Chinese gamers express their condolences over death of former Nintendo president
Hiroshi Yamauchi, who led Nintendo from 1949 to 2005, won respect all over the world
Chinese gamers took to the internet en masse to express their condolences over the death of former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 85 due to pneumonia.
“May you have a good rest, Yamauchi-san,” one person wrote on Sina Weibo, China’s largest social media network. “Thank you for giving my friends and me such a happy childhood.”
This Weibo user’s sentiments were echoed by hundreds of other netizens, who forwarded the news of Yamauchi’s death over five thousand times.
Like many gamers in other parts of the world who expressed similar feelings about Yamauchi's death, most of the Sina Weibo community reminisced about the many nights they had spent playing the Famicom and Super Famicom game consoles - known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo. Yamauchi spearheaded the development of both consoles, as well as many other hardware and software projects in Nintendo’s line-up.
“Although I prefer Sony’s [video game products] these days, I was a huge fan of Nintendo back in the days of the little red and white Famicom and the Super Famicom,” another fan wrote. “Rest in peace, Yamauchi-san.”
“All those years spent playing Super Mario Bros., Adventure Island, Ice Climbers and Contra,” another reminisced, listing off the names of popular Nintendo games in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. “There are too many good times to remember.”
