Nintendo
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Nintendo Integrated Research & Development is a Nintendo first party development studio responsible for designing Nintendo hardware and doing research for the consoles. During the early game development years of Nintendo, IR&D also crated video games, though they no longer do.

Some of their heavy hitters include the likes of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out‼, Super Punch-Out‼, StarTropics, NES Play Action Football, and Teleroboxer. When they were first created, they were known as Nintendo Research & Development 3 (or Nintendo R&D3) (headed by Genyo Takeda). According to Takeda, this R&D group was nicknamed Rumania due to their isolation from the others. Their motto was "there are no limitations, no boundaries; since we are on our own, there is nothing we cannot do; when you start with nothing you can do everything."

History[]

Former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had decided to separate his research and development groups. This resulted in the creation of Nintendo R&D1, Nintendo R&D2, and Nintendo R&D3. Genyo Takeda was put in charge of managing R&D3, while Yamauchi would still be the head of all three groups. R&D3 is known for creating the Punch-Out‼ and StarTropics series, as well as creating a bunch of games for the Virtual Boy, but they are perhaps most important for creating technology that allowed the other R&D's games to be created.

The first chips that were placed in Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges were very limited. Takeda's group had the intention of creating enhanced chips for newer types of cartridges. One of the earlier cartridges, called UNROM, allowed for more memory. Consequently the developers thrived in creating technology that would make games created by the other groups possible. Games such as The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Kid Icarus were all possible only because of chips that R&D3 created (in this case the MMC chip).

Structure[]

Product Development Department[]

  • Development Group No. 1
  • Development Group No. 2
  • Development Group No. 3
  • Development Group No. 4
  • Development Group No. 5
  • Design Group

Other groups[]

  • Design Technology Group

Products[]

Year Name Platform
As Nintendo R&D3
1984 Punch-Out‼ Arcade
Super Punch-Out‼ Arcade
1985 Arm Wrestling Arcade
NES Game Pak NES
1986 Pro Wrestling FDS
NES
1987 Mike Tyson's Punch-Out‼/Punch-Out‼ Featuring Mr. Dream NES
1990 StarTropics NES
1994 Zoda's Revenge: StarTropics II NES
Super Punch-Out‼ SNES
1996 Nintendo 64 Hardware
Nintendo 64 controller Nintendo 64
Jumper Pak Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64 Game Pak Nintendo 64
Controller Pak Nintendo 64
Pilotwings 64 Nintendo 64
1997 Transfer Pak Nintendo 64
Rumble Pak Nintendo 64
1998 Expansion Pak Nintendo 64
SmartMedia Cartridge Nintendo 64
SmartMedia Cards Nintendo 64
Voice Recognition Unit Nintendo 64
1999 64DD Hardware
64DD Disk 64DD
Nintendo 64 Modem Cartridge 64DD
Nintendo 64 Mouse 64DD
2000 Nintendo 64 Video Capture Cartridge 64DD
As Nintendo IRD
2001 Nintendo GameCube Hardware
GameCube controller Nintendo GameCube
Memory Card Nintendo GameCube
2002 Memory Card 251 Nintendo GameCube
WaveBird Wireless Controller Nintendo GameCube
2003 Game Boy Player Nintendo GameCube
DK Bongos Nintendo GameCube
2004 Memory Card 1019 Nintendo GameCube
GameCube Microphone Nintendo GameCube
2005 Dance Mat Controller Nintendo GameCube
2006 Wii Hardware
Wii Remote Wii
Nunchuk Wii
Classic Controller Wii
Wii Sensor Bar Wii
2007 Wii Zapper Wii
2008 Wii Wheel Wii
Wii Balance Board Wii
Wii Speak Wii
2009 Wii Motion Plus Wii
Classic Controller Pro Wii
2010 Wii Remote Plus Wii
2011 Wii Family Edition Hardware
2012 Wii USB Memory Drive Stick Wii
Wii U Hardware
Wii U GamePad Wii U
Wii U Pro Controller Wii U
Wii Mini Hardware
2013 Nintendo 2DS Hardware
Wii U GamePad Horizontal Stand Wii U
Wii U Wireless Microphone Wii U
Wii U Wired Microphone Wii U
Fit Meter Hardware
2014 New Nintendo 3DS Hardware
New Nintendo 3DS XL Hardware
amiibo Hardware
2015 Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer Nintendo 3DS

External links[]

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