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SpriteCell

@spritecell.bsky.social
1.3K followers 144 following 561 posts

Making charts and graphs of video game data, and archiving video game history. spritecell.com

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Reposted by SpriteCell
Supper Mario Broth @mariobrothblog.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Shigeru Miyamoto has claimed that Toad is his least favorite character in Mario Kart. Despite this, in all footage of him playing Mario Kart 8, he picked Toad every time. Whether he was joking or specifically picking a character he hates to challenge himself is unknown.
I have an important question. Nintendo has also just released Mariokart 7 for the 3DS. In every iteration of Mariokart, I've always preferred to play as Toad. Who's your favorite character?
That's the most challenging question! I'm sorry that I cannot come up with an interesting answer. Somehow, it's habit to me, but I play with Mario. He's a very balanced character.
Who's your least favorite character?
Toad. [Laughs]
My favorite character is your least favorite character?
I understand that he has some popularity. Somehow.
In a 2012 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Shigeru Miyamoto has claimed Toad is his least favorite Mario Kart character.
In December 2014, Shigeru Miyamoto and Bill Trinen played Mario Kart 8 against YouTuber Rosanna Pansino. Miyamoto picked Toad.
Also in December 2014, Shigeru Miyamoto and Bill Trinen played Mario Kart 8 against YouTuber iJustine. Miyamoto picked Toad again.
Finally, in January 2015, the two played Mario Kart 8 against YouTube group Smosh Games. Miyamoto picked Toad again.
Whether Miyamoto simply had an enormous change of heart about Toad in the intervening 2 years, or whether he was picking his least favorite to challenge or punish himself, is unknown.
Source: information compiled by @SpriteCell, x.com/SpriteCell/status/1653842781897474048 ew.com/article/2012/02/10/shigeru-miyamoto-zelda, youtu.be/DNUcDkNI24o, youtu.be/3Q2KxS32Q1g, youtu.be/untLD6z6aql
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In late 1994 Tom Kalinske held a conference on CompsuServe where the public could ask questions about Sega. Topics include RPGs, 32X, Sega CD, and Saturn. Thankfully, a transcript was posted on Usenet. www.usenet-rewind.com/message/MTcy...
A question about why games are released last in the U.S. and a question about Phantasy Star IV's release date, both answered by Tom Kalinske of Sega.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeNE... This starts with a Data East rap. Unfortunately, it gets cut off before the end.
youtube.com
Consumer Electronics Show CES June 1990
YouTube video by HikikomoriDev
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I looked at this for so long thinking "they planned to release Mortal Kombat 3 on the NES???"
An ad for Mortal Kombat 3. It lists the systems it is coming out for but there's a big vertical space between "Super" and "NES".
From Next Generation December 1995. Scan by RetroMags.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Does any 2D game have wider ladders than Mega Man 7? Show me a game where the ladders take up more than 18.75% of the horizontal space.
Screenshot of Mega Man 7.
There is text on the image showing that the ladder is 48 pixels wide, comprising 18.75% of the total horizontal space.
This screenshot is from Mobygames: https://www.mobygames.com/game/6586/mega-man-7/screenshots/snes/732277/
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
For a while I was working on two projects at once, but I am now focusing on one, code named Horizontal. Today I finally finished collecting the fourth, quite large, data set. There are still two to five more to go, so it will be a few more months before it is finished.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Some PS3 games have doubled or tripled in price on the secondhand market since the announcement of the PS3 store closure. I don't see any PSVita games with such dramatic price changes.
PriceCharting graph of CIB copies of Puppeteer for the PS3, showing a dramatic selling price increase recently.PriceCharting graph of CIB copies of Asura's Wrath for the PS3, showing a dramatic selling price increase recently.PriceCharting graph of CIB copies of 3D Dot Game Heroes for the PS3, showing a dramatic selling price increase recently.PriceCharting graph of CIB copies of Folklore for the PS3, showing a dramatic selling price increase recently.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I think it's interesting to think about how Balatro would have been received if it had been released in 1991 for the SNES or Genesis. With some smaller number caps it should have been technically possible to make something very similar.
