Nintendo of America co-founder and game industry veteran Alan Stone has passed away after a long illness. He was 71.

Stone and partner Ron Judy formed Far East Video in 1979 during the early years of Nintendo to help the Japanese company bring its coin-operated games to the United States for bars, arcades and other establishments, trying to get in on Taito's Space Invaders craze. By 1981, Nintendo opened its American subsidiary, where Stone was co-founder and vice-president. The move proved quite successful, with Donkey Kong leading the way at more than 60,000 units sold just in the United States.

Stone continued on at Nintendo of American until 1994, when he left to become CEO and president of Sega Entertainment, the company's arcade division, for the next 10 years. From there he bounced around as an executive or board member at such companies as GPlay, 10+ Entertainment, Platinum Studios and Raging River Corp. His latest venture was as a board member and COO of San Jose-based tech firm NanoTech Entertainment.

Check out the video below to get a bit of background on the man who was instrumental in bringing Nintendo's coin-operated masterpieces to the United States.