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Show ' page Thursday, November 22, THE HERALD, Provo, Utah, D4 How 1990 center could well be powered by ment industry. By DAVID SHEFF Video game dollars are only part Universal Press Syndicate of the story. Nintendo has become . The United States tries to hold as pervasive in modern America's back the Japanese commercial onslaught, but facts are youth culture as Mickey Mouse, facts: As U.S. companies fight Michael Jordan or Indiana Jones tooth and nail to sell a few car all, not coincidentally, subjects of phones in Tokyo, here in America Nintendo games. Nintendo television shows are on six days a week. names such as Sony, Toyota, Canon, JVC, Panasonic, Mazda, Honda There are Nintendo breakfast cerand Mitsubishi don't even sound eals, watches, lunch pails, foreign anymore. Yet for all the beach towels and underwear. More alarm bells that have been sounded than 20 million Nintendo users are adult that's 40 percent of total on this side of the Pacific, relatively few Americans have noticed a users. In short, there is emerging a massive invasion already under global mass culture that has as its way, an invasion being eagerly hero a ubiuqitous little fellow in abetted by our own children. The invader: the manufacturer red suspenders and a funny cap, who goes by the name of Mario. of a cartridge video game system known as Nintendo. More than a And while Mario tries to save the few quarters are at stake. Nintendo princess, the company that made has more than an 80 percent share him a star has even larger worlds of a $4.1 billion business. And not to conquer. A decade ago the founders of the content to dominate the video game industry, Nintendo has its personal computer revolution presights set on a goal that IBM and dicted a home computer or family its rivals have long assumed would computer boom that never really be theirs: the first universal home happened. Computers, by and large, are viewed as business tools. computer. The implications of Nintendo's However, now, because of networkg and the ing and multimedia technologies plans are stakes huge. In America alone, at that combine computer power with year's end there will be almost 30 home entertainment systems, intemillion Nintendo sets in our homes, grating television, video recorders, one in every three homes. Nintendo CD sound systems and stereos, not to mention the telephone, the systems and games have dominatg boom seems immied the list of top-1-0 toys for children since the system was nent. Steve Jobs long ago predicted introduced four years ago. But that computers would one day be Nintendo isn't content to trounce common appliances. If that day is Barbie and GI Joe. When a new upon us, the question is which video game cartridge can sell 10 company will become the Maytag a pop, it of home computers. Analysts agree million units, at is obvious why Nintendo is now a that it is potentially a mammoth formidable force in the entertain industry. And the home multimedia machine. Nintendo's Nintendo Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi has said that his company will "define" the home entertainment systems industry and has called the move "our boldest departure yet from the antiquated perception of video game technology." The potential market? There are 300 million color TVs in the world. Conservative projections say the business could do TWICE the $10 billion VCR business (in tape rentals and sales) in only 10 years. No wonder companies such as Apple and IBM want that business. But Nintendo has already staked its claim. Nintendo has a surprise for us. Hidden powers lurk inside. On the bottom of the Nintendo system is a panel. Remove it. n Inside is a computer cable connector, Your video game system that innocuous gray box can be connected to a modem, keyboard and auxiliary storage devices. When set upon a 1 gray box that attaches to the connector (available after the new year), the Nintendo system becomes a networking terminal. Plug in a phone line and you'll be able to shop, call up movie reviews, buy pork bellies, do research, make airline reservations, order a pizza. 20-ye- ar 48-pi- wide-rangin- best-sellin- Other interactive computer networks are available (Prodigy, home-comput- Compuserve), but Nintendo has the potential to dwarf them. But the biggest potential business for Nintendo is in multimedia entertainment systems, THE entertainment form of the future. Built around the television, a multimedia and system will include a $40-pl- CD-RO- Are we creating generation of vidiots? By DAVID SHEFF At a Tokyo coffeehouse, Yoshio Ito, manager of ONO, a company anti-soci- sively devoured TV, but our kids fight back literally. Peggy Char-represident of Action for Children's Television, says video games help make kids comfortable with computers and machines, but since most games are geared to boys, girls are excluded from that education. She also is concerned that many games are sexist and violent. (Charren may not know that when one of Nintendo's most popular heroes, Samus, successfully reaches the end of the game, he al real-tim- environment,' e "It teaches you to IT environment and put pieces togeth- score higher on intelligence tests, and that games teach logic, mapknowing when to ping, judgment fight or run. People use abstractions of this in their lives every day." But everyone agrees that parents must monitor Nintendo like anything else. "Too much video game playing," Charren says, "is a problem not because of what you are doing, but because of what you are not doing." Even Nintendo Chairman Hiroshi Yamauchi says: "I mean, too much eating is bad, too. This is the age of the computer. No one can stop history kids are