On September 19, 2013, former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi passed away.

Yamauchi is considered one of the most important and influential figures in Nintendo’s history. Yamauchi was Nintendo’s third President and the last member of the Yamauchi family to spearhead the company. He oversaw Nintendo’s transition to a gaming company starting with the Game & Watch, and grew Nintendo into one of the largest video game companies in the world with massive hits such as the Famicom (NES) and Game Boy.

Though Yamauchi wasn’t someone who really liked video games, he had a knack of knowing what kind of games sold well. And he had an eye for recognizing talented developers such as Shigeru Miyamoto, which brought us the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda games.

Yamauchi handed over the reins to Satoru Iwata, who would achieve greater things with the Wii and Nintendo DS.

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