The History of Mario Brothers - arcade console documentary

[Applause] [Music] happy little games in the last 50 years there have been a number of iconic video game characters created for young boys and even some older men we had the boomerific laura croft for all the overachievers and overeaters we had pac-man and for people who were hopped up on speed we had sonic the hedgehog today though we are going to talk about a pair of brothers who were very well known in the industry and also had a fantastic game to boot no i'm not talking about the brotherly adventures of choi nikki i'm talking about the mustachioed plumbers who starred in the absolute classic arcade game mario brothers what was mario's original name before he was known as mario so let's take a look at the brothers mario before they were super this is the history of mario brothers after the rocking success of pac-man the previous year donkey kong made its debut in arcades in 1981. for those of you who have been stoned out of your minds for the last 41 years and don't know the story you take control of a little carpenter as he attempts to scale a construction site in an attempt to save his girlfriend pauline from the evil kleptomaniac gorilla who was feeling just a little bit randy the original name of the main character was going to be assan which means middle aged man that was then changed to mr video because designer shigeru miyamoto wanted a solid imposing name because the character was going to be extremely important and used in all of his future games they finally decided on jumpman due to the fact that your character jumps around as if he were at a crisscross concert the character was renamed to mario for the follow-up donkey kong junior by the president of nintendo of america manoaru irikawa the story goes is that the landlord at nintendo of america's warehouse demanding the rent which they were behind on the landlord was a short italian american by the name of mario segali and he put up such a stink and raised such a fuss that they decided to name their main character after him another rumor suggests that because he was the superintendent of the building shigeru miyamoto came up with the title super mario in early 1983 gunpei yokoi and shigeru miyamoto are tossing around ideas for their next arcade game while discussing the play mechanics behind donkey kong mr yokoi noted that mario could not fall from a very high distance without dying at first mr miyamoto was hesitant to the idea but eventually agreed he designed a prototype with mario jumping and bouncing around which he liked but it still wasn't much of a game mr yacoy was the one who suggested hitting the enemies from underneath but found that the game was too easy mr miyamoto suggested changing it to flipping the enemies over and then having to run up and kick them off the ledge before they flip back over this is also how they introduced the turtle into the game who could only be hit from below thanks to his invulnerable shell while in development it was suggested that the game be a two-player co-op game taking inspiration from the arcade classic joust the second player is mario's brother luigi contrary to popular belief this was not luigi's first appearance he actually appeared four months earlier in the game and watch series mario brothers originally luigi was just a palette swap of mario this was long before he went on the slim fast diet and started wearing six inch lifts in his shoes way to go luigi there for a while it was rumored that mario and luigi did not have last names thus joining such contemporaries as madonna prince and the undertaker however thanks to the four star oscar-worthy super mario brothers movie we learned that their last name is indeed mario so that means that their names are luigi mario and mario mario mario ended up putting down his hammer and saw and picked up a pipe wrench and moved to new york city to become a plumber mr miyamoto felt that the subterranean network of sewage pipes found in the big apple would be perfect for this game the pipes were also inspired by the ones used in various manga mario brothers was released in the arcades by nintendo in 1983. as the story goes mario and luigi are a couple of twins living in the sewers of new york city while trying to enjoy their hero sandwich they notice that the sewers are overrun by hordes of enemies it's up to mario and luigi to clean up the pipes and save new york city the game features a single screen layout with different variables the further into it that you get the various enemies will come out of the pipes on both sides and head downwards where they can enter the pipes again and come out on top the game features 22 unique phases or screens which will cause the phases to loop the screen counter will still increase all the way up to phase 98. the goal for each phase is to defeat all the enemies which is accomplished by jumping up and hitting the floor just below the enemy if you time this just right it will flip them over giving the player a chance to run up and kick them off the level if you do it two or three times in quick succession you will gain more points up to a total of 3200 there is no time for dawdling after knocking the enemy on his back you have about six seconds to take them out otherwise its color will start to flash and he will flip back over and become really po'd don't make me angry you wouldn't like me when i'm angry their speed will also increase making it a bit more difficult to take them out after kicking the enemy to its doom a coin will magically appear from either the left or the right pipe thankfully before any major change to the gameplay a tutorial is shown explaining exactly how to play the level first time players of the game will notice a pile button towards the bottom of the screen you can use this by jumping up and hitting it which will flip all enemies over you need to be careful though because if the enemies are already flipped over and you accidentally hit the power button it will flip the enemies right side up you can only use