Kotaku
Yesterday, we celebrated the "birth" of the Sega Dreamcast, but today we should take a few minutes to remember one of the founding fathers of Nintendo and creator of influential products like the Game Boy and the Metroid series.
I'm talking, of course, about Gunpei Yokoi, who would have been 65 today, had he not been killed in a car accident in 1997. After giving us countless hours of enjoyment with his and his team's fantastic products, whether we're talking about Dr. Mario or Kid Icarus, he should be well remembered by anyone who calls themselves a gamer. Hell, anyone who's used a crosspad enabled controller should be thanking Mr. Yokoi right about now.
If you aren't aware of the technical and artistic achievements Gunpei brought to this industry, you're well advised to read up on him at his Wikipedia entry and at this much more personal article by Wired's Chris Kohler.
My most memorable Gunpei inspired moment? Dedicating a Saturday to replaying Super Metroid from start to finish to get the Samus sans armor ending, only to receive many puzzled WTF-esque stares from my college roommates. "That's IT?" they said, "You spent 3 hours for that?!".
