Latest news with #Miyamoto
NZ Herald
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
This is Miyamoto. And it's Nintendo's world
Miyamoto created the original Mario, Donkey Kong and Legend of Zelda games, the foundations of the 135-year-old Nintendo's rebirth as a video game company. Nintendo and 'Super Mario Bros' are often cited for rejuvenating the industry after the video game crash of 1983, when the nascent industry imploded after a flood of poor-quality products. His attention to quality control and play formed the nucleus of countless video game genres and lifted the industry out of recession and into one of the planet's dominant entertainment mediums. His imprint on the medium is immeasurable. In 1998, he was the first person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. In France, he was honoured as a Knight of Arts and Letters. In Spain, he is the first video game creator honoured with the Princess of Asturias Award. In 2019, he was the first game creator to receive Japan's Person of Cultural Merit award. Now he is one of the few people to have theme parks built from his creations. Just as one could walk around the Jurassic Park world of Orlando and hear John Williams' iconic score, Super Nintendo World echoes with the indelible jazz pieces of Koji Kondo's Mario themes. Even the bathrooms play the water-level waltz of the classic games. 'I don't think in a million years when he was sketching out Donkey Kong and Mario … that he would've ever imagined they would be a centrepiece of a major international theme park,' said Roger DiLuigi, a 35-year-old content creator from Los Angeles with more than 550,000 subscribers on his Nintendo-focused RogersBase YouTube channel. The lifelong Nintendo fan was among hundreds of influencers and creators invited to cover and promote the Orlando Epic Universe launch. 'And yet here we are.' Today as an executive and representative director, Miyamoto's fingerprints are most evident in Nintendo's expansion to other mediums, including the Super Nintendo World theme parks, the billion-dollar box-office blockbuster Mario movie released in 2023 and the recently opened Nintendo Museum in Kyoto. Nintendo's origins in the US began with a lawsuit by Universal City Studios. In 1982, the media conglomerate sued Nintendo over Miyamoto's first hit game 'Donkey Kong,' claiming infringement on the King Kong property. Nintendo hired veteran Washington, DC-based civil rights attorney John Kirby and won the case. Nintendo would honour Kirby, who died in 2019, by naming a character after him as thanks for helping the company regain foothold in the US market. Nintendo and Universal Studios announced their plans to partner in creating theme parks in 2015, with the first park opening in Japan in 2021. Universal's Epic Universe in Orlando, including Super Nintendo World featuring the Mario brand, is the first in the US to include an expansion for Donkey Kong Country. 'The world really does work in mysterious ways,' Miyamoto exclaimed, laughing. 'It was really fun to be able to jokingly talk about what if we put Donkey Kong on the other side of King Kong in City Walk!' Nintendo's decision to fight the lawsuit was seen as a sign that the company, and video games as a medium, had arrived. Miyamoto keenly remembers when people would look down their noses at video games. 'When I first created Mario, it was a time where Mom or Dad might look at their kids playing a video game and be worried, concerned about what's going to happen,' he said. 'I was expecting there will come a time when even the parent will have experience playing video games. That was something I was hoping to see. Now I'm over 70 years old, and we're finally at a time where multigenerational families all have this common shared experience of having played video games. It's really great to see that come to realisation.' His dream is fully realised. Millennial parents teaching their children the history of characters like Princess Peach or the villainous Bowser are as plentiful as the power-up blocks and green warp pipes that populate the park. Children squeal in delight riding through the immersive Donkey Kong mine cart ride that includes fake jumps and scares, much like the game it's based on, 'Donkey Kong Country.' Little girls crowd around to talk to Princess Peach with her wide set of recorded responses. Robert Martinez Jr, the 43-year-old executive chef at the park's Toadstool Cafe restaurant, understands the generational love of Nintendo. He's a 25-year veteran of Universal Orlando, a job passed on from his chef father who worked at the park. 'It's surreal to see myself as a young kid with my Nintendo, blowing the cartridges as we all did back in the day, to being here. Nintendo as a brand touches so many generations,' Martinez said. 'It's something I can share with my kids today. In many cases, you probably know the IP way more than your kid.' Seeing those families enjoy the park is 'something that really brings me joy,' Miyamoto said. 