After 39 years of honorable service it is time for retirement for Lance Barr, the architect of the design NES And SNES, two real milestones in the history of video games that have become, over the decades, icons of video game consoles.
His is certainly not a household name at all, not even for most fans, but his creativity and his projects have played a decisive role in the success of Nintendo and the entire gaming industry; if the Nintendo Entertainment System failed, there probably wouldn’t even be a video game industry.
Lance Barr, the designer of the NES and SNES, is retiring
The news was given by Barr himself through his Linkedin profile where the designer wrote: “After almost 39 years in Nintendo, I am retiring and working on ‘other’ projects.”
Barr began his career at Nintendo in 1982, initially designing arcade cabinets for the company. In 1983 the Famicom (the original Japanese version of the NES) was released in Japan and, before landing in the West, the console was destined for a profound re-design operation, especially considering the arrival in the USA where the interest in video games was considerably decreased.
Lance pulled a real magic out of the hat, with the lines of the NES (and also of the Super Nintendo later) representing an unmistakable icon of POP culture.
If the legendary Nintendo consoles have then had a resounding success all over the world we owe it to the creative genius of Barr.
Thanks for everything Lance!
