Ten Things You Didn't Know About Super Mario Bros.

Everybody knows the NES classic Super Mario Bros. Everybody--your parents, little sister, and even your grandparents should be able to recognize the game by its iconic title. Although you may have beaten the game over and over again since its release in 1986, there are, amazingly, some things that you may still not have noticed about this classic.


1. The graphics for the bushes and clouds are the same, with different colors
mario clouds.jpg




2. The Minus World




The Minus World is a glitch in Super Mario Bros. By passing a solid wall at the end of world 1-2, it is possible to travel to "World -1," also known as "Minus World" or "World Negative One." The Minus World is a glitched version of World 1-3 that is underwater, contains Bowser, Hammer Bros and multiple Princess Toadstools. Creepy!




3. Mario was named after the landlord of Nintendo of America's office

landlord.jpg

In 1980, Nintendo of America was suffering from financial troubles and had a difficult time covering the costs of their American operations. Mario Seagale, landlord to Nintendo of America's HQ, visited the team pissed off over their late rent payment. Possibly as a bargaining tool for their late payment, the Nintendo team ended up naming their flagship character "Mario" after Seagale.

Mario was only known previously as Jumpman.



4. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired by Alice in Wonderland

georges_boyer_alice_in_wonderland_no_box_P0000013637S0002T2.jpg
Isn't it obvious? In Alice in Wonderland, Alice runs around a colorful land nibbling on mushrooms that make her her grow and shrink. Here, she talks to giant turtles and insects, and chases rabbits.

The similarities are not based on conjecture, either. Miyamoto said so himself, according to a 2005 interview with Business Week:

"Do you remember how you came up with Super Mario Bros.?

It started with a simple idea. I thought: "I wonder what it would be like to have a character that bounces around. And the background should be a clear, blue sky." I took that idea to a programmer, and we started working on it.

Mario ended up being too big, so we shrank him. Then we thought, "What if he can grow and shrink? How would he do that? It would have to be a magic mushroom! Where would a mushroom grow? In a forest." We thought of giving Mario a girlfriend, and then we started talking about Alice in Wonderland."



5. Contrary to popular belief, Mario hits blocks with his fist, not his head
fis.jpg



6.  Mario wears a hat because Miyamoto can't draw hair


mario draw.jpg

Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario wearing a hat because he found drawing hair difficult. He also drew Mario with a mustache because a mustache was easier to see than a mouth with 8-bit graphics.



7. Super Mario Bros was released in Japan on Friday the 13th

friday13thnewblood.jpg




8. "All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros."



No, All Night Super Mario Bros is not a name of a video game-themed porno. Instead, it is a very rare version of the game based on the popular Japanese radio show All Night Nippon. The game, released only in Japan for the Famicom Disk System, was a promotional item given away by the show in 1986. The game replaced sprites of the enemies, mushroom retainers and various other characters to look like famous music Japanese musicians and celebrities.



9.  Why Does Mario Wear Overalls?

overalls.png

Miyamoto designed Mario with overalls that contrast with his sleeves to help in the animation of his arm motions. The sleeves are of the same color of his shirt and without the overalls the arms would disappear during the movements. Overalls: Stylish and practical.




10. Bowser's fireball is backwards!
Bowser_Fireball.jpg









Comments (95)

Fam says:

Wow!

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 12:39AM
deville says:

came here from digg, the top fact was featured there before!

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 8:23AM
Tuna says:

I don't let my kids play such games! = http://bit.ly/qcF08

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 8:25AM
Jo WOods says:

Wow, this is some amazing stuff dude, I mean seriously.

Jess
www.anonymous-web.es.tc

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 8:35AM
James says:

Good times....

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:01AM
Shaun says:

Fact check on the negative world guys. It is just the second underwater world looped. You must have gotten that screenshot from a modded rom or something.
Sorry your multiple Princess Toadstools are in another negative world.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:11AM
kevin berman says:

on level 3-2 at end you can get as many men as possible by- going to the end before the stairs up to the flag, leave the first duck aside you wont be able to get it on him, if you do your better than me, go to second duck jump on his head on last step, at end, keep jumpming up and down on his head until its starts bouncing by itself, it will work, then free men hjust start adding upo, try doing it on othe rlevels, go to warps on 3-1 i think at end of board go to top on top of brick in space by sky and continue to warp zones to diffent levles go all the way to lelvel 8 or ninr i finished the gane in 3 minutes...hit me back with your info

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:14AM
Kurt says:

His fire isnt backwards. if you look at a lighter, the center of the flame, near the bottom, is white, which then fades to red/orange.

