Metroid Database.com

If you were living in Tokyo over the past week, you may have had a chance to visit the VACANT noidea gallery in Harajuku where there was an exhibit for Gumpei Yokoi entitled "The Man Who was Called the God of Games". The exhibit showcased the design work of Gumpei Yokoi, the man who created the Game Boy and served as producer for the first three Metroid games. In addition, the exhibit opened with a two-hour lecture on August 21 that included speeches by Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka (the composer of the original Metroid), media artists Daito Manabe and Toshio Iwai, and Gumpei Yokoi biographer Makino Takehumi. In addition, there was a second lecture on August 27 with Nintendo collector Yamasaki Kou, Dr. Akira Kone Kazunari, game idol Anno Haruna, and the group 10 Dreams Kawada. The short exhibition ended on August 29.

Photos of the gallery have been made available through a French blog and the blog of Nintendo World Report's Japanese correspondent, gypsyOTOKO (actually, the blog doesn't seem to be working right now, but you can view the full text of his report via the NWR forums).

Designer t-shirt company Tokyo Pistol Co., Ltd. also produced a limited-edition series of shirts for the exhibit. Inspired by Game and Watch and Gumpei Yokoi's toy inventions, these expensive shirts will set you back 3500y (about $40) (click to page 2 to view the shirts).

The Gumpei Yokoi exhibit follows on the shirt-tails of Makino Takehumi's two books, Gumpei Yokoi's House of Games Returns and Father of Games: Gumpei Yokoi, the Man Who Created the DNA of Nintendo. We've found out that Pix 'n Love Publishing is working on an English translation of Father of Games, but no word yet on House of Games. Pix 'n Love is publishing a series of books on game history, including the history of Nintendo.

Until next time...
Captain Commando