Don James, executive vice president of Nintendo of America, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dice Awards on Thursday night for his contributions to the games industry.

He joined Nintendo in 1981 as the fifth employee of Nintendo of America. He basically did everything that had to be done, and he said, “Every day was a new adventure” in our exclusive interview. And yet James, who spent 43 years at Nintendo and is now retiring, is hardly known in a public way. I never interviewed him until this week, and most gamers have no idea what James did in his career.

But the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) honored James as a game industry leader and cornerstone of Nintendo of America’s legacy. As executive vice president of operations, he oversaw numerous departments including consumer services, design, experiential marketing, real estate & facilities, manufacturing engineering, quality control, supply chain operations, purchasing, product testing, technical services, and technical translation. He was involved in every console/handheld launch from the Nintendo Entertainment System (1983) to the Nintendo Switch (2017).

In the video about James, Charles Martinet, Mario Ambassador and the voice of Mario, said he was hired by Don James to do the voice of Mario in Mario 64. Now it’s 168 games later, and Martinet retired in 2023.

“There was never a dull moment,” James said in his acceptance speech on Thursday evening. Yet he said the real magic was created by people who supported him.

“I won’t lie. Retirement is pretty great. But I will miss the challenges, and I will miss all of you,” he said.

“One thing we have always said at Nintendo is to our mission is to put smiles on people’s faces. It is the people in th...