'At the same time, it makes me feel a little old too.' Advertise with NZME. Miyamoto hasn't misplaced his youthful sense of play. During a photo shoot for The Post, Miyamoto struggled to offer a 'business' face when posing. He couldn't help but crack cherubic smiles as he posed with his fists up like Mario. That playfulness translates throughout the park, which Miyamoto helped design. Each visitor receives wristbands that keep score of activities and secrets discovered, including coins collected by punching blocks. 'I created this theme park with the hope that people will be able to experience Nintendo characters with their entire body,' he said. 'There was a time where I was thinking, 'I wish we could create an interactive experience where people can roll around and hang out.' ' Nintendo is a famously stubborn company. It started in the 19th century as a producer of playing cards and later as a toy company. Miyamoto's work transformed its focus to video games and consoles, a formula it has strictly followed until recent years. It is the only major platform holder that does not publish its games in competing platforms, unlike PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox, which now both publish games on Nintendo's Switch consoles. That strategy has helped keep Nintendo unusually profitable. So for years, Nintendo was precious with its intellectual property, keeping Mario and crew away from multimedia projects, outside of the first attempt at a Mario movie, which was a notorious box-office bomb. 'Our thinking was that we don't use characters in media other than games so we're not limited or restricted when we create the next game,' he said. That freedom encouraged creativity: depicting Mario flying with a raccoon tail in 'Super Mario 3', or in the following game, riding the dinosaur Yoshi. 'Over the decades, that thinking has changed inside of me, in that I've come to realize there are limits to the reach that these Nintendo characters can have when we are just focusing on games,' Miyamoto said. 'For example, there are countries where maybe there aren't games available. It really translated into being able to expand through different media.' Miyamoto said he guided Universal on creating a more interactive experience that's approachable and family friendly, while keeping the spirit of his games. The puzzle series Pikmin, which began in 2001, is one of the last properties Miyamoto helped create, and it remains among his most beloved. The plantlike Pikmin creatures are meant to be ethereal and spiritual, and it was Miyamoto's idea to place them all over the park as part of a hide-and-seek game. 'When you look at characters like Mario or Splatoon, I made it a point to make sure they only exist within the IPs they are a part of, but Pikmin have this unique quality in that they can be right next to you as we speak,' Miyamoto said. 'They can, at least in my mind, interact and mingle with any kind of IP. I thought the easiest and quickest way to really convey what Pikmin is was to just drop Pikmin in that world.' The magnitude of Nintendo and Universal's achievement only hit Miyamoto when he walked out of the warp pipe and saw the park envelop him. It's the real-world equivalent of hero Link stepping out into the world of Hyrule in the groundbreaking 2017 Nintendo Switch game 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'. 'I've been obviously looking at everything from the schematic and planning stage,' he said. 'When it comes to finally taking the blocks we so painstakingly created and stacking those up, recreating Mount Beanpole, adding the moving Piranha Plants or Goombas and having them all synchronised together … and then walking out of Peach Castle and looking ahead at the world, that was when I found myself thinking, 'Wow.'' Despite Nintendo's expansion into other mediums, Miyamoto said it's important for the firm's employees to remember that they are entertainers. It's why he helped open the Nintendo Museum in Kyoto, not just as a visitor attraction but as a document to inspire employees. 'I wanted to make sure it's clear Nintendo isn't trying to compete with competitors as a game company, but as an entertainment company, looking for new technologies, to expand and create new experiences,' he said. Miyamoto said when it comes to his legacy, he's not sure if 'satisfaction' is exactly the right word for it. His first real dream was to become a manga artist and storyteller. 'Through manga, I wanted to create a unique world. Obviously I didn't become a manga artist,' he said. 'But I really can't help but feel very fortunate that through my involvement with creating games, I've been able to expand that process to something like the theme park you see today.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
SF Sheriff gets green light to resume using ankle monitors
