Gunpei Yokoi

Gunpei Yokoi (Japanese横 井 军 平, Yokoi Gunpei, also transcribed as Gumpei Yokoi; born September 10, 1941 in Kyoto, † 4 October 1997 Komatsu ) was a Japanese game developer and one of the most important people in the history of the video game company Nintendo. His most important creation is the portable game system Game Boy, which is one of the most successful video game consoles ever and the way for portable game consoles ( handheld console ) paved. He also worked on famous Nintendo series such as Metroid and Kid Icarus.

Life and work

During his time at Nintendo Gunpei Yokoi developed, inter alia, the Ultra Hand, Devil's ton, the Game & Watch games and the Game Boy.

He was also the creator of the digital directional pad (D - pad), which is present in almost all gamepads by default today. Nintendo was awarded at CES 2007 with an Emmy in the category of Peripheral Development and Technological Impact of Video Game Controllers.

Yokoi worked on well-known games like Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Metroid, Tetris Attack, Kid Icarus, and Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu. The low point of his career was the commercial failure of the Virtual Boy game console. Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu should be his last game.

After the flop of the Virtual Boy (1996 ) Yokoi left Nintendo and created a new company, Koto. There he developed in cooperation with the Bandai Wonderswan handheld console. In his honor, the first game for the Wonderswan Gunpey was called.

In 1997 Yokoi in a car accident. He drove in a car with Etsuo Kiso, a colleague from Kyoto. As Kiso caused a slight collision, both got out to inspect the damage. They were hit by another vehicle. While Kiso suffered two broken bones, Yokoi was seriously injured and died in hospital.