Gumpei Yokoi 横井軍平 & Grooveraider 1941 - 1997

Before there was Shigeru Miyamoto - there was Gumpei Yokoi. As General manager of the R&D1 division at Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NCL), Mr. Yokoi was responsible for much of Nintendo transition from making Hanafuda cards, to toys, to video games. Mr. Yokoi's is best known for innovations such as Game & Watch, Gameboy and creator of the Metroid and Kid Icarus games. To read more about his legacy - check out Lara Crigger's article:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/artic...

I was fortunate to have met the legend at the first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) '95 - just months before his untimely death. Very nice man - such a humble and gifted being. We played a few rounds of Tetris Attack on the Super NES at the time of the picture taken in this clip. What astounds me about both Yokoi and Miyamoto. They're innovations continue to live on in each and every game competitor down to the 3-D engine. My hats off especially to Mr.Yokoi for bringing back the video game industry. I Love you and I miss you -- we all miss you!
R.I.P