Masayuki was an unlikely figure to be key in contributing to the legacy of video games! Originally educated as an engineer, he sold solar-cell battery systems for Sharp. One client was Nintendo as they used the technology for the duck hunt/pigeon shooting video games I remember seeing in arcades of the Seventies. Nintendo hired him on in 1971 to work in their R&D.
Around 1981, the boss told him to find a way to miniaturize their hit arcade cabinet games, namely Donkey Kong, into a console/cartridge system to compete with the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. Originally he was skeptical and thought the boss was joking because they had joked about this a night or two before when they went out drinking. Masayuki succeeded with his team. In 1983, they released what would be known as the Famicon which would come to America revamped as the NES around 1985. The Nintendo Famicon was a wonder for its day. An actual 8-bit system! Donkey Kong on it looked exactly like the one I played at Aladdin’s Castle or Chuck E Cheese! Not even home computers were close to getting this level of arcade accuracy.
Masayuki’s revolutionary console would be delayed outside Japan though. The year 1983 was a disaster for the home video game market. Atari was smarting from their abysmal 1982 releases ET and Pac Man so Warner Communications had fired the head of Atari, ignorant of the deal he made to distribute the upcoming Famicon. It didn’t matter, video games were radioactive as practically no major retailers would sell them for years. Atari was sold off and had to break its contract with Nintendo, forcing the Japanese company to start from scratch in America.
How Nintendo conquered America in the second half of the Eighties, you can find out via a documentary on Netflix called High Score. Thankfully, Masayuki was vindicated in the West. I think Nintendo was still very pleased with how much the Japanese market embraced the Famicon.
He then lead the efforts to make what we know as the Super NES, the successor to the NES in the Nineties until the N64 took its place by 1996.
Masayuki retired from Nintendo in 2004 and received a professorship at Ritsumeikan University. For the remainder of his life he did research and taught students about video games; I imagine the theory stuff, like what makes a game compelling.
Thanks everything sir! You were one of the instrumental people in rescuing home video consoles from the ash heap and made a product that brought joy, entertainment and challenges to millions. It was my own fault if your NES kept me from studying in college.