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Sheriff Paul Miyamoto announced Monday that the San Francisco Sheriff's Office will resume using electronic ankle monitors for some accused criminals who are out of custody awaiting trials. The sheriff recently received a green light from U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit judges to utilize ankle monitors for defendants in the Pre-Trial Electronic Monitoring (PTEM) program. Judges also ruled in favor for allowing searches without warrants for defendants in the PTEM program. Miyamoto and the City Attorney's Office fought to uphold the legality of PTEM after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of three defendants charged with crimes. In 2022, the three defendants filed a lawsuit claiming that PTEM policies violated their Fourth Amendment rights. 'This new decision sets a much-needed precedent for protection of public safety,' Miyamoto said Monday. 'It allows the SFSO to adhere to its commitment to keep the public, crimevictims, and deputies safe, while allowing this critical alternative to incarceration. The PTEMProgram affords defendants an opportunity to remain in the community pending the outcome of their criminal matters, and it provides Superior Court judges with an important tool to utilizewhen making a decision regarding a defendant's release from County Jail.' SFSO PTEM is an intensive supervision program for criminal defendants who would not otherwise be released from custody pretrial by the Superior Court. San Francisco Superior Court judges decide which defendants are enrolled as a condition of their release from custody. 'In order to protect public safety, the Sheriff's Office must be able to set the rules for thisprogram it oversees and administers for pretrial release from custody of criminal defendantsoften facing violent felony charges,' said City Attorney David Chiu. Mayor Daniel Lurie said, 'This is about protecting families from violence. It's about making sure suspecting drug dealers can't go back out and continue to commit crimes while they await trial.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
29-04-2025
- CBS News
San Francisco Sheriff brings back ankle monitoring program
San Francisco officials are celebrating the revival of what they call a key tool in their pretrial supervision arsenal after a federal appeals court ruled that requiring warrantless searches for participants in the city's electronic monitoring program does not violate constitutional rights. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 decision last week overturning a lower court injunction that had barred the Sheriff's Department from imposing warrantless search conditions on people released under its Pre-Trial Electronic Monitoring (PTEM) program. The appeals panel found that the program, which allows defendants to await trial out of custody while being electronically monitored, strikes a reasonable balance between public safety and individual privacy when ordered by a judge following an individualized assessment. Sheriff Paul Miyamoto welcomed the ruling, announcing plans to resume full enrollment in the program, which had been paused for new participants amid the litigation. "We want to give defendants an opportunity to receive services in the community that provide them with a chance to succeed while awaiting resolution of their case," Miyamoto said. "And the bottom line, we want to make sure everybody is safe when we do so." But some say the program's conditions, including consent to warrantless searches, undermine the presumption of innocence. San Francisco Public Defender Danielle Harris argues that electronic monitoring is often chosen under duress. "If the choice is jail or electronic monitoring, almost everyone will choose electronic monitoring — not because it's a good option," Harris said. The controversy hinges largely on PTEM's "Rule 5," which allows law enforcement to search participants' persons, homes, and vehicles without a warrant at any time. The decision comes at a contrast to data that raises questions about the program's overall effectiveness. A 2022 study by the California Policy Lab found that 60% of PTEM participants violated at least one condition of their release, and one in five was rearrested for a new offense while under supervision. At its peak in 2021, PTEM had enrolled more than 1,600 individuals — a surge from its pre-2018 average of about 75 participants. Today, 98 people remain under electronic monitoring, according to the Sheriff's Department. Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman said he supports the return of electronic monitoring as a tool, but warned against relying on it for repeat offenders. "There are people who need to be held and held to account and should not be released unless we can safely do it and for some of those people the ankle monitor may have an additional level of safety or certainty, but we should not be using them to the same extend we were before," Mandelman said. Mayor Daniel Lurie said the program is about protecting victims, witnesses and the community. "This is about protecting families from violence. It's about making sure suspected drug dealers can't go back out and continue to commit crimes while they await trial." Meanwhile, Harris continues to call for more investment in community-based solutions that address root causes rather than relying on surveillance technology. "If we don't treat those needs, we're just putting a band-aid on it."
