Masayuki Uemura

Masayuki Uemura
上村雅之
Uemura in 1985, testing the Famicom
Born(1943-06-20)20 June 1943
Tokyo, Japan[1]
Died6 December 2021(2021-12-06) (aged 78)
Akita City, Japan
Alma materChiba Institute of Technology[2]
Occupation(s)General Manager at Nintendo R&D2
Professor at Ritsumeikan University

Masayuki Uemura (上村雅之, Uemura Masayuki, 20 June 1943 – 6 December 2021) was a Japanese engineer, video game producer, and professor. He was known for his work as an employee of Nintendo from 1971 to 2004, most notably for serving as a key factor in the development of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

A former employee of Sharp Corporation, Uemura joined Nintendo in 1971[3][4] working with Gunpei Yokoi and Genyo Takeda on solar cell technology for the Laser Clay Shooting System arcade game.[5][6][7][8] After becoming General Manager of Nintendo R&D2, Uemura served as the lead architect for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES game consoles.[9][10][11][12][13][14] He retired from Nintendo in 2004 and became director for the Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University.[2][15]

Education

Uemura graduated from the Chiba Institute of Technology with a degree in electronic engineering.[2][16] He wrote in his autobiography that he very much enjoyed his learning years.

Career

Uemura originally worked at Sharp Corporation after graduating from college, selling solar cell batteries. He sold photocell technology to several companies, including Nintendo, who used it for a light gun product, called a "ray gun".[17][18] Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo's main toy designer at the time, discussed with him the possibility of using Sharp's solar cells on interesting products, using their light-detecting capabilities for a shooting game. Thus, they, alongside Genyo Takeda, produced electronic light gun games where the gun would shoot a beam of light at the photocells, which would act as targets.[19][8][5] After Uemura was hired for Nintendo in 1971, they released the Laser Clay Shooting System in January 1973, an arcade game where players shot at projected images of pigeons, with shots registered by photoreceptors. Though it was initially successful, the 1973 oil crisis led to the cancellation of most orders for the machine, leaving Nintendo, which borrowed money to expand the business, approximately ¥5 billion in debt.[6] As the company recovered, they then produced a miniaturized version of the concept for the home market, 1976's Duck Hunt, a success that would later be adapted into the 1984 video game of the same name.[6][20]

When then-Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi split Nintendo into separate research & development divisions, he appointed Uemura as head of R&D2, a division that focused on hardware.[17][15][21] Uemura led the development of the Color TV-Game line of dedicated consoles.[3]

In November 1981,[22] Uemura received a phone call from Yamauchi, who asked him to make "something that lets you play arcade games on your TV at home."[21] Collaborating with Ricoh, he and his team began creating a system that could run Nintendo's hit arcade game Donkey Kong.[23][24] Released in July 1983, this console became the Family Computer (commonly known by the Japanese-English term Famicom), an 8-bit console using interchangeable cartridges.[25] Despite his initial pessimism of the console,[26] it soon proved to be a success, selling 2.5 million units by the end of 1984.[27] Due to the video game crash of 1983, when consumers had little trust in game consoles due to poor quality control, the Famicom underwent a redesign when brought to the United States, its first Western market. The cartridge slot was changed to be front-loading to mimic the tape deck of a VCR and to reduce the risk of static electricity in drier climates, while the NES Zapper was bundled to appeal to Americans' interest in guns.[11][28] Rebranded as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the console would also prove successful overseas.[24] Uemura then designed the Famicom Disk System, a Japan-only add-on for the Famicom that played games on floppy disks.[18]

In 1988, Uemura began designing the Super Famicom, the Famicom's 16-bit successor, which would be demonstrated to the Japanese press.[29][30] He and his team worked with Ken Kutaragi, an engineer from Sony who designed the system's sound chip and would later develop the PlayStation.[31][32] First released in Japan in 1990, it would be christened the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in the West. In 1995, his team released the Satellaview, an add-on for the Super Famicom that let players download content via satellite broadcast.[7]

During his time at Nintendo, he also produced video games, including Soccer, Baseball, Golf, Clu Clu Land, Ice Climber, and Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima.[33][34]

Uemura retired from Nintendo in 2004, remaining an advisor in the Research and Engineering Department. He became a professor at Ritsumeikan University, researching and teaching about video games.[3][35]

On 26 February 2020, Uemura spoke at the National Videogame Museum in the United Kingdom about his career.[36]

Death

Uemura died on 6 December 2021, at the age of 78.[37][33][38][39]

