Gunpei Yokoi, also spelled Gumpei Yokoi (横井 軍平, Yokoi Gunpei) (September 10, 1941–October 4, 1997), was a long-time Nintendo employee, creator of the Game Boy, and producer of the long-running Metroid series.
Gunpei Yokoi began working at Nintendo in 1965, after graduating college with a degree in electronics from Doshisha University. Yokoi started out working on the assembly line for the Hanafuda cards as a maintenance engineer.
In 1970, Hiroshi...
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Gunpei Yokoi, also spelled Gumpei Yokoi (横井 軍平, Yokoi Gunpei) (September 10, 1941–October 4, 1997), was a long-time Nintendo employee, creator of the Game Boy, and producer of the long-running Metroid series.
Gunpei Yokoi began working at Nintendo in 1965, after graduating college with a degree in electronics from Doshisha University. Yokoi started out working on the assembly line for the Hanafuda cards as a maintenance engineer.
In 1970, Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of Nintendo at the time, came to a hanafuda factory Yokoi was working at and took notice of a toy, an extending arm, which Yokoi made for his own amusement during spare time as the company's janitor and machine maintenance man. Yamauchi ordered Yokoi to develop it as a proper product for the Christmas rush. The Ultra Hand was a huge success, selling approximately 1.2 million units. Yokoi was soon moved from maintenance duty to product development. Yokoi went on to develop many other toys during Nintendo's toy era,...
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