A forgotten interview dating back to 1992 has been spotted on archive.org. It's from issue 25 of the publication Electric Brain and features the one and only Shigeru Miyamoto talking about the development of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past along with the first two Zelda entries on NES.
Throughout the interview, Miyamoto speaks about the various challenges and design choices Nintendo faced during development – such as trying to cram all of the game onto the cartridge. He also explained how the company often began projects with only a handful of people and even revealed how the development team had "all sorts of titles" for the SNES Zelda, like "Gannon Strikes Back" until a decision was made to stick with the original name.
In the second half of the interview, Shigeru touches on the role-playing genre, in general, and states how Zelda paved the way – with a number of original ideas that eventually became “bog standard” for all games under this banner. Later on, he references the original Mother (Earthbound) game on the NES and Pilotwings.
One of the final questions is about future production plans for the company. Miyamoto follows this up by saying how Nintendo “will never run out of ideas” and new genres can be easily created. Read the full interview below:
Did you enjoy reading this classic interview featuring Miyamoto? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
[source archive.org]
Comments 56
“and new genres can be easily created.”
No, renaming First-Person-Shooter to First-Person-Adventure and Open World to Open Air does not make it a new genre creation.
"......Zelda swings his sword."
Zelda swings his sword confirmed
long live Miyamoto
Love reading little gaming history things like this.
@Doctor_Pancakes
Just like Metroid hunts down the Samuses.
This is cool, I actually just read that interview today but in Japanese. This interview is actually censored!
I had no idea it was ever translated, but it leaves out the fact that Miyamoto originally wanted Link to be able to **** girls in the game.
@popishighbrow woah... wonder how far along that idea went and if they ever considered rehashing it for later games...
Wow Miyamoto talking dirty is a revelation.......
@gaga64 Is your username a Lady Gaga reference?
Super Famicom = NES? Now that's definitely news to me.
yeah Zelda swings the sword...nah forget it...much more interesting is how they called RPG back in the day ...it was Sword and Sorcery ...
@popishighbrow do you have a source to the original Japanese interview?
Electric Brain can be read online here: https://archive.org/details/Electric-Brain/
@3purplesodium Maybe Miyamoto named his character Zelda in A Link to the Past. You’re allowed to call him whatever you want, and I believe canonically Link is just his last name. You even unlock a new adventure if you call him Zelda in the original NES game.
@popishighbrow That explains what happens when those ladies heal you in Zelda 2...
I own it so I was reading it on the train just today. It was reprinted again recently in Famitsu magazine as a throwback. I feel like it should be circulating around.
"Miyamoto follows this up by saying how Nintendo “will never run out of ideas” and new genres can be easily created."
Living in 2019, can confirm.
The translation was wrong, what they really meant was how the swinging of the sword was change in A Link to the Past, whoever did the translation for this did a horrible job of it.
They already had the idea of spreading fire on it's own. Miyamoto is truly a visionary.
İnteresting, thanks for the article.
@retro_player_22 do you have a copy of the original that I can get re-translated and share?
Hey, I once played a version of Link to the Past that had sex in it. I guess Miyamoto wanted to take down the Rom sites for stealing his idea.
One of thing that sticks out from reading the article is, is this a fan-zine? It seems to not proofread very well filled with text like "Links Adventures" and "RPM type game"
@KingMike good question: Electric Brain started as a Fanzine (under a couple of different names) but after a while was picked up by a publisher and sold on the high street (WH Smith). The issue containing this interview, Electric Brain 25, was released before the publisher was around to ensure higher quality control. You can read about it on Wikipedia.
"Nintendo will never run out of ideas"
Which is exactly why we haven't seen another FZero in 16 years.
Meanwhile similar games and fans of this create spiritual successors.
@popishighbrow nope, this name dates back to ‘99...
@purplesodium I'm sure it was an error on the part of the interviewer.
It was a nice interview, but I learned two things.
One: Remaking Zelda II: The Adventure of Link has been in the minds of the developers since at least 1991!
Two: Miyamoto is a whip-wielding project manager! Results associated with quality are produced by riding on his employees pretty strict!
@kepsux @SalvorHardin Haha you two are both pretty funny!
