"Mario" Fact

[FrizzleFried]

It is common to see people claim that "Mario" was named "Jumpman" until Donkey Kong Jr. came out when they named him "Mario"...right?   At least that is the story I have read over and over again at various websites (though I have seen others call him Mario?)

Anyway,  here is a flyer from 1981 that distinctly calls him "Mario" the carpenter...before DK Jr.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Anyway,  here is a flyer from 1981 that distinctly calls him "Mario" the carpenter...before DK Jr.

OK.... Here's a challenge for you then.... When did they decide that he was a plumber and not a carpenter.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[SavannahLion]

Anyway,  here is a flyer from 1981 that distinctly calls him "Mario" the carpenter...before DK Jr.

OK.... Here's a challenge for you then.... When did they decide that he was a plumber and not a carpenter.

Is it just for him or can I pipe in too? 

[Fozzy The Bear]

Anyway,  here is a flyer from 1981 that distinctly calls him "Mario" the carpenter...before DK Jr.

OK.... Here's a challenge for you then.... When did they decide that he was a plumber and not a carpenter.

Is it just for him or can I pipe in too? 

Feel free to chime in....

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[horseboy]

Anyway,  here is a flyer from 1981 that distinctly calls him "Mario" the carpenter...before DK Jr.

OK.... Here's a challenge for you then.... When did they decide that he was a plumber and not a carpenter.

Is it just for him or can I pipe in too? 

Feel free to chime in....

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

I think that was a plumber joke.

[ArcadeMaze]

X

[torez]

Think he went postal (smashing all these wooden barrels).  After all as a kid he was a Paperboy or was this all a pipe dream

[SavannahLion]

I thought it was with MB as well, but according to Wikipedia, it started with DKjr.

[FrizzleFried]

I'd have guessed Mario Brothers as well.

From "The Mushroom Kingdom":

1983: Mario Bros. (Arcade)
Mario, now a plumber, teams up with (or fights against) brother Luigi (in 2-Player mode) to kill an infinite supply of turtles, crabs, and flies that travel through pipes.

From Game Cubicle:

In 1983, Mario would title in his own game, Mario Bros. On the input of a colleague who mentioned the character looked more like a plumber than a carpenter, Miyamoto decided to change Mario's profession.

Who knows....

[Donkey_Kong]

"Mario" Fact

Who the hell is Mario and why all the fuss?   

[horseboy]

"Mario" Fact

Who the hell is Mario and why all the fuss?   

He's that little Italian guy that climbed all of those ladders and dodged all of your flaming barrels in order to steal the Pinewood Princess away from you. 

[Crowquill]

I can't find a link to anything relevent, but I do remember reading multiple times that Mario was named after a landlord or janitor or something at Nintendo of America.

In the US, he has been named Mario ever since Donkey Kong even though he is listed as "Jumpman" on the instruction card. The name stuck and Nintendo Japan started using it with Junior.

[FrizzleFried]

Landlord of NOA's first location...

"Jumpman" did not have his name for very long, however. NOA had to prepare the game for American release, which included naming the characters. As the story goes, they were mulling over what to name Jumpman when the landlord, Mario Segale, arrived at the warehouse, demanding the overdue rent payment. When he left, the staff had a new name for Jumpman: "Mario."

Source: http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml

[steveh]

wow nice read fizzle there were some things there i just did not know.

[ahofle]

Whoa, could this be right?

"1989: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
The best-selling game of all time. "

Surely the original NES Super Mario Bros sold more copies?    Everyone I knew had the original, but I've never even seen the 3rd one.

[Jeff AMN]

Whoa, could this be right?

"1989: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
The best-selling game of all time. "

Surely the original NES Super Mario Bros sold more copies?    Everyone I knew had the original, but I've never even seen the 3rd one.

If you don't count bundled games, Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best-selling game of all time (about 18 million). The original Super Mario Bros. sold about 40 million...but that includes "free" copies bundled with the console.

[SavannahLion]

Whoa, could this be right?

"1989: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
The best-selling game of all time. "

Surely the original NES Super Mario Bros sold more copies?    Everyone I knew had the original, but I've never even seen the 3rd one.

If you don't count bundled games, Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best-selling game of all time (about 18 million). The original Super Mario Bros. sold about 40 million...but that includes "free" copies bundled with the console.

Of course, that had nothing at all to do with The Wizard. 

[Donkey_Kong]

"Mario" Fact

Who the hell is Mario and why all the fuss?   

He's that little Italian guy that climbed all of those ladders and dodged all of your flaming barrels in order to steal the Pinewood Princess away from you. 

Well if you happen to see this little girly guy horseboy, be sure and tell him to pack a LUNCH!

