8 ms·

Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

433 points by T-zex 13y ago

nakedrobot2 13y ago
RIP. You touched many lives, many childhoods were brightened by your game-and-watches, your chimneys inhabited by man-eating plants, your moustached italian plumber heroes. I hope to inspire 1/1,000,000 as many people. edit: here are some Nintendo Game and Watch devices on eBay for all you young runts. http://www.ebay.com/sch/Vintage-Pre1990-/155342/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=nintendo+game+watch+-magnet+-magnets&_sop=1 http://www.ebay.com/sch/Vintage-Pre1990-/155342/i.html?_from...
- netcan 13y ago
  It was always having the Japanese in the periphery of my pop culture, contributing from a parallel world. They very obviously were (are) building on top of different tradition of art and storytelling. Where I grew up a dubbed 70s manga cartoon (also about a little Italian) was one of only a handful of kids shows we got on our single TV channel.
  - contingencies 13y ago
    On the different tradition of art and storytelling meme, a really cool exhibition just finished at the Rotterdam Wereldmuseum in Holland showing the evolution of Japanese manga from early Buddhist deities and Edo period printmaking. The book is 25EUR: http://wereldmuseumwinkel.com/pages/2/webshop.html?categoryId=13&productId=140 http://wereldmuseumwinkel.com/pages/2/webshop.html?categoryI...
k-mcgrady 13y ago
The N64 was the first proper games console I owned (I got it as a gift when I was 7). I spent so much time on it and had a lot of fun (I even brought it on holiday with me :). I still love to dig it out of the attic every now and then. Even though I'm not 'a gamer' it holds a lot of happy memories for me. RIP.
- robotmay 13y ago
  My mum won our N64 in a toilet paper competition, which was great because we wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. My brother and I spent so much time together playing on it and I don't think I've ever enjoyed games quite as much as I did at that time.
  - circuiter 13y ago
    > My mum won our N64 in a toilet paper competition, What?
    - JonnieCache 13y ago
      His mother won his family's N64 in a promotional prize draw by sending off coupons cut out of toiler paper packaging.
      - jevinskie 13y ago
        That would make sense. I was hoping for some sort of art competition where you could only use toilet paper and its rolls/packaging for your artwork.
  - jimmaswell 13y ago
    What kind of toilet paper competition?
    - robotmay 13y ago
      One where you win an N64! It was some sort of mail-the-coupon-in thing from Andrex in the UK.
- sspiff 13y ago
  Don't you feel a little sad when you vaguely remember those days? I'm only 26 but my memories about those "golden days" are becoming harder and harder to find. I got an N64 at the age of 10 when my brother and I got "good grades for an entire year" in primary school. It was my first console (and we didn't have a computer). I started claiming I wanted to make videogames around the age of 7, so it was almost like a defining moment in my life :) I have a lot of great memories with that thing, and still think the controller design (though not the build) is the best of any console ever. After we got the N64, we suddenly had many more friends who wanted to come over and play! I evangelized the N64 and eventually there were 4 of us who got one, so we could swap tons of games. (Game acquisition for kids in those days was hard!) Been a huge Nintendo fan ever since. My N64 is still hooked up to the TV.
tinco 13y ago
R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron shelve management strategies and business practices sprouted a range of exquisite products that every young adult remembers with tremendous fondness and respect. He truly was putting consumer experience over everything else. I think that's what we should thank him for :)
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  That's very interesting. I know nothing about him, but I'm very intrigued to hear more about his ruthless business practices. Nowadays there's less stigma attached to the idea of being a ruthless businessman. In fact, it's often considered meritous. So I don't think it would be disrespectful to highlight some of the things he's done. After all, it's a testament to what it took to build a company of the caliber of Nintendo. What sort of strategies did he employ?
  - tinco 13y ago
