Hasta La Ideas

Interesting factoid: In 1981, Shigeru Miyamoto was an industrial designer who had been working for Nintendo for four years designing arcade cabinets. Bizarre Japanese corporate structures being what they are, he was eventually somehow tasked with designing what would go inside the cabinet–that is to say, the game.

Miyamoto then developed the “gorilla/carpenter/girlfriend love triangle” that changed a generation and gave birth to a new industry. Donkey Kong was the first-ever videogame to incorporate a narrative, as well as characters that weren’t deaf-and-dumb paddles or boring reticles.

Miyamoto is today referred to as the “Father of modern video games;” his subsequent hit The Legend of Zelda has been called “The Citizen Kane of videogames.” He’s also the man behind Super Mario Brothers, Star Fox, and Wii Music, to name a few.

In any case, when we came across Maximum PC’s article on how to build an old-school arcade cabinet, we couldn’t help but think it’s the perfect DIY project for an industrial designer. We’re sure Miyamoto would agree.

(more…)