Bowesers fire does the same

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:15AM
djnforce9 says:

Yeah that minus world definitely looks like it came from a ROM hack. Some of the colours are completely wrong too.

The REAL minus world (which isn't even a minus world at all but 36-1 where 36 is represented by a blank space) is just as Shaun described above.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:21AM
BJ says:

Yeah, that negative world is all wrong...there's no extra sprites in there that arent in the regular level...it just repeats over and over again.

And what are they trying to say about the fireballs? I don't understand what they mean.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:35AM
dooley says:

The JP minus world is different than the US version.

The minus world shown in #2 is from the Famicom Disk System version of SMB, and is totally real.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 9:55AM
Camnio says:

many memories

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:09AM
Adam says:

If I'm reading it correctly, the one on the left is how it actually appears in the game (which is backwards). The one on the right is there for illustration purposes (but only seems to confuse everyone, including myself).

That being said, I haven't fact checked it against the actual game.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:20AM
James says:

What about the fact that the characters came from the Mario Brothers game?

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:23AM
Dina says:

Wow what surprised me the most was the fact that Miyamoto made him a hat 'cause the couldn't draw hair... very pragmatic hehe

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:37AM
DonkeyKong says:

How can you not mention DONKEY KONG???

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:38AM
Alan Riaso says:

Excellent piece. I thought I knew everything about SMB. Thanks man!

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:47AM
mer says:

People thought Mario hit blocks with his head? Never heard that one...

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:49AM
Tony says:

The negative worlds are not a "glitch." Not to nitpick your usage, but "glitch" implies an accident or unforeseen result of programming. Since you're writing about video games you should probably know the difference.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 11:09AM
Ty Law says:

Protip:If you are nitpicking, arguing, or just generally disagreeing you should probably not double post.ಠ_ಠ

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 11:39AM
Lordsloth says:

Really? You wrote a freaking article about this? If you played this when you were a kid, you knew all this. And you get the minus world wrong too.

Mario hits blocks with his fist? My god, if you didn't know that when you started playing the game, you're too stupid to function as a human being.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 11:46AM
Mario Fan says:

What about small fire power? What was rated as one of the best video game secrets ever. And it was in the American edition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIgTFfsL9OA

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 12:11PM
Tim Fan says:

Backward fireball, like Braid?

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 12:26PM
MD Smith says:

Err. Mario not having hair had nothing to do with Miyamoto's lack of ability. Rather, the limited sprite size would not allow for convincing hair to be rendered.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 12:46PM
Master1Xander says:

Hey DonkeyKong, he says in the article that Mario's name (before "Mario") was jump man. Jump man was the character you played in the original Donkey Kong games. By saying jump man they talk about Donkey Kong

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 12:50PM
Splash Pad says:

Dude Mario is the best came from DIGG

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 1:19PM
Bob says:

The minus world I went to was as described by some commenters above. It's 2-2, which loops indefinitely. But what dooley says about the minus world pictured in the article being from the Japanese version sounds plausible.

Tony says: "The negative worlds are not a "glitch." Not to nitpick your usage, but "glitch" implies an accident or unforeseen result of programming. Since you're writing about video games you should probably know the difference."

Not only are you nitpicking, but you are totally wrong. What do you think the minus world is? Did you think it was programmed in there? It wasn't intentional. Through an error (or accident) in programming, it is possible to get to the warp pipes at the end of World 1-2 without initializing them. You end up in 0-1, and the 0 is not displayed.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 2:06PM
Shawn says:

I think I understand what they mean about the fireball (key word: ball) being backwards.

Think about it. If you were to actually throw a ball of fire at someone, then the hottest part (the white part)
would be leading, and the flames would trail behind (think comets).

