Satoshi Tajiri

# Satishi Tajiri

**Satoshi Tajiri** (Japanese: **田尻 智**, born August 28, 1965) is the creator of Pokémon, responsible for the initial concepts which would lead to the metaseries as it exists today. Currently, he works as the CEO of Game Freak.

## Early life

Satoshi Tajiri was born in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo. His father was a Nissan salesman and his mother cared for him at home. As a young boy, he loved to explore the outdoors and was especially fascinated with insects. He loved to collect insects, hunting for them in ponds, fields and forests, constantly looking for new insects and coming up with new ways to catch insects such as beetles. He had such an interest in collecting and studying insects that he earned the nickname "Dr. Bug" among his peers.

In the late 1970s, the fields and ponds that Tajiri loved as a child were paved over by apartment buildings and shopping centers. At this time, Tajiri's passion for insects moved to video games and arcades.
Tis major reason of interest in video games was during his teen years which he was fascinated with arcade games. His parents thought that he was a delinquent for playing hours long in the arcade hall, knowing that there were many delinquents active to play different kinds of games. Satoshi enjoyed playing Taito's Space Invaders, which was his major interest in video games. His interest became that far and evolved over the years which he wanted to create his own video games. Satoshi won a contest for a video game idea that was sponsored by Sega. The impact of his love for arcade games made Satoshi frequently cut classes which he nearly didn't graduate. He refused a job his father suggested (which was at Tokyo Electric Power Company), but instead of taking that job he managed to take make-up classes to achieve his high school diploma. Satoshi went for two-years long to technical school at Tokyo National College of Technology, where he studied electronics instead of going to college.

## More

Satoshi has said that if he did not design video games he would be most likely in the anime field because Satoshi drew much of his inspiration from old Japanese shows and anime which includes Godzilla and Ultraman.

Satoshi also said that Shigeru Miyamoto[1] the creator of major video games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda and many other successful video games that has been given a good name to Nintendo. Satoshi stated that he saw Shigeru Miyamoto as a sort of mentor because he helped him with the first creation of the Pokémon video games and also the development style closely matches with that of Shigeru Miyamoto.

Ash Ketchum, known as 'Satoshi' (サトシ Satoshi) in the Japanese anime series, is inspired by Satoshi Tajiri himself. His first rival, Gary Oak, also known as 'Shigeru' (シゲル Shigeru), is based on Satoshi's mentor Shigeru Miyamoto. Satoshi once said that the western audience understands the true meaning behind his game which he had said that they understand that the games are about partnership and identification with one's team.

## Game Freak

Tajiri got into games when he was at technical school, spending all his time in arcades. He did not like school, and began skipping classes to spend more time at the arcades. This confused and upset his parents, who felt he was throwing his future away. Tajiri spent so much time playing games that one arcade gave him a full-sized Space Invaders machine to take home.Eventually, Tajiri graduated from a two-year program at the Tokyo National College of Technology. His father wanted him to be an electrical utility repairman, but this is not what he wanted.

In 1981, when he was sixteen years old, Tajiri won a contest sponsored by Nintendo rival Sega for a game design concept. A year later, in 1982, Tajiri and his friends formed a gaming magazine by the name of Game Freak. A friend and contributor to Game Freak was Ken Sugimori, who would later become the illustrator and designer of all of the Pokémon images, as well as the human characters and other aspects of the games. Throughout the 1980s, the *Game Freak* magazine had modest sales, and became quite popular among the gaming crowd. Originally, the magazine was written by hand, but as it grew more popular Tajiri began having it printed professionally. A typical issue cost ¥300 (around US$3.00) and was approximately 28 pages long.

As Tajiri learned more about games, he became more interested in making them. He felt that the games on the market could be better than they were. He learned how to write software by first taking apart a Nintendo Entertainment System to see how it worked and then learning how to program for it. The programming language he used initially was Family BASIC, an implementation of the BASIC programming language for the Famicom.

In 1987, Tajiri published his first game, *Quinty* (Mendel Palace in North America). Two years later, he officially founded the company Game Freak, named after his magazine. Tajiri and Game Freak continued to develop many titles for companies such as Nintendo and Sega, such as 1991's Jerry Boy (which won Tajiri the Character Design Award from the Multimedia Content Association of Japan), and Yoshi, 1993's Mario & Wario, and 1994's Pulseman.

In 1990, Tajiri published a book entitled *Catch The Packland — Stories of Videogames from Youth*. It contains sixteen stories about Tajiri's memories of playing arcade games when he was in high school and college. It was published by the Japanese Information and Culture Center.

## Pokémon

Tajiri in 1999

In the early 1990s, when Tajiri first saw two children playing together with Game Boys using the Game Link Cable, he imagined insects crawling along the cable between the two systems. As he thought about the capabilities of the Game Link Cable, his idea for Pokémon grew, as he wanted to give modern children the chance to hunt for creatures as he did as a child.