[fjl]

The Wizard helped but I'm pretty damn sure that SMB3 awesomeness also had a big impact. I don't think any other SMB game has ever topped SMB3 in coolness. Sure Mario64 was cool jumping into the 3D platform world but SMB3 still had overall fun factor way out.

[shorthair]

The Mario story is in the history.dat. SMB3 seems a little slow-going...but at least they got rid of the playchoice split-screen.

[steveh]

Of course, that had nothing at all to do with The Wizard. 

Ironicly about a month ago i hunted down and bought this movie on dvd.  i have not gotten a chance to watch it.  AHH the classics.

[horseboy]

Of course, that had nothing at all to do with The Wizard. 

Ironicly about a month ago i hunted down and bought this movie on dvd.  i have not gotten a chance to watch it.  AHH the classics.

Didn't everyone love how awesome that movie made the Power Glove look, but then it really really really sucked. That was dissapointing.

[FrizzleFried]

Of course, that had nothing at all to do with The Wizard. 

Ironicly about a month ago i hunted down and bought this movie on dvd.  i have not gotten a chance to watch it.  AHH the classics.

Didn't everyone love how awesome that movie made the Power Glove look, but then it really really really sucked. That was dissapointing.

You didn't SERIOUSLY expect different,  did you?

[shardian]

Anyone else remember the SMB3 commercial where a ton of people wore colored hats and shirts, stood all over the globe and made a mario face? I thought that was a cool video back in the day.

[fjl]

being a kid back then the commercial would get me thinking how they actually got so many people to stand all over united states just to get that shot. But I also hated that commercial seeing as how it didn't show any ingame shots of the game.

[shorthair]

Anyone else remember the SMB3 commercial where a ton of people wore colored hats and shirts, stood all over the globe and made a mario face? I thought that was a cool video back in the day.

...I remember that.  That was that long ago?  You know they just did some visual trickery beyond the range of the football field they were using.

[btp2k2]

Landlord of NOA's first location...

"Jumpman" did not have his name for very long, however. NOA had to prepare the game for American release, which included naming the characters. As the story goes, they were mulling over what to name Jumpman when the landlord, Mario Segale, arrived at the warehouse, demanding the overdue rent payment. When he left, the staff had a new name for Jumpman: "Mario."

Source: http://www.themushroomkingdom.net/mario_history.shtml

That site says that NOA just "came up" with the name Luigi, because it went well with "Mario"...in truth, Luigi got his name from a pizza joint not far from the new (at the time) NOA headquarters in Redmond, WA...."Mario and Luigi's Pizza"

[shmokes]

Of course, that had nothing at all to do with The Wizard. 

Ironicly about a month ago i hunted down and bought this movie on dvd.  i have not gotten a chance to watch it.  AHH the classics.

Didn't everyone love how awesome that movie made the Power Glove look, but then it really really really sucked. That was dissapointing.

You didn't SERIOUSLY expect different,  did you?

I was like 10 years old when that came out.  I begged and begged and begged for it for Christmas.  It was like a Red Ryder BB gun.  After playing with it for a couple of hours I went to my mom in tears asking if we could take it back and trade it in for something else.  I felt so foolish and embarrassed having to ask my mom if we could take it back after how I'd been talking it up and begging for it for so long (especially since the thing probably cost more than any of my siblings presents.  If I remember right the things were $80 when they were released. 

So, yeah.  I expected it to kick ass and instead it ruined my Christmas.  I swear to god I still haven't forgiven Mattel for that.   

[NiteWalker]

Anyone else remember the SMB3 commercial where a ton of people wore colored hats and shirts, stood all over the globe and made a mario face? I thought that was a cool video back in the day.

I love that commercial. It's the greatest ever made. It shows how grand that game really was(is). Most have spoken the truth. Not a single mario game has matched everything the 3rd is. SM64 came close, very close, but SMB3 was more satisfying.

[Glaine]

So wait.....the Power Glove....wasn't awesome...? I always just assumed it was, it just looked so rad. And played Rad Racer in the Wizard

Anyone else remember the SMB3 commercial where a ton of people wore colored hats and shirts, stood all over the globe and made a mario face? I thought that was a cool video back in the day.

I love that commercial. It's the greatest ever made. It shows how grand that game really was(is). Most have spoken the truth. Not a single mario game has matched everything the 3rd is. SM64 came close, very close, but SMB3 was more satisfying.

In fact, the only beef I can think of with that game (and this is nit-picking) was the fact that if you were good you could warp whistle like crazy and skip most of the worlds, in effect greatly shortening the game and kind of defeating all that work that went into all those worlds. I guess it was more there for those who had already played it an aweful lot.

I also always thought it was strange that SMB3 had a warp whistle just like Zelda.