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ninth Circuit reinstates S.F. sheriff program that allows warrantless searches
San Francisco sheriff's officers can conduct warrantless searches of criminal defendants who have been released while awaiting trial, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, reversing a judge's decision that the search orders exceed the sheriff's authority and violate the right to privacy. The search requirements are reasonable safety measures and do not intrude on a judge's authority to order pretrial release, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court said another of the sheriff's mandates, allowing his office to inform law enforcement agencies elsewhere of a defendant's location, 'helps law enforcement solve crimes quickly both in San Francisco and neighboring jurisdictions.' The 2-1 ruling was written by Judge Jay Bybee and joined by Judge Carlos Bea, both appointees of President George W. Bush. In dissent, Judge Salvador Mendoza, appointed by President Joe Biden, said the orders reinstated by the court 'infringe upon Californians' fundamental right to pretrial liberty.' Under the rules set by the sheriff's office, once a Superior Court judge decides that someone charged with a crime can be freed before trial, the defendant must agree to allow officers to search his or her body, vehicle, home and property at any time during release, and to have their location shared with other agencies. U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar halted the searches in February 2024, saying they threatened 'enormous intrusions on personal privacy' and that challengers to the orders were likely to prove that such conditions on release must be approved by a judge rather than imposed by the sheriff's office. Tigar was appointed to the court by President Barack Obama. In September, Tigar ruled that Sheriff Paul Miyamoto's office had repeatedly violated his injunction by refusing to release defendants who would not agree to warrantless searches, and said Miyamoto and other city officials could be held in contempt of court unless they changed their practices. Miyamoto responded in October by cutting off new enrollments to his office's ankle-monitoring program, which allows some defendants to be freed before trial if they wore devices allowing their locations to be tracked electronically. The cutoff did not affect those already in the program. In Wednesday's ruling, the appeals court said allowing sheriff's officers to decide when a defendant should be searched while on pretrial release does not interfere with a judge's authority to decide who should be set free. 'The courts have full control over the individualized determination to release or not release a defendant, specifying which programs to offer, and the conditions the defendant will be subject to while on release,' Bybee wrote. But, he added, 'the courts must accept that (the San Francisco Sheriff's Office) will have its own view of the on-the-ground realities of the programs it is willing or able to supervise.' Mendoza, in dissent, said Tigar had examined the evidence and found that the sheriff's search requirements interfered with a local judge's determination of the proper conditions of pretrial release. 'Allowing the executive branch — who prosecutes criminal cases — to impose conditions of release is to let the catcher call balls and strikes,' Mendoza wrote. Alex Barrett-Shorter, spokesperson for City Attorney David Chiu, said the ruling was 'a victory for an important program that allows criminal defendants often facing serious, violent felony charges to be released from jail before trial while protecting the public and crime victims through intensive supervision.' American Civil Liberties Union attorney Shilpi Agarwal, who represented defendants challenging the sheriff's search requirements, said they would appeal the ruling. They could ask the full appeals court to order a new hearing before a larger panel. 'We disagree with the majority's opinion and maintain that the San Francisco Sheriff's Office exceeded its authority by intruding on the privacy of people released pretrial on electronic monitoring,' Agarwal said.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In Hawaii, where 90% of food is imported, farmers who offset imbalance now face cuts
Native Hawaiian farmer Kaina Makua was anticipating $470,000 from the federal government this year to quadruple his production of kalo, or taro, the ancestral crop that is pounded into the sticky, purple staple poi. In January, he found out the money wasn't coming. In Hawaii, where 90% of the food is imported, local farmers like Makua need boosts from federal funding so there is greater food security in the islands. State researchers have found an island needs to grow at least 50% of its staple crops — like kalo, 'ulu (breadfruit) and 'uala (sweet potato) — to be self-sufficient in a disaster. Local farmers are not only critical to helping alleviate the rate of 1 in 3 households that are food insecure in Hawaii, but they also provide these staples and other produce to food banks and schools. However, since the Trump administration paused funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and cut other U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, nearly $90 million in funding for Hawaii and Pacific region farms and food system organizations has been frozen or cut, according to the Oʻahu Resource Conservation and Development Council. Now local farmers are 'in survival mode,' as Makua said — scaling back and unsure how to make up the loss. Makua has spent the past 15 years turning his family's farm in Kauai into a cultural hub, Aloha ʻĀina Poi Company, where he mentors young farmers and offers an after-school program so kids can learn Hawaiian farming practices and keep the traditions alive. 