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[Waluigilicious]

Great thread.

 

[speedpop]

It's good to know that one of the hallmarks of the Super Mario Bros series, specifically the smooth movement of Mario, had indirectly been caused by Iwata.

 

[Kodaman]

Thank you for this, subscribed.

 

[Peltz]

Phenomenal job OP

 

[The Boat]

Amazing work, it really highlights the tremendous impact Iwata had from top to bottom.

 

[virtualS]

Thank you for this. Mr Iwata was a true genius and gentleman and was driven by his love of making others happy. Men like him are super rare. Rarer still are those who make it to the top.

I guess that's why his passing has had such an impact on me.

 

[Datschge]

Hm, comparing the arcade version with Iwata's Balloon Trip it seems he introduced that back and forward movement for the big fish (at least it's only noticeable there). That movement may have inspired the one for Lakitu in SMB and, more obviously, the big fish in SMB3 5-3. Not mentioned anywhere and maybe even a coincidence, but a neat one anyway. ^^

 

[Interceptor]

I think one of his most important keynotes was in 2001 when they unveiled the gamecube. Lots of foreshadowing for the DS, Wii etc. On my mobile right now, will provide links later.

 

[SuperAngelo64]

Sakurai really felt like his protege. He also tends to give no fucks. Make him the new president.

The fact he's just as adorable as Iwata doesn't hurt.

 

[Oregano]

Sakurai really felt like his protege. He also tends to give no fucks. Make him the new president.

In his Famitsu piece Sakurai seemed unsure whether he'd even continue to work with Nintendo without Iwata.

 

[SuperAngelo64]

In his Famitsu piece Sakurai seemed unsure whether he'd even continue to work with Nintendo without Iwata.

That's kind of heartbreaking. You have a link?

 

[Datschge]

That's kind of heartbreaking. You have a link?

Mentioned in the Kotako article about it: http://kotaku.com/smash-bros-creator-remembers-satoru-iwata-1719451777 (Of course they had to botch the title by writing "Smash Creator" and not think of Iwata as one.)

Sakurai really got exceptional freedom (see the lengthy praise Iwata gave, quoted in the OP) for his work on Brawl, Uprising and Smash 4. It's easy to see the possibility that a new CEO may be a little more cautious with giving that kind of budget and freedom to an outsider.

Edit:

I think one of his most important keynotes was in 2001 when they unveiled the gamecube. Lots of foreshadowing for the DS, Wii etc. On my mobile right now, will provide links later.

You mean the E3 2001 press conference where Iwata spoke? https://youtu.be/jWSmFjOgyG4?t=494 Added that, thanks. ^^

 

[mariosbrother]

Great job OP, much appreciated.

 

[jackal27]

Damn... This thread is so great. Awesome work OP. I still can't believe how influential this guy was on so many aspects of video games while still remaining so humble and mostly behind the scenes. He was an incredible guy.

Here is something I posted in another thread about one of my favorite SNES RPGs that he has a credit in.

Arcana is a little-known SNES HAL JRPG that Iwata definitely had a hand in programming. I'd be interested in learning more about how much he did on it. I love this game. It's a first-person dungeon crawler by the way.

Damn! Did he really work on this? A first-person dungeon crawling JRPG? I need to check this out!

Sorry I'm late getting back to you all on this, but yes Iwata has a credit in the game. Like I said, I'm not certain what his role was because he is listed as "Technical Adviser".

Iwata in the credits: https://youtu.be/VpaVgBgiQm4?t=4m44s

To me that role seems similar to the role he originally played in Earthbound before he decided to reprogram the entire thing himself. It's also difficult because several people listed in the credits use joke names such as Director Mat Sutake whose name is a joke about mushrooms. If I had to guess, he oversaw or assisted programmers, but Technical Adviser could mean so many things, especially on a project as small as Arcana in an era like the 90s. His fingerprints are here for sure though.

This game is very HAL and Kirby has a cameo in the opening cutscene!

Also, the soundtrack (as many have pointed out) is absolutely fantastic. It's composed by Jun Ishikawa who has composed most (all?) of the Kirby games. His music has such an upbeat and active feel to it that it really draws you into the game and elevates it beyond some of its more generic elements.

Here's the main battle theme (my favorite song) where you can really feel the Kirby influences: https://youtu.be/GvlbFJlw51U

Enjoy the game!

 

[neopokekun]

1980
From the book Commodore: A Company on the Edge, interview with Yash Terakura who was the head engineer of Commodore Japan at the time.

