HAL Laboratory
|
| HAL Laboratory, Inc. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Type | Private | ||
| Founded | February 21, 1980[1] | ||
| Key people | Satoru Iwata (former president), Masahiro Sakurai (former employee) | ||
| Industry | Video game industry | ||
| Products | Video games | ||
| Employees | 110 | ||
| Website | http://www.hallab.co.jp/ | ||
HAL Laboratory, Inc. (株式会社ハル研究所, Kabushikigaisha Haru Kenkyūjo) is a Japanese video game company that was founded on February 21, 1980. Its name comes from the HAL 9000 computer in the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[2] The company is most famous for creating the Kirby series, as well as the Super Smash Bros. series. HAL Laboratory is a subsidiary of Nintendo and was acquired by the company when Satoru Iwata, one of their former employees, became president of Nintendo.
[edit] History
HAL Laboratory was originally a group of friends who shared a desire to create video games, and started off making games for the MSX system and the Commodore 64, until Nintendo released their NES in 1983.[3]
In many of its games during the early to mid-'90s, it used the name HALKEN (derived from their literal Japanese name "HAL KENkyūjo"), as well as HAL Laboratory. Some of its early titles were also released as HAL America, a North American subsidiary of the company.
The current president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, was a former president of HAL. Other important figures include Masahiro Sakurai, who created the Kirby character and the Super Smash Bros. series and now leads his own company, Sora Ltd.
[edit] External links
- HAL Laboratory, Inc (Japanese)
- IGN page
- N-Sider page (HAL Laboratory company profile)
[edit] References
- ↑ HAL Laboratory, Inc. Company. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
- ↑ http://uk.cube.ign.com/articles/595/595089p1.html
- ↑ http://www.commodore.ca/history/people/michael_tomczyk.htm
