Iwata has passed away

[Tanooki]

That's impressive, maybe I was right Balloon Fight was his earliest. That one at the bottom Uuchu Keibeitai, that game is one awesome unknown shooter for the Famicom, very well made. I still have yet to snap up a copy of that. I did not know he had a hand in some of those, but I guess I could see Snow Bros as it has that Kirby cute factor with smart simple game play mechanics. I totally did forget he had a guiding hand in the first two Zelda titles.

Each time I see this and like threads/stories pop up, for some reason the Balloon Fight theme pops into my head, the main game or balloon trip as they're catchy.

[Cronozilla]

He did work on stuff prior to Famicom, he was at HAL for two years prior to the Famicom existing.

What makes Balloon Fight impressive is he programmed pretty much the entire thing.

[Tanooki]

You're right he did a little bit more stuff, but I was being Nintendo-centric with that considering his final position of employment. And that is true enough it is very cool he basically set that game up all on his own. It shows some very creative and well thought out design in how that whole game performs down to the physics of it. You have the balloon drift off objects or floating down, then the powered up ricochet off of other enemies, objects, or the dreaded pinwheel spinners.

[GSZX1337]

I didn't realize just how much he's done for the company. I knew he's the Prez, but I didn't realize he was actually a programmer. I feel kinda bad that I didn't know this before he died. Real shame that he's only 55; much too soon.

I was wondering if Mr. Iwata was ever exposed to thorotrast. So I did some more research. It turns out in 1985 in Japan, there was medical study on thorotrast-administered patients. One of the listed associates is "Iwata S." : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4095719#

Nice work, so far. Keep us posted if you find out more.

This just reminds me of how new the industry really is and it makes me wonder how we'll feel once we start losing even more legendary creators.

I had a similar revelation when Dio died five years ago. Most of the early Metallers are still alive, so Dio's death came across as a sort of warning. If recent reports and knowledge of his lifestyle are anything to go by, Lemmy's not going to be around much longer. Before we know it, Ozzy will die, Rob Halford will die, Ian Gillian will die, and several of Heavy Metal's pioneering bands will cease to exist. This is gonna get depressing.

[BogusMeatFactory]

From Yuji Naka's Facebook. A sad day indeed.

[Exhuminator]

Here's a happier picture of Iwata chilling at Itoi's house.

[ZeroAX]

Any news on who might be replacing him? I know it's soon but billion dollar businesses have to move on

[Cronozilla]

Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto are interim co-leading the company.
I'm not sure, but maybe the Yamauchi has say whom can be president of Nintendo still? So, that process probably isn't a short one.

[Tanooki]

I thought a few years back or so the Yamauchi clan sold off their stock in the company and this was while he was alive but not running the place, or at least enough of the stock to not have a controlling say in anything.

Odds are though with those 2 running it, they'll want to keep it in the family so to speak so one or the other is going to end up running the ship eventually.

[ZeroAX]

I really hope it's not Miyamoto. I feel he is too stubborn and narrow minded and wouldn't take the business risks that iwata took