[NiteWalker]

Exactly. The warp whistles were for those who have beaten the game plenty of times and just want to hear the ending music. One of the best ending melodies ever.

I still like to go through the SNES Mario all stars version every now and then just because of the diversity of all the worlds. Love that game.

[fjl]

I was like 10 years old when that came out.  I begged and begged and begged for it for Christmas.  It was like a Red Ryder BB gun.  After playing with it for a couple of hours I went to my mom in tears asking if we could take it back and trade it in for something else.  I felt so foolish and embarrassed having to ask my mom if we could take it back after how I'd been talking it up and begging for it for so long (especially since the thing probably cost more than any of my siblings presents.  If I remember right the things were $80 when they were released. 

So, yeah.  I expected it to kick ass and instead it ruined my Christmas.  I swear to god I still haven't forgiven Mattel for that.   

So, why did it suck? Hard to control or just very impractical? Details pls

[Kremmit]

So wait.....the Power Glove....wasn't awesome...? I always just assumed it was, it just looked so rad. And played Rad Racer in the Wizard

Yeah, there's ANOTHER dissapointment from Nintendo.  I never bought the glove, but I was super-hyped to try the "3D" Rad Racer.  Complete hoax, all it did was make the colors look wonky, glasses or no glasses.  Man was I pissed.

 

[Crowquill]

So wait.....the Power Glove....wasn't awesome...? I always just assumed it was, it just looked so rad. And played Rad Racer in the Wizard

Yeah, there's ANOTHER dissapointment from Nintendo.  I never bought the glove, but I was super-hyped to try the "3D" Rad Racer.  Complete hoax, all it did was make the colors look wonky, glasses or no glasses.  Man was I pissed.

 

Rad Racer was actually better than most racing games on the NES, but the "3-D" was useless. Even so, it's kind of cool that Squaresoft was trying new things even back then.  "3-D World Runner" on the other hand worked well in 3D. It's not a very well-known title though.

The U-Force worked better than the Power Glove, but not by much.

[tommyinajar]

Didn't they have a 'Robot" that flopped as well ?

[horseboy]

R.O.B.

Robotic Operating Buddy

[steveh]

this thread is creepy.   I just ordered one of those NES  Rob's off of ebay a few days ago.

[fjl]

What was the R.O.B. for anyways?

[horseboy]

What was the R.O.B. for anyways?

Basically he opened and closed the gate pedestal things in Gyromite for you if you didn't have 2 players. It sucked big time. When I first got it as a kid it looked like the sweetest thing ever, but we used it like 5 times and then packed it away. It was much more fun to just squish each other anyway.

Also, he could be used in Stack Up, but I don't know in what capacity.

[SavannahLion]

I was like 10 years old when that came out.  I begged and begged and begged for it for Christmas.  It was like a Red Ryder BB gun.  After playing with it for a couple of hours I went to my mom in tears asking if we could take it back and trade it in for something else.  I felt so foolish and embarrassed having to ask my mom if we could take it back after how I'd been talking it up and begging for it for so long (especially since the thing probably cost more than any of my siblings presents.  If I remember right the things were $80 when they were released. 

So, yeah.  I expected it to kick ass and instead it ruined my Christmas.  I swear to god I still haven't forgiven Mattel for that.   

So, why did it suck? Hard to control or just very impractical? Details pls

I have a book that explains this, but I can't remember any of the players involved at the moment. The glove was based off a prior technology developed by VPL Research (I want to say Atari instead of VPL for some reason). The original glove was constructed using fiberoptics. As you bend your fingers, sensors measured how much light was passing through the optics. The VPL device also sported greater control such as yaw, pitch, roll, etc. No way was Powerglove going to have expensive fiberoptics, so it used conductive traces and measured the resistence at a lower cost and lower resolution. The PG could only sense roll. Although I've rarely seen it mentioned with any page talking about the powerglove, sensors (ala WiiMote) were also required for the glove to function properly.

In essence, you have a woefully innaccurate glove attached to a severely underpowered and slow gaming system either being set up by a bunch of parents unable to read directions or eight year olds who don't want to read directions.

Sadly, like force feedback,  it'll be years before we'll ever see a new and improved product like the Powerglove or P5 in all of its glory on the market. Sun owns the rights to glove based controls and there's no effort on anybodies part to market the fiberoptic version. 

[Tahnok]

Sadly, like force feedback,  it'll be years before we'll ever see a new and improved product like the Powerglove or P5 in all of its glory on the market. Sun owns the rights to glove based controls and there's no effort on anybodies part to market the fiberoptic version. 

It's a shame that the P5 never caught on. Too expensive I suppose. It did work fairly well though, when the developers didn't require too big of motions. It worked better than the PG anyway.