The thing is, I never really thought of it as him spitting a fireball. I always envisioned it as flame breath, and in that case the original sprite would conform to my mind's ide (with the heat source being closest to the mouth)

interesting

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 2:15PM
Sean says:

The fireball mistake makes sense. If the fireball were to stay positioned at Bowser's mouth, THEN it would have been correct as the constant fuel source would be Bowser's mouth and it would have that dragonball-esque blasting outward effect. Or also that just-ate-a-spicy-pepper effect.
However, since its flying across the room, unattached to Bowser's chops, of course it should be flipped because of the motion that should cause the flame's 'tips' to trail behind it. Similar to a street fighter hadouken, yoga fire, etc.

Your basic fireball physics 101.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 3:06PM
Jessica says:

I'm now going to try to get to Minus World!

Check out the article, we just wrote about the history of some gaming console logo designs: http://www.mycorporatelogo.com/blog/2010/03/gaming-console-logos/.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 3:19PM
covalic says:

Great work. Thx.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 4:08PM
Ouchimoo says:

Oh man, Minus World. I spent hours trying to get into Minus world once. Just when I finally thought I accomplished it, it pulled me through the wall and into the warp zone.

Sadness.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 7:33PM
Yo says:

Lurk GAF much?

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:26PM
Wolfie says:

This is awesome! Thanks for that! The artist also drew Mario with a mustache because it would be easier to see than a mouth with the graphics way back when.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 3 2010 @ 10:41PM
photo sharing says:

That is so interesting. I only knew the clouds/bushes fact.

Great post

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 3:40AM
El Deanio says:

@Tuna - the kids that play video games are the only kids reading this post. Argh. Such a dick.

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 7:27AM
El Deanio says:

@Tuna - the kids that play video games are the only kids reading this post. Argh. Such a dick.

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 7:27AM
cheat-master30 says:

It's a nice list, although the only ones I didn't know were the one about the fireballs (that they were mirrored, and the part about one of the games being released on Friday the thirteenth. Many of the others though... are just stuff that's kinda been round the internet and has been well known for decades.

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 9:01AM
Anonymous says:

i always thought the fire balls looked strange

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 3:26PM
Tony says:

Yah, I didn't know the fireball thing either

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 4:58PM
Gouki says:

All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. Oh wow, I would of loved to played this alternate version of Super Mario Bros just to see the different characters. Great Post ^_^/`

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 5:59PM
Just me says:

Mario Fan,

YESSS! The small fire power was awesome and I completely forgot about that one!

To those nitpicking or wondering why this post was written, well, jeez, lighten up all. :)

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 10:21PM
Sandy says:

What memories...such as the husband kicking the kids off so he could play.
Loved the info...

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 11:13PM
jonny says:

10 things i didnt know about super mario bros try again more like 2, seriously though those two have made it all worth it so thanks for the post

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 4 2010 @ 11:25PM
muggy8 says:

Love these facts!!! form now on, Friday the 13th is my lucky day!!!

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 12:24AM
Franky Figgs says:

Excellent read definitely worth the time

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 1:21AM
Machovict says:

Don't forget the reason he has a mustache. It's because back in Donkey Kong, The arcade's pixel spacing couldn't allow for a mouth to look right, so he was given a mustache. But that's why on the Donkey Kong arcades, Mario/Jumpman doesn't have a 'stache.

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 5:08AM
Zahir Khan says:

Well, great post. Never knew these things man.

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 5:44AM
jerri calvin says:

i love super mario bros.

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 7:27AM
Dennis says:

He forgot the glitch with with bowser
when u jump on the ax and hjis nose at the same time

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 3:14PM
James says:

I don't understand #10. It's not drawn, so I don't get what "how it's drawn" means. What is that referring to. By how it's drawn did you mean, how it's meant to appear? And shouldn't there be some evidence to back up the claim that there's some error here?

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 6:28PM
Covarr says:

"Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario wearing a hat because he found drawing hair difficult."

Nope. Miyamoto designed Mario wearing a hat because he found ANIMATING hair difficult, given the limited resolution and number of frames he had to work with.

As for the Alice in Wonderland thing, that quote was taken out of context. He was pointing out that he saw a similarity after the fact, not that he had it in mind when he came up with these ideas. He's clarified this matter in later interviews.

