#DonkeyKongQuote
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Miyamoto on why Mario is a plump shape, 2011.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote, #SuperMarioBrosQuote
#MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/39d6164a4154...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 58. Creator of Zelda & Mario. General Manager of Nintendo EAD. QUOTE: Miyamoto: The reason Mario is a plump shape is because gaming devices at that time could only read collisions between square boxes, not because I wanted to make him cute. His design turned out like that because I adjusted for the capabilities of the gaming device of the day. For example, resolution was low, so I made his face big.
January 27, 2026 at 3:08 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on his ambition to use Jumpman in every game he made, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MarioQuote, #DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Creator of Mario, Zelda, & more. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Iwata: Then, because he jumped up and down [in Donkey Kong], he became known as ‘Jumpman’, right? Miyamoto: Well, I called him ‘Mr. Video’. My plan was to use the same character in every video game I made. Iwata: So you had that plan right from the start? Why did you intend to use him in every video game you made? Miyamoto: Well, I thought the way Hitchcock cropped up in all the films he directed was really cool! [laughs] Iwata: [laughs] Miyamoto: Or take manga artists like Osamu Tezuka and Fujio Akatsuka who have the same character popping up in a variety of different works. I think I was probably influenced by that at the time.
April 11, 2025 at 4:09 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Nakago on the first time he met Miyamoto, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote, #ExcitebikeQuote
#NakagoQuote, #IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.hyruleinterviews.com/01d01475fc47...
PEOPLE: - Toshihiko Nakago, age 52. Main Programmer on Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Excitebike, Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros. & The Legend of Zelda. QUOTE: Iwata: So your job was to port arcade games like Donkey Kong over to the Famicom? Nakago: That's right. Then around the time that job was coming to an end, someone I didn't know came up behind me and said: “You're Nakago-san, right?” And that turned out to be Miyamoto-san. Iwata: So even though you'd ported Donkey Kong across to the NES, you didn't know Miyamoto-san? [laughs] Nakago: I honestly didn't know anything about him! [laughs] At that time, I didn't even know that anyone by name of Miyamoto was working for the company. Then he came up to me and said: “We're going to be working on Excitebike together.”
November 27, 2025 at 6:20 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on single floating blocks and believability, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#SuperMarioBrosQuote, #DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Producer & Director of Super Mario Bros., Director & Artist for Donkey Kong. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: "Miyamoto: Sometimes there'll be a single block floating in mid-air, right? When I first made that [in Super Mario Bros.], I thought it was totally outrageous. Even when I was working on Donkey Kong, I'd design things properly. I'd make sure that if there was a floor here, then there'd be a pillar somewhere to support it. … When we made the game, it would start off with a large number of blocks and Mario would go along smashing those until there was just a single block floating there. We decided that ending up with just one block floating there didn't seem to feel unnatural. Iwata: But why doesn't it fall? [laughs] Miyamoto: Well, it's actually connected round the back... [laughs]"
February 24, 2025 at 8:45 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on working with the constraints of arcade circuit boards, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote
#IwataQuote, #MiyamotoQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Donkey Kong. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more. QUOTE: "Iwata: The ‘board’ that you just mentioned is the circuit board inside the arcade game cabinet. At that time, there was a fair amount of individuality, shall we say, in each machine and, depending on the specific type of hardware, there were different limitations imposed. Miyamoto: As we wanted [Donkey Kong] to be played on at least four connected screens, we simply referred to that as ‘scrolling’. [laughs] … The technical supervisor at the time asked us what on earth we were thinking: ‘One screen is plenty for a regular game! But you're making four separate screens! You might as well ask us to make four different games!’"
March 21, 2025 at 12:14 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on the pixel constraints for drawing Jumpman's face, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #IwataQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Donkey Kong. Creator of Zelda. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: Miyamoto: [For Donkey Kong] I drew [Jumpman’s] eyes, nose, mouth and… Iwata: There's absolutely no way that you had enough pixels, right? M: Right, there weren't enough. Before you know it, you've used up 8x8 pixels. But if you draw a nose then a moustache, you don't really know if it's a mouth or a moustache, and it saves pixels. I: So if you draw a moustache, you don't have to draw a mouth. M: You don't have to draw a mouth, which makes a big difference. You only need one pixel for the chin and if you draw two vertical pixels, you've got eyes that hopefully look quite cute. [laughs] Also … by making him wear a hat, you can reduce the hair to only a couple of pixels.
June 13, 2025 at 3:14 AM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on working with Yokoi to design Mario Bros (1983) for arcade, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#MarioBros.Quote, #DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote, #YokoiQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Director of Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. Creator of Zelda. - Gunpei Yokoi, age 68. Producer of Donkey Kong & Mario Bros. Creator of Nintendo’s first video game, the D-Pad, and the Gameboy. QUOTE: "Miyamoto: In Donkey Kong, if Mario fell any distance that was greater than his height, you'd lose a turn. … Yokoi-san said: ‘Why don't we let him jump down from higher places [in Mario Bros.]?’ I thought … it wouldn't be much of a game. But as I pondered it, I thought: ‘Why shouldn't Mario be able to perform super-human feats?’ Then we made a prototype with Mario running and bouncing around and we realized that this was great fun. But … we wondered what kind of game it was going to be. It was at this point that Yokoi-san, who is someone who considers problems from first principles, said: ‘Since we've got all these floors, why don't we make it so that Mario can hit the floors from beneath?’"
March 9, 2025 at 8:26 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto & Iwata on pixel resolution and Jumpman proportions, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote,#IwataQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more. Director and Designer of Donkey Kong. - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: "Miyamoto: The original Mario [in Donkey Kong] was a 16x16 pixilated image. At that time, when games made overseas used human characters, they were always rendered with life-like proportions. Iwata: It felt as if the developers weren't happy unless they'd drawn a figure that was eight-heads tall. Miyamoto: Or sometimes it would be six-heads tall. But actually, the number of pixels we were able to use was so limited that, if we did that, we'd only have had a couple of pixels for the face. Iwata: With two pixels, you wouldn't even have been able to draw eyes. You'd basically have ended up with a matchstick figure. In early video games from overseas, that kind of figure often featured."
November 6, 2024 at 11:46 PM
hyruleinterviews.bsky.social
Miyamoto on adding a jump button to Donkey Kong, 2009.

Source: Iwata Asks

#DonkeyKongQuote
#MiyamotoQuote,#IwataQuote

www.notion.so/309b8c772861...
PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 56. Creator of Zelda and Mario. Director of Donkey Kong (1981). - Satoru Iwata, age 49. President of Nintendo. QUOTE: "Miyamoto: I also recall that the cabinet we were making [Donkey Kong] for had one joystick and one button, but initially I intended it to be controlled using only the joystick. Iwata: So what you're saying is that if that cabinet hadn't happened to have a button, Mario wouldn't have jumped? You can't imagine Mario now without thinking of him jumping! [laughs] Miyamoto: Well, that might have been the case. Originally it was a game where you had to escape from a maze. To allow players to jump and avoid dangers would have spoiled the strategic element of the game. But then we thought: ‘If you had a barrel rolling towards you, what would you do?’"
September 17, 2024 at 11:24 PM