HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory Inc.
Native name
株式会社ハル研究所
Haru Kenkyūjo
Kabushiki gaisha
Industry Video games
Founded February 21, 1980 (1980-02-21)
Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Founder Hiroji Iwasaki
Headquarters Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo[1], Japan
Number of locations
2
Key people
Masayoshi Tanimura (Chairman & CEO)
Satoshi Mitsuhara
(President & COO)
Products Kirby series
Mother series
Super Smash Bros. series
Number of employees
149 (2016)[2]
Subsidiaries Warpstar Inc. (50%)[1]
Website www.hallab.co.jp

HAL Laboratory, Inc. (Japanese: 株式会社ハル研究所 Hepburn: Kabushiki Gaisha Haru Kenkyūjo) is a Japanese developer that was founded on February 21, 1980 that is closely affiliated with Nintendo. It is headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.[1] HAL was named as such because "each letter put them one step ahead of IBM".[3] The company is most famous for its character Kirby, the eponymous protagonist of the series of games; the Mother series (otherwise known as EarthBound); and the Super Smash Bros. series.

HAL Laboratory started off making games for the MSX system and the Commodore VIC-20.[4]

In many of its games during the early to mid-1990s it used the name HALKEN, derived from their Japanese name. Some of its early titles were also released as HAL America, a North American subsidiary of the company led by Yash Terakura.[5]Hal owns 50% of Warpstar, Inc., the production company that created the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime series.[1]

List of games developed

Nintendo systems

Home console

Family Computer Disk System
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super NES
Nintendo 64
GameCube
Wii
Wii U

Handheld

Game Boy
Game Boy Color
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo DS
Nintendo 3DS

Other systems

Commodore VIC-20

Commodore MAX Machine[8]/Commodore 64

Coleco Vision

MSX

MSX2

Windows

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Company". Retrieved September 17, 2007.
  2. "Updated list of employee counts for Nintendo companies". nintendoeverything.com. July 1, 2016. Retrieved September 11, 2016.
  3. Madden, Orla (November 30, 2012). "Iwata Explains Where The Name HAL Laboratory Came From". nintendolife.com. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  4. "What was Japan for Commodore?". commodore.ca. February 16, 2004. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  5. "Yash Terakura joins Throwback Entertainment as Chief Technology Officer". GamesIndustry.biz. May 11, 2007. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  6. Gantayat, Anoop (January 29, 2011). "Nintendo Unveils New Wii Titles". andriasang.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  7. Matulef, Jeffrey (January 6, 2016). "Boxboy! sequel gets a surprise release in Japan". Eurogamer. Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  8. "The Ultimax Collection". Commodore 64 Preservation Project. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 2012-05-19.

External links

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