
Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary - xvirk
http://mario30.nintendo.co.uk/
======
Killswitch
Oh man, I'm not a full blown gamer, but I do play games. I fondly remember
getting violently mad at my nintendo playing SMB in the livingroom. Throwing
the controller, screaming. All that good stuff. I remember fighting endlessly
to get to the end and save the princess... Just to be on the final level and
my mom comes in, hits the power button and says "Time for bed."

Those moments growing up were the bane of my existance.. Super Mario Bros was
the first game I ever fell in love with.. To this day, even with modern gaming
and modern graphics. Super Mario Bros still holds my attention longer than any
of those games ever could imagine.

Here I am sitting at my computer having just turned 30 years old 5 days ago,
and I see this. My childhood friend just turning 30 years old too. I can't
wait to introduce my daughter to the wonders of Super Mario Bros, and I will
do it on the same Nintendo Entertainment System that my mother bought me and
my sisters in 1985, that I've kept this whole time and still works flawlessly
today.

~~~
coldpie
> the same Nintendo Entertainment System that... still works flawlessly today

This is what worries me about modern gaming's "Day One patches" and other
games released on disc in an unplayable state. Sony and Microsoft are going to
take down those update servers someday. Will I be able to take DriveClub out
of the closet in 30 years and play it on a PS4 purchased off eBay? I doubt it.
And thanks to DRM & Friends, the patches will never be distributable by 3rd
parties.

~~~
Killswitch
Indeed. It's also funny that the 800 number on the back for support still
works today.

~~~
saganus
Really?

Care to expand a bit? This sounds quite interesting!

~~~
Killswitch
[http://i.imgur.com/Xdy2S.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/Xdy2S.jpg)

In Nintendo's defense, this is their general customer support number that just
has never changed and it's not meant to be just for the NES. But they do get
people who ask about the NES and do help with issues still.

~~~
gergles
(That's an SNES in the picture, but yeah, the number is the same.)

~~~
petersellers
It's actually one of the top-loading NES machines they made for only a couple
years before the NES was discontinued.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System_%...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System_%28Model_NES-101%29)

------
derefr
Just a note: this is definitely not one of those "fall from grace" stories
where SMB was some sort of pinnacle achievement in gaming. If you want to
relive your childhood by playing a Mario game on a TV, _get a Wii U_ and play
NSMBU. It'll look "as good as you remember" (rather than having aged), and
more importantly, it'll be a fresh set of challenges exercising the same
skills, so it'll be _just as hard_ as you remember, rather than just an
automatic muscle-memory cruise. You will actually feel like a kid again,
rather than an adult reminiscing.

People get so excited about "modernized ports" of the old Mario games... but
Nintendo has already made them, with new levels! (I should also mention that
Mario 3D World is everything I ever wished for while playing Mario 64.)

~~~
Narishma
> It'll look "as good as you remember"

Only if you play it on a CRT TV. Games from that era look terrible on a modern
HDTV.

~~~
derefr
I don't think you read my comment right; I was saying that NSMBU will look as
good as you _thought_ SMB1 looked as a child.

------
kmooney
I remember the first time I played Super Mario Bros on an NES. It was like the
first time I used an iPhone. It was immediately obvious that everyone else had
been doing it wrong all along.

~~~
PopsiclePete
In many ways, it's a "perfect" game. Smooth scrolling, no frame rate issues,
cool art style, amazing music, excellent control. No tutorial levels, no
shitty movies, no hand-holding. Just - go. It blew my mind in so many ways.
Way ahead of its time.

The first game on the PC that came close to matching that experience was
Commander Keen, which was, what, 1991? 6 years later...

~~~
jsingleton
Fun fact, Keen was originally a Mario port but Nintendo didn't want it.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen#Creation_and_de...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commander_Keen#Creation_and_development)

------
jathu
Someone made a near perfect JS port of SMB
[https://github.com/FullScreenShenanigans/FullScreenMario](https://github.com/FullScreenShenanigans/FullScreenMario)

~~~
entelechy0
Feels a bit slow to be called "near perfect" but cool, I always love seeing
Mario projects :D

~~~
logicallee
the NES ran on an 8-bit processor at nearly 1.79 MHz with 2 kB of slow onboard
work RAM. On the surface it would seem we could expect a 32-bit or 64-bit CPU
sixteen generations later running at between 2 and 4 GHz with dozens of times
that memory in just L1 cache, to be able to match that. But then Javascript is
a helluva drug.

