Gunpei Yokoi
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| Gunpei Yokoi | |
|---|---|
 Gunpei Yokoi holding up a Game Boy prototype | |
| Born | September 10, 1941 Kyoto, Japan |
| Died | October 4, 1997 |
| First game | Metroid |
Gunpei Yokoi (September 10, 1941 - October 4, 1997) was a legendary video game designer who is credited heavily for Nintendo's success in video games. He was the creator of various pieces of Nintendo hardware including the Game & Watch, the Game Boy and the Virtual Boy, as well as a variety of video game series such as Metroid and Kid Icarus. He taught Mario and The Legend of Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto upon his arrival to the company and unfortunately passed away on October 4th of 1997.
[edit] History
Gunpei Yokoi was born on September 10, 1941. He was hired by Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi as an electrician for a Hanafuda card assembly line. He was promoted once Hiroshi noticed a unique device that Gunpei hand crafted later called the Ultra Hand that extended out and grabbed objects. Hiroshi was so intrigued with the object that he ordered over a million to be made before the holiday rush. The toy was so successful that Gunpei started to create a variety of other toys for the company such as the Ten Billion Barrel and the Nintendo Love Tester.
[edit] Death
On October 4, 1997, while driving with Etsuo Kisō, a business man with Nintendo, the two of them spotted a car accident. Once they got out to investigate, two cars rammed into the broken car and crushed Yokoi, and gave Etsuo Kisō two broken bones. After two hours in a hospital, Gunpei Yokoi was announced dead.
