Masayuki Uemura
In 1943 a little boy named Masayuki Uemura was born in austere, but due to the wartime bombings in this area his family was forced to move to Kyoto (which then was one of the safest places to be during the World War 2). His father sold Kimonos, but business wasn't going to well for him and the family struggled to make a living. Due to the straitened finances in Masayuki's family Masayuki had to invent his own toys and games. He, for example learned to make his own radio controlled airplanes only from the parts he found in the junkyards! His inventiveness and desire to invent more sophisticated and complex devices lead him to a industrial college where he studied to be an electronics technician. Masayuki had incredible talent and after his graduation he got a job at Sharp, an electronics company that sold optical semiconductors used in solar cells.
Masayuki discovers Nintendo!
One day (in 1971-72) the head of Sharp's Kyoto office sent Masayuki
on a routine sales call to Nintendo to see if they was interested in doing
some business with solar cells. He met with Yokoi and his team and Yokoi
stated that Sharp's cells could be used in entertainment products.
Soon afterwards Yokoi hired Masayuki away from Sharp. Working for
Nintendo was like returning to what Masayuki had done in his childhood
- making toys. Masayuki was also quite amused by the fact that Nintendo had
all these "serious men" employed thinking about making toys and games!
The Beam Gun Games
Masayuki and Gunpei Yokoi began developing the Nintendo Beam Gun games
using the solar cells from Sharp. They began experimenting with
small solar cells to be used as sensors to detect light coming from, for
example a light gun. They began planning on a cheap light gun that could
be sold on the consumer market. At last the Nintendo Beam Gun games
consisting of a light gun and some targets (with solar cells mounted on
them) were out on the market and sold in over 1 million copies. (It was sold
for between 4,000 and 5,000 yen)
More info on Masayuki soon!