ENGINEER DESIGNED THE FIRST NINTENDO CONSOLE
Masayuki Uemura, an engineer who developed the Nintendo Entertainment System, which helped start a global revolution in home gaming and laid the foundation for today’s video game industry, died Dec. 6. He was 78.
His death was announced by Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, where Uemura led the Center for Game Studies. No other details were given.
Video game consoles had a moment of popularity in the early 1980s, but the market collapsed because of shoddy quality control and uninspiring software that failed to provide the thrills of arcade hits such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Truckloads of unsold game cartridges ended up in landfills, and retailers decided that home gaming systems had no future.
But in 1985, the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States changed the industry forever. The unassuming gray box with its distinctive controllers became a musthave for an entire generation of children and prompted Nintendo’s virtual monopoly over the industry for the better part of a decade as competitors pulled out of the market in response to the company’s dominance.
Uemura was the brains behind the Nintendo system, which was released in Japan in 1983. He also helped create its successor, the Super Nintendo, as well as other lesser-known products for the company.
“Nintendo succeeded in the United States because of the quality of its software, but that software never would’ve made it into the hearts of gamers without the hardware that Uemura created,” said Matt Alt, whose 2020 book, “Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World,” chronicles the rise of Nintendo.
“He was a true titan and architect of the global game industry,” Alt added in an email.
The machine made Nintendo one of the most profitable companies in Japan, and the games it ran, such as Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda, have become classic franchises.
Its runaway success also established the video game console as a viable product and led to the development of today’s $40 billion console gaming market.
He was working as a salesperson at Sharp in 1971 when Gunpei Yokoi, head engineer at Nintendo at the time, recruited him to join the company. It was then a minor maker of playing cards and other traditional Japanese games, with an ambition to create innovative toys.