Analysis
In the 2001 book *The Ultimate History of Video Games*, Miyamoto is quoted saying he wanted the characters in Donkey Kong to feel alive and to give players a sense of a living entity on screen. However, the specific wording “even though it was just pixels on a screen” does not appear in the published interview, indicating the statement is a paraphrase rather than a direct quote.
Background
Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong in 1981, aiming to create a more character‑driven platformer than previous arcade games. Interviews from the early 1980s reveal his focus on animating characters to convey personality and life, a theme he reiterated in later retrospectives. *The Ultimate History of Video Games* compiles many such interviews but does not contain the exact sentence cited.
Verdict summary
Miyamoto expressed a desire to make Donkey Kong feel alive, but the exact phrasing quoted is not found verbatim in the book.