References

  1. ^ "Masayuki Uemura". Books from Japan. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "「ファミコン生みの親」、大学教授に". imidas (in Japanese). November 2002. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "UEMURA Masayuki". Japan Media Arts Festival Archive. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  4. ^ "上村雅之さん 大いに語る。 ファミリーコンピュータ インタビュー（後編）（2013年10月号より）". Nintendo DREAM WEB (in Japanese). 21 July 2018. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  5. ^ a b O'Kane, Sean (18 October 2015). "7 things I learned from the designer of the NES". The Verge. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Plunkett, Luke (3 February 2015). "The Gun Game That Nearly Broke Nintendo". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  7. ^ a b Mago, Zdenko (2008). "THE "FATHER" OF THE NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM IN SLOVAKIA FOR THE FIRST TIME- Interview with Masayuki UEMURA" (PDF). Acta Ludologica. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  8. ^ a b Grajqevci, Jeton (23 October 2000). "Profile: Gunpei Yokoi". nsidr. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  9. ^ Brightman, James (24 November 2015). ""Nintendo has always been like that, we are like indies"". gameindustry.biz. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  10. ^ Ahmed, Sayem (23 December 2020). "Feature: NES Creator Masayuki Uemura On Building The Console That Made Nintendo A Household Name". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  11. ^ a b Parish, Jeremy (11 December 2018). "NES Creator Masayuki Uemura on the Birth of Nintendo's First Console". USgamer. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Designing the Nintendo Entertainment System – Masayuki Uemura talk". Juicy Game Reviews. 31 January 2016. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  13. ^ Stark, Chelsea (19 October 2015). "How Nintendo brought the NES to America — and avoided repeating Atari's mistakes". Mashable. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  14. ^ The NYU Game Center Lecture Series Presents Masayuki Uemura. YouTube. NYU Game Center. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  15. ^ a b Alt, Matt (7 July 2020). "The Designer Of The NES Dishes The Dirt On Nintendo's Early Days". Kotaku. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  16. ^ "'Father' of the Nintendo Family Computer console dies at 78". The Asahi Shimbun. 10 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  17. ^ a b Robinson, Martin (15 March 2020). "The man who made the NES". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  18. ^ a b "上村氏インタビュー" (in Japanese). Nintendo. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  19. ^ "【任天堂「ファミコン」はこうして生まれた】" (in Japanese). The Nikkei. 30 September 2008. Archived from the original on 6 October 2008. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  20. ^ Kohler, Chris (27 February 2007). "Video: 1976 Duck Hunt". Wired. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  21. ^ a b "The Famicom's creator reflects on 30 years of 8-bit bliss". Polygon. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  22. ^ "Volume 2 : NES & Mario". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. p. 1. Bringing Video Games Home. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  23. ^ "Volume 2 : NES & Mario". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. p. 2. Playing Donkey Kong at Home. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  24. ^ a b "Witness History – Nintendo's Family Computer". BBC. 18 July 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  25. ^ Liedholm, Marcus; Liedholm, Mattias. "History of the Nintendo Entertainment System or Famicom". Nintendo Land. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  26. ^ Bogos, Steve (30 April 2013). "Famicom (NES) Creator Had No Faith In The Console's Success". The Escapist. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
  27. ^ Goldberg, Marty (18 October 2005). "Nintendo Entertainment System 20th Anniversary". ClassicGaming.com. Archived from the original on 24 November 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  28. ^ Packwood, Lewis (28 February 2020). "NES Creator Reveals The "Shocking" Story Behind That Infamous Flap". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  29. ^ Covell, Chris. "The First Super Famicom Demonstration". Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  30. ^ Covell, Chris. "The Second SFC Demonstration". Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  31. ^ "Father of PlayStation Ken Kutaragi on Rumors, the Industry, and Nintendo". Siliconera. 20 March 2021. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  32. ^ Fahey, Rob (27 April 2007). "Farewell, Father". Eurogamer. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  33. ^ a b McFerran, Damien (9 December 2021). "Masayuki Uemura, Creator Of The NES And SNES, Has Passed Away". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  34. ^ "Staff Credits - Marvelous: Mōhitotsu no Takarajima (Super Famicom) - Kyoto Report". kyoto-report.wikidot.com. Retrieved 22 December 2023.
  35. ^ "Volume 5 : Original Super Mario Developers". Iwata Asks. Nintendo. p. 6. The Super Mario Preservation Society. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  36. ^ "The National Videogame Museum welcomes legendary Nintendo engineer Masayuki Uemura – creator of the NES and SNES – to Sheffield". Games Press. 14 February 2020. Retrieved 1 May 2021.
  37. ^ Dooley, Ben; Ueno, Hisako (13 December 2021). "Masayuki Uemura, 78, Dies; Designed the First Nintendo Console". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  38. ^ "【訃報】 上村雅之先生逝去のお知らせ – 立命館大学ゲーム研究センター : Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies (RCGS)" (in Japanese). 9 December 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  39. ^ Ashcraft, Brian (9 December 2021). "Masayuki Uemura, Creator Of The NES And SNES, Dies At 78". Kotaku. Retrieved 9 December 2021.

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