Posted On: Friday, Mar. 5 2010 @ 10:04PM
Anon. says:

@Covarr you are right about the hair!! I am glad someone else is on the same page as me. There is a lot of people giving different reasons for that hat. Making the hair look realistic when he jumps/falls was too difficult at that time.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 11:42AM
Anony says:

There are so many wrong facts here.
You would think they'd spend more than 5 minutes checking them.

How come nobody talks about king Mario ?
Using a turtle shell to get so many extra men that instead of numbers the game starts displaying symbols for your lives count (of which one of them is a crown) and if you keep getting too many its game over.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 11:57AM
How many games have YOU designed? says:

Nitpick, nitpick, nitpick. Amateur video game players argue with the PEOPLE WHO DESIGNED THE M---------G GAME. Give me a break, you cretins: if Miyamoto said it, STFU; he's designed a thousand more games than you and the authors of this blog talked to him, not you, so STFU alFGready!

The arrogance. The nitpicking. The snark and obsession. I'm convinced Generation X is high-functioning autistic.

It's times like this I HATE my generation.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 12:06PM
Brett says:

LMAO, the comments clearly show you'd better not post an article to the internet claiming to reveal unknown video game info without making sure you've got your ducks in a row.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 12:06PM
Will says:

The -1 world does not loop any more than Bowser's castle loops; you just have to take the correct path through the level.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 1:38PM
JOE MoMMa says:

Losers, get a life.....it was 25 years ago.....LOSERS

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 3:09PM
Grandma Oz says:

Nintendo?
Not sure if i can load it on my pong console.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 3:23PM
dale says:

Peter gets an automatic F for the minus world misinformation.

The most famous glitch of perhaps the entirety of Mario history and Peter gets it completely wrong.

What joker fed you that information Peter?

How many times have you played this game? Once? Enough times to write the article???

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 4:13PM
King Mattresses says:

Games have moved on since then.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 6:38PM
Moji says:

All the idiots claiming they know what the minus world is, behold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW34-Ev24HM
This is the Japanese minus world, and it is exactly as he has described and is pictured.

The Alice in Wonderland thing and bit about drawing hair can be fact-checked elsewhere, but the fact remains that the context kills both of those claims.

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 6 2010 @ 7:13PM
GuiseppI says:

I bought a Nintendo for my nephew in the 80's but becuase the little snot broke my VCR I kept it and wound up playing SMB. It became such a part of my world, somehow. Even my wife loved it. Maybe I'll go in the attic and pick up where I left off.....

Posted On: Sunday, Mar. 7 2010 @ 12:08AM
Mark says:

Wow..you've taken quite some negative comments on this one. Wonder if those people who spew such negativity have happy and thriving relationships? Kinda doubt it.

Anyway, thank you for taking me back to those days. Got some info I didn't know about, so I really appreciate it.

Posted On: Sunday, Mar. 7 2010 @ 5:09AM
Anonymous says:

The Minus World shown here is from the Japanese version of the game, it's not a hacked rom or anything.

Posted On: Monday, Mar. 8 2010 @ 12:04AM
P.Mai says:

Thanks Mark!

:D

Posted On: Monday, Mar. 8 2010 @ 1:10AM
Josh says:

Look closely and toadstool is actually flipping us off in each castle.

http://www.geekologie.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=toadstool&blog_id=1

Posted On: Monday, Mar. 8 2010 @ 6:06PM
SJWhipp says:

My mind is officially blown. Wow. Great post.

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 10 2010 @ 11:53AM
Alba Ross says:

Interesting... Do you think this trend will continue? I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 10 2010 @ 5:13PM
Anonymous says:

ummm... why does anyone care if the fireballs are backwards, or the minus world does or doesnt exist... sure mario was BA back then, but to break it apart and look at what is acually happening just implies that you have no life =)

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 11 2010 @ 5:58PM
Alba Winner says:

Wow!!
난 자랑스런한국인

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 18 2010 @ 5:10AM
wow.... says:

long...long... time ago

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 18 2010 @ 5:58AM
lee na hyun says:

I am a student Korea.
I am now 20 years old 10 years ago, I along with my sister and brother that the game was fun
I did not know that's an amazing secret.

Mario is the game I was a kid with a brick in the head buswilttae know buswineunjul
"Mario will be sick..." he thought, but it turned out, hands buswikgeoyeoteoyo .
haha

Jusinbundeul read in English thank seotureujiman.

Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 18 2010 @ 8:06AM
BLah says:

Doesn't Mario hit the bricks with his head while he is in crouch position?

Posted On: Saturday, Mar. 20 2010 @ 7:01AM
eduardo says:

this shit is awsome

Posted On: Monday, Mar. 22 2010 @ 11:06AM
eduardo says:

this shit is awsome

Posted On: Monday, Mar. 22 2010 @ 11:06AM
jack says:

holy shit did anyone see that ty law commented on this shit??... if not look down...

Posted On: Tuesday, Mar. 30 2010 @ 11:30PM
download online movies free says:

Hey this was doubtlessly one of the best blurbs I've had the chance to view on the topic so far. I do not understand where you get all of your info but keep it coming! I'm going to send a few individuals your way to check this out. Fantastic, simply fantastic. I'm have just started getting into spitting out articles myself, nothing compared to your writing skills (lol) but I'd love for you to check out my stuff sometime! right here

Posted On: Wednesday, Mar. 31 2010 @ 7:30AM
SuperMarioBros. says:

Who the heck thought Mario broke the blocks with his head? lmfao

Posted On: Monday, Apr. 5 2010 @ 11:52PM
Chas Smyntek says:

I love Jessica Alba new look and hairstyle, I by no means realise this can be so nice...! :)

Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 13 2010 @ 4:52AM
games says:

I like them and ill keep watching out

Posted On: Tuesday, Apr. 13 2010 @ 10:47AM
cheat-master30 says:

Some of these are interesting, at least to those who don't know much about Mario like the clouds/bushes being the same sprite and Bowser's fireballs being mirrored, but quite a few of the others are kind of old/unimaginative, like the landlord bit and what not, and seem to get used every single time a website wants to write a Mario article but can't think of something new to write.

Fairly good article though.

Posted On: Friday, May. 7 2010 @ 8:46AM
J.B says:

listen Tunda. mario is an amzing game. if i where your kid i would hat you!

Posted On: Sunday, May. 23 2010 @ 7:04PM
Callan S. says:

I knew the cloud one, as my son had pointed it out to me...

(okay, he saw it in nintendo mag first...)

Posted On: Friday, May. 28 2010 @ 11:02AM
mario mania says:

also, if you look at toad closly. he flips you off.

Posted On: Tuesday, Jun. 1 2010 @ 12:12AM
Agronyx says:

One thing I never see mentioned is if at the last stage when you are fighting Bowser, if you jump over him and stand on the bridge by the axe, wait until Bowser is almost right on top of you. If you can jump up and land on Bowser and the axe at the same time the game will glitch out. When you start the next world, mushrooms will make you small and so will Fire power, but every time you shoot a fireball, you will grow big for a second. My brothers and I called this "Princess Mario", I have no idea why.

Posted On: Thursday, Jun. 24 2010 @ 7:56AM
Hyman Mavai says:

Kenton Tresca

Posted On: Wednesday, Jun. 30 2010 @ 7:44PM
JackDanuls says:

Agronyx, We always called this the "Double Reverse Negitive" because it reversed not only the mushrooms, but you would grow big if you are hit by an enemy.

Posted On: Saturday, Jul. 3 2010 @ 5:47AM
Malific says:

Fireball Answer:

A fireball travels with the Ball portion (yellow) in front and flames (red) trailing behind.

Breathing fire, works opposite with the flames in front, and the ball behind, but doesn't move.

Bowser's Fireballs in the game are animated/drawn the way breathing fire would work. Causing the them to be moving with the flames out front instead of behind, which is why they are backward.

The "mirrored to match how it's drawn" fireball in the picture above is designed to show how it SHOULD have appeared in the game.

Posted On: Monday, Jul. 5 2010 @ 7:09PM
NES says:

You forgot to include little fiery Mario...

Posted On: Friday, Jul. 23 2010 @ 4:31PM
Lolz says:

Hahaha, so the genius Shigeru Miyamoto DOES have a weakness XD

Posted On: Thursday, Aug. 19 2010 @ 3:08PM
Sunglasses says:

Is there any hack to put sunglasses on Mario. This is the number one classic game.

Posted On: Tuesday, Aug. 31 2010 @ 2:26PM

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