Why Nintendo is so special

Although I didn't mention before, the objective of my research is to reveal what caused the emergence of modern video games. In my understanding, "the first modern video game" in history was made by two gifted game creators of Nintendo: Gunpei Yokoi and Shigeru Miyamoto. The game was so revolutionary that even today every successful video game follows the very formula they established then.

So, the question here is "how and why" they were able to achieve such an accomplishment.

The "how" part is very simple.

In short, they found the four key elements of successful video games and used them quite effectively. More precisely, three of them were found by the veteran creator Yokoi in between 1966 and 1969, and the last one, which opened up a new frontier of video games, was found in 1981 by Miyamoto, who had no experience of making games before then.

On the other hand, the "why" part is much more deep and important. So, I'll center my discussion on the part.

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Actually, they were not the only people who discovered those elements. "Spacewar!", one of the earliest video games, did contain one of them.

Youtube: Spacewar! on the Computer History Museum PDP-1 (Steve Russell, 1962)

"Pong" became the world's first successful commercial video game because Nolan Bushnell, a co-founder of Atari, found the second one.

Youtube: Original Atari PONG (Atari, 1972)

"Space Invaders", which once totally dominated Japanese game industry, is probably the first video game to effectively utilize the third one.

Youtube: Space Invaders (Taito, 1978)

And, "Pac-Man" is the perfect example of what happens when those three elements are fully utilized concurrently - he became an American idol.

Youtube: Pac-Man Arcade gameplay (Namco, 1980)

By the way, those innovative games, as you may know, have many followers and clones.

"Computer Space", Nolan Bushnell's first product, was a modified version of Spacewar! and Pong is said to be inspired by a table tennis game developed for Magnavox Odyssey, the world's first home video game console; Pong itself became a victim of cloning.

Although Pac-Man is truly unique game, it was apparently influenced by other dot-eating games like "Head On(SEGA)" to some extent; Ms. Pac-Man, its popular sequel, was originally a MOD version of it.

Youtube: Head-On (SEGA, 1979)

Even Nintendo earned money by selling a modified version of Space Invaders before Yokoi and Miyamoto got involved in the development of arcade video games.

Youtube: Arcade Game: Space Fever (Nintendo, 1979)

Copying or stealing core mechanics of successful video games is one of the most widespread disease in the industry(are there any First-person shooters that are not influenced at all by "Doom" or its predecessor "Wolfenstein 3D"?)

Youtube: Wolfenstein 3D - Dos (developed by iD Software, 1992)

But Miyamoto is completely immune to it and he never tolerates developers in Nintendo doing such a shameful thing.

Just take a look at Wii Fit, Animal Crossing, Tomodachi Life and Nintendogs - those games are beyond categorization and no other companies have succeeded in mimicking their success.


Why Nintendo is so special?


That's because Yokoi, its first developer, discovered the key elements of video games in a different field.

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As I told you in the last article, Yokoi started his career not as a game creator but as a toy designer. And more importantly, he had no one to consult with since he was the first developer in the company. So he had to find out what kind of products people wanted by himself. It was through this process that he found the three out of four key elements, and notably he did this work even before Pong was released.

So let's now talk about those elements, one by one.

The first and most essential element of video games is "instinctive pleasure" or, to put it more simply, "fun".

Whenever Shigeru Miyamoto, the most respected game creator on earth, develops a new game, he begins the process by researching what kinds of new fun he can provide.

For example, the earliest prototype of "Super Mario Bros." was extremely simple. There were no enemies, no background objects, even Mario was represented by a simple large rectangle because the single most important thing for him was to examine whether controlling a large character with a game pad could be a fun experience.

Shigeru Miyamoto (2010 @ Nintendo) :

Around December of 1984, I wanted to see what it would be like with a Mario jumping around who was about twice the size of the one in Mario Bros., so I asked the programmers at Nakago-san's company, SRD, to make a test version ...

- Iwata Asks: Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary

Link: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Super-Mario-Bros-25th-Anniversary/Vol-5-Original-Super-Mario-Developers/1-Using-the-D-pad-to-Jump/1-Using-the-D-pad-to-Jump-212727.html


As another example, when he created "Super Mario 64", the revolutionary 3D platformer, his approach was more radical. For him, moving Mario around in a open space was a truly fulfilling experience and it was all he cared about.

Shigeru Miyamoto (2007 @ Nintendo) :

This is quite an extreme view, but I actually felt at one point that this didn’t really have to be a game ... 

There was no other game before Mario 64 where you could truly move around freely in a 3D environment, so it was fun just moving Mario around and finding stars.

