7 Bizarre Facts About The Mario Bros.
Since the legend began in 1983, Mario Bros has grossed millions of Dollars –which proves its one of the greatest games ever created. Who doesn’t love the squat little Italian bloke in his red and blue plumber overalls!
There are millions of gamers all over the globe that grew up living vicariously through Mario and Luigi, bringing pain and suffering to stray mushrooms, turtles and dragon overlords wherever they may be. But there are things about this iconic game that you don’t know, and that will make this powerhouse of a game series even better when you play them all over again.
1.Dynamite Comes In Small Packages
Did you know that there are more kilobytes of data in a Word document than there were in the entire original Mario Bros game? At a whopping 40 kilobytes, the game still held over 80 different levels for you to play! Talk about a small package.
Even without top notch graphics Mario games have sold relentlessly, because of the epic journey he always has to take to save the princess. The original design team that created the game saved space by using the same graphics over and over again in different scenes, only changing certain colors and backdrops.
2.Mario Challenged Destiny
Friday the 13th is one of those days than send superstitious people into shrieks of terror, and the rest of us wary about what we do, or say on this deathly day. Famous as being the ‘bad luck’ day of the year, businesses tend to steer clear of its influence by not doing anything important – because it might lead to their downfall.
But what kind of all-powerful superhero would Mario be if he cared about that kind of utter nonsense? At least this is what the creators of the game were thinking when they decided to do their launch on the 13th.
3.Inspired by Alice
The fact that Mario Bros exists in a wonderland is no coincidence. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario Bros was so inspired by the tale of Alice in Wonderland, that he incorporated features of the book into his video game. The Disney movie might have been lame, but the book was some seriously creative stuff. Mario’s favorite pastime is to eat mushrooms that cause him to grow and shrink. Sound familiar?
Of course Alice didn’t technically eat mushrooms all the time, but there was a lot of speculation that Lewis Carroll did when he was writing the book. Mario Bros is festooned with Wonderland references. Giant turtles, flying fish, fire spitting dragons – all of them inspired by Carroll. So not only is Mario Bros one of the best games ever created, but it’s also based on one of the most influential children’s books ever written.
4.Coincidental Design
There were a few other interesting challenges that Shigeru had to face before packaging Mario Bros ready to be sold on the mass market. Mario’s hat, mustache and overalls were all created because they were simple, and defined the pixilated Mario a bit more from his surroundings. His hat was to replace the hair that Shigeru struggled to design on such a small scale, and his moustache was to give him a better shaped mouth to see on the screen.
5.The Famous Jump Punch Plumber
Gamers will be interested to know that Mario has never actually broken any brick with his head. While it might seem like this in the original game, if you look closely you can actually see a tiny pixilated hand pounding the brick instead. It’s also been said that the quicker you jump punch the coin boxes, the more coins will spill out of it.
Have you ever wondered why Mario is a plumber? Initially he was a carpenter, but they changed him to a plumber when they realized it fit in better with the pipes he likes toexplore. This is also why the best levels are the underwater levels, when you can see Mario swimming frantically to get to his next pipe.
6.Paying His Dues
Mario had some weird names before the creators landed on his now famous Italian one. The fiery Italian plumber owes his existence to Mario Seagale. He was the landlord of the Nintendo Headquarters in America, and unceremoniously interrupted a meeting to collect some overdue rent. You can only imagine how that conversation went – but the game production continued and the character we all know as Mario got a new name.
7.Fame and Fortune
Never before has there been a character in the video gaming industry that has taken on as many challenges as Mario has. He’s appeared in hundreds of video games, and eventually even got his oven TV series. Clearly the idea of the game is what has sustained it, because even all these years later – people are still playing Mario Bros.
Since the legend began in 1983, Mario Bros has grossed millions of Dollars –which proves its one of the greatest games ever created. Who doesn’t love the squat little Italian bloke in his red and blue plumber overalls!
There are millions of gamers all over the globe that grew up living vicariously through Mario and Luigi, bringing pain and suffering to stray mushrooms, turtles and dragon overlords wherever they may be. But there are things about this iconic game that you don’t know, and that will make this powerhouse of a game series even better when you play them all over again.
1.Dynamite Comes In Small Packages
Did you know that there are more kilobytes of data in a Word document than there were in the entire original Mario Bros game? At a whopping 40 kilobytes, the game still held over 80 different levels for you to play! Talk about a small package.
Even without top notch graphics Mario games have sold relentlessly, because of the epic journey he always has to take to save the princess. The original design team that created the game saved space by using the same graphics over and over again in different scenes, only changing certain colors and backdrops.
2.Mario Challenged Destiny
Friday the 13th is one of those days than send superstitious people into shrieks of terror, and the rest of us wary about what we do, or say on this deathly day. Famous as being the ‘bad luck’ day of the year, businesses tend to steer clear of its influence by not doing anything important – because it might lead to their downfall.
But what kind of all-powerful superhero would Mario be if he cared about that kind of utter nonsense? At least this is what the creators of the game were thinking when they decided to do their launch on the 13th.
3.Inspired by Alice
The fact that Mario Bros exists in a wonderland is no coincidence. Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario Bros was so inspired by the tale of Alice in Wonderland, that he incorporated features of the book into his video game. The Disney movie might have been lame, but the book was some seriously creative stuff. Mario’s favorite pastime is to eat mushrooms that cause him to grow and shrink. Sound familiar?
Of course Alice didn’t technically eat mushrooms all the time, but there was a lot of speculation that Lewis Carroll did when he was writing the book. Mario Bros is festooned with Wonderland references. Giant turtles, flying fish, fire spitting dragons – all of them inspired by Carroll. So not only is Mario Bros one of the best games ever created, but it’s also based on one of the most influential children’s books ever written.
4.Coincidental Design
There were a few other interesting challenges that Shigeru had to face before packaging Mario Bros ready to be sold on the mass market. Mario’s hat, mustache and overalls were all created because they were simple, and defined the pixilated Mario a bit more from his surroundings. His hat was to replace the hair that Shigeru struggled to design on such a small scale, and his moustache was to give him a better shaped mouth to see on the screen.
5.The Famous Jump Punch Plumber
Gamers will be interested to know that Mario has never actually broken any brick with his head. While it might seem like this in the original game, if you look closely you can actually see a tiny pixilated hand pounding the brick instead. It’s also been said that the quicker you jump punch the coin boxes, the more coins will spill out of it.
Have you ever wondered why Mario is a plumber? Initially he was a carpenter, but they changed him to a plumber when they realized it fit in better with the pipes he likes toexplore. This is also why the best levels are the underwater levels, when you can see Mario swimming frantically to get to his next pipe.
6.Paying His Dues
Mario had some weird names before the creators landed on his now famous Italian one. The fiery Italian plumber owes his existence to Mario Seagale. He was the landlord of the Nintendo Headquarters in America, and unceremoniously interrupted a meeting to collect some overdue rent. You can only imagine how that conversation went – but the game production continued and the character we all know as Mario got a new name.
7.Fame and Fortune
Never before has there been a character in the video gaming industry that has taken on as many challenges as Mario has. He’s appeared in hundreds of video games, and eventually even got his oven TV series. Clearly the idea of the game is what has sustained it, because even all these years later – people are still playing Mario Bros.