Tag Archives: Shigeru Miyamoto

Mario’s first job had nothing to do with pipes. When he appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981, he was a carpenter. The game took place on a construction site, so Shigeru Miyamoto gave its little hero a job that fitted the surroundings. The plumber everyone knows came later. There’s a nice reminder in an old Donkey Kong sticker card: underneath Mario, it says “The Brave Carpenter.” He’s got the cap, moustache and… Read more

Some people do their best thinking in the bath. While working on the original Donkey Kong in the early 1980s, Shigeru Miyamoto had a particularly convenient one: Nintendo’s company bath. Its hot water came from the boiler used by the playing-card factory. That’s quite a long way from an arcade cabinet, but apparently a good place to get your thoughts in order. He was staying in Nintendo’s company housing and bathing at… Read more

Link never needed a fedora, but Indiana Jones helped get his adventure started. Shigeru Miyamoto wanted some of that excitement in a game: the ruins, the danger and the feeling that something worth finding was waiting inside. Years later, he named the films when Nintendo asked him about the beginnings of The Legend of Zelda. Once you know that, it’s hard not to think about it when you enter a dungeon. There’s… Read more

Before there was a plumber clearing pipes, there was a young designer trying to get someone to pay him to make interesting things. Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to create toys. Nintendo looked like a place where that ambition might fit, except for an inconvenient detail: it was not hiring designers. The familiar internet version turns this into a neat rejection story. Nintendo supposedly passed on the man who would create Mario, then somehow… Read more

Zelda’s Real Inspiration Before Link ever picked up a sword or ventured into Hyrule, The Legend of Zelda began with the childhood of its creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. Growing up in the countryside of Sonobe, Japan, Miyamoto often spent his days wandering through the fields, forests, and caves near his home. To a curious child with an adventurous spirit, every hill became a dungeon, every grove a hidden temple, and every dark cave… Read more