129: Searching for Gunpei Yokoi

[Lara Crigger]

Searching for Gunpei Yokoi

"Yokoi's next big hit came to him as he rode home one evening on the bullet train. The exhausted engineer noticed the gentleman next to him fiddling with an LCD calculator. Yokoi watched, fascinated, as the bored man punched buttons in idle boredom. Suddenly, Yokoi wondered if weary commuters, looking to pass the time, might be interested in a portable gaming device. Thus was the Nintendo Game and Watch born."

Lara Crigger profiles the elusive creator of the Nintendo Gameboy.


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[simply_simple]

This was a really nice article. I never realised that Yokoi was so instrumental to the start-up of Nintendo's gaming business.

 

[Ericb]

I have always been curious about Yokoi ever since I found out he was the creator of Metroid. And then when I found out he created the GameWatch, the D-Pad...

It really is a shame that not much about him is properly documented. That would be some material for design philosophy, specially in this age of worshipable cutting-edge gaming technology.

 

[stonethered]

How does he get overlooked? I mean where would gaming be without the D-pad?
Clearly this is one of those people who deserves at least a prominent mention on the Gaming wall of fame.