Masayuki Uemura, former Nintendo engineer and game producer, has passed away at age 78.

Masayuki Uemura is widely known as the creator of the Famicom and Super Famicom, known to the west as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). He also had a hand in developing Nintendo’s very first home console, the Color TV Game, as well as the lesser known Satellaview satellite modem peripheral.

Uemura left Nintendo back in 2004, moving on to conducting research at the Ritsumeikan University’s Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences as a professor, as well as founding and heading the Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies. The news of his passing was announced on RCGS’ website earlier today.

Our hearts go out to those impacted by his passing.