:Gunpei Yokoi

{{Infobox person

| native_name = 横井軍平

| image = Gunpei Yokoi.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Yokoi in 1995

| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1941|9|10}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHAnAQAAIAAJ |title=Computer and video game makers |first=Winnie|last=Forster |publisher=Gameplan |lang=de |year=2008 |page=364|isbn=9783000215841 }}

| birth_place = Kyoto, Empire of Japan

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1997|10|4|1941|9|10}}

| death_place = Komatsu, Ishikawa, Japan

| years active = 1965–1997

| alma mater = Doshisha University

| occupation = {{hlist|Toy maker|game designer|game producer}}

}}

{{nihongo|Gunpei Yokoi|横井軍平|Yokoi Gunpei|10 September 1941 – 4 October 1997}}, sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. As a long-time Nintendo employee, he was best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the original designer of the Game Boy, and producer of a few long-running and critically acclaimed video game franchises such as Metroid and Kid Icarus.

Career

Yokoi graduated from Doshisha University with a degree in electronics. He was first hired by Nintendo in 1965 to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture its hanafuda cards.{{cite magazine |date=January 2002 |title=Forgotten Giant: The Brilliant Life and Tragic Death of Gunpei Yokoi |magazine=Game Informer |volume=12 |issue=105 |page=116 }}

In 1966, Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo, came to a hanafuda factory where Yokoi was working and took notice of a toy, an extending arm that Yokoi made for his own amusement during spare time while doing maintenance. Yamauchi ordered Yokoi to develop it as a proper product for the Christmas rush. The Ultra Hand was a huge success, and Yokoi was asked to work on other Nintendo toys, including the Ten Billion Barrel puzzle, a miniature remote-controlled vacuum cleaner called the Chiritory, a baseball-throwing machine called the Ultra Machine, and a "Love Tester". He worked on toys until the company decided to make video games in 1974,{{Cite book |title=Powerplay |last=Fleming |first=Dan |publisher=Manchester University Press ND |year=1996 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=U3u7AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22color+tv+game%22&pg=PA180 180] |isbn=978-0-7190-4717-6}} when he became one of its first game designers, only preceded by Genyo Takeda.{{cite web |url=http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/punchout/0/0 |title=The Proposition is to Use Two Televisions |work=Iwata Asks: Punch-Out!! |publisher=Nintendo of America, Inc. |date=13 September 2009 |access-date=18 March 2015}} While traveling on the Shinkansen, Yokoi supposedly saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then got the idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature video gaming pastime.{{cite web |last=Crigger |first=Lara |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_87/490-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi |title=The Escapist: Searching for Gunpei Yokoi |publisher=Escapistmagazine.com |date=6 March 2007 |access-date=1 June 2011 |archive-date=18 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200418092054/https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/issues/issue_87/490-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi |url-status=dead }}

In 1981, Yamauchi appointed Yokoi to supervise Donkey Kong, an arcade game created by Shigeru Miyamoto.Kent 158. Yokoi explained many of the intricacies of game design to Miyamoto at the beginning of his career, and the project only came to be approved after Yokoi brought Miyamoto's game ideas to the president's attention.{{cite web |url=http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/nsmb/0/0 |title=Mario Couldn't Jump At First |work=Iwata Asks: New Super Mario Bros. Wii |publisher=Nintendo of America, Inc. |date=13 November 2009 |access-date=18 March 2015}}

After the worldwide success of Donkey Kong, Yokoi continued to work with Miyamoto on the next Mario game, Mario Bros. He proposed the multiplayer concept and convinced his co-worker to give Mario some superhuman abilities, such as the ability to jump unharmed from great heights.

File:Game-Boy-FR.jpg.]]

File:Virtual-Boy-Set.jpg (1995)]]

