Kevin Bayliss: The Rare Artist Who Redesigned Donkey Kong and Created Diddy Kong
When Kevin Bayliss first walked into the rural English farmhouse where Rare was making video games in the late 1980s, […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
People & Personalities
Biographies, careers, achievements, and histories of the people who shaped video games, esports, arcades, speedrunning, competitive gaming, and the wider gaming industry.
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
David Wise: The Rare Composer Behind Donkey Kong Country’s Legendary Sound
For millions of players, the memory of a Rare game begins with a picture. A snow-covered slope in Slalom. A […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Paul Moriarity: The Life and Career of a Taito America Video Game Executive
Paul R. Moriarity spent more than four decades in gaming, but much of his career unfolded behind the machines and […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Scott Tsumura: The Irem Producer Who Bridged Japanese and American Gaming
Scott Tsumura spent much of his career behind the names that appeared more prominently on arcade cabinets, cartridges, and corporate […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Mamoru Shigeta: From Irem Director to Sega Executive Producer
Video game history often remembers the people closest to the screen. Programmers, artists, composers, and directors leave behind games that […]
Gaming Industry Figures
Ed Semrad: How a Milwaukee Newspaper Columnist Helped Shape Video Game Journalism
Long before video game journalism became a profession large enough to support websites, television programs, podcasts, and entire editorial staffs, […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Hiroto Nakamura: From Thinking Rabbit and 8 Eyes to Giraffe Soft
Some video game developers become public personalities. Their careers are preserved through interviews, convention appearances, memoirs, photographs, and decades of […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Hiroyuki Imabayashi: How the Creator of Sokoban Built Thinking Rabbit
There are video games whose influence can be measured by sequels, sales, or the size of the company that produced […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kenzou Kumei: The Mandolin Virtuoso Behind 8 Eyes
For most players who encountered Kenzou Kumei, his name appeared for only a few seconds. At the end of 8 […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Kanji Inomata: The Thinking Rabbit Developer Behind 8 Eyes, Fighting Road, and UWC
Some video game developers leave behind interviews, photographs, convention appearances, and decades of public commentary about their work. Kanji Inomata […]
Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Masafumi Miyamoto: How Square’s Founder Built the Company Behind Final Fantasy
The history of Square is usually told through the people who created its games. Hironobu Sakaguchi became inseparable from Final […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Rob Holmes: From Activision to Acclaim and the Business of Video Games
Rob Holmes entered the reborn American console industry with a return ticket in his pocket. When Holmes joined Gregory Fischbach […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Yu Suzuki: From Hang-On and Virtua Fighter to Shenmue
There are video game designers remembered for a single masterpiece, others for a franchise, and a much smaller group whose […]
Gaming Industry Figures
Patrick Hisel: The Schoolboy Gamer Who Helped Acclaim at CES 1987
In the history of video games, some people enter the record through a famous game, a major company, or a […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures
Nobuo Uematsu: How Square’s Composer Gave Final Fantasy Its Musical Identity
Nobuo Uematsu entered the video game industry at a moment when there was barely an industry for a composer to […]
Gaming Industry Figures
Howard Hisel: The Computer Entertainer Subscriber Who Demonstrated 3-D WorldRunner at CES
In the history of video games, attention naturally settles on designers, programmers, company founders, and the games themselves. The people […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Hironobu Sakaguchi: From Square and Final Fantasy to Mistwalker
Few people have shaped the history of Japanese role-playing games as completely as Hironobu Sakaguchi. His career stretches from the […]
Game Developers, Gaming Industry Figures, Managers & Executives
Yoshiki Okamoto: From Time Pilot and Street Fighter II to Monster Strike
Yoshiki Okamoto’s career can be traced across several of the most important changes in video game history. He entered the […]
Gaming Industry Figures
Frank Seninsky and “Frank’s Cranks”: The Operator Who Documented the Arcade Industry from the Inside
Before Frank Seninsky became one of the coin-operated amusement industry’s most persistent technical voices, he was a college student trying […]