(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Finding the master sword in Zelda,
bouncing on a Goomba in Mario,
honing your skills in a duck hunt.
All things you probably did
as a kid with your first Nintendo system.
For most of us, playing games was a pastime.
But for one lucky man, this wasn't some hobby,
it was his job.
1981 was a year of new frontiers.
In the U.S., a new decade of technology and pop culture
was approaching, making it a promising land
for booming Japanese companies.
America had said hello to a kitty a few years earlier,
but it was a gorilla that stole the attention
of the new generation.
Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first big breakthrough
in the western arcade scene.
The game helped the Japanese company climb its way
up to America, eventually establishing a new headquarter
in Seattle, Washington, to bolster their hit.
This is the story of one of their first employees
who was soon to become a gaming legend.
- No!
- [Narrator] This is Howard Phillips.
This is Howard Phillips' gaming jacket.
This is Howard Phillips' original 1989 Game Boy
and this is how Howard started working at Nintendo.
- Kind of embarrassing.
I started at Nintendo in 1981.
It was really just the five or six of us.
I was the shipping warehouse manager.
My role was to bring in all of the arcade games
and unload them and record all the serial numbers
and then pack them up for shipment.
- [Narrator] It doesn't sound
like the greatest gig in the world,
but working in the warehouse came with one pretty big perk.
- [Howard] I could play all the games.
Whenever a new game came in, I could open it up
and plug it in and play it.
- [Narrator] But playing games could never
be a full-time career, or could it?
Nintendo of America was run by this man,
Mr. Minoru Arakawa.
The company was looking to break into the U.S. market
but needed a little advice.
- The Japanese are very, very attentive to the customer
and the customer was king.
I was their, kind of, gateway into the U.S. zeitgeist,
I used to know what players really wanted to play.
- [Narrator] Why you, Howard?
- Who knows why out of the few people working
in the company at the time that I got selected
as being one of the more true voices.
I think it was just my enthusiasm for play.
You know, I’m a player's player, I love to play games.
I love to play at everything.
- [Narrator] In 1985, Nintendo was ready to move
out from the arcade and into the living room.
- Mr. Arakawa said to me,
“What do you think are the best games?”
I played them all, and I said, “Mr. Arakawa,
these are the best 15 games.”
“Everybody will love these games.”
- [Narrator] And so the game master was born.
- Howard Phillips, also known as Mr. Nintendo.
It's his job to test every Nintendo game that comes out.
- What is a game master?
It was really just a focus on what it means
when a player meets a game, it's that connection.
- We were really looking for someone
to represent the gamer
and to speak directly to the gamer.
And Howard really fit the bill.
He was like a grownup, but he was still like a kid.
He gave you the impression more of a character
than a business person.
- [Howard] I think the connection that I had with players
was that shared love of just gaming.
And then their mom or dad would show up
and they would say, but they're not educational
or whatever the negative association was that they wanted
to put with video games and their child.
- It may be the most addictive toy in history:
Nintendo video games.
- Is it turning their brains to mush?
- Shame on people that produce that trash,
it's child abuse, in my judgment.
- It was saddening to me that
that's how parents perceived their kids' joy
as something that was maybe a negative.
- [Narrator] Video games had a bad rep,
but Howard could see the positive effects
that the games had on kids.
- It was a shared love of the experience
of discovering something new
or being really, really frustrated at something
but just trying and being patient and persistent,
which is learning.
- [Narrator] And the players wanted to learn more:
more information, more tricks, more tips,
and the game master was there to deliver.
- [Announcer] Nintendo Power: your direct connection
to the pros for better play.
The official magazine of video mastery.
For ordering information...
- [Howard] My role was to make sure that every single bit
of information in that 132 pages each month
was accurate and spoke in a way that the players
wanted to understand and know about.
- [Narrator] But that wasn't the only role Howard played.
- When we were setting up all the columns
in Nintendo Power, we thought it would be great
to include a comic strip.
- [Howard] Howard and Nester is just a cartoon
that describes a child player
who's always trying to get past the next level in a game.
And Howard is the game master who knows everything
about the games who can provide some tips.
- [Narrator] And Howard is you?
- That's me.
Dear Howard Phillips, I am 12 years old
and your biggest fan.
My friends and I read Nintendo Power.
You're the best in your business.
Your biggest fan with a capital B, bye.
The notoriety of being game master really was crazy.
I would be pumping gas at the gas station,
I would be buying potato chips at the supermarket,
or I'd be at a movie and kids would come up to me
and their parents would come up to me
and say “Oh, you're the guy.”
- [Narrator] The guy who was able to turn his passion
for video games into a once in a lifetime opportunity.
So Howard, what was the best part about being game master?
- It was really fun to fulfill people's dreams,
to shake the hand of some little kid
and ask them about their favorite game
and make them feel validated like they're smart and cool,
so it was really fun.
Over.