    Well for example the shelve management of the cartride game systems. If you would want to produce a game for the SNES, to actually distribute it you would have to put it on a cartridge and sell it. But the design and specifications of these cartridges was protected by Nintendo, so the only way to distribute a game was to ask Nintendo for cartridges. Because Nintendo would only allow quality games on its shelves, it would test your game before allowing you any cartridges, so your game basically had to be nearly finished before you could ask Nintendo for cartridges. Of course if you were refused at this point you would have already invested tons of money so it would be pretty ruinous. Besides the go/no-go signal, Nintendo also controlled the _amount_ of cartridges you would get. If Nintendo decided (much like Apple did in recent years) that your game was more valuable if it had limited copies, then you wouldn't get many copies, regardless if that would leave you with not enough revenue to make a profit. Reasons for refusal of cartridges were both fair and rather unfair. For example you could be refused for lack of quality, but you could also be refused because another game in your genre already had shelve space and they didn't want to endanger its dominance. Basically you were at the complete mercy of how Nintendo wanted to make maximum profit for it self. I have heard, though I don't know for sure (maybe someone could check it :P) that Atari eventually went bankrupt because it decided to make a Nintendo game (as a last resort perhaps), got into a conflict with Nintendo, sued them, and lost..
mkr-hn 13y ago
I have a closet that's about 10% filled with games and systems created by his company.
linux_devil 13y ago
R.I.P Thanks for creating our childhood a thoughtful and amazing paradise.
nness 13y ago
Leave Luck To Heaven.
- dpapathanasiou 13y ago
  For those who don't get it, that's the loose way of translating the three characters[1] which make up the name "Nintendo" in Japanese, though you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking them up one by one[2]. [1] 任天堂 [2] http://tangorin.com/general/%E4%BB%BB%E5%A4%A9%E5%A0%82 http://tangorin.com/general/%E4%BB%BB%E5%A4%A9%E5%A0%82
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    You would not even translate it this way. :P You dont just stitch meaning to kanji like that in Japanese :P
    - w1ntermute 13y ago
      任天堂本社こそその意味が確実に付けられると思ってない。 http://kotaku.com/5649625/nintendo-might-not-mean-what-you-think http://kotaku.com/5649625/nintendo-might-not-mean-what-you-t...
    - dpapathanasiou 13y ago
      It's not the way I would translate it myself (I would say it's just a name, and really has no meaning), but it is a common English interpretation that's been floating out there.
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    「運」という意味がその３つのどの漢字にも入ってないよ。
    - aikinai 13y ago
      It doesn't really make any sense, but that's the official story even inside Nintendo (of America). And using Japanese here is pointless.
Keyframe 13y ago
RIP. Honestly, I thought he was older. Read, if you haven't Game Over http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/0679736220 http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/... It is, essentially, a great book (unlike boo.com) about a startup called Nintendo. You wont regret the read, even if you're not into games.
ekianjo 13y ago
Not sure if what i heard is true but i have been told that he had never played games himself.
kyllo 13y ago
RIP. Hiroshi Yamauchi was also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball club, and is responsible for keeping the team in Seattle in the late 90s when there was a very high chance of it being sold off to another city. He never attended a Mariners game, and didn't even like baseball, but purchased it as a way of saying "thank you" to Seattle for its support of Nintendo (Nintendo of America is headquartered in Redmond, just a few miles from Microsoft).
- the_watcher 13y ago
  Without him, the Mariners would be in Tampa, and we may have never gotten to enjoy the wonders of Ichiro, or the incredible 2001 season (not to mention that he was the first owner willing to take the plunge on Japanese position players). Seattle fans who forget this, imagine if someone like him had been around to save the Sonics. RIP.
- dubfan 13y ago
  Nintendo of America isn't even "just a few miles" from Microsoft. It's almost completely surrounded by the Microsoft campus.
apa-sl 13y ago
I started to love Nintendo when I've got my GameBoy. I remember crying out loud in Geneva when my mother refused to buy me GameBoy color with Earthworm Jim :-) Renting out N64 with my friend and playing it as much as we could through 1 month. I'm still a fan of Nintendo, this year bought Wii U and having fun with it. RIP
redcrusher 13y ago
RIP! you were a great visionary! and one everyone will miss
- kenshiro_o 13y ago
  RIP. A great man from the entertainment industry. I hope Nintendo come up with a great and powerful console after the Wii U generation.
anigbrowl 13y ago
______________________________________________________________
megafounder 13y ago
R.I.P. I will miss u, thanks for leaving such a great legacy.

