It is not often possible to see news that from Nintendo some veteran or key person leaves, but today is just such a case.
It became known that after almost 39 years of work in the company, the director of design and brand left his position. Nintendo of America Lance Barr… On his LinkedIn, he wrote that he was retiring and would take up other “projects.”
Barr joined Nintendo in 1982 and worked there until the last month, responsible for the design of several of the company’s products. He was best known for developing the appearance of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the North American version of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
In particular, it is for the design of the NES that Barr is credited with contributing to Nintendo’s early success in the western home console market… By the time Nintendo planned to release the Famicom in North America, the region was already experiencing the infamous 1983 game industry crisis, when the market crashed to the point where Atari had to bury its surplus in a landfill in the desert.
Initially, Barr redesigned the Japanese Famicom, making it look like a futuristic home computer in a strict dark gray color with a full-size keyboard, joysticks and other gadgets. The prototype was named Advanced Video System (AVS), but retailers were not convinced by the device.
Then Nintendo went back to the drawing board, and the decision was made to sell the Famicom not as a gaming system, but as an entertainment system. NES was designed by Barr with Don James, which replaced the top cartridge slot on the Famicom with a front slot with a hinged cover to make the console look more like a VCR. Retailers loved the idea and the NES was a huge hit.
In the case of the SNES, two versions of the console have already been released outside of Japan: a European one based on the Super Famicom and a North American one, which received a completely different design with purple accents.
Over the years, Barr has developed numerous other Nintendo devices, including New-Style NES 1993, New-Style SNES 1997 (and its Japanese counterpart Super Famicom Jr), an NES speakerphone controller for players with disabilities, NES Zapper, NES Max, NES Advantage and Wii Nunchuk…
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