After Mario Bros., Yokoi produced several R&D1 games, such as Kid Icarus and Metroid.{{cite magazine |title=Farewell, Game Boy |magazine=Electronic Gaming Monthly |issue=102|publisher=Ziff Davis|date=December 1998|page=20}} He designed R.O.B.{{cite patent | country=US | number=4815733 | title=Photosensing video game control system | fdate=23 February 1988 | gdate=28 March 1989 | status=application | inventor=Gunpei Yokoi | assign1=Nintendo Co Ltd}} and the Game Boy, the latter of which became a worldwide success. Another of his creations, the Virtual Boy, was a commercial failure. Nintendo has denied that the Virtual Boy's poor performance in the market was the reason for Yokoi's subsequent departure from the company,{{cite web | title=Profile: Gunpei Yokoi | work=Nsidr | date=23 October 2000 | url=https://www.nsidr.com/archive/profile-gunpei-yokoi | access-date=3 July 2019}} holding that his retirement was "absolutely coincidental" to the market performance of any Nintendo hardware.{{cite magazine |title=Nintendo's Leap into the Unknown|magazine=Next Generation|issue=23 |publisher=Imagine Media |date=November 1997|page=16}} According to his Nintendo and Koto colleague Yoshihiro Taki, Yokoi had originally decided to retire at age 50 to do as he pleased but had simply delayed it.{{cite book | first=Osamu | last=Inoue | others=Paul Tuttle Starr (translator) | date=27 April 2010 | title=Nintendo Magic: Winning the Videogame Wars | publisher=Vertical | isbn=978-1934287224 }} According to David Sheff's book Game Over, Yokoi never actually intended for the console to be released in its present form. However, Nintendo pushed the Virtual Boy to market so that it could focus development resources on the Nintendo 64.{{cite book |last1=Sheff |first1=David |title=Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children |title-link=Game Over (Sheff book) |last2=Eddy |first2=Andy |publisher=GamePress |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-9669617-0-6 |oclc=26214063 |author-link=David Sheff}}

File:WonderSwan-Black-Left.jpg]]

Amid the failure of the Virtual Boy and the launch of the more successful Game Boy Pocket, Yokoi left Nintendo on 15 August 1996, after thirty-one years at the company. Leaving with several of his subordinates to form a new company called Koto, Yokoi led the development of the Bandai WonderSwan handheld game console.{{cite book | title={{nihongo|Father of Games – Gunpei Yokoi, the Man Who Created Nintendo's DNA|ゲームの父・横井軍平伝任天堂のＤＮＡを創造した男|Geemu no Chichi, Yokoi Gunpei Den: Nintendo no DNA wo Souzou Shita Otoko }} | first=Takefumi | last=Makino | date=2010 | publisher=Kadokawa Shoten | isbn=978-4-04-885058-2 | language=ja}}{{cite web | title=Nintendo Key Figures - Gunpei Yokoi (横井軍平) | date=8 March 2011 | work=beforemario | url=http://blog.beforemario.com/2011/03/gunpei-yokoi.html | access-date=12 July 2019}}

Design philosophy<span class="anchor" id="Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology"></span>

Yokoi said "The Nintendo way of adapting technology is not to look for the state of the art but to utilize mature technology that can be mass-produced cheaply." He articulated his philosophy of {{nihongo|"Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology"|枯れた技術の水平思考|Kareta Gijutsu no Suihei Shikō|}} (also translated as "Lateral Thinking with Seasoned Technology"), in the book Yokoi Gunpei Game House. "Withered technology" in this context refers to a mature technologies which are well understood and tend to be more affordable and reliable. "Lateral thinking" refers to finding innovative ways of using such technology. Yokoi held that toys and games do not necessarily require cutting-edge technology; novel and fun gameplay are more important. In the interview, he suggested that expensive cutting-edge technology can get in the way of developing a new product.{{cite book | last1=Yokoi | first1=Gunpei | last2=Makino | first2=Takefumi | title={{nihongo|Yokoi Gunpei Game House|横井軍平ゲーム館|Yokoi Gunpei Gēmu-kan}} | publisher=ASCII | date=May 1997| isbn=978-4-89366-696-3}}

Game & Watch was developed based on this philosophy.Ryan, Jeff. Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Penguin. 2011. At the time of its development, Sharp and Casio were fiercely competing in the digital calculator market. For this reason, there was a glut of liquid crystal displays and semiconductors. The "lateral thinking" was to find an original and fun use for this cheap and abundant technology. The NES and Game Boy were developed under a similar philosophy.Parish, Jeremy. [http://www.1up.com/features/nintendo-3ds-past-present-future The Troubled Past and Challenging Future of Nintendo 3DS: What the 3DS owes to Virtual Boy (and how it's different)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711185404/http://www.1up.com/features/nintendo-3ds-past-present-future |date=11 July 2012 }}. 1up.com. 31 March 2011. In the handheld market, Yokoi's refusal to equip the Game Boy with a color LCD display (at the time, cutting-edge technology) gave the device a much longer battery life and is often cited as a primary reason it prevailed against Sega's Game Gear and Atari's Lynx.

Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015, claimed that this philosophy has been passed on to the disciples of Yokoi, such as Miyamoto, and it continues to be echoed in later Nintendo products like the highly successful Wii.{{Cite web|url=https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/1206/kaigai324.htm|title=後藤弘茂のWeekly海外ニュース|website=pc.watch.impress.co.jp}} The Wii's internal technology was similar to that of Nintendo's previous home console, the GameCube, and was not as advanced in terms of computational capability and multimedia versatility compared to its competitors: the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Instead, the system offered something completely different by introducing motion-based controls to the console market in an attempt to change the ways video games are played, and consequently, to widen the audience for video games in general. This strategy demonstrated Nintendo's belief that graphical advancement isn't the only way to make progress in gaming technology; indeed, after the Wii's overwhelming success, Sony and Microsoft released their own motion control peripherals. Nintendo's emphasis on peripherals for the Wii has also been pointed to as an example of Yokoi's "lateral thinking" at work.Jones, Steven E. and Thiruvathukal, George K. Codename Revolution: The Nintendo Wii Platform. MIT Press. 2012.

Death

On 4 October 1997, Yokoi was riding in a car driven by his associate Etsuo Kiso on the Hokuriku Expressway, when the vehicle rear-ended a truck.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rfgeneration.com/news/virtual-boy/|title=Virtual Boy – What about Channel 4?|website=www.rfgeneration.com|access-date=16 April 2019}}{{cite web |url=http://ign64.ign.com/articles/061/061333p1.html |title=Game Boy Inventor Dies in Car Crash |date=6 October 1997 |work=IGN |publisher=IGN Entertainment, Inc |access-date=27 July 2011}} After the two men had left the car to inspect the damage, Yokoi was hit and injured by a passing car. The driver of the car that hit Yokoi in the second accident was Gen Tsushima, a member of the tourism industry.{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5789740/why-gamings-most-tragic-conspiracy-is-bullshit |title=The Father of the Game Boy Was Not Killed By Yakuza |publisher=Kotaku.com |first=Brian|last=Ashcraft |date=7 April 2011 |access-date=18 June 2011}} Yokoi's death was confirmed two hours later.{{cite web|url=http://stars.ign.com/objects/919/919302_biography.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913222527/http://stars.ign.com/objects/919/919302_biography.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 September 2008 |title=IGN: Gunpei Yokoi Biography |publisher=Stars.ign.com |access-date=1 June 2011}} Kiso suffered only a fractured rib.

Legacy

The title of his main biography from 2010 translates from Japanese as Father of Games – Gunpei Yokoi, the Man Who Created Nintendo's DNA. A 1997 book's title translates to Yokoi's House of Gaming,{{cite book | title={{nihongo|Yokoi's House of Gaming|横井軍平ゲーム館}} | language=ja | first1=Kohei | last1=Yokoi | first2=Takefumi | last2=Makino | date=1997 | isbn=978-4893666963 | publisher=ASCII}} which was explored in English in 2010 by Tokyo Scum Brigade.{{cite web | work=Tokyo Scum Brigade | title=Yokoi Gunpei's House of Gaming: The Toymaker | date=5 April 2010 | url=https://tokyoscum.blogspot.com/2010/03/yokoi-gunpeis-house-of-gaming-toymaker.html | access-date=12 July 2019}} A 2014 book about him is Gunpei Yokoi: The Life & Philosophy of Nintendo's God of Toys.{{cite book | title=Gunpei Yokoi: The Life & Philosophy of Nintendo's God of Toys | author=Various | publisher=Les Editions Pix'N Love | date=9 January 2014 | isbn=978-2918272243}}

