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 | |
| Super Punch-Out!! | Super Famicom | 1994 | |
| 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. |
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. |
| Controller Pak | 1996 | Memory card for the Nintendo 64. |
| Game Boy Camera | 1996 | Camera for the Game Boy. |
| Game Boy Printer | 1996 | Printer for the Game Boy. |
| Transfer Pack | 1996 | Transfers data between Nintendo 64 and Game Boy or Game Boy Color. |
| Rumble Pak | 1996 | Force feedback for the Nintendo 64. |
| 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. |
