Masayuki Uemura, Designer of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Dies At 78 (nytimes.com) 18
"The New York Times has an obituary for Masayuki Uemura, designer of the first Nintendo Entertainment System console," writes Slashdot reader nickovs. Here's an excerpt from the report: Video game consoles had a moment of popularity in the early 1980s, but the market collapsed because of shoddy quality control and uninspiring software that failed to provide the thrills of arcade hits like Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Truckloads of unsold game cartridges ended up in landfills, and retailers decided that home gaming systems had no future. But in 1985, the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States changed the industry forever. The unassuming gray box with its distinctive controllers became a must-have for an entire generation of children and prompted Nintendo's virtual monopoly over the industry for the better part of a decade as competitors pulled out of the market in response to the company's dominance. "The NES was not the first video game console," adds nickovs. "The quality of the games that became available for the NES, including titles like Super Mario Brothers, made it much more appealing than pervious boxes and that lead to its commercial success. These games would not have been possible without the hardware that Uemura designed."
DUDDEEEE!!!! (Score:3)
Jeeze (Score:5, Funny)
This dude died a week ago, now heâ(TM)s died again? What is this a video game? How many lives does he have?
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And mushrooms. Don't forget the mushrooms.
Re:Jeeze (Score:4, Funny)
Kidding aside I made sure my four year old had her first video game experience playing Super Mario Bros on an old NES then logged on to see the story of this legend passing... the first one I mean. RIP Game God.
Re: Jeeze (Score:2)
That depends on if he has Game Genie or not. And then what region code he's in.
This is probably the article for the kids who can only use the internet on Tuesday. Will rotate one each week for each region, changing his obituary dates depending on if he had Game Genie.
Report of NYT obit, not reporting death (Re:Jeeze) (Score:2)
To be generous to Slashdot editors this is a report about the obituary of Masayuki Uemura appearing in the New York Times, not about his death last week. At least that is how I read it.
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The subject lines of the two stories:
Masayuki Uemura, Designer of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Dies At 78
Masayuki Uemura, Creator Of The NES And SNES, Dies At 78
If I read TFS in one of them, why would I even be compelled to read the second one?
Yesterdays News - Tomorrow! (Score:3)
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You forgot "behind a fucking paywall!"
I have no idea why Slashdot editors keep linking to the New York Times.
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It's almost as if the NYT was paying someone to direct traffic to their site ...
Until the PlayStation era, at least (Score:2)
The SNES was the last Nintendo console where they actually pushed the envelope with what a home gaming console could do. After parting ways with Sony (which lead Sony to independently release the fruits of their ill-fated joint venture as the PlayStation), Nintendo seems to have relegated themselves to producing mediocre spec'd hardware* that you'll buy because it's the only way to play their tentpole titles. R.I.P. Masayuki Uemura, you helped Nintendo shine bright for a moment in time, however fleeting.
*
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The NES violated several patents... (Score:2)
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The Odyssey was an analogue system (no CPU) and the graphics were just a few dots and lines.
See Ralph Baer's book about how he designed it at https://archive.org/details/Vi... [archive.org]
The Odyssey was very innovative in its day but the SNES was also a considerable advance over that.