Super Mario Bros. is now a 25-year-old video game. Released in Japan on September 23, 1985, the Famicom classic made its way to the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America the following year, and quickly began working kids who didn’t have the NES into an envious lather. Even though Mario appeared in Donkey Kong and Mario Bros in previosu years, video games were never the same after the iconic plumber starred in his first scrolling platformer.
This is a moment that allows USENET newsgroup gamers to look back on 25 years of history and transition. Gaming has become an entirely different creature now, but Mario and Luigi are still here to watch it happen. Dedicated USENET newsgroups have been created and live on throughout the 25 years of Mario, bringing in together huge gaming communities.
That simple game about rescuing a princess while avoiding Koopas and Goombas brought an entirely new generation of gamers to the table. Gamers that have changed just as much as the gaming industry around them.
It’s easy to forget the humble origins of gaming with all the modern shooters and RPG epics around, but it’s times like these we should all look back to the (re)birth of gaming, and how a few short decades have caused the world to change so much.
As friendly and heroic as he has become, there was a time when Mario was not always the good guy willing to battle an army of strange sewer dwellers in order to impress a princess. In 1982’s Donkey Kong Jr he was the villain as he traps poor Donkey Kong in a cage and the ape’s son must rescue him.
To date there are over 200 games in the Mario franchise, collectively selling over 200 million copies and making a wealth of families and gamers consistently smile, laugh, cry, panic and frustrated over the years.
To celebrate the landmark Nintendo is releasing a collector’s edition box set of some of the Super Mario Brother’s greatest hits. The collection, which will ship in Japan on October 21 features Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels for the Nintendo Wii.