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Reposted by SpriteCell
Hyrule Interviews @hyruleinterviews.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
5000 Years of The Legend of Zelda... V2! I've added major branches like Conan, CS Lewis, Star Wars, a lot more Japanese influences, and the lineage of early video games. The chart's organization is also improved. Click through for the full-size: namelessquality.com/5000-years-o...
A screenshot a huge flowchart. At the top are listed things like mythologies and histories; at the bottom is the title screen for The Legend of Zelda. Between the two are numerous influences, ranging from ancient board games, to Tolkien, to 1930s pulp adventure films, and way more.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
This person uploaded their PS2 demo discs to Internet Archive. They got "restricted" and he e-mailed IA asking for them to be unrestricted, they said "no" with no further explanation, and then removed his uploads and banned him when he kept asking what the deal was. www.youtube.com/watch?v=N25C...
youtube.com
The Internet Archive Deleted My PS2 Project
YouTube video by MProductions GAMING
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Final Fantasy and GameFAQs are closely linked in my mind. I've spent so much time reading all kinds of guides for the series, every game has so many, which made me curious which had the most. The 2D games and FF12 often have a separate map for each area, so there's also a graph without them.
A graph showing the total number of guides published for each mainline Final Fantasy game on GameFAQs, broken down by type of guide.A graph showing the total number of guides published for each mainline Final Fantasy game on GameFAQs, this time they are not broken down by type, but do not include Maps and Charts.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
They took the time to render Mario's reflection on the table.
Cover of Game Players January 1995. A scraggly Mario and Sonic are rendered in early 3D and are about to arm wrestle and there is an intense ball of light where their hands will meet.
Scan by Retromags.
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Reposted by SpriteCell
Hyrule Interviews @hyruleinterviews.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
I present: 5000 Years of The Legend of Zelda A flowchart of the media that influenced Zelda. Ranging from mythology and historical sources to ancient board games, D&D, 1930s pulp adventure films, and way more! Click through to see the full-size chart. namelessquality.com/5000-years-o...
A screenshot a huge flowchart. At the top are listed things like mythologies and histories; at the bottom is the title screen for The Legend of Zelda. Between the two are numerous influences, ranging from ancient board games, to Tolkien, to 1930s pulp adventure films, and way more.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
New record, 402nd on the Guild Wars 2 North American achievements leaderboard. I probably won't be able to get much higher than this, I've done most of the PvP stuff and playing Crab Toss and Sanctum Sprint by myself is slow going.
Screenshot of the Guild Wars 2 North American achievement leaderboard.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Editorial from Hyper about the difficulty of communicating with Japanese developers and publishers.
Editorial from Hyper magazine by Cam Shea.
Probably found on Sega Retro, but it's not loading right now and I don't think they really scan things themselves but also don't credit the original scanner.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
In Megami Tensei games your skills don't list damage coefficients. Agidyne (single) and Maragidyne (all) will both just say "heavy fire damage". But actually the damage they do can vary wildly, depending on the game. The smaller the number the less multi-target skills do compared to single-target.
A graph showing how much a skill that hits all enemies does compared to a skill that hits a single target in Megami Tensei games.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Rock the Rock was a promotional event for Sonic & Knuckles where 55 people were taken to Alcatraz Island to play the unreleased game and try to get as many rings as possible in three minutes. The two top scorers then faced off head to head in a dome.
