Satoru Iwata’s first Nintendo project found, preserved by historian

By Danny Cowan Published August 16, 2016

games historian unearths satoru iwatas earliest work for nintendo iwataprotos — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Games historian and preservationist Frank Cifaldi has unearthed a treasure trove of pre-release Nintendo Entertainment System games, including what’s believed to be the earliest Nintendo project coded by the company’s former president and CEO Satoru Iwata.

Cifaldi details his find in this Twitter thread documenting the sale and preservation of the Iwata-programmed Famicom version of Joust, among other 8-bit Nintendo projects coded during the early 1980s.

Recommended Videos

Following a hunch, Cifaldi purchased a handful of bare Famicom-printed circuit boards from an online auction earlier this year. Upon dumping the data from the ROMs present on these legacy boards, Cifaldi discovered that they contained pre-release data from many of Nintendo’s earliest 8-bit conversions of popular arcade games from the era, including Joust and Defender II (aka Stargate).

Please enable Javascript to view this content

While collectors frequently uncover EEPROM pre-release versions of classic video games, legitimate prototypes of first-party, Nintendo-developed games are exceedingly rare. To date, preservationists have only been able to track down a scant few prototype cartridges for unreleased first-party Nintendo games like Starfox 2, Sound Fantasy, and the original NES version of Earthbound.

Cifaldi’s find is especially significant, as his versions of Joust, Defender II and Hyper Sports feature text and code differences compared to their later retail releases. As Nintendo’s Iwata programmed the Famicom version of Joust circa 1983, Cifaldi’s prototype version is likely the earliest recorded example of an Iwata-coded Nintendo game.

Initially a programmer at the Nintendo-affiliated developer HAL Laboratory, Satoru Iwata went on to program and design several games for Nintendo consoles before taking the role of company president in 2002. Iwata passed away last year at the age of 55.

Cifaldi is currently seeking a similar prototype version of the original Super Mario Bros., which may offer insight into the creation of what eventually became one of Nintendo’s biggest hits worldwide.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

Neverwinter Nights just received a new update, 23 years after its original release

A screenshot from Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.

The 2002 RPG Neverwinter Nights is a masterclass in game design. Now 23 years old, the community behind Neverwinter Nights has kept the game alive and active all this time — and it has been given a new, unofficial update "by unpaid software engineers from the NWN community." This patch includes several quality-of-life improvements, graphical fixes, and performance boosts to keep the game running smoothly on modern hardware. For reference, roughly a year after Neverwinter Nights, BioWare released the cult-classic Knights of the Old Republic. BioWare was at the height of its prowess with regard to storytelling and gameplay.

Despite the game's age, it still has a long-standing community of fans and creators that give Neverwinter Nights nearly unlimited replayability. In addition to The Wailing Death campaign that comes with the original release of the game, Neverwinter Nights also has two other campaigns: Horde of the Underdark and Shadows of the Undrentide. If none of those tickle your fancy, then the fan-made campaigns might be the place to look. Think about it like a homebrew DnD campaign, except that it's all programmed for you to play through at your leisure. There are dozens of fan-made campaigns to choose from, many of which are on-par with original Wizards of the Coast content in terms of quality.

Audio / Video

You Asked: What’s the most impressive thing you saw at CES?

You Asked CES Editors Cut

On today’s special edition of You Asked, we tracked down each of our editors and put them on the spot to find out what they thought was the most impressive thing they saw at CES 2025 in Early January. Let’s find out what they had to say.
Panasonic Z95B

There’s been some really cool TV tech at CES, but the thing I’m most excited about is the new Panasonic Z95B. Instead of the regular OLED display structure we’ve seen in recent years with MLA technology, this uses a four-layer panel structure. It features individual red, green, and blue layers (two of the latter) for the emissive light.

Gaming

3 game studios are closing their doors, including the developer of Godfall

Godfall player in combat.

We're barely into 2025, and the gaming industry has already delivered bad news: Three studios are shutting their doors, resulting in dozens of layoffs. Two of the three studios are subsidiaries of Enad Global 7, and the company said, "This decision does not come lightly and follows several initiatives to turn the subsidiary profitable."

The first studio to close is Toadman Interactive, best known for Immortal: Unchained and Bloodsports TV. While not the direct developer, the studio offered support during the development of The Lord of the Rings Online and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. According to Enad Global 7, the closing affects everyone not under contract, and existing employment contracts will be honored. Adding salt to the wound is the news that 38 developers from Piranha Games are also going to be laid off following the subpar performance of MechWarrior 5: Clans.