In 2003, Yokoi posthumously received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Game Developers Association.{{Cite web |date=20 February 2003 |title=Game Boy Creator Gunpei Yokoi to Receive IGDA'S Lifetime Achievement Award At The 3rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards |url=https://www.igda.org/game-boy-creator-gunpei-yokoi-receive-igdas-lifetime-achievement-award-3rd-annual-game-developers-ch |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615040734/https://www.igda.org/game-boy-creator-gunpei-yokoi-receive-igdas-lifetime-achievement-award-3rd-annual-game-developers-ch |archive-date=15 June 2011 |access-date=27 November 2010 |website=International Game Developers Association}} GameTrailers placed him on their lists for the "Top Ten Game Creators".{{cite web|url=http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/0sjlce/gt-countdown-top-ten-game-creators|title=Top Ten Game Creators|publisher=Gametrailers.com|access-date=24 January 2013}} An art gallery in Japan created an art exhibit in 2010 titled "The Man Who Was Called the God of Games" featuring all his key Nintendo works.{{cite web | title=Gunpei Yokoi Exhibit in Harakuju: "The Man Who Was Called the God of Games" | first=Matt | last=Walker | date=24 August 2010 | work=Nintendo World Report | url=https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blog/23911/gunpei-yokoi-exhibit-in-harakuju-the-man-who-was-called-the-god-of-games | access-date=12 July 2019}} In 1999, Bandai began releasing a series of handheld puzzle games named Gunpey as a tribute to their original creator, Yokoi.{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/09/22/tgs-2006-gunpey|title=TGS 2006: Gunpey|website=IGN|date=2 November 2006|access-date=23 March 2014|archive-date=23 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140323104850/http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/09/22/tgs-2006-gunpey|url-status=live}}

Works

= Designer =

Ultra Hand (1966)
Ultra Machine (1968)
Love Tester (1969)
Light Ray Gun SP Series (1970)
Eleconga (1970)
NB Block Crater (1970)
Ultra Scope (1971)
Light Ray Telephone LT (1971)
Lefty RX (1972)
Time Shock (1972)
Laser Clay Shooting System (1973)
Wild Gunman (1974)
Shooting Trainer (1974)
Light Ray Gun Custom Series (1976)
Duck Hunt (1977)
Battle Shark Skyhawk (1977)
Radio Controlled Cleaner (1979)
Nintendo Tumbler Puzzle (1980)
Game & Watch (1980)
Computer Mahjong (1982)
D-pad (1983)
Famicom Controller (1983)
R.O.B. (1985)
NES Zapper (1985)
Game Boy (1989)
Super Scope (1992)
Virtual Boy (1995)
Game Boy Pocket (1996)
Henoheno (1997)
WonderSwan (1999, released posthumously)
Gunpey (1999, released posthumously)

= Producer =

Donkey Kong (1981)
Donkey Kong Jr. (1982)
Mario Bros. (1983)
Donkey Kong 3 (1983)
Wild Gunman (1984)
Duck Hunt (1984)
Hogan's Alley (1984)
Urban Champion (1984)
Balloon Fight (1985)
Wrecking Crew (1985)
Stack-Up (1985)
Gyromite (1985)
Gumshoe (1986)
Metroid (1986)
Kid Icarus (1986)
Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School (1987)
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir (1988)
Famicom Wars (1988)
Tetris (1989)
Super Mario Land (1989)
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind (1989)
Solar Striker (1990)
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (1990)
Dr. Mario (1990)
Balloon Kid (1990)
Metroid II: Return of Samus (1991)
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (1991)
Fire Emblem Gaiden (1992)
X (1992)
Mario Paint (1992)
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992)
Battle Clash (1992)
Yoshi's Cookie (1992)
Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (1993)
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994)
Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (1994)
Mario's Tennis (1995)
Mario Clash (1995)
Panel de Pon (1995)
Virtual Boy Wario Land (1995)
Kirby's Block Ball (1995)
3D Tetris (1996)
Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War (1996)

References

External links

[http://www.gamecubicle.com/news-nintendo_gunpei_yokio_lifetime_achievement_award.htm Gunpei Yokoi's Lifetime Achievement Award]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150919200539/http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=270 N-Sider Profile: Gunpei Yokoi]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080323235614/http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=482 N-Sider: History of R&D 1]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20130820233133/http://www.virtual-boy.org/gunpei%20yokoi.htm Gunpei Yokoi In Memoriam 1941 – 1997]
[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_129/2744-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi Searching for Gunpei Yokoi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226130359/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_129/2744-Searching-for-Gunpei-Yokoi |date=26 December 2007 }}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20191115172022/http://www.nidzumi.com/twenty-years-of-the-gameboy-celebrating-gunpei-yokoi Twenty Years of the Game Boy – Celebrating Gunpei Yokoi's Genius]

Category:1941 births

Category:1997 deaths

Category:People from Kyoto

Category:Pedestrian road incident deaths

Category:Road incident deaths in Japan

Category:Nintendo people

Category:Metroid

Category:Japanese video game designers

Category:Japanese inventors

Category:Toy designers

Category:Virtual reality pioneers

Category:Doshisha University alumni

Category:Game Developers Conference Lifetime Achievement Award recipients