Chapter 62 N-in-One Is Prepared for You

Hideaki Yaskawa, an Epson executive, was the middleman and endorser. Although the invitation was a bit abrupt, Shigeru Miyamoto readily agreed to meet.

Besides, Shigeru Miyamoto has no capital to put on airs, he is just an ordinary artist now.

Shigeru Miyamoto was born in 1952. When he was a teenager, Disney cartoons such as "Peter Pan" and "Snow White" in his heyday left him with indelible memories.

In middle school, Shigeru Miyamoto fell in love with cartoons. His ideal at that time was to be a drama actor or a painter.

In 1970, Shigeru Miyamoto was admitted to the Kanazawa City University of Arts and Crafts, and he spent five full years of his study career in this small city in Hokuriku.

After Shigeru Miyamoto completely got rid of the constraints of his parents, he became more and more independent.

Only those subjects of interest will see him in class. Even when he was in class, he still scribbled and drew in the blanks of the lecture notes and in his notebook.

After school, Shigeru Miyamoto often listens to tapes, especially the Beatles.

He bought a guitar and played and sang by himself. Although he has not received any formal training, he is quite accomplished. In his spare time, he often goes to local small dance parties and bars to perform for extra money.

Most of the people Shigeru Miyamoto associates with are artists with unrestrained looks and weird costumes.

Five years passed in a hurry, and he finished his studies like walking on eggshells.

Shigeru Miyamoto has no interest in entering a large company and working in a regular manner. He knows that he cannot adapt to that rigid and restrictive environment.

Shigeru Miyamoto hopes that his career will give full play to his imagination, and the working environment should be comfortable and pleasant.

Obviously, this is somewhat idealized, not to mention Shigeru Miyamoto is not a rich second generation.

After staying at home for more than a year, Shigeru Miyamoto's father recommended him to his old friend who played Go together - Hiroshi Yamauchi, the boss of Nintendo.

For the sake of solemnity, Shigeru Miyamoto took off the outlandish costumes of the Beatles and put on a formal suit, and his disheveled hair was deliberately combed.

But in 1977, Nintendo was actively marching into the field of video games. In addition, Nintendo has always valued science over literature. Compared with talented people who write a thousand words, creative electromechanical technicians are employees with real practical value.

Therefore, the atmosphere of Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi's first meeting was slightly awkward, and Hiroshi Yamauchi said bluntly: "What we need here are engineers, not painters like you."

At the second meeting a week later, the atmosphere eased a lot, and the conversation between the two touched a lot of practical things.

Hiroshi Yamauchi suggested that Miyamoto provide some actual children's toy design ideas at the next meeting.

When they met for the third time, Shigeru Miyamoto brought a lot of toys made by himself, and explained to Hiroshi Yamauchi one by one with his masterpieces.

Hiroshi Yamauchi recognized Shigeru Miyamoto's talent and decided to formally invite him to join Nintendo.

Since there is no suitable position for the time being, Shigeru Miyamoto was assigned to the planning department, and the direct leader is Junpei Yokoi.

At that time, Junpei Yokoi was the soul of Nintendo. He was the pioneer of Nintendo's video game production and the founder of Nintendo's entry into the field of video games.

Since most of Nintendo's products were related to machinery at that time, the work arranged by Junhei Yokoi for Shigeru Miyamoto,

Mostly odd jobs like the exterior decoration of arcade machines,

However, with Shigeru Miyamoto's ingenious combination of colors and patterns, the arcade machines produced by Nintendo at the time were very popular.

From these experiences, it is not difficult to see that Shigeru Miyamoto's entry into Nintendo was not smooth sailing, and now his status in Nintendo is a marginal role, and it can even be said that he has achieved nothing.

However, according to the development of the original historical trajectory, after the current point in time, Shigeru Miyamoto, who was originally ordinary, gradually showed his prominence because of his participation in game design.

However, during the period before he was appointed as the leader of the 4th R&D Department by Hiroshi Yamauchi in 1984, Shigeru Miyamoto's road to fame was still relatively tortuous.

In 1980, Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America, demanded the development of the latest arcade products due to a large number of outdated products that were unsalable.

At that time, Nintendo's three major development departments were operating at full capacity, and there was no way to spare manpower to add new projects.

In the Japanese and American video game industry at this stage, the development of software and hardware products does not have a clear division of departments, and the hardware manufacturing team often undertakes the software design work at the same time.

Therefore, Junhei Yokoi proposed to set up a special software development department. Hiroshi Yamauchi agreed with this, and focused his attention on Shigeru Miyamoto, the only idler in the whole society.

Shigeru Miyamoto, who tried his skills for the first time, was the first to go on the market in Japan at the end of 1980 as "Donkey Kong".

For Shigeru Miyamoto, the failure of "Donkey Kong" was a major blow. The entire Nintendo company, including Yokoi Gunpei, was skeptical of his ability.

Perhaps only Hiroshi Yamauchi thought that Shigeru Miyamoto still had greater potential to be tapped. In addition, the GAME&WATCH department was in urgent need of manpower, so he was directly transferred to Yokoi's first development department.