Report on Rock the Rock from GamePro's January 1995 issue. Scan by Retromags.Report on Rock the Rock from EGM's December 1994 issue. Scan by Retromags.Report on Rock the Rock from EGM's December 1994 issue. Scan by Retromags.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Many of Nintendo's European websites have become lost, but thanks to the efforts of several people on the Lost Media Wiki forums the flash-powered Mario Megasite has been partially preserved, and a Miyamoto interview was found within the files. forums.lostmediawiki.com/post/159257/...
forums.lostmediawiki.com
Nintendo of Europe's Mario Megasite Web Portal | Forums - The Lost Media Wiki
Opened around November 2004, The Mario Megasite was a web portal that acts as a information point. It once belonged to ms.nintendo-europe.com
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The ideal order for a video game magazine is: Staff credits/housekeeping, table of contents, editorial, mail, news, interview, cover feature, previews by system, reviews by system, tips/codes, comic/puzzles/quizzes, back issue orders/legal text, preview of next issue.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I'm currently working on two projects at once (code names Fire and Horizontal), something I haven't done before. Hopefully this helps prevent me from getting tired of working on the same thing for an extended period, but it will also be longer until either is finished.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
shmuplations.com/miyamotoxeno/ When I first saw this new shmuplations discussion between Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Eno I thought I was finally going to see a translation of Super Hit Game Studies, but no, it's an entirely different thing I didn't know about, which is also great.
shmuplations.com
Shigeru Miyamoto x Kenji Eno (1996) - shmuplations.com
In July 1996, Kenji Eno visited Nintendo HQ to speak with Shigeru Miyamoto as the first of his "cross-talk" series.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I made a Gantt chart showing when U.S. gaming magazines were active, and then charted how many there were by year. This uses Retromags' database, minus a few that were only peripherally related to gaming. Here's the 2327x8580 original Gantt chart: spritecell.com/wp-content/u...
A Gantt chart of U.S. gaming magazines showing when they were active.A bar graph showing how many active gaming magazines there were by year. It peaks at 42 in 1995.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
It's in Japanese, but this site has every game Famitsu scored at least 35 (maximum is 40), up through 2015. web.archive.org/web/20161024...
web.archive.org
GEIMIN.NET�������ե����̥��������ӥ塼�ץ�������Ʋ���꥽�եȰ���
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
This is what UK gaming magazine Zero called their handheld game review section.
Page of UK magazine Zero, featuring the title "hand jobs", with reviews of Ax Battler and Rampart.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Trying to figure out what my next project will be so I made a spreadsheet.
A screenshot of potential future projects by their code name. There are columns for my enjoyment, other's enjoyment, and difficulty/time. Each cell has a number from 2-10.
There is also a section scored in the same way about completed projects.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Something I found while researching was that the full performance of Mario & Zelda Big Band Live, from 2003, was uploaded to both YouTube and Internet Archive less than two years ago. Music and Nintendo developers talking in Japanese. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvBl... archive.org/details/mari...
youtube.com
Mario & Zelda Big Band Live (Nihon Seinenkan Hall. 14 Sep 2003)
YouTube video by phillai
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
For the past couple months I have been working on compiling a list of Shigeru Miyamoto interviews that are lost, may or may not exist, are incomplete, unscanned, and/or untranslated. There are over 200 on this page, maybe you can help in some way: spritecell.com/shigeru-miya...
spritecell.com
Lost Shigeru Miyamoto Interviews
This page of the Shigeru Miyamoto Archive collects interviews that are lost, suspected, incomplete, unscanned, or untranslated to English.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Hyper magazine's September 2014 interview with Shigeru Miyamoto has been added to the archive thanks to the author himself, @jickle.net. He got to see a version of Star Fox Zero at E3 2014 that was about two months into full development, with a Twilight Princess enemy used as a placeholder.
A picture of an interview from Hyper magazine issue 251. It features an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto by James O'Connor. Picture by James O'Connor.A picture of an interview from Hyper magazine issue 251. It features an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto by James O'Connor. Picture by James O'Connor.A picture of an interview from Hyper magazine issue 251. It features an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto by James O'Connor. Picture by James O'Connor.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Game collecting is a hobby of mine. All of my console games are physical and that's mostly worked out for me as a JRPG fan, but I'm really not excited for a future where even a huge blockbuster game like Final Fantasy 17 is never released physically.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Mick Hocking of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe says that people are very excited for 3DTV and that sales are very encouraging for the future of the format. From Edge Magazine May 2011.