- Iwata Asks: Super Mario Galaxy

Link: https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks/Iwata-Asks-Super-Mario-Galaxy/Volume-4-Shigeru-Miyamoto/2-It-s-Fun-Just-Playing-Around/2-It-s-Fun-Just-Playing-Around-220674.html


For Miyamoto, his most essential part of the job is to discover new fun experiences and realize them using available resources and technologies.

Shigeru Miyamoto (2007 @ Nintendo) :

My initial focus, and my primary focus throughout development, is not these individual elements of the game. When I'm creating a game, what I always try to envision, what I always think about, is the core element of fun within the game.

- The Game Developers Conference 2007 keynote speech

Youtube: Shigeru Miyamoto 2007 GDC Keynote - Part 3 (quoted part begins from 10:57)

Needless to say, he learned the idea from Yokoi.

Gunpei Yokoi - Nintendo's first developer (2)

Although Gunpei Yokoi majored in electrical engineering at a famous university in Japan, he failed to get a job in the electronics industry. As a matter of fact, Nintendo was the only company which offered him a job. But they hadn't developed any electronic toys yet and had no capability to do so; the company was made up mainly of old-style craftsmen and not so well-educated factory workers.

His main job was just to maintain electrical equipment in its playing cards factory. It was obviously not a perfectly suitable job for him considering he was only the second employee who had a college degree.

Why they hired him - were they aware of his creativity and planned to train him as a developer?

That was not the case.

They were just obligated to hire a qualified electrical engineer like Yokoi because a law took effect in 1965, the year of his graduation, forced them to do so.

Fortunately for him, the job didn't require much work because he was not hired to solve existing problems; he had no regular duties other than periodic checking of the equipment. Having had much spare time, he had been making some toys using the factory's machine tools even during his duty hours. Crafting was his favorite hobby from childhood but he didn't think he could make it his profession when he had to choose his future occupation.

One day Hiroshi Yamauchi, the third president, saw him playing with one of those handmade toys. Later that day, he was summoned to the president's office. He thought he would be accused of his lack of seriousness.

Instead, he heard unexpected words - the president ordered him to develop it as a commercial product. This was the moment when the modern history of Nintendo began without being noticed by anyone, including both of them.

Yokoi had no reason to oppose it since he had been dreaming of making some products by his own hand. After the conversation, he spent the following months improving its mechanical design to prepare for mass production.

The product, which was named "Ultra Hand" by the president, hit the market in 1966 and achieved a huge success - it sold more than a million units.

Link: beforemario: Nintendo Ultra Hand (Detailed infomation about the product)

Youtube: Demonstrating "Ultra Hand" (in Japanese)

As you can see in the video above, its use is very simple: you can stretch its arms and grab things with the hand at the end, using the handle.

So, it's just a toy; far from what you'd expect from today's Nintendo. But both historically and practically speaking, this is the true origin of all Nintendo products - that's the theme of next article.

Anyway, its success was enough to convince Yamauch to establish Nintendo's first ever development division; he bet his company's future on the inexperienced, but hopeful young creator.

Gunpei Yokoi - Nintendo's first developer (1)

Nintendo has hundreds of developers today. But did you know that its development department was originally created for just one person - Gunpei Yokoi.

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Before Yokoi revealed his talent as a creator, the company was just like a mixture of a publishing company and a toy importer; they printed a few types of playing cards and sold some tabletop games imported from the US.

The company was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi. It's main product was a traditional Japanese playing cards called Hanafuda, which was very popular then as a gambling tool.

Youtube: It Figures! - Nintendo brand Hanafuda playing cards

His products were renowned for their high quality and he had exclusive access to a nationwide distribution network, thanks to which the company created a virtual monopoly in the market.

It was his famous great-grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi, who made the company a global player in digital toy industry. After becoming its third president, he concentrated his effort on creating another main product. Although they were selling ordinary playing cards (which is called "Trump" in the country) alongside Hanafuda, it hadn't gained the same popularity. So, he decided to make it more appealing for children by affiliating with the world's most famous animation studio, Disney.

The newly released version of playing cards instantly became a household name and the company more than doubled its sales in just a few years. Thanks to the big sales boost and its increasing profit, which was realized by automation of production processes of playing cards, the company went public in 1962.

It was a great honor for any Japanese corporate manager back then, but he had little time to enjoy the achievement because even though his company held the dominant position in playing cards market in Japan, he knew the market itself had been shrinking as those analog games had been losing their appeal to the young generations. Fortunately the company was not in a critical state yet, but he was under pressure to take actions before it's too late.

