PEOPLE: - Shigeru Miyamoto, age 46. Creator of Zelda & Mario. Producer & Director of Super Mario 64. QUOTE: Miyamoto: When we were stuck on talk of the spectacular 3D graphics of Mario 64 and racing games, we a saw huge hit in the form of Tamagotchi—a tiny key chain boasting pictures made up of no more than 10 or 20 dots. At that time, I thought that Mario 64 had lost to Tamagotchi. I'm serious!
Miyamoto on Mario 64 losing to Tamagotchi, 1999.
Source: Game Developers Conference (GDC)
#TamagotchiQuote, #SuperMario64Quote
#MiyamotoQuote
www.hyruleinterviews.com/361de4272595...
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![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 38. Creator of Zelda, Mario, & more. Producer of Nintendo EAD’s Software Development Department.
QUOTE:
"Miyamoto: The reason we didn’t include AV cables with the [The Super NES] was because we wanted to keep the price down and be able to include two controllers.
Q: But there aren’t any games out yet that use both controllers…!
Miyamoto: I still think including two controllers was the right choice. It’s really about the game developers: if only some people own two controllers, it would ultimately change the kind of games that developers would be inclined to make."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifhquldjmisb4irckrathdeyjfj2nx35gpr22wjm6khn3kho2d2uu)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Producer & Director of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Q: By the way, what happened to Luigi [in Super Mario 64]?
Miyamoto: Well… until February, he was in the game. [laughs] Ultimately, due to memory issues, we had to take him out. Then we were going to include him in a Mario Bros. style minigame, but because most users probably only have that one controller when they first buy their N64, for that reason (and others) we decided not to."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreifhafqafmaxu5ylpkz6bj4epkddgyzpbmrgtjwfnfskhjeqfqeqpu)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Zelda, Producer & Director of Super Mario 64.
- Yoichi Yamada, age 32. Assistant Director of A Link to the Past, Course Director of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Q: When you created the level maps [for Super Mario 64], did you draw out models/blueprints beforehand?
Miyamoto: Actually, no, not at all. There would only be some concept art sketches, and brief notes/memos. For example, I’d talk with course director Yoichi Yamada about an idea for a level, then he’d make some quick sketches of it. Yamada isn’t an artist, but he draws weird stuff. [laughs]
Then we’d look over those and talk more (’Oh, there should be a snowman here!’), and those key elements of the level would be written down. Yamada and the other level designers then would refer back to those notes while designing the levels with our software development tools."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreih6a4bhswmvhg6lbfj7qdjdjkjqkgjzxpq45plluuw3dq27xqi74q)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Zelda, Producer & Director of Super Mario 64.
- Yoshiaki Koizumi, age 28. Illustrator for A Link to the Past, Writer for Link’s Awakening, Assistant Director of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Miyamoto: Our thinking [for Super Mario 64] was that as players got good at the controls, they’d want to try out more and more button combinations, and if there was nothing past the basics it would be disappointing for them. So we created movements for all button combinations—of course, that means a few useless ones got left in too. [laughs]
Koizumi: Yeah, like the crouching trip kick. [laughs] That was made to deal with short, small enemies, but we ended up not adding those kinds of enemies after all."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreihth3flfl5sd4cnlxskf73o5pjt2teq6sguf26m7k7jphtcet6f2m)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Producer & Director of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Miyamoto: For [Super Mario 64] things were especially vague in the beginning, because we developed it in tandem with the N64 hardware, and we didn’t know exactly how powerful the hardware would turn out to be. … We got things to a point where the controls were nice and responsive, and we thought this could be the foundation for a game. But the problem was, it had all been made on this massive computer that cost tens of thousands of dollars.
… However, once the N64 prototype was finished and delivered to us, we saw that it handled the movement and controls almost perfectly. That was the moment we first realized this was going to work, so we quickly dashed off a planning spec for the game."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreibrlwqwko5ivakbtqmhnwaid6gzecofm42hjaowgsspn22vflxxlu)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Producer of Super Mario 64, creator of Mario & Zelda.
QUOTE:
"Miyamoto: We did something with Mario 64 that we don’t usually do: we had children playtest it. We had a row of about 10 middle schoolers, and had them play around on the King Bob-omb’s stage for half a day, while we observed from behind.
My child was one of them, actually… but seeing him try dozens of times, over and over, to get up this unclimbable hill, as a parent I couldn’t help but think, ‘Geez, does this kid have any brains?’ [laughs] Afterwards we asked the children what they thought of the game, and they said it was fun, and that they wanted to play it again."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreidvjzknphlckxf6psdsssga4hkxybmens5shk55sgay7iv374hmzu)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Zelda & Mario, Producer of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Miyamoto: One of our big development themes [for Super Mario 64] was letting the players move Mario around any way they wanted. We wanted to make a game where just moving Mario around was fun.
… Up to now, I think there’s been this image with games that if you can’t beat it, it’s not a fun or good game, right? That’s a philosophy we’ve stuck to at Nintendo, too, but I figured that if a game was this fun to play even if you weren’t getting anywhere, well, it must be alright. Until this game, I was very skeptical about something like this being fun."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreih5ke6udy2clvukzygnw3szuhllogkstxujqgyjjextaktfv4vmsu)
![PEOPLE:
- Shigeru Miyamoto, age 43. Creator of Mario, Producer of Super Mario 64.
QUOTE:
"Q: What is [Mario’s] centre of gravity [in Super Mario 64]? I feel like it’s in the hips…
Miyamoto: You’ve got a good eye. [laughs] The area around his hips is a big ‘joint’ that controls which way his body moves. We created all his movements from that point of origin: when he accelerates and inclines forward, when he turns and leans left or right, etc. So Mario sort of runs like Arale-chan, with the correct sense of weight in the body.
Q: But there’s a lot of unrealistic movements in Mario’s repertoire, too. Like when he does his long jump, it’s faster than if he was running!
Miyamoto: With 3D, little ‘lies’ like that can go unnoticed. So we lied a lot! I mean, Mario is this weird old dude who can jump 3 times his height… so who’s counting? [laughs]"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2e7f2uvcguv4d5qxqnyjmk32/bafkreial62bjeoxfxt35k4gmdiherdnxseatpvcuz2gc3h7meuyd4koxny)