Game Development Giant

The flight across the Pacific Ocean had just ended for more than ten hours, and I was very tired.

After arriving at the hotel room, Satoru Iwata felt a deep sleepiness. He had not felt this way when he was in the car before.

He was lying on the bed. Although he really wanted to sleep, he didn't know why. No matter what, he couldn't fall asleep successfully. There were countless complicated thoughts in his mind. He didn't know the reason for this. He was obviously very tired. .

So, he lay on his back on the bed, looking at the ceiling, recalling some of his past events, hoping that this would help him sleep.

In fact, it was both accidental and inevitable that he was able to embark on this path of game development, but more importantly, this was his original choice. Do you regret it? Satoru Iwata questioned himself like this, and then he shook his head silently. Although his career seems to be in trouble now, he will never regret it, because he really loves this industry.

When did you become interested in game development?

Iwata kept recalling it in his mind: It was probably in high school.

At that time, I had just come into contact with the HP-65 computer produced by Hewlett-Packard and became interested in programming. After learning programming by myself, I sent my home-made games to HP, which shocked the other party and even gave me many unexpected gifts... …

When thinking about the great achievements of his teenage years, Satoru Iwata couldn't help but laugh.

And after that……

I think he got his first computer when he was in the first year of college. I can’t remember clearly. It seems to be the pet-2001 model. It was at that time that he started to study programming hard, especially the assembly language of 6502, which he studied a lot by himself. Thing, I didn’t originally want to make games my lifelong career. At that time, I just thought making games was fun. But I learned about the success of "Space Invaders" by chance.

Only then did I allow myself to regard it as my lifelong career.

Thinking about it, Satoru Iwata also smiled bitterly. Speaking of his work experience after graduation, he also had a very tense relationship with his family.

After all, I am from Hokkaido, not from the big cities of Tokyo and Osaka, so my family is not very receptive to this new thing. When I decided to work at the Hal Research Institute for game development after graduation, I When his father found out, he became furious with himself. At that time, I didn't say a word to them for half a year.

Now think about it, maybe they are thinking about their own future?

If I had not chosen to go to Hal Research Institute back then, but had chosen to go to some other big company, maybe I wouldn't be troubled by so many things now, right?

However, my work at Hal is also very smooth, except for the recent decision by Nintendo to spin off the game business. At that time, because there were very few people who knew 6502 assembly, I have been studying 6502 assembly language since high school. He is deeply accomplished in the above and is deeply important. He has been responsible for many important projects and is also taken seriously. Originally, Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi planned to officially turn the Hal Research Institute into a subsidiary of Nintendo.

But it's a pity...

Thinking about it. Iwata Satoru also thought of Hiroshi Yamauchi's current situation and couldn't help but sigh.

When a person begins to recall, it is usually easy to calm down, and once a person calms down. It was also easy to fall asleep. Iwata Satoru, who was still worried about why he couldn't fall asleep, fell into a deep sleep after all. It is impossible for anyone to experience a flight across the Pacific for more than ten hours without being exhausted.

Mars Entertainment Headquarters.

Jester put down the phone. The call was from the gdc organizing committee, telling him that Satoru Iwata had arranged to stay at the hotel.

That's right, he was the one who invited Satoru Iwata to attend GDC this time.

Speaking of which, this is also an exception.

He also accidentally asked Miyamoto Shigeru about the new progress of Zelda, and asked if any of the former Nintendo employees recruited by Miyamoto were named Satoru Iwata. .

Because in Jester's impression, Satoru Iwata was a programmer and a producer. He also produced classic games on FC such as "Balloon Fight", so he should be very famous, but he is very Unfortunately, after hearing Jester's question, Shigeru Miyamoto thought for a moment, then shook his head and answered that he had never heard of this character.

Then Jester thought about it carefully and understood that historically, the reason why Iwata Satoru and Miyamoto Shigeru were very close was because Miyamoto Shigeru had some problems with programming when he was developing the ultramarathon. There were some problems that people at Nintendo headquarters couldn't solve. It happened that there was a programmer at Hal Research Institute who was very good at 6502 assembly, and FC also used 6502 CPUs, so there was an intersection.

