Masayuki Uemura, creator of NES/SNES, dies at 78

Another gaming legend has unfortunately left us, with the reveal that the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System lead architect, Masayuki Uemura, has passed on Dec 6. He was 78.

Joining Nintendo in 1972 from Sharp as an engineer, Uemura came up with the NES, or Famicom, as part of the gaming giant's foray into the entertainment medium. In fact, one of his first responsibilities involved helping with location-based light-gun games.

He then took charge of Nintendo R&D2, which help lead to the development of 'Colour TV-Game' systems. These were the same devices that came with built-in titles. It was in 1981 that Masayuki Uemura started working on the Famicom/NES under the direction of Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi.

The system went on to sell a total of 61.91 million units both domestically and outside of Japan. Of course, then we had the SNES.

Uemura was also involved on the game development front, serving as a producer on titles such as Ice Climber and Clu Clu Land. He retired in 2004, and took up a role as a professor at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.