Shigeru Miyamoto is the man who invented Mario. He grew up near his current home of Kyoto, about ten blocks from Nintendo headquarters. He rides his bike, or walks to work each day, ussually with his wife, whom he met on the job (She worked in general adminstrations). He joined the industry as a designer for character art in 1977. He has worked on many famous Mario games, and the well known Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, Doki Doki Panic.
Miyamoto was 24, and had shaggy hair when he had his father contact an old toy company friend, named Hiroshi Yamauchi. The company's name was Nintendo. Yamauchi requested to see some toy designs, to which Miyamoto responded to by returning with a bag of goodies, and an amazing portfolio. Miyamoto became Nintendo's first staff artist. This was in 1977.
Three years later, in 1980, Yamauchi called Miyamoto into his office, and announced that he wanted a videogame to be created. He questioned Miyamoto about his knowledge on this new concept. Miyamoto claimed to have loved video games in college. After some liscences fell through, Donkey Kong was born.
Donkey Kong spawned into Mario, and launched Nintendo into the fresh media of videogames.
Trivia
Miyamoto did not attend his college classes half the time, causing him to stay a full five years.
External links
- Miyamoto Shrine—A website dedicated to Shigeru Miyamoto
- Zelda Central—Fan site based on the Legend of Zelda series
- The Mushroom Kingdom—Fan site based on Super Mario
- Scan from an article