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 developer that was founded on February 21, 1980. Its name comes from the HAL 9000 computer in the novel & film 2001: A Space Odyssey.[2] The company is most famous for creating Kirby and the Kirby series, as well as the Super Smash Bros. series. HAL Laboratory is a second-party development studio of Nintendo.
History
HAL Laboratory started off making games for the MSX system and the Commodore 64.[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.
External links
- Wikipedia's HAL Laboratory article
- HAL Laboratory, Inc (Japanese)
- IGN page
- N-Sider page (HAL Laboratory company profile)
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
