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25 Years of Super Mario Bros.

harrymcc writes "On September 13th 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom (NES) in Japan. It went on to become the best-selling video game of all time, a title it only recently lost. Over at Technologizer, Benj Edwards is celebrating the anniversary with a look at some of the weirdest variations, spinoffs, and tributes the game has inspired over the years, from edibles to art projects." The Guardian's games blog adds a bunch of Mario-related trivia, and CVG attempts to explain the history of Mario games. Nintendo is capitalizing on the anniversary by announcing an upcoming collection of classic Mario games (Japanese site, English explanation) that have been ported to the Wii.

16 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Heads up on that Mario collection by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 3, Informative

    it's just a Wii port of Mario All Stars that came out in the US for SNES, same graphics and all.

    The booklet and the soundtrack seem interesting packins though.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  2. really? by xenapan · · Score: 1, Informative

    mario is older than me by a month and a day!

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    insert funny sig here
  3. And today is also... by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Programmers' Day, the 256th day of the year. Quite a coincidence.

  4. The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    For anyone wondering, the "best-selling video game of all time" is Wii Sports.

    1. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by radish · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well you could try this. It lists Wii Sports at over 66 million, which is over twice the total number of 2600's sold (according to this). It's kind of in a league of it's own, but then it was also bundled with the console which disqualifies it from the list in some people's eyes. The highest selling unbundled game is Wii Play AFAIK.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    2. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Pojut · · Score: 2, Informative

      May we have a citation for your claim that Wii Sports is the best-selling?

      Here you go.

    3. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Binestar · · Score: 2, Informative

      I bought Wii Play because it came with an extra wiimote, the game itself sucked =/. Same price for wiimote vs Wii Play so figured I'd get the game with my wiimote.

      --
      Do you Gentoo!?
    4. Re:The Best-Selling Video Game of All Time... by Patch86 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Super Mario Bros. was bundled with the console originally too. Presumably we weren't disqualifying that.

      Mine was a SMB/Duck Hunt twin-pak, and was awesome I might add.

  5. Re:Who's #1 then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    According to the SMB Wikipedia article, its Wii Sports. Purportedly because it comes bundled.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.#cite_note-3

  6. Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The PC Mario game that went on becoming Commander Keen.

    1. Re:Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement by g_rampage · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's what (s)he is saying. Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement was a PC clone of Super Mario Bros (3, I think). After Nintendo rejected their offer to port it to PC they made Commander Keen.

  7. Re:Twenty-five years? by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Informative

    You think that's old? It's been 33 years since I first laid hands on an Atari console (still one of my favorite machines) with its Commodore-produced 6502 CPU and TIA sound/graphics chip (with an amazing 30x20 resolution).

    The Famicom was released in 1983 so we're talking about 27 year old technology! Its contemporaries were the Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 5200 SuperSystem, Apple IIc/e, and C=64. (The Mac and Amiga didn't even exist yet.) Ancient, old, ancient technology. But hella fun.

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  8. Re:Twenty-five years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    25 years later, I'm still trying to get to the end.

    1-1 to 1-2
    1-2 to 4-1 via warp
    4-1 to 4-2
    4-2 to 8-1 via warp
    8-1 to 8-2
    8-2 to 8-3
    8-3 to 8-4
    Be careful
    Run under the king
    Grab the axe
    game over.

    If you still can't do it, use savestates. Once you've done it once, the next few times are a breeze.

    Do it with a few friends and drinks to make it even more fun.

  9. Interesting product but not economical by damn_registrars · · Score: 2, Informative

    So they are offering the first 4 Super Mario Bros games on one disc for around $30. The same 4 games can be purchased for your Wii through the virtual console for $5 each - totaling $20. I guess if the disc, manual, and soundtrack are worth another $10 to you, then go for it. Otherwise just buy the ones you want (or all 4 of them) as downloads and enjoy the savings.

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    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
  10. Re:One of Commodore's best sellers by theaveng · · Score: 3, Informative

    Commodore had nothing to do with the 6502

    MOS was owned by Commodore. i.e. Same company. In fact one reason Commodore VIC-20 and 64 was so much cheaper than the competition was because they charged Atari, Apple, et cetera thrice the price that Commodore charged itself, so they could sell computers at only $150 each. Atari/Apple couldn't even get close.

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  11. What the collection *should* be... by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 2, Informative
    Here's what the Super Mario collection *should* be:
    • Super Mario Bros
    • Super Mario Bros 2 (US)
    • Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan)
    • Super Mario Bros 3
    • Super Mario All-Stars
    • Super Mario World
    • Super Mario 64

    Price: $20

    That's the bare minimum acceptable product celebrating the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.

    For a few dollars more they could include the various GameBoy incarnations of Super Mario Bros, and maybe throw in the old Mario Bros for good measure.

    Twenty-five years and all they do is re-release Super Mario All Stars? Please.


    Of course, most of these games (along with their source) should belong to the Public Domain by now, but that's another story.

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.