Mario & Sonic

[EssexMame]

Hi

I've always been a fan of any classic arcade games and not history/timeline of arcade games would be complete without Mario and Sonic.

Or at least, so I thought. Though I don't think I've ever played them in the arcade I always assumed they were but in fact I can only really see mention of Mario Bros in playchoice-10 and the like. Were Mario Bros/Super Mario Bros/Super Mario World console games in fact, and only later ported TO arcades vis playchoice-10 and so on?

Ditto with Sonic, where I can't even find any references to Sonic in the arcade until the 3D isometric types, certainly not the classic platformers.

Any arcade game historians know the definitive answer here?

[Rando]

Ditto with Sonic, where I can't even find any references to Sonic in the arcade until the 3D isometric types, certainly not the classic platformers.

Any arcade game historians know the definitive answer here?

Not a historian,
But I have a old Arcade version of Sonic that plays with a Trackball that is lots o' fun.

[Drnick]

Mario Bros was Arcade first

The rest was all console first. Sonic was created to sell the Master System, they wanted something similar to Mario, but faster.

So other then Mario they really don't have much of a place in Arcade Lore.  In Video game History they have a huge chunk of the book. But when it comes to arcades they are Small fry. Basically Mario was Donkey Kongs protagonist

SegaSonic Arcade is the trackball game, I remember playing that at Tracadero back in the early 90's

[SavannahLion]

The rest was all console first. Sonic was created to sell the Master System, they wanted something similar to Mario, but faster.

Sonic appeared on the Genesis first, the Master System is a sort of "back port" sequel to the Genesis version.

[EssexMame]

Thanks all,

That's kinda how I've figured it. Seems there is a Vs Super Mario Bros (or is it World?) in the arcade, but it came FROM consoles.

It seems all did appear on playchoice-10 and the like, but this is from an era when they put consoles into cabinets for cost savings I assume.

[Drnick]

The rest was all console first. Sonic was created to sell the Master System, they wanted something similar to Mario, but faster.

Sonic appeared on the Genesis first, the Master System is a sort of "back port" sequel to the Genesis version.

Damn, You're right.  it was Genesis and then a back port.  Wow that is odd.  Mind you I should have known because it was Alex Kidd that the master system came with

[EssexMame]

Alex Kidd was the first Sega attempt at a mascot then?

[Drnick]

Nah the first computer game mascot that I remember associating with sega was the craft from fantasy zone.  Then it was alex kidd who was instantly forgettable although the game wasn't that bad. But as a character he seriously lacked any character    And then along came Sonic, the rest is history

[SavannahLion]

Thanks all,

That's kinda how I've figured it. Seems there is a Vs Super Mario Bros (or is it World?) in the arcade, but it came FROM consoles.

It seems all did appear on playchoice-10 and the like, but this is from an era when they put consoles into cabinets for cost savings I assume.

I suppose it could be viewed that way. Though I can't imagine what cost savings they would incur. Some immediate differences was a different PPU scheme necessitating that the arcade versions used a different pallet. Also many (all?) of the arcade versions has additional space to include play instructions. I don't care to play the arcade ports of the console games but IIRC, those games were also tougher (I think Mario had a poisonous mushroom? A feature that wouldn't be introduced until SMB2 (Jap)?)

Also, the PlayChoice-10 cabs are not the same as the vs. cabs. Each of the hardware had their own versions of the PPU (and then some) preempting most operators attempts to use "cheaper" counterparts from different hardware.

The closest in terms of hardware is probably the PC-10<->NES. With a bit of ROM hacking the  PC-10 PPU can be swapped into the NES thus giving the NES RGB output capability. This is somewhat distressing as it seems most PC-10 hardware I've managed to locate has met this ill-choiced fate. There has been some attempt IIRC at creating a daughter card to allow NES carts to play on the PC-10 hardware but this, IMHO, is a rather expensive option.