Mick Hocking in an interview with Edge. He is optimistic about the future of 3DTV. Scanned and/or uploaded by mattandi. 
https://archive.org/details/Edge_Gaming/Edge%20Gaming%20Magazine%20227/mode/2up
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A 1999 Miyamoto interview from Happy Puppy. Some Ocarina talk, online gaming, hiring people who don't just play games, feeling envy about SimCity. web.archive.org/web/20000608... web.archive.org/web/20000608... I'm not familiar with Happy Puppy but it claims to be the first commercial gaming site.
Screenshot of Happy Puppy's about us page, where they claim to be "the first-ever commercial games site".
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I sure hope this is the full extent of the Miyamoto and Aonuma interviews in Dutch magazine Power Unlimited issue 113.
Page 10, issue 113 of Power Unlimited
See https://dn721609.ca.archive.org/0/items/pu30jaar/jaargangen/11/113.PDFPage 13, issue 113 of Power Unlimited
See https://dn721609.ca.archive.org/0/items/pu30jaar/jaargangen/11/113.PDFPage 49, issue 113 of Power Unlimited
See https://dn721609.ca.archive.org/0/items/pu30jaar/jaargangen/11/113.PDF
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
I love looking at attempts to list the video game genres, and here's one from Italian magazine Consolemania circa 1994. Arcade Adventure is an interesting one, they are described here as games where you search for things. A bit too early for "Fighting" games, and Strategy and Sim are combined here.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
The subtitles on the video games episode of Shin Denshi Rikkoku that I reposted may be machine translated, so take this with a grain of salt, but it says that Shigeru Miyamoto chose the Famicom's color palette.
Shigeru Miyamoto working at Nintendo in 1995 or 1996. The subtitles read "In the end, the fifty-four colors were chosen not by the hardware designer, but the game designer Miyamoto."
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Reposted by SpriteCell
MegaApple @megaapple18.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
1990s NHK Documentary on history video games. Fascinating look at how they were developed and discussed in that era. youtu.be/Zb_74BEnFNc
youtu.be
The History of Video Games in Japan, Nintendo, Hudson and Sega
YouTube video by TRNGL
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Videogames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine had an article about Super Mario Bros.' 10th anniversary which included a stray Miyamoto quote that bothered me for years. I couldn't find the source, where he talked about invisible things above our heads.
Scan of Videogames: The Ultimate Gaming Magazine about Mario. Shigeru Miyamoto is shown holding a cake with Mario.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
@charstring.com I know this is a long shot, but is there a chance you have the video file of the Shigeru Miyamoto interview you conducted in 2006? It hasn't been available for a long time and I'd like to preserve it. www.engadget.com/2006-05-12-j...
engadget.com
Joystiq Video: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview - Engadget
If you haven't already read the transcript of our interview with the inimitable Shigeru Miyamoto, we've gone to all the trouble of putting video of it online. Get his thoughts on everything from the W...
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Eiji Aonuma talking Zelda with N-Zone in May 2007, and the Google Translate version.
Eiji Aonuma interview with N-Zone in May 2007, in original German.Eiji Aonuma interview with N-Zone in May 2007, in original German.Eiji Aonuma interview with N-Zone in May 2007, Google Translated to English.Eiji Aonuma interview with N-Zone in May 2007, Google Translated to English.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Another N-Zone interview added, from April 2002. What really interests me is that Mr. Miyamoto is described as coming to Germany. This was the same month that the mysterious "Nintendo Power except it can't be" Q & A with European children was published somewhere. www.zeldadungeon.net/wiki/Intervi...
Shigeru Miyamoto saying that the GameCube controller probably represents the future.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Looking through more N-Zone covers paid off, here's another interview from October 1999, which is of course about Zelda. Google Translate's take also included.
