Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#11

Post by du »

tinco wrote: post #4

R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron sh…

On a related note: Yamauchi was 55 when the NES was released and he retired some time after the Gamecube at 74. Steve died at 56, makes one wonder what else he could've given us.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#12

Post by sspiff »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #3

The N64 was the first proper games console I owned (I got it as a gift when I was 7). I spent so much time on it and had a lot of fun (I even brought it on holiday with me :). I still love to dig it out of the attic every now and then. Even though I'm not 'a gamer' it holds a lot of happy memories for me. RIP.

Don't you feel a little sad when you vaguely remember those days? I'm only 26 but my memories about those "golden days" are becoming harder and harder to find.

I got an N64 at the age of 10 when my brother and I got "good grades for an entire year" in primary school. It was my first console (and we didn't have a computer).

I started claiming I wanted to make videogames around the age of 7, so it was almost like a defining moment in my life :) I have a lot of great memories with that thing, and still think the controller design (though not the build) is the best of any console ever.

After we got the N64, we suddenly had many more friends who wanted to come over and play! I evangelized the N64 and eventually there were 4 of us who got one, so we could swap tons of games. (Game acquisition for kids in those days was hard!)

Been a huge Nintendo fan ever since. My N64 is still hooked up to the TV.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#13

Post by throwawaichi »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #5
tinco wrote: post #4

R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron sh…

That's very interesting. I know nothing about him, but I'm very intrigued to hear more about his ruthless business practices. Nowadays there's less stigma attached to the idea of being a ruthless businessman. In fact, it's often considered meritous. So I don't think it would be disrespectful to highlight some of the things he's done. After all, it's a testament to what it took to build a company of the caliber of Nin…

It's fake, but a few years ago there was a story about a meeting between him and Steve Ballmer. Google for "HEY, BALLMER, WHY DON'T YOU SUCK MY TINY YELLOW BALLS?"

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#14

Post by nolok »

johnchristopher wrote: post #10
MattPearce wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer (and one who has worked with Nintendo as a third party), I have nothing but respect for the man. You are right in comparing him to Jobs: " In 1986, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi noted that "Atari collapsed because they gave too much freedom to third-party developers and the market was swamped with rubbish games." In response, Nintendo limited the number of titles that third-party developers could…

As a child I used to wonder about that "Seal of Quality" because it was on every Nintendo game you could find. Every game had this seal. Either it was a Nintendo gimmick or the market didn't offer games that didn't have the seal. edit: lost myself in a double negation

The market tried, I can't find a link at the moment and I'm unsure if this was NES, SuperNES or even on a Sega console, but there was a legal battle around making a game on un-licensed cartridge. You didn't see any, because Nintendo succeeded in being in control of what could be released.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#15

Post by TheZenPsycho »

tinco wrote: post #8
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very interesting. I know nothing about him, but I'm very intrigued to hear more about his ruthless business practices. Nowadays there's less stigma attached to the idea of being a ruthless businessman. In fact, it's often considered meritous. So I don't think it would be disrespectful to highlight some of the things he's done. After all, it's a testament to what it took to build a company of the caliber of Nin…

Well for example the shelve management of the cartride game systems. If you would want to produce a game for the SNES, to actually distribute it you would have to put it on a cartridge and sell it. But the design and specifications of these cartridges was protected by Nintendo, so the only way to distribute a game was to ask Nintendo for cartridges. Because Nintendo would only allow quality games on its shelves, it w…

that game was tetris, and youtube has a fascinating documentary about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn9dO_iL7lo

sillysaurus2: this has some of yamauchi being a ruthless sumbitch.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#16

Post by sillysaurus2 »

du wrote: post #11
tinco wrote: post #4

R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron sh…

On a related note: Yamauchi was 55 when the NES was released and he retired some time after the Gamecube at 74. Steve died at 56, makes one wonder what else he could've given us.

Especially if he hadn't ignored his doctors with homeopathy! Every time I think about it, I wonder how anyone could fall victim to such things. Imagine Steve Jobs being thrown into prison for 20 years. Homeopathy was just as horrific, because it gave him an excuse to ignore his doctors and allow the cancer to fester.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#17

Post by simcop2387 »

nolok wrote: post #14
johnchristopher wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a child I used to wonder about that "Seal of Quality" because it was on every Nintendo game you could find. Every game had this seal. Either it was a Nintendo gimmick or the market didn't offer games that didn't have the seal. edit: lost myself in a double negation

The market tried, I can't find a link at the moment and I'm unsure if this was NES, SuperNES or even on a Sega console, but there was a legal battle around making a game on un-licensed cartridge. You didn't see any, because Nintendo succeeded in being in control of what could be released.

It was the NES, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10NES

They eventually lost I believe, and some developers worked around it by making cartridges that would pass through the chip from an existing game.

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#18

Post by magoghm »

sillysaurus2 wrote: post #5
tinco wrote: post #4

R.I.P, I idolized this man as a child, being a fervent subscriber to Nintendo propaganda magazines. Nowadays my opinion of him is more nuanced. Like Steve Jobs, he built these perfect products by being an absolutely ruthless business man. The way he treated Nintendo business partners makes the Apple app store look like kinder garten. How many game developers and studios must be cursing his grave? Yet from his iron sh…

That's very interesting. I know nothing about him, but I'm very intrigued to hear more about his ruthless business practices. Nowadays there's less stigma attached to the idea of being a ruthless businessman. In fact, it's often considered meritous. So I don't think it would be disrespectful to highlight some of the things he's done. After all, it's a testament to what it took to build a company of the caliber of Nin…

There is a very good description in this book: "Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered The World" http://www.amazon.com/Game-Over-Nintendo-Conquered-World/dp/...

Re: Nintendo visionary Hiroshi Yamauchi dies aged 85

#20

Post by mathgeek »

sspiff wrote: post #12
k-mcgrady wrote: post #3

The N64 was the first proper games console I owned (I got it as a gift when I was 7). I spent so much time on it and had a lot of fun (I even brought it on holiday with me :). I still love to dig it out of the attic every now and then. Even though I'm not 'a gamer' it holds a lot of happy memories for me. RIP.

Don't you feel a little sad when you vaguely remember those days? I'm only 26 but my memories about those "golden days" are becoming harder and harder to find. I got an N64 at the age of 10 when my brother and I got "good grades for an entire year" in primary school. It was my first console (and we didn't have a computer). I started claiming I wanted to make videogames around the age of 7, so it was almost like a def…

> Don't you feel a little sad when you vaguely remember those days? I'm only 26 but my memories about those "golden days" are becoming harder and harder to find.

Creating those kinds of moments for your kids is even better than experiencing them as a kid yourself (for me, anyway).

Post reply on HN