HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory
Type	Second Party
Founded	February 21, 1980
Status	Active
Base	Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
Bestseller	Super Smash Bros. Melee
Homepage	Japanese Site
Notable Members	Satoru Iwata; Masahiro Sakurai
Key Franchises	Kirby; Super Smash Bros.

HAL Laboratory is one of Nintendo's first party developers. They are named after HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The company is known for Kirby and, more lately, Super Smash Bros. In the past, they have used the name HAL America and HALKEN (derived from the Japanese "HAL KENkyujo").

History[edit]

The Beginning[edit]

HAL Laboratory was formed by a group of people that meet each other at Ikebukuro Seibu Department Store. It was the first store to have a department devoted to computers. Among those people were Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, and current HAL president, Masahito Tanimura.

The group rented an apartment in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. There, they stayed up until midnight or later every night developing games. Their first projects were software and various peripherals for the MSX.

One of the first series they created was the Eggerland series. The original game was the MSX. The sequel was released on the Famicom Disk System as well as the MSX. They continued the series, which eventually became The Adventures of Lolo. Eggerland, running from 1985 to 1994, is currently HAL's longest running series.

Working with Nintendo[edit]

HAL's first job from Nintendo wasn't one of their own jobs. They were told to fix Pinball. The game was released in 1984. Their next collaboration came in the form of Kirby's Dream Land in 1992. The game sold well enough that HAL was allowed to develop an NES version, Kirby's Adventure.

Since they had come into some money, HAL decided to expand into a bigger building. Unfortunately, they had overestimated how well their games would sell and soon found themselves with a debt of 5 million yen. With all other choices exhausted, they turned to Nintendo. Nintendo agreed to fund them, on the condition that they develop only for Nintendo. Nintendo also appointed Satoru Iwata president of HAL. His success with HAL would later be a factor in him becoming president of Nintendo.

Second Party[edit]

After releasing Kirby's Dream Land 2 in 1993, HAL began working on a new project. They worked with the famed Shigesato Itoi of Ape, Inc. on Earthbound.

During the Nintendo 64 era, one of the first games HAL worked on was Jack and the Bean, loosely based on Jack and the Bean Stalk. Though the game was never finished, elements of it were found int other games they developed, including Pokemon Snap. Another early game they worked on was a 3D version of Kirby's Dream Course. The game had a playable demo at Space World 1995. The game eventually became Kirby's AirRide, which didn't see release until the Gamecube.

Another long delayed project is Earthbound 64 The game in this form was cancelled. In 2000, HAL stopped production on the game, but elements of Earthbound 64 can be found in Mother 3 for the Gameboy Advance. Though HAL didn't develop a lot of games for the Nintendo 64, they did create Super Smash Bros.. It is one of the most popular games for the system. They also made the only Kirby game for the Nintendo 64: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

Around this time, Warpstar, Inc. was founded. The company is jointly owned by Nintendo and HAL. It handles copyright and merchandising for the Kirby series. During the Gamecube era, HAL released Super Smash Bros. Melee, which is currently their bestselling game. They also made the lss popular Kirby's AirRide and began working on a new Kirby adventure that wound up being perpetually delayed. On the Gameboy Advance, HAL released two Kirby games. They also tried to create two other games, but neither of them made. On the hardware side of things, HAL is responsible for the GBA's eReader accessory.

About this time, Kirby creator, Masahiro Sakurai left HAL to form his own company, Sora Ltd. They proceeded to make Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and afterwards a subdivision called Project Sora was formed which acts as another Nintendo subsidary.

For the DS, HAL has made two new Kirby games as well as Pokémon Ranger. They also helped Good-Feel to develop Kirby's Epic Yarn for the Nintendo Wii after it was decided that Kirby should star in the game. It has also been announced that they are working on a new untitled side-scrolling Kirby game, which seems to be the replacement for seemingly cancelled Kirby game that was delayed from the Gamecube.