------
gdubs
I don't know how many people remember "The Wizard", but man what a brilliant
bit of marketing on the part of Nintendo.[1]

1:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_%28film%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_%28film%29)

~~~
noblethrasher
I love _The Wizard_ , it's so bad.

------
yzh
Since this is relevant today. Here I want to recommend this awesome game to
you guys. It's two of my favorite games in one (portal+smb):
[http://stabyourself.net/mari0/](http://stabyourself.net/mari0/)

~~~
gknoy
That looks remarkably awesome. Thanks for sharing!

------
codewithcheese
I fully expected the post intro screen to be playable, would have been epic :)

~~~
kohanz
Yes! Is it bad to say I was disappointed when it wasn't?

~~~
coldpie
No. Why would it be?

------
TazeTSchnitzel
I'm excited for Nintendo's new "Mario Maker". It's exactly what it sounds
like: a game that lets you make Super Mario Bros. (or ~ 3, or ~ World, or New
~) levels!

That video you see, with the switching between games? Noticed that the blocks
have a drop-shadow? That's because it's actually a _Mario Maker_ level!

------
FunkyRhombus
Website takes 5x longer to load than the game they made 30 years ago.

~~~
dasil003
Well if they didn't make it load fast kids would pull it out and blow all
kinds of saliva into it, slowing rusting the connectors and ruining the cart.
If you blow that hard on your screen it's not so bad.

------
pdknsk
The Japanese site has polite Mario in the source.

[http://www.nintendo.co.jp/mario30th/](http://www.nintendo.co.jp/mario30th/)

~~~
drewblaisdell
(I think s/he means that it works with Flash disabled)

~~~
dewarrn1
I think s/he means that the HTML source includes ASCII art showing Mario:

<!------------ SUPER MARIO BROS. 30TH ---------------

    
    
                   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
                #########++++++###+++
                #########++++++###+++
             ###+++###+++++++++###++++++
             ###+++###+++++++++###++++++
             ###+++######+++++++++###+++++++++
             ###+++######+++++++++###+++++++++
             ######++++++++++++###############
             ######++++++++++++###############
                   +++++++++++++++++++++
                   +++++++++++++++++++++
                ######\\\#########
                ######\\\#########
             #########\\\######\\\#########
             #########\\\######\\\#########
          ############\\\\\\\\\\\\############
          ############\\\\\\\\\\\\############
          ++++++###\\\+++\\\\\\+++\\\###++++++
          ++++++###\\\+++\\\\\\+++\\\###++++++
          +++++++++\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\+++++++++
          +++++++++\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\+++++++++
          ++++++\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\++++++
          ++++++\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\++++++
                \\\\\\\\\      \\\\\\\\\
                \\\\\\\\\      \\\\\\\\\
             #########            #########
             #########            #########
    
    

\--------------- THANK YOU! -------------->

------
jimmaswell
Somehow, going through it in my head 10 times, I kept coming up with new
reasons that's only 20 years. "1985, 1995, 2015, that's 20.."

I finally had to check with a calculator and that's when I realized I skipped
2005.

This same kind of thing happened to me on that clock problem. Why does this
happen?

------
par
Hey, I don't see Mario Paint on here! :)

~~~
starshadowx2
Paper Mario isn't there either...

------
simonswords82
This is the one website that I wouldn't have minded having sound, so long as
they played the mario theme tune :)

~~~
velox_io
Then you may like this, Super Mario Levels. He has some moves!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_apb7EcsWgc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_apb7EcsWgc)

------
Oatseller
I didn't realize SMB was that old. Pac-Man just turned 35 on the 22nd [0], I
wouldn't have guessed that it was only 5 years older than SMB.

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9593502](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9593502)

------
pikachu_is_cool
> This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Japanese release of the Super
> Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Entertainment System on September 13th,
> 1985.

Wait... what? They're like 4 months early.

------
cjslep
Thanks for reawakening my nightmares of getting absolutely clobbered by Super
Mario Land on that brick of a GameBoy.

