Here’s to You, Mr. Yamuachi

Leave Luck to Heaven.

“You missed the 1-ups on that level.”

“I’m going for speed, not longevity.”

I watch as my friend gobbles toadstools and glowing flowers, dodging Goombas and Troopas and bounding over fatal chasms. As I relax in my chair, holding the Luigi controller with the same disdain I felt as a youth, Mario sinks down the portal to Zone 4. I reach for the HiSi and take a pull of the newly harvested and dried Super Lemon Haze.

A god has died. Hiroshi Yamuachi, the godfather of the console, the father of the modern gaming industry, passed away yesterday and my amigo and I are playing the godfather’s opuses in tribute, beginning with his most classic title. Mario warps into Zone 8. I kick the recliner out on my chair and sink back into a reflective state only a good hybrid inspires, focusing on the influence of Nintendo’s Yamuachi’s on my generation and those to come.

When Yamuachi introduced Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong, the 2-D the tonality of the music and frenetic gameplay synchronized with the caustic narcotic of ’80s fashion, cocaine. The earliest games were never thought-provoking or interactive, prioritizing fast-paced repetitive button mashing à la the Simpsons or Paperboy (with techno to boot) that mated swimmingly with cocaine’s hyperactive stimulation. A brief period later, Legend of Zelda undermined the high-tempo game scene by requiring patience and problem solving, pushing gaming more in the realm of its natural constituency: the cannabis enthusiast.

As the Nintendo console family welcomed the Game Boy, Super Nintendo, Virtual Boy and Nintendo 64, cannabis became a more consistent bedfellow with each consular progression. Yamuachi’s notoriously prized game enjoyment over software complexity, and his philosophies resonated most in the creation of Nintendo 64, where simple games such as Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. offered maximum enjoyment and the more complex games like Zelda and Super Mario 64 combined breathtaking scenery and airy music to keep the more difficult and tedious gameplay enjoyable. As other cartridges were released, cannabis became as inseparable from multiplayer games such as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Conker’s Bad Fur Day as it was from Halo and Call of Duty for the next generation (interestingly enough, the evolution of gaming graphics matched the standard growth of bud quality, but the two phenomena are only interesting correlatives). Skyrim, Mass Effect and Borderlands draw upon the same standards offered by Zelda and Super Mario 64, and are quintessential games for the modern herbalist.

Cognizant of what Yamuachi gave cannabis users, amigo and I take pulls from the HiSi as we roast to his honor and his legacy. Modern gaming wouldn’t be where it is today without Yamuachi and the ensuing generations of cannabis-user/gamers have the godfather to thank for whatever virtual reality worlds they find themselves immersed in. Proust Yamuachi, and thanks for all the memories.

Does anyone remember the secret on Yoshi Valley?