In 1980, a 27-year-old Shigeru Miyamotodoodled a caricature on a sheet of paper. It had overalls, an oversize head and a handlebar mustache. The character eventually became Mario, one of the most recognizable figures in video games. You can watch Miyamoto demonstrate how to draw his famous character in the video above.
“I wanted a character I could put in all my video games,” Miyamoto said in an interview today at E3. He cited Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy and regarded by some as the founding father of Japanese anime, as a source of inspiration. Osamu had a set of key characters that would appear in all of his comics, he said.
Miyamoto also drew on Popeye the Sailor cartoons, featuring the bumbling but lovable sailor, Olive Oyl as the female figure and Bluto as Popeye’s nemesis. With that in mind, Miyamoto simultaneously created Mario, Princess Peach and Donkey Kong as his core cast of characters.
But it was Mario who rose to stardom. His mug, which has remained largely unchanged in the 29 years since Miyamoto created him, has graced the covers of hundreds of Nintendo games that collectively have sold hundreds of millions of copies.
Miyamoto explained the origins of Mario’s appearance, which was not born out of market research or informed by art school theories. Instead, Mario’s look was driven by a combination of technology and Miyamoto’s penchant for comics.
In 1980, computer graphics were crude. The pixels and the palettes of what was known as 8-bit color graphics severely limited what artists and programmers could render on a screen. To make characters recognizable, developers opted for exaggerated features and bright, contrasting colors. Mario was no exception.
Miyamoto gave Mario overalls with a color different from his shirt so that players could better distinguish when he was moving his arms while running. With limited processing power, Mario’s hair could not move in a realistic manner. So he got a hat. And because his eyes and nose were so big, there was little room left to draw a mouth, chin and neck. Miyamoto solved that by plastering on a bushy mustache. Mario’s squat physique allowed him to be more easily spotted on the screen. And he got big white gloves that helped exaggerate his movements.
The character was first known as Jumpman in the original Donkey Kong arcade game that came out in 1981, but Miyamoto personally referred to him as “Mr. Videoman.” A year later, he reappeared in Donkey Kong Jr. as Mario.
Miyamoto dismissed the legend that the name came from Nintendo’s landlord in Redmond, Wash., where the company’s U.S. headquarters are. “Mario was named after the manager of our warehouse in New York,” Miyamoto said. “He had a mustache too.”
We figured that, because not everybody can get in, why not share the fun? Here are several cool panoramic views of who and what's at E3 this year. Photos
Also, check out what the CyberGuy is finding at E3.
You have been warned. Credit: Alex Pham / Los Angeles Times.
Don't even think about it.
The security guards at E3 are keeping eagle eyes on E3 badges to make sure no one sneaks in. One guard tried to snatch infiltrators by making sure the name on the badge matches with the gender of the person wearing it. That guard, who declined to reveal his name, said he caught a man wearing a badge for someone named "Jenny." It didn't match the name on his drivers license.
Others have tried to get in by making color photocopies of legitimate badges. The show confiscated a stack of fake paper badges more than an inch thick, the guard said.
In past years, it was a teenage boy's rite of passage to sneak into E3, the world's largest industry-only video-game event.
They contributed to some playful pranks and some not-so-fun mayhem. One year, the legend goes, an interloper wreaked havoc by shearing power cords throughout the convention center.
Mostly, though, they clogged the booths and made it hard for everyone to see the games and navigate the sardine-packed floor.
This year, the Entertainment Software Assn, the group that puts on E3, said it would police the list of attendees to keep the show at a manageable size. More than 35,000 people registered for the show, down from more than 65,000 at the show's peak in 2005.
"We pre-qualified every individual to make sure they have a connection to the industry," said Michael Gallagher, president of the ESA. "We have to fight to keep the numbers down."
Brutal Legend is on display as an Electronic Arts offering at the E3 this week. Credit: Jonathan Alcorn / Bloomberg News
On the show floor at E3 today, Electronic Arts' Brutal Legend is one of the hottest and most heavily promoted games.
Behind the scenes, it's also the source of the day's biggest drama as Activision Blizzard, the country's biggest video-game publisher, has filed a $15-million lawsuit against developer Double Fine Productions and is attempting to prevent competitor Electronic Arts from releasing the game this fall.
