The cartridges had tiny synthesisers that played the limited sounds as one moved through the game. Games in the ’80s didn’t have the tech for complex symphonies. The theme tune is a classic unto itself: There’s just three minutes of original music in the 1985 game, but composer Koji Kondo uses it like a maestro. Miyamoto had drawn Mario to fit within the few pixels available in video games of the time and still pop out against the blue skies and white clouds of the new game’s simple background. The big nose, bushy moustache, hat, blue overalls and stocky body from the original design stayed. So, his little carpenter transformed into a plumber for 1985’s Super Mario Bros.
He’s a blue-collar hero: Miyamoto’s next game was set in sewers, with green pipes and turtles. Some warehouse workers thought he looked a little like their landlord Mario Segale. But Nintendo’s American division wanted a new name for Miyamoto’s character. This wasn’t out of the ordinary for the time - other games were called Pac-Man (1980), Space Invaders (1978) and Asteroids (1979). Miyamoto referred to him as Mr Video the team named him Jumpman. So his home-grown game, Donkey Kong (1981), featured the eponymous ape villain flinging barrels and obstacles for a tiny carpenter to dodge. He wasn’t always Mario: At Nintendo in the ’80s, video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, now 68, was hoping to create a Popeye-like hero. Take a closer look at the leaps of faith that helped him leap to fame. The franchise has sold more than 763.45 million units worldwide, making it the best-selling title of all time. And yet, 40 years since Mario debuted in Donkey Kong and 36 years since he headlined a game of his own, he remains a video-game superstar.
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