Satoshi Tajiri

Tajiri Satoshi (born on August 28 1965) is a Japanese electronic game designer and the creator of , which later became shortened to Pokémon.

As a child, Satoshi lived in a suburb of Tokyo and loved to collect insects, and hunt them in ponds, fields and forests, constantly looking for new insects and coming up with new ways to attract insects like beetles. He was so attracted to insects, in fact, that his peers used to call him "Dr. Bug".

Satoshi did not like school. His father wanted him to be an electrical utility repairman, but this is not what he wanted. In the late 1970s, the fields and ponds that Satoshi loved as a child were paved over by apartments and parking lots, and his idea for Pokémon grew, as he wanted to give modern children the chance to hunt for creatures as he did. Satoshi got into games when he was at technical school, spending all his time in arcades. He was such a big fan that one local arcade gave him a Space Invaders machine to take home.

In 1982, Satoshi and his friends formed a games magazine under the name of Game Freak. One of his Game Freak friends was Ken Sugimori, who drew all of the Pokémon's images. In the early 1980s, he developed and released his first game, Quinty, for Sega after winning a contest sponsored by Sega involving making a video game and having Sega release it as grand prize. In 1991, Satoshi discovered the Game Boy. When he first saw Link Cables, he imagined insects creeping along them, and the Pokémon idea was born. The game was given some initial funding and concept work from another game design studio, "Creatures." Tajiri named his development company "Game Freak", after the magazine, and thus it can still be seen at the start of Pokémon games.

Tajiri went to work for Nintendo and spent the next six years working on Pokémon. He became friends with Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, and Donkey Kong, who also became a mentor to Tajiri. As a tribute to Tajiri and Miyamoto, Ash Ketchum (or "Red" in the Blue, Red and Yellow versions of the series) is named Satoshi and Gary Oak (or "Blue" in Blue, Red and Yellow) is named Shigeru in the Japanese version of Pokémon.

Most recently, Tajiri (along with Nintendo Co. Ltd. president Satoru Iwata) served as an executive producer for the Game Boy Advance game , released outside of Japan as Drill Dozer.

Satoshi Tajiri has allegedly been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. He has been described by Nintendo officials as exceedingly creative but "reclusive" and "eccentric," characteristics consisent with Asperger's.

References

External links

An interview with Satoshi Tajiri
Satoshi Tajiri profile at MobyGames

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Satoshi Tajiri

References

See also

External links