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[Tripon]

Most longtime gamers are instantly familiar with Nintendo legends Shigeru Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata or Eiji Aonuma, but how many actually know the name Masayuki Uemura? As the chief designer on the original Famicom in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the West, Uemura had a profound impact on the home console industry and arguably was its savior after it struggled mightily to maintain relevance in the wake of the '83 video game crash. Without the NES, who knows where the game industry might be today? Magnavox Odyssey creator Ralph Baer is often referred to as the "father of video games," but in many ways Uemura is the father of the modern console industry (NES was the first system to license third-party software, which is now standard practice).

I sat down with Uemura recently in Rochester, New York at The Strong Museum of Play's International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG), which was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the NES with a "Playing With Power" exhibit.

For someone of such import in Nintendo's storied history, Uemura is one of the most unassuming and modest people I've had the pleasure of interviewing. Back in the early '80s when Nintendo boss Hiroshi Yamauchi asked him to start thinking about designing a home console, Uemura was terrified. After all, would consumers really be receptive to another console after a flood of poor quality products ruined the market?

"I never thought about being a savior. I was just scared and wanted to succeed in America," he acknowledged. "By coming here 30 years later, like on this occasion, I finally realize that, yes, we did save the video game industry, but back then I had no idea."

"When we [aired] TV advertisements, the potential customer could immediately figure out this one is different from Atari," he said. "We also proposed a new toy called Robot (R.O.B.) which responded to the reaction from the graphics on the TV screen... The other element was the Nintendo Zapper, a light gun, which was something different from any other home console game. Early on, we made sure the Robot and Zapper were going to play an important role in launching the Nintendo system. We also advertised the system at the mall so that people could play our games for free to test out how good they are."

"From my perspective, the game industry has always been [steered by] indies because the idea of the individual has been quite crucial in making great games. When you try to fully utilize all the computing power, and graphics processing and sound effects, then you have to add more people and more staff to create games compatible with all the technology. But the one thing you could [leverage] is the individual powerful resource. Nintendo has always been like that, we are like indies," Uemura remarked.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...-has-always-been-like-that-we-are-like-indies

Much more in the link

 

[Bass260]

Thanks for the link. Uemura is incredibly on point. And such a humble man.

 

[mcw]

While we're on the subject, another excellent, recent article about Uemura and his contributions: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/nes-creator-masayuki-uemura-on-the-birth-of-nintendos-first-console