Gumpei Yokoi 横井軍平 & Grooveraider 1941 - 1997

Before there was Shigeru Miyamoto - there was Gumpei Yokoi. As General manager of the R&D1 division at Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NCL), Mr. Yokoi was responsible for much of Nintendo transition from making Hanafuda cards, to toys, to video games. Mr. Yokoi's is best known for innovations such as Game & Watch, Gameboy and creator of the Metroid and Kid Icarus games. To read more about his legacy - check out Lara Crigger's article:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_87/490-Searching-f...

I was fortunate to have met the legend at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) '95 - just months before his untimely death. Very nice man - such a humble and gifted being. We played a few rounds of Tetris Attack on the Super NES at the time of the picture taken in this clip. What astounds me about both Yokoi and Miyamoto. They're innovations continue to live on in each and every game competitor down to the 3-D engine. My hats off especially to Mr.Yokoi for bringing back the video game industry. I Love you and I miss you -- we all miss you!
R.I.P

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Nintendo
• NES
• GameBoy
• Gunpei
• Yokoi
• Metroid
• Kid
• Icarus
• Super
• Mario
• Land
• Virtual
• Boy
• Pit
• N64
• Gunpey
• E3
• 1995
• Wii
• SNES
• bit
• collection
• Wonderswan
• inventor
• Gumpei
• 横井軍平

[lTheShieldl]

I didn't know enough about him to think of him for over seven minutes. So I didn't watch the whole video. I do dig the shrine :O

[Grooveraider]

You remember those virtual fireplaces you pop into your VCR/DVD player for the holidays ? Well you're correct. I got the other inspiration and made a virtual Gunpei shrine :)

[kainkusanagi]

Wow, you got to meet the legend himself. That is so incredible. Now he's making heaven more fun.

[Grooveraider]

Amen :)

[NeoGoemon]

Hi, Groove -- this is a beautiful tribute, and a nice music choice to go with it. :) You are truly priveleged to have met Mr. Yokoi. He was an inspiring man, and I sometimes wonder what amazing things he could have brought to us had he not passed away. As another commenter mentioned, the ideals which Mr. Yokoi introduced live on to this day in the Wii, and Nintendo DS. (As in, the "lateral thinking of withered technology") Thanks for sharing this video and your personal account!

[Grooveraider]

Thanks for the kind words, my friend! This tribute was totally improvised. I was touched by another YT clip: Bring Back the Eggplant Wizard (song for Gunpei Yokoi). Mr. Yokoi had it goin' on. He was Nintendo Co. Ltd. as far as i'm concerned. Yeah, I think about if he was alive today. What would he have cooked-up in his Koto Laboratory :) The man was truly a genius and a staple to the industry. We all miss him very much !

[nicotikibird]

you are so lucky to have met him :D and nintendo ROCKS!!!!!

[DANEGRMAN]

Sadly this video has few thousands views for a great work like :( Gamebou was 1 of my fav platform ever. Thanks

[Japancommercials4U2]

@squirm13 Sorry for a much later reply, but that is somewhat true. Gunpei was disappointed in the failure of the Virtual Boy. He thought its failure was his fault, so he left Nintendo.

[AtomicFAILMediaTV]

That Rob makes me sad.. its like hes waiting for him to come back and play..

great tribute man

[RickRudesMustache]

Gunpeiii-Saaaaan! Forever live in the hearts of children no matter how old these children grow to be.

[SSERIOUSLYY]

i cant express in words my jealousy. the fact that you have met gunpei yokoi is astonishing. XD regardless i love how you've shared your experience with others ;) gunpei yokoi influenced the video games industry like no other. r.i.p

[smbzguy]

Very nice tribute.I have to agree,he was a great man.If it werent for him we wouldnt have the Game Boy and Nintendo DS that we have today.You're very lucky to meet him.BTW,when you met him did he speak any english?or was there a translator there to translate for you?

[gunpeiyokoifan]

Very awesome video tribute to Gunpei Yokoi-san...

R.I.P. Gunpei Yokoi-san!

[gamephreak5]

You heard right. Nintendo (or I should say Hiroshi Yamauchi) unjustly put Gunpei in a "window seat" where he wasn't given anything significant to work on that would affect the company after the VB failed. A short while after he voluntarily quit, but still...

I can't believe after all of his previous successes Yamauchi put him in that position after one lousy mistake...

[ankevroon]

yeah! He just wanted a new gaming experience. By the way... He too made the plans to make the wii... Satoru Iwata modernisied it.

[LastSteelgod]

I read a book about the history of Nintendo and got to the part when Mr. Yokoi died by a car hitting him. I felt really sad; Metroid is one of my all time favorite series and I love the Game & Watch Gallery for the Game Boy. He'll be missed...

Didn't he also make the Virtual Boy? Even if it was a commercial failure, I still liked it.