Brutal Legend, which stars Jack Black as a heavy metal roadie fighting against mystical demons, was originally set to be released by Vivendi Games. Last year, that company merged with Activision, whose executives took charge of the new entity known as Activision Blizzard.
It appeared at the time that Brutal Legend was one of numerous games previously in production at Vivendi that Activision Blizzard was dropping when it wasn't on a short list of titles the new company announced it was picking up.
As a result, few were surprised at reports that developer Double Fine was negotiating with other publishers, or when Electronic Arts announced last December that it would release the game this fall.
But in its lawsuit, filed Wednesday in California Superior Court in Santa Monica, Activision claims it was caught unaware. The complaint states that the two companies had been in negotiations over the future of Brutal Legend after Double Fine claimed in February 2008 that it would need an additional $7.6 million on top of the original $15.4-million production budget to complete the game. After learning of the deal with EA, Activision sent Double Fine a cease-and-desist letter.
The complaint claims that under Vivendi's deal with Double Fine, which stayed in effect after the merger, the developer was not allowed to seek a new publisher unless the original agreement was terminated by Activision Blizzard. It also claims that neither Double Fine nor EA have paid back Activision Blizzard any of the game's original production budget.
"Double Fine intends to unilaterally transfer Activision's $15-million investment to one of Activision's chief competitors, without anyone paying Activision a nickel in return," the lawsuit states.
Executives at Double Fine have yet to provide their own interpretation of the events of the last year. However, it appears that the developer, which has been represented in its negotiations with EA by the Creative Artists Agency, believes Activision Blizzard gave up its rights to Brutal Legend after the merger closed last summer and it didn't affirmatively decide to publish the game.
Tim Schafer, chief executive of Double Fine and creative director of Brutal Legend, released a brief sardonic statement today: "Hey, if Activision liked it, they should have put a ring on it. Oh great, now Beyonce is going to sue me too."
About 13 people gathered outside the Convention Center in what appears to be a marketing stunt. Credit: Tony Pierce / Los Angeles Times
Update June 9, 3:14 pm: Electronic Arts Spokeswoman Tammy Schachter has confirmed that the "protest" was a publicity stunt. But that hasn't stopped some journalists, including ourselves, from thinking it was real. After the recent ruckus over EA's Godfather 2 gag, the score appears to be rogue viral marketing 2, game journalists 0.
It now appears that the protest against the Electronic Arts game "Dante's Inferno" that we posted about Wednesday was actually a publicity stunt arranged by EA itself. A brochure handed out by the protesters -- or is that actors? -- points to a website, wearesavedgroup.org, which appears designed to promote "Dante's Inferno" as much as bash it. There's a video full of game footage, a link to the trailer, and a link to the official Dante's site.
The site was registered on Monday, June 1, through Domains By Proxy, a company that lets people set up websites without disclosing their identity.
Michael Gallagher, left, president of the Entertainment Software Assn., and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times.
This year, the elves returned to the City of Angels. And they brought money with them -- more than $15 million in direct spending on taxi rides, hotel rooms, wine and sushi, among other things.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, which was substantially scaled back in 2007 and 2008, came roaring back to its former glory this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, attracting more than 35,000 visitors to the video game confab. For Los Angeles, E3 is the biggest convention so far this year, according to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who welcomed the conventioneers Tuesday.
Some Angelenos may remember E3 for its over-the-top spectacles: soldiers rappelling from U.S. Army helicopters, models strutting in thongs and 6-inch heels, skateboarders sailing off half-pipes and celebrity-soaked parties that were more like three-ring circuses.
But the merriment came to a halt in 2007 when game companies decided enough was enough. The show, which hit peak attendance in 2005 with more than 65,000 attendees, was toned down that year to a stately affair in Santa Monica with an invite-only guest list of about 4,000. It returned to the L.A. Convention Center last July but was so low-key that some in the industry lamented that it looked like a pipe-fitters convention.
This year, the Entertainment Software Assn., the industry-funded group that puts on E3, screened the event's registration to keep out the "fanboys" -- people who like to play games but don't work in the game industry. The group vetted booths for their "appropriateness." And companies, sobered by the bad economy, willingly spent less money on parties. Some, including Take-Two Interactive Software, which publishes the popular Grand Theft Auto game franchise, went without a booth altogether and opted for a more practical meeting room above the show floor.
The result?
"On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it an 8.5," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft, which makes the Xbox 360 game console. "But I'm a strict marker."