But a dramatic scene happened. "Donkey Kong" achieved great success after it landed in North America the following year, with a cumulative sales of more than 60,000 units, creating a profit of about 120 million U.S. dollars for Nintendo of America.

However, after earnestly summarizing the failures of "Donkey Kong", Shigeru Miyamoto seems to have completely found the feeling of making games. He successfully designed the "Super Mario" series, the "Legend of Zelda" series, and almost all of Miyamoto's games. The games that Mao participated in the development have received good market response.

With it, it can be seen how important the enlightened Miyamoto Shigeru is to Nintendo.

...

When Hideaki Yaskawa and Shigeru Miyamoto were exchanging greetings, Tang Huan was also looking at Shigeru Miyamoto, who was still a little shy despite working for several years, and at the same time adjusted his lobbying plan for poaching corners.

When recruiting engineers in Silicon Valley, the stimulation of real money and getting rich became the climax of the American Dream, and the two-pronged approach was basically invincible.

But for a young artist like Shigeru Miyamoto, those simple and crude methods may not work, and some skills must be paid attention to.

Therefore, Tang Huan was not in a hurry to ask Shigeru Miyamoto if he would like to change jobs, but started from seeing his design works, chatted about art, and even drew a few cartoons.

So Tang Huan, who is good at drawing beauties, can be said to have profound skills, and soon found a common topic with Shigeru Miyamoto.

"Do you still like Beatles music?" Tang Huan asked casually.

"Of course." Shigeru Miyamoto replied without hesitation.

"Do you feel that working at Nintendo is free, happy, and self-worthy?" Tang Huan asked closely.

"It's okay." Shigeru Miyamoto hesitated for a moment before replying.

It's okay, you are just doing odd jobs now, Tang Huan snorted in his heart.

"It's okay, so that means it's not completely satisfactory." Tang Huan smiled leisurely, "I have a game company in Silicon Valley, the United States. The working environment is comfortable and pleasant, and employees are encouraged to give full play to their imagination. Are you interested? Would you like to join? It’s very close to San Francisco, which has a strong artistic atmosphere, and the Beatles can be seen everywhere.”

Shigeru Miyamoto's eyes lit up suddenly, but then he said in a low voice: "Are you also playing games, but I am worried that I am not capable enough."

You do have self-knowledge, Tang Huan nodded inwardly.

It can be said that during the period from 1977 to 1980, Shigeru Miyamoto was in the charging stage. He learned a lot from his predecessor Junpei Yokoi that could affect his life. Before 1985, Shigeru Miyamoto produced The game can be regarded as an extension of Junhei Yokoi's thinking.

Although Shigeru Miyamoto did nothing at this time, Tang Huan still had to insist on poaching people, otherwise the future Nintendo would be too bad.

It's like a competition in the market. A's rival B wants to acquire C. In order to prevent B from growing stronger, A will also seek to acquire C.

"You still don't know the difference between my game company and Nintendo's development mechanism. You are now working on software and hardware together, while we divide the two. After you come, you will be responsible for the development of game programs. This job requires more The creative thinking of an artist like you." At this point, Tang Huan pointed to his head.

"In addition, I have prepared N in 1 for you to practice, and you will definitely be able to quickly enter the working state."

"N in 1? What is that?" Shigeru Miyamoto asked subconsciously.

Tang Huan laughed, now that all kinds of N-in-1 game piracy have not yet appeared, he made a slip of the tongue for a while.

"I started a game company. Naturally, I have N kinds of ideas in my mind, but I don't have time to implement them. I can hand them over to you to practice. It doesn't matter if you fail, as long as you sum up the experience and lessons. "

Tang Huan explained like this, but he was thinking in his heart that the little bully alone has 80 and 1. If you really want to do it one by one, you may be so tired that you vomit blood.

If not for a business elite like Hideaki Yaskawa sitting by the side, Shigeru Miyamoto would have thought that the guy who suddenly appeared and claimed to appreciate his talent was a liar, because every word he said spoke to his heart, What's more terrible is that the conditions it offers are completely in line with their own wishes.

But the question is, if I have such a great value, is it worth others to come all the way to dig me?

Knowing it with emotion and reasoning, everything that should be said has been said. Seeing that Shigeru Miyamoto was still hesitating, Tang Huan finally resorted to the dollar trick and put a check in front of the other party.

"Important employees of Zheru will have a signing fee when they join the company. This is the one I prepared for Mr. Miyamoto. I will stay in Kyoto for a day and browse historical sites. If you still plan to stay at Nintendo, Then return the check to me." Tang Huan's words seemed to be very considerate of Shigeru Miyamoto.

Hideaki Yaskawa also persuaded, "Mr. Miyamoto, it is not easy to meet a noble person like Mr. Tang, so you must not miss the opportunity."

Tang Huan waved his hand, and Hideaki Yaskawa got up and left, leaving Shigeru Miyamoto sitting there alone, scratching his head and weighing the gains and losses.