Tramiel was using intense competition to bring out the best in his people. The biggest rivalry occurred between the systems group at MOS Technology and Moorspark in Silicon Valley. Now, he brought Commodore Japan into the competition.

Terakura was largely unaware of the political battles between the east coast and the west coast when Tramiel asked him to design a color PET computer. "I don't recall him ever getting caught up with anybody's politics" says Peddle. Tramiel asked Terakura to bring his prototype to the upcoming Hanover Fair in April 1980.

To add color to the PET, Terakura replaced the 6845 video chip with a standard color video chip similar to the Texas Instruments TMS9918 chip. This was not a plug-in replacement, forcing Terakura to rewire the video section of the board. "It was a mockup with experimental stuff," says Terakura

The engineer recived help from a group of young Japanese PET 2001 owners, who frequently stopped by the Commodore Japan office. "All those kids from high school and collage, they all owned a PET", he says. "It was pretty expensive, like a $3000 machine, but everybody had one." At home, the kids used their primitive PET 2001 computers with only eight kilobytes of memory and a rubber calculator-style keyboard. When Commodore released the more expensive PET computers with more memory and real keyboards, the kids yearned to use the better machines. "They had smaller machines and wanted to have bigger and better machines, so they came over to my office to use the better machines we had."

One of the young engineers was 21-year old Satoru Iwata, the future CEO of Nintendo. "Iwata was one of these kind of groupies when I was in Commodore who used to come to my office all the time" says Terakura. "He tried to get all the information from me about the new type of machines."

Although curiosity brought the young programmers to Commodore Japan, they eventually became unpaid interns for the company. "His job was to come to my office and kind of clean everyting up, making backup files of the different software," laughs Terakura. "Those days we had a bunch of floppies, so he had to check everything and make sure everything was updated. He was pretty much my own secretary."

Terakura was something of a mentor to the young Iwata. "He was going to school at the time in college. So on the way home he always stopped by our office, almost every day. There were a few of them like that. That was before the Nintendo days and everybody wanted to work on a PET."

When Tramiel gave Terakura the assignment to design a new color computer, Iwata and the other groupies were understandably excited. "Being a software engineer, he wanted to get all the inside information I guess" he says.

Iwata's intense interest in the machine was apparent, and soon he was helping code the ROM software in the prototype. "He was a very good software engineer and he was helping me develop some of the test programs," says Terakura. "Actually he helped me design the software side of the Commodore ColorPET, the one I built."

 

[OminousShadow]

That is one well done timeline. Good stuff OP

Iwata pulling off big programming feats like they're nothing. What a badass.

 

[Datschge]

From the book Commodore: A Company on the Edge, interview with Yash Terakura who was the head engineer of Commodore Japan at the time.

Added, thanks. Very interesting to read how small the PET world was back then. ^^

 

[mafionikkoku]

I'm writing a special about our beloved president, so this thread is very useful to my research. I'm not a thief so i'm going to contribuite with my knowledge till now.
In the official italian magazine (now closed, but very professional and pasionated at that time), Satoru Iwata is credited for some games i still haven't find in this thread so i report them, waiting for sources that confirm these entries.

Super Billiards, MSX (1983) HAL : N.R.
Rollerball, NES (1984) HAL: N.R.
Hole in One Professional, MSX (1986) HAL : N.R.
Uchukeibitai SDF, NES (1990) HAL: N.R.
NCAA Basketball, SNES (1992) NOA: Additional Programming
Vegas Stakes, SNES (1995) Nintendo Co. Ltd: N.R.

Also i link a tribute made by Guardian which includes a wonderful story about Brain Training. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/satoru-iwata-games-nintendo-president

I'm still searching for documents so when i find something useful i'll write again.

Great thread!

 

[Tom_Cody]

This thread is amazing!

 

[Wireframe]

Amazing stuff, thanks for this!

 

[octopiggy]

This thread is great. I think it's really important to try and quantify the footprint that people like Mr. Iwata will leave in the gaming industry. There is certainly a legacy to be proud of here. I can only dream of leaving such a mark on the world.

Keep up the good work guys!

 

[Interceptor]

You mean the E3 2001 press conference where Iwata spoke? https://youtu.be/jWSmFjOgyG4?t=494 Added that, thanks. ^^

Exactly this one. Tons of good quotes but especially this one:

Nintendo has strong views on how we should run our company.
We consider ourselfs above all a game based entertainment company.

We believe other people who make videogame systems see themself first
as technology companies.

This is an important distinction.

 

[Datschge]

Exactly this one. Tons of good quotes but especially this one:

Added your quote, thanks. ^^

I'm still searching for documents so when i find something useful i'll write again.

