with the introduction of the Xbox line by Microsoft. Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect and Call of Duty don`t have their roots in Mario and Donkey Kong no matter how influential the latter two might have been for their time.

What Ingram I think is missing, is despite the success and influence of those PC games, is the innovative and successful ways Nintendo managed, under Yamauchi's ruthlessly pragmatic approaches, to single-handedly revitalize the home console scene (this is incorrectly attributed as 'Nintendo saving gaming' when everyone at the time saw PCs and arcades doing just fine) - as well as turn Nintendo into a gleaming success almost instantaneously.

I think you misunderstand. I don`t deny the important role Nintendo played in revitalizing the console segment of the industry. It`s the sweeping statement that Yamauchi is modern gaming`s founding father(no less) that I contest.

[tinotormed]

Salute to the great guy. I love my Gameboy cartridges.

[Skykid]

To clarify something, when I say 'modern gaming' I'm generally referring to the period following the crash of 83. It's from that point that home gaming we know know today stems. No, of course I don't think Nintendo are responsible for successful FPSs, and ID most certainly deserve recognition in today's scene - but you guys are taking the comments in the narrowest sense and seeming to forget just how remarkable the Famicom was. Its legacy, pioneering gaming structure, the genres it invented and reinvented, and the rules it established are largely still cemented in gaming, despite the evolution of technology.

I don't think it's a stretch to call him the father of modern console gaming. Yamauchi is an interesting bridge between the pre-crash industry and the post-Famicom industry, and many pioneering techniques of management, development, and marketing can be attributed to the early days at the Nintendo offices; it would be hard to deny that.

Agreed. It's a tribute in his passing to recognise the man for rekindling the industry with an iron hand and clairvoyant business acumen. Lest we forget, we come here to celebrate a form of media - a business is all it really is.

I stand by my statements. It's a matter of history.

[scrilla4rella]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/e ... tendo.html
The New Yorker had a great piece on Yamauchi. Apparently he was a frequenter of love hotels and a college dropout.

Brilliant businessman? Yes. Father of gaming? No. David Crane and Warren Robinett had made games that were equally or even more influential a few years earlier, just to show two examples.

His real legacy was the realization that software and artists make video games great, not flashy tech. As we all know, a system is successful because of great software with great design.

[Ed Oscuro]

And in honor of great artists and software, Nintendo tried to lock everybody into horrendous exploitative licensing agreements (even the media for the FDS was supposed to be from Nintendo if memory serves; using third-party disks was frowned upon) and has routinely failed to put a wide range of software to the fore - some of that might just be the commonplace belief Nintendo made "kids' systems" in the '00s, some of that was down to the N64's choice of a cartridge (which I think was actually right for the era, but it definitely made stuff too expensive and hurt profits), and more recently you can point to concrete examples of them failing to import great titles so they could publish low-risk, low-reward shovelware.

I really wanted to stay out of the thread since I don't know anything about what the man actually accomplished, but I think it is fair to say that if you disregard its first-party titles, there is very little to cherish about Nintendo's involvement in the video gaming industry, unless you made money off them perhaps.

I don't want to get into the "saved the industry" argument, but it seems that they were just there a bit earlier than Sega, which gave them an early lead. If Sega had taken Nintendo's place, it's not inconceivable that some of the excesses of the "jealous god" likely would have never come to pass - people forget that there was a dark side to that "clean" image Nintendo cultivated on its consoles - censorship and sterility.

[Skykid]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/e ... tendo.html
The New Yorker had a great piece on Yamauchi. Apparently he was a frequenter of love hotels and a college dropout.

Although I know it all already, that's a great article. Like a well arranged synopsis of the entirety of David Sheff's Game Over.

Thanks for posting.