HAL Laboratory

HAL Laboratory (HAL Labs for short) is a Japanese game developer partnered with Nintendo founded on February 21, 1980 by a small group of friends who shared the desire to create games; among said group was Satoru Iwata, fourth president of Nintendo Co Ltd. The group developed games for numerous platforms at first before developing exclusively for Nintendo. The name "HAL" originates from the fictional computer HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

HAL Laboratory is most notable for developing the Kirby series, created by ex-employee Masahiro Sakurai; they are also responsible for the Super Smash Bros. series and the Mother series, however. They have also commonly collaborated with other teams within Nintendo.

Notable employees

 * Satoru Iwata (Moved to Nintendo EAD; President of Nintendo from 2002-2015)
 * Masahiro Sakurai (Left and formed Sora Ltd.)

List of games

 * Family Computer Golf: Japan Course
 * ''Family Computer Golf: U.S. Course
 * Famicom Grand Prix: F-1 Race (with Nintendo EAD)
 * Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (with Nintendo EAD)
 * NES Open Tournament Golf (with Nintendo R&D2)
 * Super Smash Bros.
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee
 * Face Raiders

Trivia

 * In Super Smash Bros. Melee, if the player selects the trophy collection and zooms in close enough, the television set to the right reads "HAL Laboratory" on it.