Nintendo Research & Development 1
Nintendo Research & Development No. 1 Department, (commonly abbreviated as Nintendo R&D1 and formerly known as Nintendo Research & Development Department before splitting in 1978) was a division of Nintendo, and is its oldest development team. Its creation coincided with Nintendo's entry into the video game industry, and the original R&D1 was headed by Gunpei Yokoi. The developer has created several notable Nintendo series such as Metroid, Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong.
Nintendo logo, used during R&D1's existence | |
Exterior of the former Nintendo headquarters in Kyoto, Japan, which housed the department | |
Native name | 任天堂開発第一部 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Nintendō Kaihatsu Daiichi Bu |
| Formerly | Nintendo Research & Development |
| Company type | Department |
| Industry | Video games |
| Genre |
|
| Founded | 1970 |
| Founder | Hiroshi Yamauchi |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Fate |
|
| Successor | Nintendo Software Planning & Development |
| Headquarters | Kyoto , Japan |
Key people |
|
| Owner | Nintendo |
Number of employees | 100+ |
| Parent | Nintendo Manufacturing Division |
| Footnotes / references | |
R&D1 developed the hugely successful Game Boy line, which was released in 1989. They developed some of the line's most popular games, such as Super Mario Land, and created the character of Wario.
Team Shikamaru was a small club within Nintendo R&D1 that was composed of Makoto Kano, Yoshio Sakamoto, and Toru Osawa. The group was responsible for designing characters and coming up with scripts for several games including Metroid, Kid Icarus, Famicom Detective Club, Trade & Battle: Card Hero, and several others.
After Yokoi's resignation in 1997, this group was led by Takehiro Izushi. In 2004, Satoru Iwata restructured the Nintendo R&D1 team. Many of the staff members were later reassigned to the Nintendo SPD team, which in turn merged with Nintendo EAD in 2015 to form Nintendo Entertainment Planning & Development.