Post by Alyce: Old Media Enthusiast on Dec 9, 2021 11:55:01 GMT -5
www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/12/masayuki-uemura-creator-of-the-nes-and-snes-has-passed-away
It has been revealed that NES and SNES lead architect Masayuki Uemura passed away on December 6th at the age of 78.
The Famicom – the system that would become the NES in the west – was the brainchild of Uemura, who joined Nintendo as an engineer from Sharp in 1972 at a time when it was tentatively exploring the possibilities of electronic entertainment. One of his first roles was to help with Nintendo's range of location-based light-gun games.
When Nintendo R&D2 was created, Uemura was placed in charge and he was instrumental in the development of Nintendo's 'Color TV-Game' systems – the company's first tentative foray into the realm of domestic video games. These were very basic gaming systems that had relatively crude built-in titles.
Uemura began work on the Famicom in 1981, following a demand from Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi that he create a device capable of playing arcade games on a TV, but with games that came on interchangeable cartridges. Combined sales of the Famicom and its western counterpart, the NES, total 61.91 million units – 20 million of those were in Japan alone.
R&D2 would not only produce the Famicom but also its equally-beloved successor, the SNES / Super Famicom. He was also involved with the development of the Japan-only Famicom Disk System and Super Famicom Satellaview, as well as the iconic NES Zapper.
It wasn't just hardware that Uemura had a hand in; during his time with the company, he also served as producer on several titles, including Ice Climber, Clu Clu Land and a trilogy of sports titles: Soccer, Baseball and Golf.
The Famicom – the system that would become the NES in the west – was the brainchild of Uemura, who joined Nintendo as an engineer from Sharp in 1972 at a time when it was tentatively exploring the possibilities of electronic entertainment. One of his first roles was to help with Nintendo's range of location-based light-gun games.
When Nintendo R&D2 was created, Uemura was placed in charge and he was instrumental in the development of Nintendo's 'Color TV-Game' systems – the company's first tentative foray into the realm of domestic video games. These were very basic gaming systems that had relatively crude built-in titles.
Uemura began work on the Famicom in 1981, following a demand from Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi that he create a device capable of playing arcade games on a TV, but with games that came on interchangeable cartridges. Combined sales of the Famicom and its western counterpart, the NES, total 61.91 million units – 20 million of those were in Japan alone.
R&D2 would not only produce the Famicom but also its equally-beloved successor, the SNES / Super Famicom. He was also involved with the development of the Japan-only Famicom Disk System and Super Famicom Satellaview, as well as the iconic NES Zapper.
It wasn't just hardware that Uemura had a hand in; during his time with the company, he also served as producer on several titles, including Ice Climber, Clu Clu Land and a trilogy of sports titles: Soccer, Baseball and Golf.
