Time sure seems to pass by fast. When I happened upon this little factoid in my surfing today, I actually took a moment out to pause and think about what an impact it had.
That factoid is that ten years ago today, on October 4, 1997, legendary game designer Gunpei Yokoi was killed as he stopped to help at the scene of an accident. Yokoi is perhaps better known for his successes like Metroid, as well as some of his failures like the Virtual Boy. Regardless, it's important to remember Yokoi's contributions.
Here's but a short list of everything he's contributed to gaming:
- The Game Boy
- Metroid
- The Virtual Boy
- Game & Watch
- Kid Icarus
- R.O.B.
- Intelligent Systems (indirectly - they were originally part of Gunpei's R&D1 squad), who created Fire Emblem, Paper Mario and Famicom/Advance Wars
- The fact that Nintendo is even in gaming. Yamauchi came to Gunpei to come up with a hit toy, and he succeeded. Gunpei was moved to product developer, and from there, the rest is history.
If you'd basically like that in video form,
click here. I know some of you are visual learners.
Yokoi's contributions shouldn't be forgotten. He's one of the most important people in gaming history, up there with the Bushnells and the Miyamotos of the world. In fact, his ideas still live on in the very DS and Wii you play today - using withered technologies in new ways that not only produces a cheap but fun form of gaming for the consumer, but one that is easy to produce.
We miss you, Gunpei.
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Holy shit. I had no idea the guy was killed in an accident.
Man, now I feel bad for all those times I bad-mouthed the VirtualBoy. :x
Oh wow, I didn't know about this either... R.I.P., Gunpei.
Damn...of course it happens to fall on my birthday. R.I.P. Gunpei, I'll honor you with a drink and a toast each year.
aah the virtual boy. cant blame the man for having sweet dreams.
Didnt know he was dead, R.I.P.
I remember readign about this in Nintendo Power. It was in Pulse, someone actually had to send a letter in to get NP to even mention it. Of course the magazine was still pretty kid-safe back then, so I guess an extensive retrospective on someone who died would have felt out of place. Still, I wish they'd given him a bit more recognition.
Also Wonderswan. <3
@A New Challenger
I think you're talking about the same exact letter I read. That was when I first learned how his death.
Dammit, about not how.
Truly a brilliant man and sad what happened to him both in his life and his death.
Respect knuckles.