'Trying to grow these Indigenous crop systems, and trying to get everybody back to Native foods, it's an uphill battle,' said Makua. 'There was so much headway being made, so much effort and progress and positivity, just to be once again let down.' Hawai'i Farm Bureau Executive Director Brian Miyamoto said there is great confusion among local farmers about what is frozen and what is not. For example, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers, is safe for now. However, without many answers from the federal government about whether the freezes are permanent, or what shoe is dropping next, farmers are scrambling to figure out their next move. The USDA did not respond to request for comment. 'Organizations that may have had their funding frozen or may not be sure if they're going to continue being funded, they're going to have to make business decisions to start possibly laying off staffing, cut back on what the services can offer,' Miyamoto said. Over the past decade, Native Hawaiian farming practices and food systems have gained momentum, as the state's goal was to increase local food production to 20% to 30% of food consumed by 2030. Now that progress is in peril. 'We're not going to be able to achieve those agriculture goals that we've been working on for years,' said Miyamoto. 'With our cultural crops, instead of the trend of increasing that production, do we see a scaling back of it, because of the availability of federal funds to help support those programs? There is so much uncertainty.' Before Western contact, Native Hawaiians subsisted on fishing and staple crops like kalo, 'ulu and 'uala. By the mid-1800s, European and American businessmen gained enough power in the islands to buy land to turn into sugar and pineapple plantations. When those industries dried up by the 1950s, most of Hawaii's agricultural land was paved over for tourism development. By the 1960s, only half of Hawaii's produce was grown locally. According to the USDA's 2022 Census of Agriculture, there are around 6,500 farmers in Hawaii, a growing number of whom are Native Hawaiian practitioners like Makua who are working to revitalize traditional food systems and nourish the land. One way local farmers have increased their reach and power over the past decade is by banding together through food hubs and cooperatives. By combining their yield, farmers can secure state contracts to feed schools and food banks. With the federal cuts, they're unsure if they can make that happen. At the Hawai'i 'Ulu Cooperative, more than 150 farmers bring in their 'ulu harvests, which are then packaged and sold frozen or as flour, pancake mix or other products to local schools, hospitals and retailers. The co-op hoped to increase its 'ulu production to a million pounds by 2030, but the USDA has frozen grants providing farmers with direct payments and technical support. A three-year, $6 million grant for farmers is also currently tied up in the funding freeze. 'The funds for the farmers were mostly about expansion,' said co-op co-founder and CEO Dana Shapiro. 'For the most part, they've all paused on their plans to do that, which is a really huge setback for folks that have prepped their fields. It means everything [unwanted] is going to grow back, and in Hawaii things grow so quickly. If you don't plant it right away, you've lost all that work.' The co-op has also been a supplier to the USDA's Local Food in Schools program that recently saw budget cuts. 'Federal cuts to these programs will have a huge impact on the co-op and our farmers, as well as on the local community of kids and underserved families, who have benefited from receiving fresh, healthy local food,' Shapiro said. Miyamoto and other local agricultural leaders spent the past week meeting with the USDA and other agencies in Washington, D.C., as part of a delegation to Congress. While they got clarification on some programs, like the continuation of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, they did not on others. He continues to ask the state Legislature for money to make up for the federal loss, but he knows it's an uphill battle with so many sectors needing funds. Makua, meanwhile, is figuring out where to turn next. 'If this is the road to success, it's going to be a resilient road, and the humans that will come out of our program at least will be more than resilient,' he said. 'But we might pivot. We don't know. We'll see what the summer brings.'This article was originally published on
