Introduction
Shigeru Miyamoto was born November 16th 1952 in Sonobe, Kyoto Japan. Shigeru Miyamoto joined Nintendo in 1977, when the company was beginning its foray into video games and started to abandon the playing cards. Shigeru Miyamoto is a game director, game producer, character artist, game designer and an EAD general manager. Shigeru's wife's name is Yasuko Miyamoto. Shigeru and his wife have 2 children. Their son's name is Kenshi and he is 28 years old. Their daughter is 26 (but Shigeru keeps her name private). His children played video games but Shigeru also made them go outside. Miyamoto has a Shetland Sheepdog named Pikku, that provided the inspiration for Nintendogs. He is also a semi-professional dog breeder. He has been quoted stating, "Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock and roll."
Young Life
From an early age, Miyamoto explored the natural areas around his home. On one of these expeditions, he came upon a cave, and, after days of hesitation, went inside. Miyamoto's expedtitions in the Kyoto countryside inspired his later work, mainly The Legend of Zelda. He also had a love for manga and initially intended to become a professional manga artist before considering a career in video games, where the manga influence in his work would later be evident. Through a mutual friend, Miyamoto's father arranged an interview with the president of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi. After showing some of his toy creations, Miyamoto was hired in 1977 as an apprentice in the planning department.
Motivation/Education
The title that inspired Miyamoto to enter the video game industry was the 1978 arcade hit Space Invaders. Western genre television shows had a major influence on Miyamoto. He graduated from Kanazawa Municipal College of Industrial Arts with a degree in industrial design, but no job lined up. Shigeru created one of the greatest game series of all time-The Legend of Zelda. His inpiration came from experiences as a boy, where he explored nearby fields, woods and caves; each Zelda title embodies this sense of exploration. "When I was a child" Miyamoto said,"I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon it. When I traveled around the countryside without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling upon amazing things, as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this". He recreated his memories of becoming lost amoung the maze of sliding doors in his family's home, in Zelda's labrinthine dungeons. In February, 1986, Nintendo released the game as the launch title for the Nintendo Entertainement System's new Disk System peripheral.
Major Contributions
Shigeru Miyamoto and the rest of Nintendo has made and are making a lot of consoles, handhelds, video games and franchises for people around the world to enjoy. The systems Nintendo made (so far) are; the NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, The Wii, Wii U, The GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Advanced SP, the Virtual Boy, the Nintendo DS, DS lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS and the 3DS XL. At the E3 (Electronic Entertainement Exposition) 2004, Miyamoto unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess , appearing dressed as protagonist Link with a sword and shield. This game was released for the Wii and the GameCube, it was amoung the Wii's launch title, and it was the first Zelda game with motion controls. Shigeru also helped with the making of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, one of the newest games in the series, which featured more accurate controls. He made 2 Zelda games For the DS systems, which were the first Zelda games with touch screen controls.