So, he sought to diversify into other business areas such as taxi business and food industry; they sold freeze-dried rice and Disney licensed rice seasonings (Furikake). But those businesses were not quite profitable.

What he needed then was a real game changer, who could take the company into uncharted territory.

Of course, the game changer was Yokoi; he transformed Nintendo from a moderate-sized domestic company into the dominant force in the global video game industry. But interestingly, Nintendo didn't hire him as a developer and the company wasn't Yokoi's first choice, either; it was just a coincidence that they found each other.

(continue to part 2)

Gunpei Yokoi - the grandfather of Mario, Link and Pikachu (2)

It was then that Satoshi Tajiri got a chance to meet the savior, Gunpei Yokoi. The veteran game producer of Nintendo had been thinking about making a game featuring Yoshi, a supporting character from Super Mario World.

Yokoi asked Tajiri if he could make a multi-platform game (for NES and GameBoy) within half a year. Although he didn't have much confidence, the young and desperate game designer had no choice but to say "Yes". After some discussion about its details, Yokoi decided to give the job to him.

It was a bit of a challenge for Tajiri and his team because they had never made a game following a strict schedule determined by other people. However, they could not afford to fail it. So, he decided to temporarily halt all other projects including Pokemon to concentrate all resources of the company on the newest project, which became the last hope for him.

Of course, they managed to complete the task before the due date and the finished product was released under the name "Yoshi No Tamago (Yoshi's Egg)" for NES and GameBoy in 1991.

Youtube : Yoshi - NES Gameplay

Despite the limited development time and small number of involved workers, the game became a big commercial success as it sold more than four million copies worldwide. He got the money he needed and earned trust from people in Nintendo, which helped him a lot when he resumed the development of Pokemon.

But at the same time he lost the most precious resource of his company - the workers. Although they did understand the company was doomed, they couldn't endure the pain of being forced to work hard for low wages. As a result, the company lost all three programmers at once.

Needless to say, no video game can be developed without a programmer. Besides, they were not only employees but also true friends of him; they had spent years together making and talking about games with the same passion. To overcome the extremely difficult situation - both mentally and practically - he had to transform himself from a "game freak" into a truly professional business manager.

He renewed his determination to complete the development of Pokemon and made use of every opportunity he had to stabilize the business. Fortunately, his company had achieved a good reputation as a reliable game developer thanks to their high quality products including Yoshi and "Magical Taluluto", which was released by SEGA. So he was able to secure new contracts with those two large publishers.

Youtube : Magical Taruruto Kun (released by SEGA in 1992)

Youtube: Pulseman (released by SEGA in 1994)

More notably, he expanded the size of the company by an M&A to deal with those increasing number of tasks, which was a highly unusual move for a Japanese company back then.

Although he had to put aside the most important project, Pokemon, for a while (probably between two and three years) due to the shortage of financial and human resources, it later turned out to be a beneficial investment. The core members of the original Pokemon team such as Junichi Masuda(composer) and Ken Sugimori(designer) polished their professional skills during those days while the company achieved solid financial stability, which enabled them to invest a large amount of time and money on the big project.

It was when they finished the development of "Mario & Wario", which was also produced by Yokoi, that he got the absolute confidence in the future of the company.

Youtube : Mario & Wario (released by Nintendo in 1993)

Satoshi Tajiri (2003 @ GameFreak)

When we released Mario & Wario, I was able to see a clear possibility for the first time that we could finish the development of Pokemon

- Continue (Vol.9, p.157) Ohta Publishing in Japanese


The rest of the story is well-known : his game Pokemon, which eventually took more than six years to make, became a legend. But he has never lost sincere appreciation for the person who supported him in the difficult days.



Satoshi Tajiri (2002 @ GameFreak)

I learned the professional way of making video games from Mr. Yokoi.

- Continue (Vol.7, p.134) Ohta Publishing in Japanese


Satoshi Tajiri (2016 @ GameFreak)

Mr. Yokoi was like a second father to me.

- Game no Kikakusho (Vol.1) from Denfami Nico Gamer in Japanese
http://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/projectbook/xevious/3

Gunpei Yokoi - the grandfather of Mario, Link and Pikachu (1)

Can you imagine a world where you will never meet Mario, Link and Pikachu? That's a truly horrible place. But without Gunpei Yokoi, you would have been stuck there.

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Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario and Zelda, learned essential elements of good video games when he made his first one under Yokoi's supervision. Since then, he has never lost his respect for the senior creator - even after he himself became the most respected game designer on earth. I'll tell you the story in a future article.

