NES and SNES creator Masayuki Uemura dies at 78

Masayuki Uemura has passed away. He was the architect behind both Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo Entertainment System) and Nintendo Entertainment System. The Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies at Ritsumeikan University announced Uemura’s death on Thursday, saying he died Dec. 6 at the age of 78.

Uemura was first hired by Nintendo in 1972. She worked for the company building light-gun gaming systems, which helped create the predecessor. Duck Hunt. After moving to Nintendo’s new R&D2 team, he headed up the squad’s home console initiative — a mandate from then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi.

Uemura began development on the Famicom (the Japanese name for the NES) in 1981 in an attempt to bring the arcade to player’s living rooms. R&D2 launched the Famicom in 1983, and Uemura’s team built its successor, the SNES (known as the Super Famicom in Japan), for its 1990 release.

Uemura was also involved in the development of games such as “The Last Stand” before he retired in 2004.Ice Climbers, Clu Clu Land, Soccer, BaseballAnd Golf. In retirement Uemura remained as an advisor in research and development. However, he was a professor at Ritsumeikan University Kyoto in Japan teaching videogame development to a new generation.

Fans and developers — such as Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai — are mourning his loss on Twitter.