Editing Satoru Iwata (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Commodore 2001 Series-IMG 0448b.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A Commodore PET 2001 model personal computer|A Commodore PET 2001, the same model series Iwata purchased in 1978 and subsequently dismantled]]

Satoru Iwata was born on December 6, 1959, and raised in [[Sapporo]], Japan, where his father served as a prefectural official.<ref name="la times">{{Cite news |last=Martens |first=Todd |date=July 12, 2015 |title=Nintendo's Satoru Iwata dies at 55; under him, Wii created hordes of new gamers |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-dies-at-55-20150712-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714155909/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-nintendo-president-satoru-iwata-dies-at-55-20150712-story.html |archive-date=July 14, 2015 |access-date=July 12, 2015 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=56}} Throughout middle and high school, Iwata displayed leadership skills through service as class president, student council president, and club president at various times.{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=56}} His first experience with computers was in middle school with a demo computer that used telephone lines. Iwata would frequent the [[Sapporo Municipal Subway|Sapporo subway]] and play a simple numeric game, called ''Game 31'', until he mastered it.{{sfn|Kasai|1994|loc=chpt. 4}} With money saved up from a dish-washing job and some additional allowance from his father, Iwata purchased an [[HP-65]], the first programmable calculator, in 1974. After entering [[Hokkaido Sapporo Minami High School|Hokkaido Sapporo South High School]] in April 1975, he began developing his own games during his junior year.{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=57}} The several simple number games Iwata produced, such as ''Volleyball'' and ''Missile Attack'', made use of an electronic calculator he shared with his schoolmates.{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=57}}<ref name="NewsLimited" />

He obtained his first computer, a [[Commodore PET]], in 1978.{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=57}} He dismantled and studied the machine out of his desire to understand it. The computer coincidentally had a [[central processing unit]] ([[MOS 6502]]) similar to the one used by [[Nintendo]] for the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] (NES), a gaming console for which he would later develop games.<ref name="Guardian0713">{{Cite news |last=Stanton |first=Rich |last2=Stuart |first2=Keith |date=July 13, 2015 |title=Satoru Iwata changed the whole games industry and now leaves it in mourning |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/satoru-iwata-games-nintendo-president |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150719151145/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/satoru-iwata-games-nintendo-president |archive-date=July 19, 2015 |access-date=July 26, 2015 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref name="Gamasutra">{{Cite web |last=Andersen |first=John |date=October 9, 2015 |title=A former mentor recalls the early career of Satoru Iwata |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/a-former-mentor-recalls-the-early-career-of-satoru-iwata |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009195412/http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/254169/A_former_mentor_recalls_the_early_career_of_Satoru_Iwata.php |archive-date=October 9, 2015 |access-date=August 21, 2020 |website=[[Gamasutra]] |publisher=[[UBM plc]]}}</ref> Following high school, Iwata was admitted to the [[Tokyo Institute of Technology]] in April 1978, where he majored in [[computer science]].{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=57}}<ref name="NewsLimited">{{Cite news |last=Takenaka |first=Kiyoshi |date=December 9, 2008 |title=Satoru Iwata {{endash}} the man behind Nintendo's casual gaming boom |url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-man-behind-the-casual-gaming-boom/story-e6frfro0-1111118263048 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131007202946/http://www.news.com.au/technology/the-man-behind-the-casual-gaming-boom/story-e6frfro0-1111118263048 |archive-date=October 7, 2013 |access-date=March 27, 2012 |work=[[news.com.au]] |publisher=[[News Corp Australia|News Limited]]}}</ref><ref name="BBC0713">{{Cite web |last=Wong |first=Tessa |last2=Chen |first2=Heather |date=July 13, 2015 |title=Satoru Iwata: Nintendo's gamer CEO |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33502916 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716020633/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33502916 |archive-date=July 16, 2015 |access-date=July 31, 2015 |publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref> Tomohiko Uematsu, an engineering professor, noted Iwata's proficiency with software programming and remarked that Iwata could write programs faster and more accurately than any of his other students.<ref name="TokyoITAug4">{{Cite web |date=August 4, 2015 |script-title=ja:岩田聡氏を悼んで |trans-title=Mourning Mr. Satoru Iwata |url=http://www.titech.ac.jp/news/2015/031926.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150804045528/http://www.titech.ac.jp/news/2015/031926.html |archive-date=August 4, 2015 |access-date=October 8, 2015 |publisher=[[Tokyo Institute of Technology]] |language=ja}}</ref>

While attending the school, he was one of several unpaid interns at [[Commodore Japan]], assisting the subsidiary's head engineer—Yash Terakura<ref name="Gamasutra" />—with technical and [[Software development|software-development]] tasks.{{sfn|Bagnall|2011|loc=chpt. 15}} One of his main reasons for taking the job was to spend more time around computers and learn of details not openly available to the public.<ref name="Gamasutra" />{{sfn|Hasegawa|2010|p=45}} Terakura would later serve as a mentor to Iwata, teaching him about hardware engineering to supplement Iwata's already extensive software knowledge.<ref name="Gamasutra" /> Iwata and several of his friends rented an apartment in [[Akihabara]] and soon formed a club where they would create and code games.<ref name="Eurogamer">{{Cite web |last=Robinson |first=Martin |date=July 13, 2015 |title=Satoru Iwata: a gentle revolutionary |url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-13-it-would-have-been-more-frightening-to-take-the-conventional-path-remembering-iwata |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715064307/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-07-13-it-would-have-been-more-frightening-to-take-the-conventional-path-remembering-iwata |archive-date=July 15, 2015 |access-date=July 17, 2015 |website=[[Eurogamer]] |publisher=Gamer Network}}</ref> Classmates living in nearby apartments referred to Iwata's room as {{Nihongo foot|"Game Center Iwata"|ゲームセンター岩田||Gēmusentā Iwata|post=.}}<ref name="TokyoITAug4" /> He would frequently show off his games to the [[Seibu Department Stores|Seibu department store]]'s computer department, and by 1980 a group of employees there invited him to join their company, [[HAL Laboratory, Inc.]]<ref name="Eurogamer" /><ref name="RG-35">{{Cite magazine |last=Szczepaniak |first=John |title=Before They Were Famous |magazine=[[Retro Gamer]] |publisher=[[Imagine Publishing]] |page=76 |issue=35}}</ref>{{sfn|Inoue|2009|p=58}}