Masayuki Uemura is dead: the father of NES and SNES

Masayuki Uemura was among the leading developers and creators of NES e SNES and the mark he left on the video game industry and popular culture is indelible: the creative died last December 6 at the age of 78. There Ritsumeikan University, where he became director of the Game Studies department after retiring from Nintendo in 2004, announced his passing today.

Dead Masayuki Uemura: the father of NES

Uemura originally worked at Sharp, selling photocell technology to various companies including its own Nintendo. Once he joined the big N, he worked with Gunpei Yokoi to integrate photocell technology into some games that used the infrared controller. He later went on to work on plug-and-play devices on consoles such as Nintendo’s Color TV-Game.

But the turning point in his career dates back to 1981, when he was commissioned for a cartridge-based game system. Precisely this project became what was later called Famicom, or NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in the West. The console soon became a mass phenomenon with millions of copies sold all over the world, it is no coincidence that it is still fondly remembered.