In cursory: Lance Barr may not be a proper noun you're familiar with (no, he's not a member of NSYNC, that's Lance Bass), but odds are you've played one of the game consoles he designed. Subsequently dedicating nearly 39 years of his life to one company, however, the designer is moving on to tackle other projects.

Barr joined Nintendo of America style dorsum in 1982 every bit the company'due south Blueprint & Brand Director, a position he maintained for the duration of his nearly 39-year career with the visitor.

Barr's start piece of work for Nintendo involved designing arcade cabinets, but soon enough, he was put in charge of designing the Nintendo Entertainment Organisation for the North American market place. In a 2005 interview, Barr said the original NES "was conceived as a wireless, modular arrangement, designed to await more similar a sleek stereo arrangement rather than an electronic toy."

After its outset showing at CES, he was asked to redesign certain elements to meet new technology requirements. This included removing the wireless functionality and ditching some of the modular components. The biggest modify, Barr said, was the new method for inserting game cartridges into the console.

"The case had to exist designed around the movement of the game, and required the shape and size of the NES to grow from before concepts. Many of the features remained, such every bit the two-tone color, left and correct side cuts, and overall "boxy" look, merely the proportions modify significantly to accommodate the new edge connector." – Lance Barr, 2005

Barr also worked on the mid-bike refresh of the NES as well every bit the North American design of the Super Nintendo.

Regarding the Super Famicom, Barr said the pattern was "maybe okay" for the Japanese market but they were always looking at future modular components, meaning they needed to design with the thought of stacking components on top of each other.

"I thought the Super Famicom didn't look good when stacked and even by itself, had a kind of "pocketbook of bread" look," Barr said.

Barr on his LinkedIn folio confirmed his retirement from Nintendo, which occurred in July, and said he is moving on to "other" projects.

Image courtesy Jason Leung