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 Satoru Iwata
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
 153 (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] The company got its name 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
Nintendo Switch

Handheld

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

Other systems

Commodore VIC-20

Commodore MAX Machine[7]/Commodore 64

Coleco Vision

MSX

MSX2

Windows

Apple II

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. ↑ "The Ultimax Collection". Commodore 64 Preservation Project. 2008-11-26. Retrieved 2012-05-19.
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