Thanks. What does N.R. stand for?

In general we should try not to turn this into a staff credit dump (mobygames does a better job of that) but refer to talks and memories mentioning his work. I also have to say I find it infuriating how many writers of secondary source articles don't bother to credit or at least hint at their primary sources. I often filter out the search results past his death due to that.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Love this thread. They don't make em like him anymore

 

[monome]

Thanks OP.

 

[anotherVegan]

Thanks. Didn't know he had a hand in Mario as well. Gaming won't be the same without him.

 

[Kamek]

Thanks. Didn't know he had a hand in Mario as well. Gaming won't be the same without him.

That was one of the biggest surprises to me as well. I had no idea that the swimming physics in Mario were from balloon fight. Damn, the man truly was a legend.

 

[mafionikkoku]

Added your quote, thanks. ^^


Thanks. What does N.R. stand for?

In general we should try not to turn this into a staff credit dump (mobygames does a better job of that) but refer to talks and memories mentioning his work. I also have to say I find it infuriating how many writers of secondary source articles don't bother to credit or at least hint at their primary sources. I often filter out the search results past his death due to that.

Sadly, N.R stands for Not Reported.

OT: if a writer doesn't report credits and source, then is a bad writer and his works doesn't help anyone to know more about the subject he is writing about.

I reported that game list because i've found many informations simply reading fansites.

IT: N-sider has a very good special about HAL: http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=325

The passage we are interested to (akihabara days) is this:

"We became friends, formed a club, and soon rented an apartment in the Akihabara district of Tokyo where we began designing our own games," recalls Satoru Iwata. "We worked until midnight or later every night, and that group of friends is what became the company known as HAL today."

The two ambitious entrepreneurs, Tanimura and Iwata, were still attending college at the time. "I don't really remember how, but I managed to keep up with my class work and graduated from the institute," says Iwata. "When it came time to take a job, I had the distinction of joining the smallest company of any graduate in my class. I left to become only the fifth full-time employee of HAL."

On a Game Center episode, and also in the GDC 2005 Keynote, Satoru Iwata says that his father was so angry with him about the choice of becoming a game designer and working in a tiny company, he didn't speak to him for six months.

https://youtu.be/3qdRzxmgYWo?t=7m50s

Back to the Commodore years, it seems Iwata helped his friends at Hal (and himself, sure XD) translating a document.

Mr. Ieda said that Satoru Iwata should have translated a sort of manuals of 6502. This is an important hint for reconsidering about the facts above. MOS Technology 6502 commonly known as 6502 is a CPU gets abreast of Z80 underpinned a lot of 8-bit great machines. It was used in home computer such as Apple II, BBC Micro, PET, and VIC-20. Family Computer and PC Engine (released as TurboGrafx-16 in U.S.) also used its variations.

And now what was “a sort of manuals of 6502″ that Iwata translated? I can’t get over that it was a document about KIM-1, which was a single board computer MOS Technology developed in 1976. Probably it was a datasheet like SY6500/MCS6500 Microcomputer Family Programming Manual by Synertek.

Source: https://akaobi.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/back-to-commodore-japan/

 

[Datschge]

Thanks.

A lot of the Akihabara stuff etc. is also mentioned in the lengthy Hobonichi - Learn from the president! (Japanese) interview between Itoi and Iwata in early 2005. Unfortunately it seems not to be translated anywhere, this and the recent 4gamers.net interviews appear to be the most resourceful primary sources on Iwata himself.

That Commodore link is great, a direct expansion on what neopokekun already posted above about the content of the mentioned book (Iwata and circle hanging out at Commodore Japan whenever possible).

Edit: It's getting fuzzy what HAL actually consisted of in its early days (Iwata was only the 5th employee as well as the first/only programmer there when joining full time, but earlier HAL was already known for its programming proficiency, and several sources say that group would form the later HAL?). Anyway that Commodore article links further to an interview between Hally and Tomczyk at VORC where early arcade ports to VIC-1001 cart are credited to HAL: "Jupiter Lander, Star Battle, Poker, Road Race and Money Wars. I guess Jelly Monsters (aka Pac-Man), Alien, Mole Attack and Slot might be as well." All of which may be with involvement by Iwata.

The interview also has a great quote unrelated to Iwata, how Commondore essentially got Nintendo to join the home console market. It's like a backward deja vu! =D

At one point, I negotiated a contract with Ninendo for all of their games to be ported to Commodore computers, and got them pretty excited about the prospect of being on home-based machines. At the last minute - when the contract was ready to be SIGNED - Jack without warning told me he was cancelling the deal I negotiated. I was extremely humiliated by that, and lost face as a result. I believe that my efforts to evangelize home computing to Nintendo had a direct impact on their decision to go into the game console market, because they weren't really thinking about that before I approached them with our licensing deal.