it three times and then it will disappear these will regenerate after the second bonus level and every bonus level that follows speaking of the bonus levels these will appear in what you have to collect all the coins in order to get an extra 5 000 on the first level or 8 000 on the bonus levels afterwards the bonus levels will also increase in difficulty with the second one filled with slip ice making traversing them just a little bit difficult and the third one in which the platforms are completely invisible the game features a rather twisted set of enemies including shell creepers which was probably the inspiration for the koopa troopa the sidestepper which is a large pinchy crab who actually needs to be hit twice before it will flip over fighter flies which can jump up and down you can only knock them over when they are touching the ground so be careful if you time it just right you can walk underneath them depending on which region you are playing phase nine sees the introduction of the slip ice these are creatures that have the ability to self-destruct and cover the platform with ice making it extremely slippery and one of the later unique enemy types are the icicles which will start as drops of water before forming into a sharp deadly killer icicle it will eventually fall down crushing anyone in his path in addition to the aforementioned enemies you also have to watch out for the gigantic fireballs which come in either the red or green flavor it is possible to smack a fireball from underneath and kill it but it will come back on a rampage so be prepared [Music] [Music] music by mozart is the song used in the tutorial stages in the game [Music] [Applause] [Music] the game is notable for introducing coins pow blocks and pipes into the mario lore the game was a massive hit for nintendo and it was actually immune to the great video game crash of 1983. in 1984 released exclusively in japan for the pc-8801 mario brothers special was released this is not a straight up conversion of mario brothers but more of a sequel with some changes in the gameplay you will need to jump on trampolines hit switches collect disappearing dollar signs and more there is also a time limit so you have to be quick i'm not sure if it was an emulation issue or not but the animation was very choppy making for a not so pleasant gameplay experience [Music] released that same year for also the same system was punch ball mario brothers the gameplay mechanics are more reminiscent of the original arcade title and not mario brothers special with one major difference you are given a stone ball to throw at your enemies this will flip them over allowing you to run up and knock them off the ledge this method and the power button are the only ways to flip enemies over jumping underneath them no longer works the animation is a herky jerky psychedelic miss and the gameplay is very slow [Music] gunpei yukoy introduced us to such innovations as the original game boy but he also unleashed upon us the virtual boy and with it the game of mario clash this would mark the very first 3d stereoscopic mario game but unfortunately it's only in single player plus everything looks like they are extremely close to a red sun this is not a straight up port but a proper sequel with new gameplay mechanics to boot the pipes themselves can be used to warp between platforms to disable an enemy you jump on them and then you pick them up and throw them the shells can also travel in the pipes to take out enemies for a big bonus it's a nice little update that is fun to play as a side note i remember when kb toys discounted all of their virtual boys and games at the time i didn't have any interest in the virtual boy but a friend of mine went and bought a brand new system for 19 dollars and all of the games were five dollars apiece [Music] classic mario brothers or just mario brothers was included as a mini game for super mario bros 3 for the nes and super mario all-stars [Music] [Applause] mario brothers was also released for the nintendo e-reader in 2002 the game was an unlockable and super mario advance for the game boy advance this is a 32-bit remake with better visuals sound design including voice clips and play mechanics you can now turn your character mid air making jumping so much easier there are also two pow blocks per phase it's a great little update and well worth checking out if you are a fan of mario brothers [Music] the nes version has also been made available over the years on the nintendo virtual console it was also one of the original 20 games that launched with the nintendo switch online service this one does feature online play which is a definite plus another cool little unlockable is luigi brothers from super mario 3d world this is basically a hack of the nes title but in this version mario was completely absent and luigi takes center stage this game received not only a number of home conversions but also a fantastic commercial that to this day i can still recite the words by heart by the way if you're curious about the wackiest of video game commercials made while possibly under the influence check out my video on joust [Music] brothers with mario from donkey kong his brother luigi and lots of crazy creatures and it's twice the fun when you play at once because you need all the help you can get where are you mario brothers knew from atari let's start the conversion train rolling with the atari 2600 version i had this one as a wee little 10 year old and thought it was pretty good everything has been scaled back and shrunk down quite a bit but everything is recognizable for the most part heck you can even make out mario's mustache which is a big plus for the atari 2600 the only sprite that is a bit questionable is the coin which looks like a rainbow square barreling down upon you the manual for the game even refers to them as wafers although these are not the wafers i am looking for it does control well and it's a pretty good attempt at the arcade game on the humble 2600. [Laughter] [Laughter] up next is the zenith