Born November 16, 1952, Kyoto, Japan, Miyamoto loved to draw. It was little surprise, therefore, that he took a job as a staff artist for product development at then Japanese toymaking company, Nintendo.

In 1980, the newly formed Nintendo of America looked to enter the videogame market. After successful location tests using a prototype, NoA CEO Minoru Arakawa ordered a large number of the arcade game Radar Scope. Interest dwindled before the games could be built, so Nintendo had to do something to sell the games, both to stay afloat in the business and clear the costly inventory. With all their programmers busy with other projects, Arakawa assigned Miyamoto to make Radar Scope more attractive to buyers.

Instead of trying to fix the game, Miyamoto designed an entirely new game. The resulting game was Donkey Kong, the first game to be built around a storyline, rather than having it added as an afterthought. Donkey Kong achieved phenomenal success, and its protagonist, Jump Man, would later become more recognizable than Mickey Mouse, albeit under then name Mario.

Nintendo rode high on the success of Donkey Kong, as well as many other of its popular franchise, and Miyamoto climbed the Nintendo ladder to his current position as Senior Managing Director.