interested in playing computers." But, Howard Phillips adds, "Nintendo is not responsible for raising your children. Parents who blame Nintendo are passing the buck." In other words, if your kids are sitting inside all the time, it's not Nintendo's fault. Kick them in tHir tiny butts and send them outside to chase fireflies. But in the meantime, some visionaries claim that future Nintendo software give kids access to information sources and global the ability to interact with people from all fields from all walks of life, anywhere in the world. It will fulfill the promise of the home computer. An icon language will develop. It will free minds rather than enslave them, develop creativity rather than stunt it. The controller, they say, is you. removes his helmet, revealing long, flowing blond hair, amazing players that Samus was a girl all along.) Some psychologists say that battling turtle beasts and dragons empowers children. A San Francisco child psychologist believes video games can build "You accomplish something, you are rewarded. You may even save the princess," she says. "In school, how many times does a kid get called on a day?" asks Howard Phillips, Nintendo's Game Master, who plays all of Nintendo's new games." Kids are asked for their opinions pretty infrequently. They raise their hands and give an answer and the teacher tells them they're right or wrong and that's it. If you don't know the answer, the teacher turns to someone else and asks, 'Anyone else know?' You've lost your chance. If you make a mistake playing a video game, you're back into it, trying again. Kids respond well because with video games they are controlling their own destiny." Trip Hawkins, president of a Nintendo licensee, Electronic Arts, believes games like Tetris teach thinking skills and problem-solvinself-estee- g. (l J ERf ECT ! I r WHEN CflTHV GETS HERE, I'll ...SEGUE TO HER MPIDIY OPtH WITH S0W U&HT CHAT W0C WEAT- VEARS...A1ANEUVER WE STATUS ABOUT THE HER... THEN I'LL DISCUSSION Of r HER CHIT- INTO DWINDLING A HEALTH. .. W CHIIDBEARIN& REPORT ON in...MD TO i 1 INTO A HER LOVE then build ff I MEANT HOW jlS THANKS&IIIW& DINNER COMING? n i ( Dinner ttMS Computer in a few days. In the next meeting I am ushered into a special room equipped with a projector television hooked up to a sleek, cream-colore- d box the size of a thick book. A wafer-thi- n cartridge is inserted into the top. "This is the Super Computer," says Yutaka Itsima, an engineer. His voice is hushed. The legend on the screen is brilliantly colored: Super Mario World. This is, I am told, one of the first supergames available for the Super Computer. Imanishi pushes the START button. Super Mario is back, but in a far richer, more detailed world in which enemies parachute from the sky, dragons' tongues slurp up eggs, and exotic creatures devour the eggs to gain power. I notice the game seems three dimensional, not two and there appear to be four backgrounds moving at different speeds, with far more objects moving at once. The picture itself is more movielike and the sounds stereophonic. When I am given a look at the machine itself which most U.S. computer designers would kill for I realize that this first game hardly takes advantage of its capabilities. The Super Computer essentially has the power of a very sophisticated PC. And it is ready to hook up to CD and laser disk players, modems and other peripherals. It is powered for multimedia. Then a second surprise. I had been told chairman Yamauchi was unavailable. But a pretty assistant with short bobbed hair walks in, bows and announces that Yamauchi will see me. In a nearby conference room, where a painting of Mount Fuji floats on a wall, Yamauchi enters suit and navy wearing an ice-bltie. His silver hair is combed smoothly back. He wears rose-tinte-d glasses with metal frames. In a world where formality is the chairrule, Nintendo's man nonetheless stands out as an austere corporate leader. There's no fun and games in the way he runs his company. No Uncle Walt Disney, Yamauchi doesn't even play video games. What Yamauchi is is a phenomenal manager. Even in the tradition of innovative Japanese management, Nintendo is unique. Yamauchi is not an engineer but knows how to motivate great design. The reason Nintendo's games are superior, insiders say, is that Yamauchi has created a competitive development division where sparks flv. interconnected through a computer that also plays traditional video games. Although early multimedia systems are available (for upwards of $10,000), it will take years for the technology to be both accessible and sophisticated. But a specialist in charge of multimedia for a major computer company that intends to be competitive in the market observes, "With a system that has the acceptance of the current machine, Nintendo could end up in the lead without trouble." Nintendo, which translates into English, "Work hard, but in the end it is in heaven's hands," originates in Kyoto, Japan's art and culural center. Along a canal lined with trees, across a bridge, past clothes hung to dry on a twine line, past doorways covered with traditional cloth curtains, past a Shinto shrine on a corner (a stone pedestal, a small Buddha, a cup of sake) Nintendo comis the pound. No Western reporter has been allowed inside. After months of negotiating, I am well-fortifi- expected. I walk past armed h cameras, guards and high-tec- down passageways painted white. I am led to a conference room, where I am told to wait. I sit at a long, smooth lacquered conference table. The men who soon join me Nintendo jackets wear powder-blu- e with Japanese name tags pinned on them. Hiroshi Imanishi, Nintendo's general manager, has deep-s- et dark eyes. He smokes