First Nintendo code ever written by Satoru Iwata possibly found
The first piece of Nintendo code ever written by the late Satoru Iwata may have been discovered in the circuit boards of several old Famicom games. The circuit boards were purchased and discovered by Frank Cifaldi, the head of restoration at developer Digital Eclipse. Calling them an “incredible piece of video game history”, Cifaldi went on to explain the importance of these relics. The four boards he purchased belong to the games Hyper Olympic, Stargate, Soccer and Joust. While all are valuable treasures to a game historian, the most noteworthy item is the circuit board for Joust, as it was programmed by a young Iwata in 1983 as part of deal between Nintendo and Atari that never went through, long before he became the president of Nintendo.
What makes the circuit boards especially valuable is the fact that this is “earlier-than-retail” code, possibly being some of the earliest versions of each respective game. Together with the fact that the Joust code was the first piece of code that the president Satoru Iwata ever worked on, and the Joust circuit board likely predating the official release of the game means that Frank Cifaldi has stumbled upon what is possibly the first piece of code ever written by Iwata. You can find the series of tweets detailing the discovery below.
I have just acquired and preserved an incredible piece of video game history. It will take a few tweets to explain: pic.twitter.com/CvRgPX7TPv
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
These are boards for the Famicom. I don’t know if the BOARDS are authentic, but the rewritable EPROMs are def. old. pic.twitter.com/TTUsBy3GX1
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
These were kinda fishy looking but I picked them up anyway. They are: Hyper Olympic, Stargate, Soccer, and Joust.
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
I dumped the ROMs. All but Soccer are definitely earlier-than-retail code. Here are some clear differences in Joust. pic.twitter.com/uGeEbSJWmK
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
Joust has an interesting history. It was programmed by Satoru Iwata in 1983, as part of a Nintendo/Atari deal that never happened.
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
Nintendo did not release it in 1983/1984 as planned, but HAL eventually self-published in 1987…years later.
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
Joust was the first thing Satoru Iwata, the eventual president of Nintendo, ever coded for a Nintendo system.
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
…so this is the earliest known Iwata code for Nintendo. pic.twitter.com/7Lh7wBMMGA
— Frank Cifaldi (@frankcifaldi) August 15, 2016
