Shigeru Miyamoto was born in Sonobe (now Nantan), Kyoto, Japan. As a young boy, Miyamoto loved to draw, paint pictures, and explore the landscape surrounding his home. Stories describe his fascinated discovery of hidden caves, lakes, and other natural features that were linked to his later work. In 1970, he enrolled in the Kanazawa College of Art, and graduated five years later, though he would later remark that his studies often took a backseat to doodling. In 1977, Miyamoto, armed with a degree in industrial design, was able to arrange a meeting with Hiroshi Yamauchi — a friend of his father, and the head of Nintendo of Japan. Yamauchi hired Miyamoto to be a "staff artist", even though one was not needed at the time, and assigned him to apprentice in the planning department.
In 1980, the fairly new Nintendo of America was looking for a hit to establish itself as a player in the growing arcade market. After successful location tests using prototypes, NoA CEO Minoru Arakawa ordered a very large number of units of Radar Scope, an arcade game. However, by the time the arcade machines could be produced and shipped to the U.S., interest had vaporized, causing Radar Scope to be a huge flop. To stay afloat and clear the costly inventory of "Radar Scope," Nintendo of America desperately needed a smash-hit game that the unsold machines could be converted to play. Yamauchi assigned Miyamoto — the only person available — the task of creating the game that would make or break the company.
After Miyamoto had consulted with some of the company's engineers (he had no prior programming experience), and composed the music himself on a small electronic keyboard, Donkey Kong was fully conceptualized. When the game was complete, the chips containing the new program were rushed to the U.S. and Nintendo employees worked around the clock to convert the "Radar Scope" machines. It was fortuitous that Nintendo had so many units on hand, because Donkey Kong was an overnight success, and not only saved the company, but introduced the character who more than any other would be identified with Nintendo.
Out of the three characters Miyamoto created for the game — Donkey Kong, Jump Man, and Pauline — it is Mario, a character who descends from Jump Man, that has found the most success, and since his debut in Donkey Kong he has appeared in more than 100 games spanning over a dozen gaming platforms.
Miyamoto is usually listed as "producer" in the credits of Mario games. The few exceptions include the Super Mario Land series for the Game Boy, which he had virtually nothing to do with. (Gunpei Yokoi, Miyamoto's mentor, produced the Super Mario Land series.) In early U.S. releases, he was sometimes credited as Miyahon — a mistranslation of the kanji in his name (本 — which can be read as either hon or moto).
Despite being an influential figure in video games and responsible for multi-million dollar franchises, Miyamoto is said to be very humble, insisting on settling for an average income, and often rides a bicycle to work.
It's not rare for Nintendo to delay its games. This is largely due to the perfectionist tendency of Miyamoto who would go as far as scrapping the entire development if he did not find a game up to his standard. Miyamoto and fellow developers refer to this scrapping as "Chabudai Gaeshi" (upending the tea table), a reference to manga and anime Hoshi of the Giants. It is also referred to as "Miyahon Check" (Miyahon is an alternative kanji reading of Miyamoto) or "Miyamoto Test".
Miyamoto is a mentor to Satoshi Tajiri , the creator of Pokemon.
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