Nintendo R&D1

Nintendo R&D1
Information
Industry	Video games, video game hardware
Notable Personnel	Gunpei Yokoi (general manager), Takehiro Izushi (general manager), Yoshio Sakamoto (director), Hirofumi Matsuoka (director)
Products	Game & Watch, Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Metroid, Wario Land
Parent	Nintendo

Nintendo R&D1 (Nintendo Research & Development 1) was a development department of Nintendo. It grew out of the company's original research and development department and was led for most of its history by Gunpei Yokoi, whom Nintendo describes as head of the Research and Development Department and later of Research & Development 1. The department made the Game & Watch handhelds, the first software for the Game Boy, and the Virtual Boy, Nintendo's 1995 stereoscopic console, which Yokoi first conceived as a pair of goggles with head tracking.

The Virtual Boy is R&D1's main link to virtual reality. Nintendo licensed a display from the American firm Reflection Technology that swept a single line of red LEDs across the eye with an oscillating mirror, and the console's first games came from R&D1 and its frequent subcontractor Intelligent Systems. After Yokoi resigned in August 1996, Takehiro Izushi, who had joined Nintendo's research and development department in 1975, took over as general manager.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Every claim checked against its cited source: Iwata Asks Game & Watch interview, Fast Company 2015 Virtual Boy history, 1997 New York Times obituary, Kotaku, Retronauts, GameRevolution, Inside 2004, Nintendo IR Q&A, Iwata Asks WarioWare and the Nintendo Life database listing. About review dates.

History

Origins and Game & Watch

In a Nintendo "Iwata Asks" interview about the Game & Watch, a designer who joined the company in 1972 recalled that Nintendo then had a single development section, the Research and Development Department, with about 20 people. Izushi joined in 1975 and also started there. By the late 1970s the department had been split into two separate departments; a developer who joined in 1978 transferred to Research & Development 2 the following year. The New York Times later described Nintendo as split into three competing research and development departments as it moved into electronic games, with Yokoi heading department No. 1 and concentrating on small handheld games rather than home consoles. Fast Company reported that in the early 1980s president Hiroshi Yamauchi had structured Nintendo's three R&D groups to work in isolation and compete with each other.

R&D1 built the Game & Watch line of handheld LCD games. The first title, Game & Watch: Ball, came out in April 1980, and Yokoi and Satoru Okada were already building its prototype when that designer was brought over from Nintendo's Creative Section to help, because R&D1 had no designer of its own. The team described a process in which members brainstormed game ideas and Yokoi made the final decision. Izushi programmed games in the series and recreated the arcade Donkey Kong within the limited LCD segments for Game & Watch: Donkey Kong (June 1982), the first game to use the directional pad.

Game Boy era

Kotaku describes the Game Boy as Yokoi's brainchild and reports that the system's launch titles were assigned to his division, R&D1. The team's Super Mario Land (1989) was followed by Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (1992), which introduced the character Wario as its antagonist; Wario then became the lead of the team's Wario Land platform series. Nintendo Life's game database also credits R&D1 with the NES games Metroid (1986) and Kid Icarus, and with Super Metroid (1994). According to Fast Company, Intelligent Systems helped create Metroid and was a frequent R&D1 subcontractor. Yokoi's handheld work also included the Game Boy Pocket, a smaller and lighter Game Boy that shipped in 1996.

Virtual Boy

Reflection Technology's display came to Yokoi's attention while he was head of R&D1. Nintendo bought a worldwide exclusive license to the display for video games, paying 10 million US dollars in advance royalties, and took a minority stake in Reflection Technology. Mitsumi was subcontracted to build the display assemblies. According to Takefumi Makino, who co-wrote a book with Yokoi in 1997, Yokoi's first intention was a goggle-style console the player could wear and walk around with, and he hoped to include head tracking similar to a Reflection Technology tank demo. The project was code-named VR32 and used a low-power 32-bit RISC processor from NEC. Concerns about placing a chip with high radio emissions near the user's head meant the processor had to be covered with a metal plate, which made the device too heavy for goggles. The design moved from a strap-on headset to a heavier unit and finally to a red viewer on a two-legged stand that rested on a table.

With the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation due in 1994 and the Nintendo 64 not ready until 1996, Yamauchi encouraged R&D1 to finish the Virtual Boy and release it as soon as possible. Nintendo funded its development for four years. With Shigeru Miyamoto occupied with the Ultra 64 (later the Nintendo 64), Yokoi relied on game concepts from R&D1 and Intelligent Systems; Intelligent Systems programmed the first game, a pinball title shown as Space Pinball. Nintendo first showed the system on 15 November 1994 at the Shoshinkai Software Exhibition, where visitors could play Space Pinball and the boxing game Teleroboxer. The console launched in Japan on 21 July 1995. It sold about 140,000 units there by December, and Yamauchi ended it in Japan on 22 December 1995.

Kotaku notes that the initial software lineup fell to R&D1, which is why the system received a full Wario Land game. Writing for Retronauts, Jeremy Parish said R&D1 put a "surprisingly huge allocation of staff" into Virtual Boy Wario Land.

After Yokoi

Yokoi tendered his resignation on 16 August 1996, after nearly 31 years at Nintendo. American and Japanese press linked his exit to the Virtual Boy's failure, which Makino called a misunderstanding. About a month later Yokoi founded Koto Laboratory with Yoshihiro Taki, an R&D1 colleague who had left at around the same time. GameRevolution reports that Izushi replaced Yokoi as general manager in 1997.

In June 2004 the Japanese site Inside, summarizing a report by IGN, listed R&D1 with Izushi as general manager, Yoshio Sakamoto and Hirofumi Matsuoka as directors and a staff of more than 100. It described the department as the origin of Nintendo's development divisions, credited it with series such as Metroid and Wario, noted its many co-developed titles, and said its recent work was mainly for the Game Boy Advance. GameRevolution reports that Izushi led the department until president Satoru Iwata ordered a restructuring, which it dates to 2005, and that Hitoshi Yamagami replaced him. Izushi moved to Nintendo's General Affairs team in 2014, and the outlet reported his departure from the company in February 2018 after 43 years. Nintendo has said it established a Software Planning & Development Division in 2004. By the release of WarioWare: Smooth Moves for the Wii, Sakamoto worked in that division.

Products

Virtual Boy games

The table lists Virtual Boy games that Nintendo Life's database credits to R&D1.

Title	Japan release	North America release
Teleroboxer	21 July 1995	14 August 1995
Mario's Tennis	21 July 1995	14 August 1995
Mario Clash	1995	1995
Virtual Boy Wario Land	1995	1995

Hardware

Product	Year	Notes
Game & Watch	1980	First title Game & Watch: Ball, April 1980; Donkey Kong (1982) introduced the directional pad
Game Boy	1989	Handheld conceived by Yokoi; R&D1 made its launch games
Virtual Boy	1995	Stereoscopic tabletop console using a Reflection Technology display
Game Boy Pocket	1996	Smaller, lighter Game Boy

See also

• Gunpei Yokoi
• Virtual Boy
• List of Virtual Boy games
• Reflection Technology