I feel like parroting back the "Zelda swings his sword" thing had to be an attempt to be polite and not draw attention to the mistake.
@Magrane i think you should use 'had been' as i am sure they dropped their idea at a certain point in the past
1992: “When a console games sells 10,000 units, it is considered a success!”
Now: “A game only sold 5 million copies, what a failure!”
@gingerbeardman
Had a look into it, seems the 25/4/2019 issue of Famitsu (cover date: 16/5/2019, this is the latest issue as of today) included a "VIP Interviews Reprinted Book", containing a selection of the most important interviews of the Heisei Era [1989-2019].
One being an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto about 'the legend of The Legend of Zelda', from the cover date 24/1/1992 issue.
https://www.famitsu.com/images/000/175/148/5cb9b704c2a24.jpg
The thumbnail from their site shows quotes "Try to beat Zelda in 5 hours!!" and "The next game: A Super Famicom Link's Adventure!?" so it seems like the right thing.
Can translate it if scans pop up.
@BlackenedHalo With Link's Awakening being remastered, I have a feeling this idea is still lingering within the EAD halls.....
Good news day
"Zelda swings his sword."
Zelda is a trap - confirmed 😟
I like how when he talks about releasing a Zelda game with no set order - one that would take ages to complete (if players would want ever that sort of thing) - that he essentially predicted the arrival of BOTW 26 years before its release.
@Magrane Nintendo made at least a 16-bit mockup screenshot of Adventure of Link as one of the earliest SFC demos (1988), next to Super Mario World and Dragonfly (which became Pilotwings, though I wonder if that game was meant to be a shooter originally).
@bluesun awesome, thanks! which page has that thumbnail on it? (for wikipedia citation)
@gingerbeardman Here's the page (Japanese):
https://www.famitsu.com/news/201904/22175148.html
@popishighbrow To do what to girls?
Its interesting to see that even back then, they had ideas for mapping items to buttons.
And so many other little ideas that have popped up later.
Great interview.
@Euler I don't even...there's so much inaccurate information in your post that I don't even know where to start...
@Snow-Dust you know this interview is from 1992 right? Wolfenstein 3D came out in 1992. A game that essentially birthed a genre. Gaming was young. New genres were being born out of thin air. Miyamoto had no reason to believe the contrary. Weird comment, dude.
@fugl It was a joke, calm down.
So many wonderful bits in here!
Console games are considered a hit when they sell 10.000 units, text actually being a huge limiting factor in terms of game storage, and Miyamoto setting the record straihgt on "cut content," by pointing out that the editing process of course favors the best ideas.
Great find Mr. Sephton!
@andywitmyer If anything, this interview points to the original game onky being the way it is due to hardware limitations. Which makes BOTWs "return to the roots" idea kind of bunk.
@Galarian_Lassie Games back then didn't cost 50+ million to develop.
This interview has actually been translated before, albeit, with more lingual proficiency and less translation errors: http://shmuplations.com/zeldalttp/
You can also find this on Glitterberri's homepage.
@Doctor_Pancakes 😂
@OniLink303 when you say "before"... Shmupulations translated it in 2016 based in part on Glitterberri's 2012 translation. This Electric Brain translation was published in 1992. That's 20+ years difference.
@gingerbeardman For clarity's sake I meant before publicly shared knowledge of an existing translation. Probably should have noted that in my previous post. The article initially came off to me as a hidden revelation of insight concerning A Link to the Past's development that no one was aware of because a full translation didn't surface until now, when translations of that interview had been done before this publication was ever known to the internet.
@OniLink303 Thanks for this translation. So, so, so much better and makes more sense, too.
http://shmuplations.com/zeldalttp/
@popishighbrow,
Seriously?
Nice to see there was a better translation, though, unfortunately, Glitterberri.
Still a few bits with issues, like 'players won't know what their own intentions were' for 'you don't know what the player's intentions were'. xD
Would still be nice to try and find the full Japanese text.
@Snow-Dust Apologies, I was unable to tell given the poor delivery and 5 down votes.
@fugl Everything is considered poor delivery and will be down voted when it’s a jab at Nintendo on this website, so don’t be too hard on yourself on your poor observations.
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