Masayuki Uemura, Nintendo’s Pioneering Lead Architect, Passes Away At 78
Image via Nintendo and Robtek | Dreamstime.com
Masayuki Uemura, the former lead architect of the Famicom and the Super Famicom—better known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) respectively—has passed away at the age of 78.
The famed engineer, who retired from the Japanese game company in 2004, went on to become the Director of Games Studies at Ritsumeikan University, which announced his passing.
According to Kotaku, Uemura first worked at Sharp as a photocell technology salesperson. In fact, he even sold the mechanics to his future employer, Nintendo. Once he moved over to game development, he worked with fellow designer Gunpei Yokoi to create electronic light gun games integrated with the photocell technology.
His big break would come in 1981, when Nintendo’s president told him to create a video game system that ran on cartridges. In Uemura’s own words, he said he “didn’t think much” of the phone call, as the boss had a habit of calling him after a few drinks.
“It wasn’t until the next morning when he came up to me, sober, and said, ‘That thing we talked about—you’re in on it?’ that it hit me: He was serious,” recounted Uemura in a past interview with Kotaku.
Of course, the Famicom—which was renamed NES for the American market—became a huge hit globally.
Uemura remarked that with the success of the console, things became more challenging for him at Nintendo. He said, “Well, my salary went up. That’s a fact. So I was getting paid more, but the flip side was my job got a lot harder.”
“President Yamauchi’s attitude played a big part in this, but my feeling was one of ‘seize the day.’ Just go for it,” he added.
Ritsumeikan University will be holding a memorial service in honor of Uemura, with details to be released at a later date.
[via Kotaku, cover image via Nintendo and Robtek | Dreamstime.com]
Also check out these recent news