433 points by T-zex 13y ago

RIP. You touched many lives, many childhoods were brightened by your game-and-watches, your chimneys inhabited by man-eating plants, your moustached italian plumber heroes. I hope to inspire 1/1,000,000 as many people. edit: here are some Nintendo Game and Watch devices on eBay for all you young runts. http://www.ebay.com/sch/Vintage-Pre1990-/155342/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=nintendo+game+watch+-magnet+-magnets&_sop=1 http://www.ebay.com/sch/Vintage-Pre1990-/155342/i.html?_from...

netcan 13y ago
It was always having the Japanese in the periphery of my pop culture, contributing from a parallel world. They very obviously were (are) building on top of different tradition of art and storytelling. Where I grew up a dubbed 70s manga cartoon (also about a little Italian) was one of only a handful of kids shows we got on our single TV channel.
- contingencies 13y ago
  On the different tradition of art and storytelling meme, a really cool exhibition just finished at the Rotterdam Wereldmuseum in Holland showing the evolution of Japanese manga from early Buddhist deities and Edo period printmaking. The book is 25EUR: http://wereldmuseumwinkel.com/pages/2/webshop.html?categoryId=13&productId=140 http://wereldmuseumwinkel.com/pages/2/webshop.html?categoryI...

k-mcgrady 13y ago

The N64 was the first proper games console I owned (I got it as a gift when I was 7). I spent so much time on it and had a lot of fun (I even brought it on holiday with me :). I still love to dig it out of the attic every now and then. Even though I'm not 'a gamer' it holds a lot of happy memories for me. RIP.

robotmay 13y ago
My mum won our N64 in a toilet paper competition, which was great because we wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. My brother and I spent so much time together playing on it and I don't think I've ever enjoyed games quite as much as I did at that time.
- circuiter 13y ago
  > My mum won our N64 in a toilet paper competition, What?
  - JonnieCache 13y ago
    His mother won his family's N64 in a promotional prize draw by sending off coupons cut out of toiler paper packaging.
    - jevinskie 13y ago
      That would make sense. I was hoping for some sort of art competition where you could only use toilet paper and its rolls/packaging for your artwork.
- jimmaswell 13y ago
  What kind of toilet paper competition?
  - robotmay 13y ago
    One where you win an N64! It was some sort of mail-the-coupon-in thing from Andrex in the UK.
sspiff 13y ago
Don't you feel a little sad when you vaguely remember those days? I'm only 26 but my memories about those "golden days" are becoming harder and harder to find. I got an N64 at the age of 10 when my brother and I got "good grades for an entire year" in primary school. It was my first console (and we didn't have a computer). I started claiming I wanted to make videogames around the age of 7, so it was almost like a defining moment in my life :) I have a lot of great memories with that thing, and still think the controller design (though not the build) is the best of any console ever. After we got the N64, we suddenly had many more friends who wanted to come over and play! I evangelized the N64 and eventually there were 4 of us who got one, so we could swap tons of games. (Game acquisition for kids in those days was hard!) Been a huge Nintendo fan ever since. My N64 is still hooked up to the TV.

tinco 13y ago

R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron shelve management strategies and business practices sprouted a range of exquisite products that every young adult remembers with tremendous fondness and respect. He truly was putting consumer experience over everything else. I think that's what we should thank him for :)

