Codex Gamicus
Explore
Main Page
Discuss
All Pages
Interactive Maps
navigation
Main page
Community portal
Recent changes
Random page
Admin noticeboard
Forums
Company Index
Character Index
Hardware Index
In-Game Index
Ratings Index
Video Game Index
Fandom
Gamepedia support
Report a bad ad
Help Wiki
Contact us
FANDOM
Fan Central
BETA
Games
Anime
Movies
TV
Video
Wikis
Explore Wikis
Community Central
Start a Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Sign In
Sign In
Register
Fandom's centric source of video game knowledge
42,423
pages
Explore
Main Page
Discuss
All Pages
Interactive Maps
navigation
Main page
Community portal
Recent changes
Random page
Admin noticeboard
Forums
Company Index
Character Index
Hardware Index
In-Game Index
Ratings Index
Video Game Index
Fandom
Gamepedia support
Report a bad ad
Help Wiki
Contact us
Editing
Gunpei Yokoi
Back to page
Edit
VisualEditor
View history
Talk (2)
Edit Page
Gunpei Yokoi
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit appears to have already been undone.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
[[File:yokoi-gunpei.jpg|frame|Gunpei Yokoi]] '''Gunpei Yokoi''', ([[1941]]-[[1997]]) was the creator of the [[Metroid series]], [[Directional pad]], [[WonderSwan]], Nintendo [[Game & Watch]], [[Game Boy]], [[Game Boy Pocket]], and [[Nintendo Virtual Boy|Virtual Boy]]. He died in a car crash in 1997. ==Biography== Born in 1941, Gunpei was raised in the city of Kyoto, Japan. Not long after graduating from college with an electronics degree, [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]] hired him to maintain assembly line machines used to produce [[Nintendo]]'s Hanafunda cards. In 1970 Gunpei was assigned to the new Games Department and instructed by Hiroshi to produce "something great" for the upcoming holiday rush. Gunpei introduced an expansion arm toy he had created which soon became Nintendo's first toy, the Ultrahand. With this the "Ultra" series of toys was born, following with the Ultra Machine baseball throwing machine, and the Ultra Scope toy which could be used to look over obstacles such as walls and around corners. [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]] then asked Gunpei to make "something new" after the announcement that Nintendo would begin producing and selling videogames instead of toys. Gunpei created a series of cheaply produced portable games that made use of [[LCD]] screens and featured the familiar [[Directional pad]] directional input control that is still used on modern day console controllers. These portable games were known as the [[Game & Watch]] series. Later, after the launch of the [[Nintendo Entertainment System|NES]] console, Nintendo felt they needed to produce a handheld console for gaming on the go. Following the well received Game & Watch series, Nintendo once again consulted Gunpei. In 1989 Gunpei and his [[R&D1]] team unveiled the very first [[Game Boy]], to date the most successful handheld ever produced. With R&D1 Gunpei also created the beloved [[Metroid series|Metroid]] series. Gunpei went on to finish two more projects before leaving Nintendo. First was the [[Nintendo Virtual Boy|Virtual Boy]] console, which aimed at producing three dimensional graphics by using a stereoscopic display. While the concept was great on paper, the execution was considered by many to be a total failure. The Virtual Boy suffered extremely poor sales, and died a quick death. Gunpei's final project with Nintendo performed much better, however. This was his final creation, the [[Game Boy Pocket]], which was a shrunken down version of the original Game Boy. It was his final great success. Gunpei handed in his resignation to Nintendo just two weeks after the launch of the Game Boy Pocket. Many assumed his reasons had something to do with the failure of the Virtual Boy, however this was not true. Gunpei was leaving to start his own company, [[Koto Laboratory]]. Although he no longer worked for Nintendo, he continued to work with them. Nintendo was to release some of Koto Laboratory's products which included a number of LCD keychain games. While working with Koto Laboratory, Gunpei produced another handheld gaming machine, the [[WonderSwan]]. The first game released for the WonderSwan was named "Gunpey". Unfortunately on [[October 4]], [[1997]], Gunpei's life was taken in a tragic car accident. He was 56 years old. [[Category:Game designers]] [[Category:People in the Game Industry]] [[Category:People]]
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to the Codex Gamicus are considered to be released under the CC BY-SA 3.0
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Follow on IG
TikTok
Join Fan Lab