But in this world, Nintendo no longer has Super Horse.

Therefore, the butterfly wings in the dark made a joke like this. The two people who were originally good friends actually had no friendship.

Then, after Jester asked someone to investigate, he found out that Satoru Iwata is still at the Hal Research Institute, and that this game research institute invested and established by Nintendo is on the verge of closing. Basically, at the latest a few There will be news within the month.

Therefore, Jester asked the organizing committee to issue this invitation to Satoru Iwata, and he also hoped to have a good talk with Satoru Iwata. He hoped to get Satoru Iwata as a capable person.

Because, Satoru Iwata's achievements in the future are really amazing and outstanding.

At the time of Nintendo's most critical crisis, I took over the leadership of the president from the legendary president Hiroshi Yamauchi. At that time, due to the disastrous defeat of NGC, the fighters and morale within the entire company fell to the bottom. And like Nintendo at that time The number two figure, Minoru Arakawa, the son-in-law of the old president, and the biggest contributor to the establishment of Nintendo in North America, actually proposed the idea of ​​selling the game business to Microsoft, and he even had a group of supporters.

This comment finally made Hiroshi Yamauchi unable to tolerate Arakawa and kicked him out of Nintendo, and then let Satoru Iwata, who was just a minister at the time, take over as Nintendo president.

This is a very risky move, using an unknown person to take over the greatest company in the video game industry?

Can he do it?

Facts have proved that Satoru Iwata is really the kind of person who can turn the tide and support the building from collapse. The miraculous sales of Wii and nds have allowed Nintendo to re-enter the ranks of the Big Three. Satoru Iwata played a role in it. The key role can be said to be crucial.

Unfortunately, it was his untimely death.

After thinking about it, Jester made another call to the organizing committee. On the phone, Jester hoped that they would contact Satoru Iwata. If the other party was free tomorrow, he would like to meet and talk with him. Game development is done as a game designer and game designer.

In fact, Jester still has some ideas about the Hal Institute.

Since no one wants to take over this research institute now, then he should take it over. In its original history, before being reorganized by Nintendo, the Hal Research Institute did lack famous works.

However, in 1991 in the original history, Nintendo reorganized the Hal Research Institute and incorporated it into its own subsidiary. After Satoru Iwata became the director of the Hal Research Institute at the time, the Hal Research Institute really entered a product blowout period. At that time, they made many classic games, the most famous of which may be "Kirby" and "Super Smash Bros." which are still extremely competitive twenty years later.

These two games, like "Balloon Fight", were both works designed by Satoru Iwata when he was still a designer.

The next day, after sleeping all day, Satoru Iwata, who finally recovered from exhaustion and jet lag, received a notice from the GDC organizing committee. The founder of Mars Entertainment and a designer he admired very much, Jess Jester Lee hopes to have dinner with him later in the evening, and Jester Lee also hopes that the two parties will have a discussion about game development between designers and designers.

When Satoru Iwata first received this notice, he thought he was hallucinating.

He opened his eyes wide, opened his mouth wide, and asked again in disbelief. Then, after getting the exact same answer as last time, he realized that what he just heard was true. .

"Jester Li's personal interview?"

"Could it be that it was Jester Lee who invited me to attend GDC?"

"But how could Jester Li know about me, a nobody? Logically speaking, there is no reason for me to be noticed by such a big shot, right?"

Iwata Satoru's mind once again became chaotic. He couldn't imagine how he was noticed by such a big shot. His most famous thing is the "Balloon Fight" on FC, but In his opinion, this game is still a bit green and childish, and there is no way it can be compared with the great works of Jester Lee of the same era.

The meeting time is at eight o'clock in the evening.

Because Jester has to deal with a lot of things with each other these days, he can only spare some time to meet at eight o'clock, but no matter what, Jester still arranges a full hour for the meeting, which is extremely rare.

In fact, even Jester's assistants were a little confused. They couldn't see that this little-known Japanese was worthy of his boss spending an hour to meet with him? You know, Oracle's CEO Ellison wanted to meet with Jester, and Jester only spared half an hour at the time. (To be continued...)