10 People Who Changed The Video Game Industry Forever
3. Gunpei Yokoi
A Nintendo veteran, the late Gunpei Yokoi was responsible for many influential concepts, designs and games for both Nintendo, and the genre as a whole.
Starting his career as an assembly maintenance worker way back when Nintendo still manufactured Hanafuda cards, Yokoi made what came to be known as the Ultra Hand in his spare time, and it was from this invention that he was moved to the company’s Research and Development division. When Nintendo shifted into the video game industry, he became one of their first game designers and went on to invent the concept of handheld gaming with the Game & Watch and the Game Boy.
When he wasn't making new consoles, he worked with the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto on Donkey Kong and Mario Bros., conceived the idea of multiplayer gaming and the control pad, and was responsible for the Metroid series. Yokoi’s unique development philosophy, dubbed “Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology”, gave him the mental dexterity and inspiration to come up with many ideas that we now take for granted.
Yokoi’s creative genius is entrenched in the roots of the industry, and his brilliant mind was taken from us far too soon.