~~~
coldpie
SML was the first game I ever got "good" at and could beat regularly. Largely
thanks to hours and hours spent on airplanes. It's a difficult game, but
fairly easy to master if you put the time in.

~~~
agumonkey
SML was HARD as in hyper strict, like GameGear Sonic (last time I couldn't
beat the first boss). SML2 was quite complex but less hard. WL (aka SML3 ?)
too, first (and only) game I owned 100%, got all the secret paths, tricks,
gems, and even alternate endings.

------
littleweep
That's what I love about those Koopa Troopas, man. I get older, they stay the
same age.

------
xacaxulu
Wow. Now I actually feel old. What great memories though.

------
arbitrage
Hopefully a positive sign (hint?) of Nintendo rereleasing its extensive back
catalogue onto new mobile and internet platforms. I really hope they pull
through on that.

~~~
chasing
They already do: The 3DS and the Wii U.

I suspect we shall not be seeing a Nintendo-approved Mario platformer on iOS
or Android anytime soon. Seems like it would just undermine their hardware
sales.

~~~
maxsilver
Yes, exactly.

I don't understand the obsession people have with Nintendo releasing their
games inside Apple's walled garden.

Nintendo already releases really great games, on good hardware specifically
designed for playing those games. It's widely available, designed well for
it's intended purpose and priced very competitively (32gb iPod Touch is $250,
32gb Wii U is $300 but also usually includes a ~$50 game).

They also sell a reasonable back-catalog of their older games. Their Wii U
hardware is backwards compatible with nearly everything they've ever released
(hardware-native compatible with Wii and GameCube, software-emulates N64,
SNES, NES, GBA, DS, etc).

Nintendo isn't perfect by any means. But their setup right now is pretty
competitive, and their hardware has been intelligently selected and priced.

Nintendo might gain a little bit of sales by jumping into iOS, but they'd
loose a _lot_ too -- way more than most people might realize.

~~~
mikeash
I think the reason people are obsessed with this is because no matter how good
Nintendo's hardware is, or how cheap it is, or how available it is, it can't
compete with the smartphone I already own and carry around in my pocket all
day.

All else being equal, I'd rather have Nintendo games on my iPhone than pay $1
for a 3DS or a Wii U, simply because I always have my iPhone.

The problem, of course, is that all else _won 't_ be equal. Business concerns
aside, the games are unlikely to be very fun on a touchscreen. Every fast-
paced touchscreen game I've played has been an exercise in frustration and I
don't think Nintendo can overcome that.

But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it,
then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other mobile
platform of choice).

~~~
chasing
> But if a person hasn't figured that out, or thinks Nintendo can overcome it,
> then it's pretty reasonable to want their stuff on iOS (or their other
> mobile platform of choice).

It's reasonable to want it, I guess, but it's not reasonable to expect
Nintendo to provide an inferior experience to players that also undermines
their business.

~~~
mikeash
I assume people don't think it'll be an inferior experience (unwarranted
optimism about Nintendo's ability to produce great touchscreen controls?) nor
that it would undermine their business (optimism about how many units they
would sell on iOS?).

~~~
akidnow
RPGs (no "real time" control, just navigating menus) are the only genre I can
see being able to translate well to touch screen devices. So I could see an
iOS Pokemon game doing well, and not a whole lot less.

Thing is, while an iOS Pokemon game would do gangbusters, would it be able to
top the 10+ million copies at $40 a pop that Pokemon games (released almost
every year these days, it seems) regularly clear, given that they'd have to
cut the price considerably (or even make it "freemium") in order to sell to
the typical iOS user? And even if it did sell better, would it be worth
killing off what is arguably the main driver of 3DS sales and taking an
additional corresponding hit on other, unrelated 3DS games?

Unless Nintendo goes totally bonkers, I think their iOS experiments are going
to be limited to smaller puzzle titles and the like that fit into the existing
"freemium" mold well, making a quick buck and advertising their bread-and-
butter properties simultaneously.

------
hroi
As always, Luigi is totally neglected.

~~~
insin
Luigi just had a whole year to himself :)

[http://www.mariowiki.com/Year_of_Luigi](http://www.mariowiki.com/Year_of_Luigi)

------
isaacdl
For those like me who were curious, this year is in fact the 30th anniversary
of Super Mario Bros[0].

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros).

