Gunpei Yokoi created Metroid ?

S

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Gunpei Yokoi is credited as the creator of the Metroid franchise. He technically served as producer, if memory serves. Yokoi also developed the Kid Icarus franchise for Nintendo. On top of that, he created Game & Watch, the D-Pad and Game Boy. In 1996, Yokoi left Nintendo and developed the WonderSwan, and a year later he was hit by a car and killed. He was 57 years old.
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I was wondering if anyone actually considered game producers as the actual creators of games. I mean in my opinion producers do paperwork, supervise, and throw some ideas around.

As far as Gunpei Yokoi goes, the guy was a talented engineer. His passion wasn't creating games as much as creating the hardware and mechanisms for games to run. As far as Metroid goes, I think the 3 people who created the franchise are Makoto Kanoh (concept, game design), Yoshio Sakamoto (game design, map design), and Hiroji Kiyotake (graphic design, character design).

Out of the three, only Sakamoto remains involved with the Metroid series.
 
Yes, I'd thought about this before too but didn't have the knowledge or resources to back anything up. It wouldn't surprise me, however. Metroid seems so out of place in his portfolio.
 
One other thing about Yokoi-san:

Many people claiming his first name (Gunpei) is actually spelled Gumpei! I´ll stick to Gunpei for sure, but what was his real name?
 
Salmon said:
One other thing about Yokoi-san:

Many people claiming his first name (Gunpei) is actually spelled Gumpei! I´ll stick to Gunpei for sure, but what was his real name?
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If you put an N character before like a B or P it's pronounced as "M", I've seen the name spelled both ways.
 
Here's a little tidbit: Capcom stands for CAPsule COMpany, so in English it's CAPCOM, but in Japanese it's written (and read) as CAPCON.
 
Miburou said:
Here's a little tidbit: Capcom stands for CAPsule COMpany, so in English it's CAPCOM, but in Japanese it's written (and read) as CAPCON.
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So what ever happened to Suleputer? :lol

Soulputer!
 
I once read that Yokoi was the first person to figure out a way to make NES games scroll both left and right, thus making Metroid possible. I have no idea if this is actually true.

I also heard that Capcom was short for CAPtain COMmando.
 
gameoverbook.jpg


Oh, and you miss to underline the fact that he also created the Virtual Boy...
 
Laurent said:
gameoverbook.jpg


Oh, and you miss to underline the fact that he also created the Virtual Boy...
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I think he made the love tester machine for Nintendo too, back in the day. Also, that robotic arm toy they came out with.
 
Cruel Bastard Mario said:
I think he made the love tester machine for Nintendo too, back in the day. Also, that robotic arm toy they came out with.
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If you use your imagination you could end up with a love machine with an arm coming out to do the "job"...

Or maybe something like this:
robot-love-1.gif
 
Cruel Bastard Mario said:
Also, that robotic arm toy they came out with.
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That was the Ultra Hand. Yokoi designed it after Yamauchi came up to him and asked him for an idea. Yamauchi knew that Yokoi liked to tinker and make toys in his spare time. Before that, IIRC, he was an assembly line manager, or something along those lines.
 
Salmon said:
If you use your imagination you could end up with a love machine with an arm coming out to do the "job"...

Or maybe something like this:
robot-love-1.gif
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:lol Nice!

Ironclad_Ninja said:
That was the Ultra Hand. Yokoi designed it after Yamauchi came up to him and asked him for an idea. Yamauchi knew that Yokoi liked to tinker and make toys in his spare time. Before that, IIRC, he was an assembly line manager, or something along those lines.
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It's posts like this that makes me want to see a Nintendo higherup movie of the week. Seriously! G4 would totally win me back if they produced a movie about Miyamoto/Yokoi/Yamauchi et al. There is definitely more than enough interesting material.
 
lockii said:
You wouldn't happen to be the same Gazunta who's a developer located in Brisbane? If so, small world.
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That's me, yeah. :) Small world?

Er...I mean it couldn't be the same guy! Because if that was the case that would mean I would be posting to GAF from work during work hours! Hahaha! How crazy would that be!

*ahem*
 
Cruel Bastard Mario said:
It's posts like this that makes me want to see a Nintendo higherup movie of the week. Seriously! G4 would totally win me back if they produced a movie about Miyamoto/Yokoi/Yamauchi et al. There is definitely more than enough interesting material.
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Absolutely. I agree completely.
The whole issue of where they put Yokoi after the Virtual Boy bombed could fill several episodes easily. It would delve into Nintendo's past, and the basics of Japanese business practice.
 
Most Nintendo sites consider him the creator.
The problem is Nintendo dont credit him as creator, maybe because of the dishonourable way in which he left the company. Even in the last two MP games he's nowhere to be seen on the credits.
 
nightez said:
Most Nintendo sites consider him the creator.
The problem is Nintendo dont credit him as creator, maybe because of the dishonourable way in which he left the company. Even in the last two MP games he's nowhere to be seen on the credits.
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He is mentioned in the MP credits, something like: "Special thanks from the Retro team to Gunpei Yokoi, original creator of Metroid (1941-1997)"
 
Most Nintendo sites consider him the creator.
The problem is Nintendo dont credit him as creator, maybe because of the dishonourable way in which he left the company. Even in the last two MP games he's nowhere to be seen on the credits.
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I personally don't believe that Yokoi was the creator of Metroid, unless by creation, you mean giving a game idea and tossing it off to a dev team, but whatever, we won't really know unless Nintendo tells us.

And Yokoi didn't leave in a dishonorable way. That's just silly. He took the fall for the Virtual Boy, which is not necessarily dishonorable.
 
nightez said:
Most Nintendo sites consider him the creator.
The problem is Nintendo dont credit him as creator, maybe because of the dishonourable way in which he left the company. Even in the last two MP games he's nowhere to be seen on the credits.
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That's not true, I haven't beat MP2 yet, but MP had a few lines honoring him in the end credits.
 
First off, I admit the following story sounds mental, but it's true.

I met with Yokoi and Miyamoto and the same Japanese PR guy they've had for ages, back in 19-oatcake at Kyoto HQ - just after Super Mario All Stars was released on SNES. They demo-ed Super Metroid, and I was all, "WTF!" Simultaneously exclaiming delight AND inventing the catchphrase "WTF."


Anyway, Yokoi WAS the creator, but even then they were trying to pseudo-pimp it as a Miyamoto game because that = sales. Miyamoto kept looking embarassed and defering the creation of the game to Yokoi.


Yokoi got producer credits and indisputably created it.


PS., the canals between Nintendo and the Holiday Inn there, have stepping stones shaped like Turtles that you have to jump on. Coincidence? Probably.
 
Yeah, I recall seeing an episode of Icons (hehe) on Yokoi where they talked about him creating Metroid. How he had drawings in a notebook of the various characters fom when he was younger. (I think that was him...) So he was more than just the "Executive Producer."
 
Justin Bailey said:
That's not true, I haven't beat MP2 yet, but MP had a few lines honoring him in the end credits.
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I have the european MP version he's definitely not in the end credits nor in the credits in the manual. The omission's ben bothering me for a while.
 
I did a lot of research on this a long time ago, and as far as im concerned Makoto Kanoh created the Metroid concept. Hiroji Kiyotake created the actual character of Samus, as well as Wario.

Yokoi was the general manager and producer of like 100 R&D1 games from 1976-1996. Including the original Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros... and we know who was the actual creator of those games.
 
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