Shigeru Miyamoto (2000 @ Nintendo) :

He would play my games under development for hours without a break and make pointed remarks about what aspects need to be improved, in very short sentences.
Although it was tough to admit my lack of deep thought, I was impressed by his professional behavior and promised myself one day I will become a skilled game developer like him.

- Game Taikoku Nippon (ISBN:4413032063, p.106) Seishun Publishing in Japanese

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Satoshi Tajiri, the father of Pokemon, was in a desperate situation when he met Yokoi for the first time. Before then he was, as the name of his company indicates, a "Game Freak" who pursue his own interests.

It was not a wrong approach considering the fact he started his career as an indie game developer. He made his first game "Mendel Palace" with passion and love for video games.

Youtube: Quinty (Japanese version of Mendel Palace)

When it was released by Namco, he earned about half a million dollars and launched his own company. Although he was not so much interested in running a business, he thought it was a necessary step for him and his team to become professional game developers. But it later caused him growing pains.

After he became the president of Game Freak in 1989, he had been thinking for months about what kinds of games he should make. At that time, he had a notion that the industry lacked innovative products which provide entirely new experiences. After some research, he found a potential key to success inside Nintendo's newly released device : GameBoy.

Although the handheld game machine, which was developed by Yokoi, had a serial port for data exchange, there was no game which brought out the best of it. Certainly, many games supported the feature to implement multiplayer battles; the extraordinary success of Tetris would never have happened without it. But they were far from the innovative game experiences Tajiri was searching for.

One day, the basic idea of Pokemon, which was originally called "Capsule Monsters", suddenly occurred to him. He thought that if players could trade some valuable virtual items in the game, they would enjoy new social experiences no other game had ever provided. So, he wrote a proposal based on the idea and submitted it to Nintendo.

Youtube: Pokemon Beta | Capsule Monsters (a collection of original documents of Pokemon)

When the development process was to begin in 1990, he estimated it would not take more than a year to finish - which later proved to be a huge mistake - so, he signed a small contract with the publisher and received a moderate amount of money as the cost for development. But the actual development process was anything but smooth. About a year later, he found that he still had an enormous amount of work to do while his company was running out of money.

Actually, they had been developing three games in parallel to diversify the risk of failure, but unfortunately all of those projects were behind schedule. Facing a live-or-die situation for the company, he had been struggling to find a way to save it.

(continue to part 2)

Who is the most influential game designer?

Who do you think is the most influential game designer in history?

Shigeru Miyamoto (Super Mario)?
Sid Meier (Civilization)?
Will Wright (The Sims)?

or maybe Kenji Eno (D)?

Youtube: Kenji Eno Interview(JP)

Youtube: 3DO Longplay [002] D's Diner Director's Cut

Have you chosen one of those people? Sorry, you are wrong.

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Certainly, they are truly influential creators.

Miyamoto laid the foundation for modern video games. Sid and Will created entirely new genres. Eno proved that video game is a form of art.

If the question were "Who is the most IMPORTANT game designer in history?" it would be much easier (or boring) because there's only one possible answer - Shigeru Miyamoto.

Although I don't think you need much evidence for that, here's some:

• He made two of the most successful video game franchises - Mario and Zelda.
• His games sold more than 400 million copies (excluding those games in which he is credited as a producer but didn't play significant roles, such as Pokemon and Super Smash Bros.)
• Many other important game designers including Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear) and Yuji Naka (Sonic) were deeply influenced by his works and philosophy.
  
  
  
  
  

Hideo Kojima (2004 @ Konami) : 

I can't express how much I was influenced by his works. Without them, I would have never become a game designer. But I can't call him my teacher of game design; he is much more than that. 

- Dorimaga (vol.23, p.58) Softbank Publishing in Japanese

Yuji Naka (2001 @ SEGA) :

I think there's no chance of me ever surpassing him as a game creator. Rather, I hoped that one day I would be able to make a game which has equally high quality as his works. I knew there was no way to achieve it if I had made a copycat of Mario; that's why I made Sonic in that way.

 - Weekly Famitsu (around Dec. 2001, p.168) Enterbrain in Japanese

Even so, I don't regard him as the most influential game designer. Why? That's because I know the person who deserves the honor more than Miyamoto.

His name is Gunpei Yokoi.

- He invented the most important input device for video games.
- In a sense, he is one of the founders of the most important gaming company.
- He created the world's first modern game.

- And most of all, he taught Miyamoto how to make a video game.

So, if you call Miyamoto the father of modern video games, he should be called the "grandfather".

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I'm gonna write about his huge influence on the game industry and the creation of the world's first modern game in the coming articles.


Fmitz.