| paleface [sys=C64; cat=Platformer; reg=NA] |
| | | Unreleased 1984 version by Atarisoft, not to be confused with the later, actually released Ocean version.
https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/mario-bros/
My non-game-knowing dad somehow ended up with a copy of this among other bootleg game discs he brought us. Might've just been given to him at the shop where he bought the C64?
A modern theory says maybe this version was rejected because the platforms don't bulge upwards--like the arcade and Famicom versions did--when punched from below by Mario and Luigi. In an interview I read somewhere, developer Gregg A. Tavares said he didn't know why it wasn't published.
1984 was a year before the NES came out (and two years before the NES "The Original" Mario Bros. came out here; the arcade/Famicom versions were out in '83 though)! So in theory I was playing this before the later NES-having friends I would be so jealous of were playing any kind of Mario.
It plays really well! Has 2P. I think the enemies are slightly slower than in the NES version, 'cause it's pretty easy to get to the upper platforms and knock the first ones off at the start. The sound isn't quite as good as the iconic NES sounds--but it's better than the arcade sounds, as least as far as I can hear them in MAME. The enemies and fireballs are full size and don't flicker. Hm not sure if there are icicles in it. Definitely no air control like those later, overseas FDS/NES Mario Bros added. It seems like this version was pretty much based on the arcade version, although it doesn't have the between-phases enemy intro screens like the arcade has. |
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