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Games

45 Years Later, the Designer Behind N64's Analog Stick and 'Punch-Out!!' Is Leaving

There's even a chance the company may not have even entered the world of video gaming had it not been for him.
Above: No Genyo Takeda, no Nintendo Wii. Photograph courtesy of Nintendo.

The news that Nintendo's "Technology Fellow" Genyo Takeda is retiring at the age of 68 has been met with the sort of general indifference that's usually attributed to a new game trailer or a DLC announcement. A news item here or there, sure—but not much beyond just the facts.

But while that's understandable to an extent—Takeda's name isn't quite as well known among gaming circles as the likes of Mario maker Shigeru Miyamoto, the late Satoru Iwata or Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma—it's also extremely unjust. As there's a chance Nintendo may not have even entered the world of gaming had it not been for him.

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Takeda joined Nintendo in July 1972 after he was hired by Gunpei Yokoi, the future Game Boy creator, and was assigned to Nintendo's R&D2 team. After the company's then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi asked Yokoi whether the company could capitalize on the new phenomenon that was clay pigeon shooting, Yokoi teamed up with Takeda and their colleague Masayuki Uemura to create a light gun version.

The result was Laser Clay Shooting System, which launched in January 1973. Unfortunately, on its opening day, the system broke down—but the quick-thinking Takeda jumped into action and started displaying players' hits and adding up scores manually behind-the-scenes, making everyone think it was working perfectly.

Although the Laser Clay Shooting System was eventually killed off due to extenuating circumstances (the oil crisis of 1973 left Nintendo massively in debt after countless offers for Shooting Systems were cancelled), Takeda's genius continued to show in the decades that followed—and ushered in the company's relationship with video games, as we know it today.

He created EVR Race, Nintendo's first ever arcade video game. When Nintendo miscalculated and ordered too many TV displays to deal with the Donkey Kong craze, Takeda created Punch-Out!!, an arcade game that used two screens. When the NES started getting bigger games, he invented the battery back-up, allowing players to save directly onto cartridge for the first time instead of needing to write down long passwords.

He was also responsible for two of Nintendo's most notable creations. The first was the Nintendo 64 controller's analogue stick. While not the first analogue stick, it was easily the breakout "big" one that brought analogue controls to the mainstream.

The second was the Wii. Takeda was one of the lead developers on Nintendo's motion-controlled console, and was the most adamant that it shouldn't try to match its competitors for power but should instead go down a different, more innovative route. While some of the snobbier self-appointed "hardcore" types would argue he was wrong, 101 million sales and a complete rewriting of gamer demographics would suggest otherwise.

Throughout Nintendo's ups and downs in the world of gaming, Genyo Takeda was there the entire time. He'll leave Nintendo in June—after 45 years of service—and thanks to his inventions, innovations and inspiration, he'll leave it in a vastly better state than the struggling toy company it was when he joined.

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