Japanese cigarettes. Yasuhiro Minagawa, a younger, serves as ue When I mention the security, Imanishi says: "We are a very careful company. We disclose very little, because many people will like to know our secrets." In spite of their policy of secrecy, Imanishi and Minagawa are so excited about a new Nintendo product that they can hardly keep it to themselves. I am told that it is impossible for me to see this new product because America will not see the machine for a year or more. But they do tell me that the next generation Nintendo system is almost the Super Computer ready to ship in Japan. Imanishi leaves to make a telephone call, and when he returns, he says it has been decided that I will be permitted to preview the Super 2 DAY ANNUAL CHRISTMAS ur sar. son-in-la- w a, -- Nintendo's marketing -- ? I elna 18 SUPER DELUXE -- Stitch-Fas- t, edged even by the company's competitors. That Nintendo has become a subculture is no accident "Our competitors are marketing technology. Nintendo is marketing a way of life," Arakawa says. Nintendo has oecome a password among members of the younger generations and, for parents who play, a bridge between generations. SALE DISCOUNT cm rni 0. ONLY NOW NOV 23 & 24 The Incredible -- dinner ? NO MONEY DOWN $9 432 conversion ' ' FREE LESSONS Y Switzerland's Finest Computer -- ; fcfll lei UPDATABLE th ELITE - GINGERBREAD HOUSE OR SLEIGH & Carillon Square Super Store 295 East 1300 South NOW 224-137- mmm& 0 Guittard & Merckens Chocolate Candy Molds Boxes Candy Cups Caramel REINDEER LI oucnMcnniD cake CANDY & 1 -- PROVO, 1700 N. 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Registration required Hand Dipping Class Learn how to make fondant truffles pecan logs and your own Christmas candy $5 each wo. iiuv. a uec. o. ai tpm. Hegistrat; required Decorate Your Own We Sell finesse is unprecedented, a fact acknowl- HERE IS JUST A SAMPLE OF SAVINGS Our Reg. ? HI designers are broken up into four ,j visions, which compete to make reat games. At the end of a design period, each division presents fje chairman with one game. Yamauchi chooses the one of those that will be released. Only one. In investspite of the huge man-homent (a dozen people can work on one game for more than two years), millions of yen and the personal passion of the designers, all but one group's game is scrapped. Yamauchi gives his R&D groups complete freedom. Most significant, and odd revolutionary, is that "the marketing department has no communication with R&D, as one colleague points out Yamuri says, "The marketing department would lock at what is popular and tell the designers to make more of the If you work that way, nothing jeff and fresh comes out" When the company had 90 percent of the video game market in Japan, it was obvious to next tackle the country's biggest market, the United States. To spearhead the American invasion Yamauchi aboard. brought his Unlike Yamauchi, Nintendo of America President Minora Araka-wtall and slender, partial to stylish dark suits, laughs easily anu takes time from business during the day to watch game players. H even picks up the controllers himself on occasion. Iits first year in America, Nuuendo sold more than a million NES systems. A year later, when Nintendo went national, it became the No. 1 selling toy in the country, passing .Cabbage Patch Kids. A year ago, Nintendo released a new hardware product, a hand-hel- d portable system called Ga Boy. Six million are expected to be snapped up by Christmas 1991. Arakawa y oects sales of Game Boy alone to eventually reach 40 million. American Securities Corp. analyst David Leibowitz calls Nintendo "the most striking success story in the consumer electronics and toy industry of our time." Over 175 units to select from. Lowest Prices of the year. FREE LESSONS FULL WARRANTY yv ysttemm FACTORY AUTHORIZED DISCOUNTED PRICES by Cathy Gtalsewlte COnm, DEAR? he says. at a large er in a new way." Hawkins adds that kids proficient at video games cathy Ws look video game laser disk player (for reading disks capable of holding vast volumes of multimedia information), a controlall ler and a storage device generation translator. "You are doing sophisticated pattern recognition in a very fast, n, that makes industrial robots, is articulating his eoncern about his children. "The only friend of this generation is the TV game," he says. "The children never go outside. They grow up with a body of an adult but a mind of a child, because they never learn to speak to one another, never learn to relate to their peers. They are older, but they hang out with small kids and talk about video games. They study in their room, where they play video games for hours, and that is all. They don't know how to communicate, how to enjoy. They don't play, so they have weak bodies. They play video baseball, but they cannot throw a ball." He blames Nintendo. Ito's concerns are shared by parents, educators and psychologists in Japan and the United States. Some critics say Nintendo is worse than television, because it requires such relentless attention that kids who play for long intervals complain of headaches and blurry vision. Others believe that video games train kids to be aggressive and to accept violence, and that the hypnotic nature of television behavior. encourages Indeed, when Nintendo game designer Seguru Miyamoto hears critics cite the evils of Nintendo, he smiles. "Sounds like what they said about rock & roll," he says. Some professionals feel that Nintendo is far healthier than TV because of the inherent interaction. In one sense, video games defeat Orwell's vision of a television-controlle- d culture: Our generation pas ft has listedi.over Ni&ntiendlo 3;"' 7. : fl 1(. Orem 7 5 |