sillysaurus2 13y ago
That's very interesting. I know nothing about him, but I'm very intrigued to hear more about his ruthless business practices. Nowadays there's less stigma attached to the idea of being a ruthless businessman. In fact, it's often considered meritous. So I don't think it would be disrespectful to highlight some of the things he's done. After all, it's a testament to what it took to build a company of the caliber of Nintendo. What sort of strategies did he employ?
- tinco 13y ago
  Well for example the shelve management of the cartride game systems. If you would want to produce a game for the SNES, to actually distribute it you would have to put it on a cartridge and sell it. But the design and specifications of these cartridges was protected by Nintendo, so the only way to distribute a game was to ask Nintendo for cartridges. Because Nintendo would only allow quality games on its shelves, it would test your game before allowing you any cartridges, so your game basically had to be nearly finished before you could ask Nintendo for cartridges. Of course if you were refused at this point you would have already invested tons of money so it would be pretty ruinous. Besides the go/no-go signal, Nintendo also controlled the _amount_ of cartridges you would get. If Nintendo decided (much like Apple did in recent years) that your game was more valuable if it had limited copies, then you wouldn't get many copies, regardless if that would leave you with not enough revenue to make a profit. Reasons for refusal of cartridges were both fair and rather unfair. For example you could be refused for lack of quality, but you could also be refused because another game in your genre already had shelve space and they didn't want to endanger its dominance. Basically you were at the complete mercy of how Nintendo wanted to make maximum profit for it self. I have heard, though I don't know for sure (maybe someone could check it :P) that Atari eventually went bankrupt because it decided to make a Nintendo game (as a last resort perhaps), got into a conflict with Nintendo, sued them, and lost..

mkr-hn 13y ago

I have a closet that's about 10% filled with games and systems created by his company.

linux_devil 13y ago

R.I.P Thanks for creating our childhood a thoughtful and amazing paradise.

nness 13y ago

Leave Luck To Heaven.

dpapathanasiou 13y ago
For those who don't get it, that's the loose way of translating the three characters[1] which make up the name "Nintendo" in Japanese, though you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking them up one by one[2]. [1] 任天堂 [2] http://tangorin.com/general/%E4%BB%BB%E5%A4%A9%E5%A0%82 http://tangorin.com/general/%E4%BB%BB%E5%A4%A9%E5%A0%82
- ekianjo 13y ago
  You would not even translate it this way. :P You dont just stitch meaning to kanji like that in Japanese :P
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    任天堂本社こそその意味が確実に付けられると思ってない。 http://kotaku.com/5649625/nintendo-might-not-mean-what-you-think http://kotaku.com/5649625/nintendo-might-not-mean-what-you-t...
  - dpapathanasiou 13y ago
    It's not the way I would translate it myself (I would say it's just a name, and really has no meaning), but it is a common English interpretation that's been floating out there.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  「運」という意味がその３つのどの漢字にも入ってないよ。
  - aikinai 13y ago
    It doesn't really make any sense, but that's the official story even inside Nintendo (of America). And using Japanese here is pointless.

Keyframe 13y ago

RIP. Honestly, I thought he was older. Read, if you haven't Game Over http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/0679736220 http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/... It is, essentially, a great book (unlike boo.com) about a startup called Nintendo. You wont regret the read, even if you're not into games.

ekianjo 13y ago

Not sure if what i heard is true but i have been told that he had never played games himself.

kyllo 13y ago

RIP. Hiroshi Yamauchi was also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners baseball club, and is responsible for keeping the team in Seattle in the late 90s when there was a very high chance of it being sold off to another city. He never attended a Mariners game, and didn't even like baseball, but purchased it as a way of saying "thank you" to Seattle for its support of Nintendo (Nintendo of America is headquartered in Redmond, just a few miles from Microsoft).

the_watcher 13y ago
Without him, the Mariners would be in Tampa, and we may have never gotten to enjoy the wonders of Ichiro, or the incredible 2001 season (not to mention that he was the first owner willing to take the plunge on Japanese position players). Seattle fans who forget this, imagine if someone like him had been around to save the Sonics. RIP.
dubfan 13y ago
Nintendo of America isn't even "just a few miles" from Microsoft. It's almost completely surrounded by the Microsoft campus.

apa-sl 13y ago

I started to love Nintendo when I've got my GameBoy. I remember crying out loud in Geneva when my mother refused to buy me GameBoy color with Earthworm Jim :-) Renting out N64 with my friend and playing it as much as we could through 1 month. I'm still a fan of Nintendo, this year bought Wii U and having fun with it. RIP

redcrusher 13y ago

RIP! you were a great visionary! and one everyone will miss

kenshiro_o 13y ago
RIP. A great man from the entertainment industry. I hope Nintendo come up with a great and powerful console after the Wii U generation.

anigbrowl 13y ago

______________________________________________________________

megafounder 13y ago

R.I.P. I will miss u, thanks for leaving such a great legacy.