Dear Reader:
Former HAL America leader looks back on 30 years of interacting with Iwata
Coming from former HAL America leader, Yash Terakura...
“In 1979 or 1980, Iwata was stopping by my office almost every day after school," he writes. "He helped me make test programs, sorted my books and floppy disks, and did other minor things. He was helping so that he could obtain news about our new products, as well as technical information not available to the public.""He was a so-called 'otaku.' Of course, we did not have that term 'otaku' at that time," says Terakura. "He and other students were Commodore groupies.
...He was a very quiet person, and he was nice to others, but when it came to a design or concept of a project, he could be very hard headed. He did not agree with other people unless he was very sure that their idea was better than his.
...I started my own company, but we kept in touch. I go to Japan often, so I was planning to call him and have a dinner in August or so. I guess that will never happen."