What was Japan for Commodore?
Maybe Iwata knew of these efforts and that was why he was so quick to ask Nintendo if HAL could work on software for the Famicom.

 

[neopokekun]

Here is more from Commodore: A Company on the Edge about HAL and the early VIC-1001 / VIC-20 games:

On February 21, 1980, five of the groupies form their own company.

Although Iwata was a young man, several of the programmers were still in high school. “In terms of the programmers, a number of them were just really young,” says Commodore software developer Andy Finkel. “There were a couple of senior guys so they weren’t entirely kids.”

The groupies were fixated with the PET 2001 computers, and the obvious similarities of the monitor housing and keyboard from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, In the film, a super intelligent computer named the HAL 9000 controls a complex space station. The Japanese game programmers decided to name their company HAL Laboratory.

When the young programmers saw that Commodore’s Yash Terakura was working on a small computer meant for video games, they know were they wanted to spend their development efforts.

Each programmer focused on developing an arcade version for the VIC-1001, with much attention spent on Pac-Man.

Although the VIC-1001 was not a good development system, the programmers could use the more powerful PET computers to code and compile, then run the software on the VIC-1001. “They had a lot of things first which were really convenient for the average computer enthusiast to be able to develop their own software outside of Commodore,” recalls Finkel. “They got the hard drives first, which are kind of nice for development. They had the memory expansions first.”

Tony Tokai made sure the HAL programmers had early versions of the VIC-1001 so they could bring them back to their rented apartment in the Akihabara section of Tokyo and program games through al hours of the night. The developers used an interface to connect the VIC-20 cartridge slot to the PET computer so that the cartridge could load right from the expanded PET memory. When done coding the game, they burned the code to a ROM chip and placed it into a cartridge”, says Tomczyk.

The young HAL Laboratory programmers also made conversions of the most popular arcade games of the day by Atari, Namco, and Taito — Space Invaders, Avalanche, Galaxian, Night Driver, Rally-X, and Lunar Lander.

Note: Taro Tokai, known as Tony Tokai by westerners was Commodore Japan’s general manager.

When the groupies had several games in beta version, Iwata approached Tony Tokai of Commodore. According to Finkel, “The kids in Japan wrote some games and went to Commodore and said, ‘Hey we’ve got these really nice games. Want to sell them?’”

With a small but impressive library of games ready to demonstrate the computer, Tony Tokai was ready to launch the computer in Japan.

 

[Dacvak]

It's too hard for me to read this. I've been really trying to ignore Iwata's death for the last couple weeks. When I first heard about it, I was driving with some friends and I just ended up sort of quietly trying to keep my tears back. I don't know why, but this has really affected me. I don't know if that's weird or not. I've only met Iwata once, and it was so brief that it basically didn't matter. But, I don't know, it's really tough to think about him. I don't know why I'm posting this. Blah.

 

[Datschge]

Thanks, neopokekun.
I need to summarize all that Commodore stuff in some way, I'm already running out of space in the OP. =D

I guess the inconsistency between Iwata being only the 5th full time employee and first programmer when he fully joined in 1982 and HAL being the group of groupies may be resolved by those other groupies fully joining HAL later or not at all. I did a quick grep through the publicly available TOSEC VIC-20 archive, Hiroaki Suga did a Rally-X port back then, was a very active programmer and is producer at HAL nowadays. There are also a J. Suzuki and a Hitoshi Suzuki, but didn't find anything on them.

@Dacvak: That's perfectly normal. Be sad as long as you need to, don't ignore it. After that you'll feel better about the legacy he left, the stuff that touched you. It took me a week of grieving before starting this topic even though I knew I'd eventually do it anyway.

 

[neopokekun]

There are also a J. Suzuki and a Hitoshi Suzuki, but didn't find anything on them.

They are also mentioned in the book.

A programmer named Hitoshi Suzuki developed a clone of Atari's1979 game Lunar Lander.

Suzuki's brother ported a version of Atari's 1976 arcade game, Night Driver.

 

[fluffydelusions]

What a legend

 

[Datschge]

They are also mentioned in the book.

Well thanks, that's what I saw in the respective games. I meant I don't know what they went to do afterward, they seem not to be part of any easy attainable HAL staff lists afterward. Does the book contain any more names of those groupies?

 

[DarkTom]

Wow this guy was awesome. Ha was not the "usual" president for sure.

Great job for the thread.

