General Nintendo

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments

16 years ago today, the Game Boy Color launched in Japan. That means it’s time for a birthday celebration!

The Game Boy Color was the first Nintendo system I personally owned (be it home console or handheld), so I certainly have a ton of nostalgia for it. I believe Pokemon Gold was the first game I purchased!

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

Satoru Okada was a pretty important figure at Nintendo. He played a big role in the creation of the company’s earliest handheld systems, which continued until his retirement back in 2012.

Okada was recently interviewed by the Japanese publication “Shooting Gameside”. Here are a few of the more interesting excerpt that specifically pertains to Nintendo:

—Since you’ve participated in the creation of so many different handheld gaming consoles, I was thinking you’d be more particular and high-strung. But in fact you’re very open and relaxed.

Okada: The first thing I made using a computer was the Game and Watch series. After that handheld gaming consoles became the main focus of my work at Nintendo. Speaking of being particular, you know, I didn’t originally apply to Nintendo with any special ambitions or designs. Originally my friend was supposed to have taken the company’s entrance test, but due to circumstances he couldn’t make it out. In his place I was chosen to take the test. When I say “in his place”, though, I don’t mean that I was a mere susbtitute; I was given the chance as part of a job-search program at my school. I knew if I took it lightly that it would damage the reputation of my school, and I couldn’t allow that. Still, I didn’t really know what I was doing, so I ended up being late to that test, but thanks to the kindness of the test administrator, I was allowed to take it anyway.

Nintendo’s entrance exam had a section where you had to actually engineer something. You were given a design and had to make a model of it using small metal pieces. Since I had spent so much time in Junior High doing those electrical engineering projects, it was an easy task for me. As a result, rumour got around at Nintendo that “someone good at soldering has joined!” It seemed I was the first person to join Nintendo with any electrical engineering abilities, a fact which would turn out to be a huge investment in my future.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 69 Comments

Nintendo recently put out a job listing for a lead graphics architect. This person will be “responsible for the architecture of Nintendo’s game console SoCs”, according to the post.

Here’s a full look at the listing:

Description of Duties

Nintendo Technology Development is looking for a lead graphics architect in the system-on-chip architecture group in Redmond, WA. The group is responsible for the architecture of Nintendo’s game console SoCs. The graphics architect plays a key role in determining the SoC architecture. The job responsibilities are:
Evaluate HW graphics (GPU) offerings from SoC solutions available in the market based on performance, power, and silicon area.
Evaluate the performance of the SoC solutions for both proprietary and standard graphics APIs.
Determine workloads and simulation models for both performance and power characteristics of GPUs.
Keep track of GPU architectural improvements in the industry and devise strategies to incorporate them for future Nintendo gaming platforms.
Act as the graphics architectural evangelist working with global Nintendo teams for future and on-going programs.
Work with external SoC vendors as the Nintendo focal point for graphics GPU architecture.
Should be prepared to work through architecture, design, validation, and bring-up stages of SoC design in cooperation with internal and external teams.

Summary of Requirements
The ideal candidate will have had experience working directly in a GPU architecture and design team with significant responsibilities.
Low power and SoC design experience would be a plus.
The candidate is expected to have good architectural insights and the ability to apply that for setting future graphics direction for Nintendo.
A bachelors degree (graduate degree preferred) in computer science/engineering or electrical engineering.
5+ years of lead or architectural role experience are required.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Nintendo published this listing given how new systems are in development years before launch. Still, it’s a neat thing to see!

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Over in Europe, Nintendo registered a new trademark for Virtual Boy. It just entered the database today.

Along with Virtual Boy, Nintendo also registered Polarium. You may remember that Polarium came to Europe back in 2005 as a DS release.

We can’t be entirely sure what these trademark registrations mean, but I assume that Nintendo is simply brushing up on protective filings for some of its older products.

Thanks to snow for the tip.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Random, Videos | 13 Comments

I just have to post this here… because it could be the best thing ever.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Kirara Koneko(@KiraraKoneko) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

As you can see from the tweet below, Nexis Games is heavily teasing the announcement of a 3rd party title for a Nintendo Platform later this week.
An update to their community page promises an in depth reveal, developer interview, images, and details straight from the creator.
Check back later as more details will surely be available soon.

Report: Nexis Games Community Revealing New 3rd Party IP This Week! | Give us your heart! http://t.co/9ikpE9SziU via @NexisGames

— statusphere (@NexisGames) October 21, 2014

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments

New music and sound effects have been found in Donkey Kong despite the fact that the game was released over thirty years ago.

One user over on the Cutting Room wiki came across three pieces of music as well as two sound effects. Although these items were never publicly accessible, some have appeared in later games including handheld ports.

You can listen to all of the content here.

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Ubisoft has announced that Jade Raymond has left the company.

Raymond was largely involved with many of Ubisoft’s titles over the past few years. She acted as producer on the original Assassin’s Creed, and was the executive producer of Assassin’s Creed II, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

Raymond said of today’s news:

“I’ve spent 10 extraordinary years at Ubisoft, and I am proud to have been part of many of the best teams in the industry making truly remarkable games. This is one of the hardest decisions of my career, but the Toronto studio is strong and on a solid path. I’m confident that now is a good time for me to transition leadership of the studio to Alex and to pursue my other ambitions and new opportunities. Stay tuned for more on what’s next for me, but for now, I’d like to thank Ubisoft for its partnership through the years, and I wish them the very best in all their next endeavours.”

Alexandre Parizeau, a founding team member of the Ubisoft Toronto studio, has taken over Raymond’s role as managing director.

Source: Ubisoft PR

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings, General Nintendo | 2 Comments

It’s been quite some time since Dan Adelman left Nintendo for greener pastures in the independent space (he “helps indies with the business stuff” now, according to his Twitter bio), but it does appear that he left something of a legacy behind with him through the games he helped release on WiiWare and the Nintendo eShops. World of Goo — perhaps the single most notable WiiWare game ever released — was released digitally almost entirely because of his appeals, and the recent release Shovel Knight came out as a Nintendo-focused game initially due to his support.

As sort of a tribute to these developers, this nice man, and the games that they, together, helped give us, we asked a few folks that Dan worked with over the years to talk about what he did and how he helped them get their games out. If you’ve ever wanted to know some of what goes on behind-the-scenes between platform holders and developers, there’s quite a bit worth reading down below.

(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)

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Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments

Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino has some pretty ambitious plans for the company.

In a recent interview, Hino stated that he hopes to transform Level-5 into something like Disney. The company would focus on worldwide entertainment as opposed to just games.

Hino mentioned that he hopes to accomplish this within five years.

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