Nintendo Research & Development 3

Nintendo Research & Development 3
Type	Division of Nintendo
Founded	1974
Headquarters	Kyoto, Japan
Key people	Genyo Takeda, manager (1972 - 2003)
Industry	Video games
Products	Video game consoles, hardware, games
Number of people
Website	http://www.nintendo.com/

Nintendo Research & Development 3 (任天堂開発第三部, Nintendō Kaihatsu Daisan Bu, R&D3) was the third video game development group within Nintendo. This development group focused primarily on the development of video game hardware, however it did develop some software as well. It was managed by Genyo Takeda from its creation in 1974 until Nintendo's internal development groups were restructured by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in 2003.

Formation of Nintendo Research & Development 3

In 1972, Genyo Takeda joined Nintendo, working at Nintendo Research & Development with Gunpei Yokoi and Masayuki Uemura on Nintendo's arcade system that utilized light guns, the Simulation System. Later that year, when additional R&D divisions were created after the success of the Simulation System, Gunpei Yokoi continued on as the manager of R&D1 and Masayuki Uemura became the manager of R&D 2. Genyo Takeda became the manager of R&D3 upon its formation in 1974.

Restructuring of Nintendo's development groups

In 2003, Nintendo Research & Development 3 was split, forming Nintendo Integrated Research & Development (IRD) and Nintendo Research & Engineering Development (RED). Genyo Takeda became the general manager of Nintendo IRD, while Satoru Okada became the general manager of Nintendo RED.

Video games by Nintendo Research & Development 3

Title	Platform	Released	Notes
Punch-Out!!	Arcade	1983
Super Punch-Out!!	Arcade	1984
Arm Wrestling	Arcade	1985
Punch-Out!!	NES	1987	Mike Tyson was replaced with the fictional Mr. Dream after Nintendo's license to use Tyson expired in 1990.
StarTropics	NES	1990
Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II	NES	1994
Pilotwings 64	Nintendo 64	1996

Home video game consoles by Nintendo Research & Development 3

Title	Released	Notes
Nintendo 64	1996
GameCube	2001	First Nintendo console to use optical disc media, which was a proprietary mini DVD format with a total capacity of 1.5 gigabytes.

Handheld video game consoles by Nintendo Research & Development 3

Title	Released	Notes
Game Boy Pocket	1996	A ligher and smaller Game Boy that required less batteries.
Game Boy Light	1998	Slightly larger than the Game Boy Pocket, and includes an electroluminescent backlight.
Game Boy Color	1998	Slightly larger and thicker than the Game Boy Pocket, and includes a color screen.
Game Boy Advance	2001	Successor to the Game Boy Color, with a 32-bit processor, a horizontal layout with a color screen, two face buttons, start and select buttons, and two shoulder buttons.
Game Boy Advance SP	2003	An updated version of the Game Boy Advance, wherein SP stands for special, with a rectangular layout and a clamshell case.

Video game peripherals by Nintendo Integrated Research & Development

Title	Released	Notes
Game Pak	1983-2001	Nintendo cartridges from the Famicom to the GBA. Coined by Nintendo advertisment executive Gail Tilden, in order to distance it from the game cartridges of Atari, so that people wouldn't be reminded of the video game crash of 1983.
Game Boy Camera	1996	Camera for the Game Boy.
Game Boy Printer	1996	Printer for the Game Boy.
Controller Pack	1996	Memory card for Nintendo 64.
Transfer Pack	1996	Nintendo 64 peripheral that allows transfer of data between N64 games and Game Boy or Game Boy Color games.
Rumble Pak	1996	Nintendo 64 peripheral that provides force feedback via the controller while playing games.
Expansion Pak	1998	4 megabytes of random access memory expansion for Nintendo 64 which increases the console's total RAM from 4MB to 8MB.
Nintendo 64DD	1999	Drive that reads magnetic disks on the Nintendo 64, with a total capacity of 64 megabytes, which was released only in Japan.
GameCube controller	2001	A wired controller for the GameCube.
Memory Card 59	2001	The standard 4 megabit GameCube memory card.
Nintendo e-Reader	2002	A device for Game Boy Advance which would scan cards with dotcodes to load games and add-ons for games.
Memory Card 251	2002	A larger 16 megabit GameCube memory card.
Wavebird wireless controller	2002	A radio frequency-based wireless controller for the GameCube.
Memory Card 1019	2002	A larger 64 megabit GameCube memory card.
Game Boy Player	2002	A peripheral for GameCube that plays Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games.