 

[mafionikkoku]

Edit: It's getting fuzzy what HAL actually consisted of in its early days (Iwata was only the 5th employee as well as the first/only programmer there when joining full time, but earlier HAL was already known for its programming proficiency, and several sources say that group would form the later HAL?).

Nah. That's pretty normal. We use to think about sotfware house as a big company. In the 8-bit era, a single man was enough to create a game, if he had the skills.

Also note, Iwata was not the 5th employee but the 5th FULL TIME employee, it's different.
Probably in that apartment there were other developers, working for free as iwata at commodore japan, or part-time. There wasn't internet, or books related so the best thing to do for learning how computer worked was haging around for informations and working, even for free as iwata and many others did.

 

[Datschge]

Also note, Iwata was not the 5th employee but the 5th FULL TIME employee, it's different.

That's what I already wrote above. The curious part is not that one person could make games alone or HAL was small at that time (I think everyone is aware of that) but that according to Iwata's 2005 interview with Itoi he was also the first full time programmer, meaning that there already were four full time non-programmers at HAL, which clashes with the Commodore history book's description of HAL consisting of five programming students that founded the company (though at least one more, Hiroaki Suga, later joined HAL full time as well). The interview being primary source means the book's technically wrong with that part. That's all.

 

[mafionikkoku]

That's what I already wrote above. The curious part is not that one person could make games alone or HAL was small at that time (I think everyone is aware of that) but that according to Iwata's 2005 interview with Itoi he was also the first full time programmer, meaning that there already were four full time non-programmers at HAL, which clashes with the Commodore history book's description of HAL consisting of five programming students that founded the company (though at least one more, Hiroaki Suga, later joined HAL full time as well). The interview being primary source means the book's technically wrong with that part. That's all.

Ok, i get it.
Even direct interview sometimes aren't reliable source, a man could fill hole in his memories with false informations. Is Terakura or Iwata misleading us?
I believe the truth is on the middle. Terakura wasn't in HAL so what he said is what he knew by distance. Maybe HAL had more than five employee but Iwata didn't remember.
The stories are similar, anyway. Even if when Hiroji Iwasaki founded HAL we know the names of his friends around his office, we can't be sure about how many people were regulary hired. We don't even know who is Hiroji Iwasaki and where is now XD

Big OT, i know, i digress a lot, sorry

 

[Admiral Alliteration]

A few days ago, Gamasutra published an interview with Yash Terakura, Iwata's former mentor at Commodore and later his co-worker at HAL (link). It mentions that Iwata was responsible for porting four Atari games to the Famicom in 1983, when Nintendo planned to let Atari publish the console in the west. The first of these games that Iwata programmed was Joust, other games were Stargate and Millipede, while the last one seems to be unknown. Since the deal fell through, those ports weren't released by Nintendo. But they were the reason that Nintendo hired Iwata and HAL for other early Famicom ports. Also, Iwata's Joust port was published bei HAL in 1987, and it is said to resemble Iwata's Balloon Fight in some way.

Beyond that, there are some more things missing in the OP (which otherwise is very interesting). I don't have the exact sourced at the moment. But I think Iwata was the first leader of Nintendo's SPD division. He also had a very close connection to the Software Development & Design Department, which belonged to the SPD division. He directly produced Brain Training and some of those strange DS games released under the Touch Generations banner. Also he was very deeply involved with the development of the Nintendo DS. At least that's what I remember from reading Inoue's Nintendo Magic. Also I remember Iwata stating in some investor's Q&A that he was directly responsible for Nintendo's newly established QOL department.

 

[Datschge]

Thanks for the info, Admiral Alliteration. That Gamasutra article is really great! The current OP is by no means intended to be complete, instead I tried to only mention involvements for which primary accounts exist online (there's a lot of flowery articles without any reference sourcing out there). I have contacted some people for more info and plan to do a more cohesive rewrite of the OP sometime.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

If needed, there's a translated interview regarding the cancellation of the third mother game in its N64 iteration before the production of the GBA version.

https://yomuka.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/earthbound-64-cancellation-interview-itoi-miyamoto-iwata/

Here's another translated interview from the book “Introduction to Game Design,” published in 1994, where Iwata talks a little bit about his childhood involving computers and his philosophies regarding being a programmer.

http://shmuplations.com/1994game4/

If it's deemed important enough, there was also Iwata's post morterm of sorts for Halnote, a program made for the MSX2, considering he wrote the piece, it might be apt to say he had some involvement with the program.

http://pepsimangb.tumblr.com/post/124065194369/note-left-click-the-image-and-then-right-click