spectrum version and despite your character looking like he's suffering from jaundice this is a really good conversion everything is large in detail with the minimal amount of color clash going on the characters are easily recognizable with fast gameplay and smooth animation thankfully the sound effects are kept to the absolute bare minimum which means there's a little bit of sbd going on the amstrad version looks to take the spectrum version and add a splash of color but in doing so makes everything run just a little bit slower the extra colors are nice but the controls themselves are a little bit slippery with mario slipping around like he was standing on ice there is a bit more sound but they are mostly bloops and bleeps and nothing to get excited about [Music] [Music] the apple ii version looks pretty good with its detailed sprites and fairly smooth animation there are some odd color choices such as the purple headed turtles but that's just a limitation of the apple ii's color palette the actual platforms that you stand on are too close to one another because mario is apparently suffering from a bout of gigantism it's hard to make jumps in between the platforms because his body is so big with that being said though it does control good the sound effects are not so good with all the nasty queefiness you can handle let's switch back to the atari line and take a look at the 5200 version now since the apple version featured mario and his gigantic head this version sees mario with the [ __ ] head trying to take care of those pesky enemies remember what i said about the odd color choices on the apple i would like those comments stricken from the record because the colors in this version are the absolute worst it looks like somebody ate pea soup and threw it up all over the screen the sound effects aren't bad and it does control fairly well if you can get past the vomiting visuals [Music] the commodore 64 was blessed with two versions of the game the first one we are looking at is from 1983 and it looks good although there are some iffy gravity effects going on when you jump the sprites are large and detailed and the colors aren't too bad but i feel they could have been better the gameplay speed is a bit slower than the arcade but it's okay once you adjust to it everything has been included as well as the bonus stages the sound effects and music are merely adequate otherwise it's a good conversion [Music] for some odd reason in 1987 ocean software decided to release their version and i really wish they hadn't now you would think in the four years since the release of the original game that ocean software could have used some more modern techniques when coding this but obviously that just wasn't the case it resembles mario brothers but everything has been given a slight facelift which makes it all look a bit odd it is slightly faster than the previous version but the difficulty is through the roof the sound effects and music have also been given a remix and no sir i didn't like it check it out if you are curious [Music] the atari 8-bit computer version is fantastic this is one of the only versions to feature the opening cinematics as well as the demonstrations before new enemies are introduced this is leaps and bounds above its 5200 brother with colorful graphics and smooth animation the speed of the game is on par with the original and the controls are nice and tight the sound effects and music are really good and represent the arcade game nicely i think out of all the home conversions i've seen i think this is the best one even beating out the original 64 version well worth a play if you are interested [Music] the atari 7800 version was really good back in the day the mario sprite looks very close in size to the original but the enemy sprites look a little bit on the slim side then to win baby the sound effects and music are just barely average but it does a pretty good job at replicating the arcade's controls [Music] the version most people are probably familiar with is the nes version and it turned out pretty good the sprites are large in detail with smooth animation although similar to the 7800 the enemies are a bit on the squat side despite missing some bells and whistles this is a pretty good home conversion [Music] a brand new version for the famicom floppy disk system in japan was also released it featured a number of improvements including mario and luigi being able to change direction in mid-air slightly improved graphics and music and the ability to save your high score thanks to the floppy disk system advertisements will also appear for fried rice and super mario brothers 3. the definitive version for the nes was released in 1993 but only in germany and italy this retained everything from the floppy disk version although it did restore the missing stage intermissions which no other nintendo version featured it also removed the various japanese adverts [Music] [Music] mario brothers is one of my favorite co-op retro arcade games from the early 1980s i got really good at this game when it was in the arcades back in 1983 because the unit at our local bowling alley would take nickels instead of quarters so 20 games for a dollar got me really good really quick it's a fantastic game and if you've never had a chance to try it out you owe it to yourself to do so you'll be glad you did if you enjoyed this video be sure to like comment share and subscribe also if you would like to support me on patreon please click the link below if you would like to support me but not sign up for my patreon you can always make a one-time donation by clicking the thanks button down below thanks everybody for watching

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 42,656

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Shigeru, gUNPEI yOKOI, Famicom disk system, Mario punch ball, Mario clash, shell creeper, fighter fly, classic, ocean, Atarisoft, Commercial, Luigi, Mario, jumpman

Id: tiTUzl1KIhg

Length: 28min 15sec (1695 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 23 2022