N-Zone interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, part 1, in German.N-Zone interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, part 2, in German.N-Zone interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, part 1, in English via Google Translate.N-Zone interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, part 2, in English via Google Translate.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Sorry, one more new-to-me Miyamoto interview. N-Zone is a German magazine that is still around. A few years ago they released a DVD with scans of all their previous issues. This is from May 2006 and is mostly about the Wii and DS.
Shigeru Miyamoto interview from N-Zone in May 2006.Shigeru Miyamoto interview from N-Zone in May 2006.Shigeru Miyamoto saying that more people want to know about their brains than about the next Zelda. This is a machine translation.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Shocked to find that Get Rich Playing Games actually does have a Miyamoto interview in it. In fact, 31 people involved with video games have an interview or write something, plus Nolan Bushnell's foreword.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
A pretty derisive look at the growing phenomenon of video games and Nintendo in 1989 from the Sun Sentinel, with a side of possible plagiarism (more on that later). www.sun-sentinel.com/1989/05/04/n...
The culture it disseminates is, of course, junk; but what isn’t these days? Its music is the unmodulated beep that is the authentic voice of the transistor. Its heroes are cartoon blips, chasing one another mindlessly through that familiar computer-fantasy landscape that is disconcertingly both medieval and postnuclear. The Super Mario Brothers, mute protagonists in two of the most popular among the more than 100 Nintendo game cartridges, make He- Man or G.I. Joe seem figures of Shakespearean complexity by contrast. This hasn’t hurt their popularity, though.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
I was looking for something else and came across a single question Miyamoto interview from Cube that was new to me, the sidebar on the second image. The rest is about the London Virgin Megastore press Q&A.
Cube magazine scan from Out of Print Archive covering a press Q & A with Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma.Cube magazine scan from Out of Print Archive covering a press Q & A with Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, and a short personal interview with Mr. Miyamoto.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The re-paginated Shigeru Miyamoto Archive is live. Please let me know if you see any links that don't work, inconsistent formatting, or typos. Here's an interview from 1990 where the BBC filmed Nintendo's development area and Miyamoto says he's not paid glamorously: spritecell.com/shigeru-miya...
spritecell.com
The Shigeru Miyamoto Archive 1983-1996
The Shigeru Miyamoto Archive 1983-1996 preserves every known interview with Shigeru Miyamoto from 1983 to 1996.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Just finding out that there was an English version of the Casa Brutus Mario issue. Shigeru Miyamoto talks about 2D Mario being like drawing manga and 3D Mario being like a puppet show. @drewgmackie.bsky.social there's a few quotes from Miyamoto about the Mario enemies.
Picture of Casa BRUTUS EXTRA ISSUE SUPER MARIO BROS. AND DESIGN page 31, talking about the origin of some Super Mario enemies. Some of them have quotes from Shigeru Miyamoto.Portion of interview with Shigeru Miyamoto from Casa BRUTUS EXTRA ISSUE SUPER MARIO BROS. AND DESIGN.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I realized I've never looked up the origin of "Miyamoto was inspired by Pac-Land". It seems as though some of it is from Toru Iwatani, but there's also a book by Kenji Iino where he interviews six game developers, including Miyamoto and Iwatani. www.fusosha.co.jp/books/detail...
fusosha.co.jp
スーパーヒットゲーム学|書籍詳細|扶桑社
天才クリエイターが本邦初公開!<br>メガヒットゲームはこうして
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I've been working on re-splitting the Shigeru Miyamoto Archive pages. One of the big hurdles is fixing the links to other entries within the archive since the URLs are all different. I finally got that done.
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Shigeru Miyamoto talking about trying to get people playing Star Fox, in 2009. web.archive.org/web/20230124...
Excerpt from an MTV.com interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about getting people into Star Fox and its declining sales in Japan
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SpriteCell @spritecell.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
When I made the Shigeru Miyamoto Archive I wanted every page to cover 5 years. This has led some pages to become very large and slow to load so I want to redistribute them and not worry about keeping to a set number of years. I'm leaning towards #1 or #4, but let me know if you have any thoughts.
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