Gunpei Yokoi

Gunpei Yokoi (横井 軍平) was born in Osaka, Japan on 10th September 1941. He graduated from Doshisha University with a degree in Electronics. A long-time employee of Nintendo, he began working for the company in 1965, and was hired to maintain the assembly-line machines used to manufacture hanafuda cards.

In 1966 the company produced its first toy, the Ultra Hand, which was designed by Gunpei Yokoi. It was a huge success, and was the first of many mechanical toys that Yokoi developed for Nintendo including the Ultra Machine and Love Tester. Gunpei Yokoi became the general manager of Nintendo's Research & Development team.

In 1980 the first Game & Watch handheld console, Game & Watch: Ball, was released. Yokoi came up with the idea for a handheld games console after watching a man playing with the buttons on a calculator on a train. In 1982 the Game & Watch: Donkey Kong was released. It was the first console/controller to feature the cross-shaped D-pad (directional pad), which was designed by Gunpei Yokoi.

Yokoi also developed a number of software games for Nintendo such as Kid Icarus and Metroid, and also worked alongside Shigeru Miyamoto on Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.

One of Gunpei Yokoi's biggest successes was the Game Boy. When developing a successor to the Game & Watch, Yokoi wanted to create a console with interchangeable cartridges. The Game Boy was an instant success, and further models including the Game Boy Color, and the Game Boy Pocket were released.

Other products developed by Yokoi for Nintendo included R.O.B. for the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, despite his many successful products he also developed some products which were not so successful, such as the Virtual Boy, released in 1995, which was a commercial failure.

The Virtual Boy and the Game Boy Pocket were the last two products developed by Yokoi for Nintendo before he retired in August 1996, after 31 years at the company.

Following his departure from Nintendo, Gunpei Yokoi went on to set up a company called Koto alongside some of his former colleagues. At Koto he developed the WonderSwan handheld console for Bandai.

On 4th October 1997 Gunpei Yokoi died in a car accident.