He pitched the idea for *Pokémon* to Nintendo, and although they didn't fully understand the concept of the game, he was given some initial funding anyway and concept work from another game design studio, Creatures, Inc.. Tajiri spent the next six years working on Pokémon. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, and Donkey Kong, was assigned to help in the development of the initial versions of Pocket Monsters, Red and Green. During this time Tajiri came to admire Miyamoto as a mentor. As a tribute to Miyamoto and Tajiri, the main character of the games and his rival have "Satoshi" and "Shigeru" among their default names, while the main character of the anime, Ash Ketchum, and his first rival, Gary Oak, are named the same, respectively.

After six years of development, Pokémon Red and Green Versions were completed. Although the Game Boy's hardware was becoming outdated, the game still grew steadily in popularity because younger children could not afford brand-new console games so they turned to the inexpensive Game Boy games.

The success of Pokémon led to various manga adaptations, an anime, and more Pokémon games and spinoff games.

## Game credits

* **Mendel Palace** (1989) - Producer, Director & Game Designer
* **Smart Ball** (1991) - Director, Game Designer, Story
* **Yoshi** (1991) - Director, Game Designer
* **Magical Taluluto-kun** (1992) - Producer
* **Mario & Wario** (1993) - Game Designer & Director, Map Design
* **Nontan to Issho: Kuru Kuru Puzzle** (1994) - Planner, Supervisor
* **Pulseman** (1994) - Direction & Game Design
* **Pokémon Red and Green** (1996) - Director, Game Design, Game Scenario, Map Design
* **Bazaru de Gozaru no Game de Gozaru** (1996) - Advisor
* **Pokémon Blue** (1996) - Director, Game Design, Game Scenario, Map Design
* **Bushi Seiryūden: Futari no Yūsha** (1997) - Concept & Game Design
* **Game Boy Camera** (1998) - Special Thanks
* **Pokémon Stadium (Japanese)** (1998) - Original Game Design
* **Pokémon Yellow** (1998) - Director, Game Design, Game Scenario, Map Design
* **Hey You, Pikachu! (1998) - Pokémon Creator**
* **Pokémon Trading Card Game** (1998) - Pokémon Original Story
* **Super Smash Bros.** (1999) - Original Game Staff ("Pokémon" Game Design, Direction)
* **Pokémon Snap** (1999) - Pokémon Creator
* **Pokémon Stadium** (1999) - Original Game Design
* **Pokémon Gold and Silver** (1999) - Director, Game Design
* **Pokémon Crystal** (2000) - Executive Director
* **Pokémon Stadium 2** (2000) - Original Game Design
* **Pokémon Card GB2: Here Comes Team GR!** (2001) - Pokémon Original Story
* **Pokémon Party mini** (2001) - Original Pokémon
* **Pokémon Pinball mini** (2001) - Original Pokémon
* **Pokémon Zany Cards** (2001) - Original Pokémon
* **Pokémon Puzzle Collection** (2001) - Original Pokémon
* **Super Smash Bros. Melee** (2001) - Original Game Staff (Executive Director: Pokémon)
* **Pokémon Tetris** (2002) - Original Pokémon
* **Pokémon Race mini** (2002) - Original Pokémon
* **Pichu Bros. mini** (2002) - Original Pokémon
* **Togepi's Great Adventure** (2002) - Original Pokémon
* **Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire** (2002) - Executive Director
* **Pokémon Box: Ruby & Sapphire** (2003) - Executive Director
* **Pokémon Channel** (2003) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon Colosseum** (2003) - Pokémon Games Designer
* **Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen** (2004) - Game Scenario, Executive Director
* **Pokémon Emerald** (2004) - Executive Director
* **Pokémon Dash** (2004) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness** (2005) - Pokémon Games Designer
* **Drill Dozer** (2005) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Trozei** (2005) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team** (2005) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon Diamond and Pearl** (2006) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Battle Revolution** (2006) - Pokémon Games Designer
* **Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Darkness** (2007) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Super Smash Bros. Brawl** (2008) - Senior Supervisor
* **Pokémon Platinum** (2008) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky** (2009) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver** (2009) - Executive Producer
* **PokéPark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure** (2009) - Original Pokémon Director
* **Pokémon Black and White** (2010) - Executive Producer
* **Learn with Pokémon: Typing Adventure** (2011) - Games Original Director
* **PokéPark 2: Wonders Beyond** (2011) - Original Pokémon Director
* **Pokémon Conquest** (2012) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon Black 2 and White 2** (2012) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Dream Radar** (2012) - Executive Producer
* **HarmoKnight** (2012) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity** (2012) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon X and Y** (2013) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Battle Trozei** (2014) - Pokémon Games Original Director
* **The Thieves and the 1000 Pokémon** (2014) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Pokémon Art Academy** (2014) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U** (2014) - Senior Supervisor
* **Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire** (2014) - Executive Producer
* **Pokkén Tournament** (2015) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Tembo the Badass Elephant** (2015) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon** (2015) - Pokémon Original Director
* **Great Detective Pikachu ~Birth of a New Duo~** (2016) - Original Pokémon Director
* **Pokémon Sun and Moon** (2016) - Executive Producer
* **Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon** (2017) - Executive Producer
* **Giga Wrecker** (2017) - Executive Producer