If there are three words which could define the generation that grew up on 80s and 90s video games, it would be Super Mario Bros. Even to this day, the originals are enjoyed by millions. From recreations of the first game in Minecraft, to smashing speedrun records on Twitch, it is a franchise that has left a significant mark on gaming history. Now, 1988's Super Mario Bros 3 is making headlines this time as word travels that a rare demo of the game has been discovered.
According to a recent source, a museum in Rochester, New York has managed to obtain a copy of the third installment of the Super Mario Bros. series. The museum, called Strong National Museum of Play, which is dedicated to preserving notions of play throughout society, will be keeping the game for access to future research.
What's perhaps the most interesting aspect of this find is the demo was originally supposed to be a PC port of the game. Not only that, but it was being coded for MS-DOS in the 90s than by none other than a very young id Software. The studio who would go on to define the FPS world with Wolfenstein and DOOM were busy in their early career attempting to port this classic platformer to PCs.
Some DOOM fans may already be aware of the demo, which was coded within a week, according to the report. What makes this rare find so significant is John Carmack, who now works at Oculus, coded a scrolling algorithm which attempted to fix the more stuttering movements from games of that era and before. It represented a big step forward in developing smooth scrolling games, and while Nintendo did not run with id Software's demo, the young studio would eventually go on to use it in future projects, such as the 1990 side-scrolling platformer Commander Keen.
The idea of having such a rare demo of a Super Mario Bros. game in a museum shows how seriously curators take the impact that video games have had on society. Many of them represent whole epochs of technology or cultural significance. Some are simply beloved memories attached to more innocent times. Whatever the reason, the fact that Pac-Man was inducted into the Comic-Con Character Museum Hall of Fame shows how important gaming is. It begs the question of what other gems are out there waiting to be discovered and preserved.
Source: Ars Technica, Museum of Play