This week, we mourn the loss of one of the most important pioneers of gaming. At age 85, Hiroshi Yamauchi, one of the founders of Nintendo has passed away. He died Thursday, September 29th from pneumonia.
Yamauchi was born in Kyoto, Japan and aspired to be an engineer. His plans were delayed by the oncoming of World War II.
After inheriting the company from his grandfather, Yamauchi remained president of Nintendo for an amazing 53 years. He helped build the iconic company that we know today.
Because of Yamauchi, we had the Nintendo System and the Super Nintendo along with other timeless favorites. Without the NES and SNES, the gaming industry wouldn’t be the same because of its revolutionary properties.
Before the launch of the entertainment systems in the 80’s, Nintendo was known as a toy and card game manufacturer. The most notable card game from Nintendo was a simple game called Hanafuda.
Created in 1889, the game was a way to try to get western card games popular in Japan. At that time, western cards were a novelty due to the prohibition of gambling in Japan.
The game is reminiscent of our own Go Fish. Players try to match cards to gain as many points as they can. They also created silly toys like the Love Tester. Just as the name suggests, the toy “measures how much two people love each other.”
While head of the company Yamauchi employed Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, and helped make Mario a legendary series.
It was reported that Yamauchi believed that game creators should be primarily artists, not engineers. He also made sure that all games that were going to be developed for the NES had to be approved by him!
This helped foster many of the games we’re so familiar with like Mario, Final Fantasy and even Paper Boy.
In 1989, Nintendo released the first of the Game Boy series of consoles. Yamauchi helped birth the idea by helping providing some helpful guidelines that physically shaped the aesthetics of the Game Boy.
Once the Game Boy saw such booming success through the legendary game Tetris, they tweaked it. They made the game console smaller and easier to use. They released a total of six different Game Boy incarnations, ending with the Game Boy Micro in 2005.
After the success of the NES and Super Nintendo, Yamauchi commissioned the Nintendo 64. It was the first fully 3D gaming system and they used it to launch the iconic Super Mario 64.
The GameCube was built under Yamauchi’s belief that a gaming system should focus on games only. This explains the small disks and the incapability with other gaming systems.
Yamauchi stepped down in 2002, right before the big release of the Wii systems. It should be known that he never actually stepped back from the gaming industry because he acted like a mentor for the company.
After stepping down from his position in Nintendo, Yamauchi refused his pension that was worth around $9 to $14 million because he believed that the company could use it in a better way.
Still holding a majority of the Nintendo Company shares, he easily became the 12th most wealthy men in the world. He donated 7.5 billion yen to build a new cancer center in his hometown of Kyoto.
Personally, I’m deeply saddened by the passing of such an influential person. Without him, I doubt any of us would be who we are today.
Think about it, without Yamauchi we wouldn’t have the childhood games we all played for most of our lives. The gaming industry wouldn’t be as advanced as it is now.
More importantly, we wouldn’t have Super Mario, Super Smash Brothers, Final Fantasy, or even Legend of Zelda. If any of you know who I am, you would know why the absence of Legend of Zelda would personally offend me greatly.
I have a feeling that Nintendo is going to have its hands full with trying to deal with the loss of such an important person. I would even say that they may make a few more poor decisions in the future, since they’re without their strong mentor.
I often wish we can go back to the Nintendo 64 or the SNES. The consoles themselves were able to survive Armageddon. Though the games were difficult to start up, they were some of the best I have ever played.
I’m going to miss the brilliant mind of Yamauchi. He helped shape generations with his company. I know those in the gaming industry are tipping their hats and saying a small prayer for one of the true innovators of this world.
Kristen Mabry
Features Editor
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