In 1979, after some modest success a Japanese video game company opened an office in America. They started off in New York but eventually moved to Seattle. They wanted to break into the new North American market, but the game sales were lackluster. The head of the American division tried to keep them afloat and asked for more talent to be sent over from Japan. Most people at the top were involved in other projects, but they were able to find a young artist who was willing to develop a new game. His name was Shigeru Miyamoto and while he had not yet created a videogame, he would go on to create the flagship game became the symbol of the company and really home gaming. In the early days the character was a carpenter named jumpman. Then one day the landlord for the American offices came in to yell about how the rent was late and the staff thought he looked like their character so they started referring to Jumpman by a new name. They called him Mario.
My guest this week is Matthew Bliss, host of The Dead Drop, a podcast sharing the latest video game news. It publishes twice a week and you can find him at www.deaddroppod.com
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