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.