Hiroshi Yamauchi was the man responsible for the ending of the Atari Shock and the rise of Nintendo’s fame. With the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, he would forever change history.
Nintendo was founded in 1889[*]. Originally, it was a playing card company, and it wasn’t until 1947, when Hiroshi Yamauchi became the president of Nintendo, that the company began to change from a playing card company to what it is today.
It all started in the 50s. Yamauchi realized that playing card manufacturing was a limited venture. For the next thirty-one years, Nintendo began various ventures, and most of them failed[*]. It wasn’t until the late 70’s that Nintendo began making arcade machines. They made titles such as Sheriff and Space Fever, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Nintendo truly made a name for itself with Donkey Kong[*].
In 1983, the North American portion of the video game industry suffered what is called the Atari Shock. It was a recession that lasted until 1985. The crash caused almost all video game companies to go bankrupt[*]. There are a lot of reasons why this crash occurred, but there’s only one reason why it ended: tThe Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES was an 8-bit console that brought us Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Duck Hunt, and was considered the best console of its time. In the 1990s, the NES met its competitor, the SEGA Genesis. The Sega Genesis was a 16-bit console, which means twice the amount of colors present on a screen, resulting in superior hardware and software. Yamauchi knew it was time to move forward, and so the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was born [*].
In 1996, the Nintendo 64 was released. It was a fully 3D console and had top of the line graphics for its time. Everyone had one and could play with 3 friends (if they had any) on the same TV screen! Some of the popular games at the time were Super Mario 64, GoldenEye 007, and Mario Kart[*].
In 2002, Yamauchi stepped down as president of Nintendo, but was their top shareholder despite his retirement[*]. He recently died at the age of 85 on September 19th. He will always be remembered as the man who resurrected the industry from the Atari Shocky. Scott Miller, the founder of 3D Realms, had this to say, “Having read the book, Game Over, years ago, it is obvious the man was a giant of the industry.” Jon St. John, voice actor for Duke Nukem says, “Rest in peace.”
