You may not have heard his name, but you’ve probably heard what the man has been behind- the Game boy, Game and Watch, and of course Metroid. You may also not know that the very same man who created all of that, passed away exactly ten years ago. The man, Gunpei Yokoi.
Gunpei Yokoi was born in 1941 to a wealthy family as his father was the director of a pharmaceutical company. As a child, Yokoi was an excellent student, as he excelled mostly in the science and math departments. During his younger years he would often play with spare parts from machines. He would often take the scraps and use them to create toys and radios. After he graduated from college at Doshinsha University with a degree in electronics, Yokoi was hired at Nintendo, the then Hanafuda playing cards maker and distributor. Yokoi was assigned the task of heading the assembly lines of the cards. He would do this for several months, until one day Hiroshi Yamauchi, then company chairman, asked Yokoi to create something for the new games division, hoping to capitalize on the Christmas rush. Yokoi then created the Ultra Hand, a small arm like device with two handles that if pushed together, the arm of the device would extend and two grippers would come together. It sold over 1.6 million units, a sign that would foreshadow the inventor’s bright future. He would go on to help create one a famous love tester and a duck hunting game, which of course would lead to the NES game.
In the late 1970s, Nintendo saw how popular the electronic gaming industry was becoming and would try to capitalize on the market, with Yokoi leading the Research and Development 1 group. It was here that Yokoi would show his true strengths as an inventor. As legend has it, Yokoi was riding home on the train as he saw a bored man playing with his calculator. From this, Yokoi got the idea that with the technology used to create the calculator, he could create a small, portable gaming device. Thus, the Game and Watch was created and distributed in 1980. The device would continue to be produced and sold until 1991, already having sold millions.
Yokoi would also work along side Miyamoto in the early 1980s, mentoring the future designer. He would produce Miyamoto’s first arcade games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior and Mario Bros. He would continue to work along side Miyamoto until 1984, when Miyamoto moved to and was in charge of Research and Development 2.
During the mid 80s, Yokoi would soon be creating and producing some of his most memorable and unforgettable games with Metroid and Kid Icarus both arriving on players’ NES systems in 1987.
But the man had no idea what kind of success his next project would be, as he was about to create the best selling line of systems ever to be developed in the video game industry. The next project would of course be the one and only Game boy, which would use his philosophy of “lateral thinking of withered technology†to its greatest potential. By this he meant using old technology to create something new for the consumer at a cheap and affordable price, which is exactly what he did with the Game boy. The portable would launch in 1989, sky rocketing Yokoi and Nintendo to the heavens, with record breaking sales at a US$89. Unfortunenately, this would be the last major success he w ould have at Nintendo.
Yokoi would develop more hit games (Metroid II, Super Mario Land, Super Metroid and many more) until 1995, the year the inventor would create the doomed Virtual Boy. The Virtual boy was an instant failure as nobody liked the idea of a system with only a red display and many often complained of headaches that the console gave them. It would be discontinued a less then a year later and Yokoi was the target for all of the hate and criticism about the failure, even from his own co-workers at Nintendo. He would leave the company to start KOTO Laboratories in 1996 where he would work on his own competitor to the Game boy- later named the Wonder Swan.
On October 4, 1997, Yokoi would be riding with Nintendo employee Etsuo Kisoo. Their car hit the car in font of them and the two men went to go examine the damage when an oncoming vehicle sideswiped Yokoi, smashing him into the crashed vehicle. Tragically he’d be declared dead two hours later.
Today, not many people know about the man at Nintendo who has arguably done as much for the industry as Miyamoto himself, and that to me is truly a shame. So I thought I’d share this with you, let you know the truth behind that old Game boy collecting dust in your closet, or that copy of Super Metroid you’ve played immensely since ’94. I believe the happiest part of his story is that his philosophy is still the thriving force behind the Wii and DS and not many realize it.
"I've known Mr. Yokoi for a long time. He had a great sense of humor, a great smile... a very generous and outgoing fellow." said Howard Lincoln (former head of Nintendo of America). "He made a tremendous amount of creative contributions to Nintendo and the video game business over the years. People play Game Boy all over the world, and that's Mr. Yokoi's."
Thank you Mr. Yokoi. Rest in Peace.
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