Mattrick and other attendees said the show this year struck a good balance between hype and reality.
"This year, the world’s focus will rightfully be on E3 in Los Angeles," said Mike Gallagher, president of the ESA. "Really, what we’ve done is put together a show that is much more reflective of the high-octane high energy, innovation and excitement that is the video game industry."
BattleForge went from the chopping block to the pedestal in a span of two months. Credit: Phenomic / Electronic Arts.
BattleForge, a real-time strategy game from Electronic Arts, had its own life-or-death struggle this year.
Under EA's financial restructuring, Phenomic, the studio that developed BattleForge, went under a microscope. Acquired in 2006, the German studio had been hard at work for three years on the title. Instead of kicking the game to the curb, as it did with a number of other titles including Tiberium, EA decided to launch the computer game in March in retail stores for 50 euros in Europe and $49.95 in the U.S. It bombed.
"We were very disappointed with the sales," said Frank Gibeau, president of the Redwood City, Calif.-based company's EA Games label. Gibeau said the title sold fewer than 100,000 copies. "We had great respect for the developers, but we had to decide whether we needed to shut down the studio."
The company met with Phenomic in April to break the bad news.
Soon thereafter, other developers at EA noticed that the few people who bought the title were spending a large amount of money online buying virtual cards that EA sold in the game. These Pokemon-like cards conferred game characters with special skills that can be used to play the game.
"The average spending per user was off the charts," Gibeau said. "If you got someone to play the game, they became passionate about it."
Gibeau made a radical call -- he decided to give away BattleForge, or at least a big chunk of it, and reserved some levels and features to sell to players.
What happened next surprised EA. Players of the free game ended up spending "north of 50 euros" for additional content. Some hit as much as 75 euros, Gibeau said, 50% more than what the game was selling for at retail. He declined to reveal how many copies have been downloaded since EA released BattleForge as a free title, but said that sales of virtual cards hit a record for the game last week.
As a result, Phenomic pulled back from the precipice of extinction to become a role model for future game development at EA.
"We have four or five projects underway now" that follow the free-to-play model that BattleForge trail-blazed, Gibeau said. "You'll see more of this throughout EA."
E3 model representing EverQuest 2 game character Fiorina Vie at Sony's booth. Credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times
In Japan, they're called "event companions." In the U.S. at auto shows, they're known as "product specialists." At E3 this week, game companies are calling them "models."
Most people, however, refer to them by a less genteel term -- booth babes. They have been a staple of the video game industry's biggest convention for years, drawing crowds of men who jockey to get their pictures taken alongside the barely dressed women.
In 2006, the Entertainment Software Assn., which puts on E3, banned models from wearing "bathing suit bottoms" and striking "sexually provocative" poses.
This year, the models are back at E3, alongside the lavish booths and jumbo screens.
Not everyone is rejoicing. Some executives believe the models propagate the notion that video games are the domain of adolescent males at a time when the industry is working hard to expand its reach to women, kids and older players.
"This type of marketing is infantile," said Sean Spector, co-founder of GameFly, a game rental service based in Los Angeles. "Our audience is much smarter than we give them credit for."
The ESA's president, Michael Gallagher, said companies exhibiting at E3 can use models "within the bounds of taste." He defended their presence, saying they "project high energy and vitality."
It's worked.The clusters of men gathered around booth models on the show floor this year rival those going to see the games they are supposed to promote.
Diana Hughes, an MFA graduate of USC's aforementioned program, handed me a furry business card. A furry card! That was almost enough to blow me away, but then there's this ball of fur with eyes and a mouth sitting on a table in front of a TV screen.
"What do you do with that?"
"You pet it."
Should've known it would be that obvious, but Hughes' Pluff -- a thesis project -- was a bit more interactive than your normal stuffed animal. She'll explain the details:
And yes, you don't get a grade for your master's thesis! Lesson learned: Amid the huge displays and flashing lights and gamers hopped up on Gamer Grub and 5-Hour Energy drink samples, there are some smaller gems on the E3 floor.
We do want to see what scary things they've done with this title though!
-- Jevon Phillips
Photo: The eerie poster of a frozen little girl on a swing illustrates how haunting Konami's Silent Hill: Shattered Memories game could be. Credit: Jevon Phillips
Depending on the model, your device features either a hard drive or flash drive that allows you to read and write files to it just like an external drive.
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