4 ms·

If Nintendo had accepted it, and it was a massive hit like it was guaranteed to be (come on), we might have official versions of Pokemon and Smash Brothers on t

If Nintendo had accepted it, and it was a massive hit like it was guaranteed to be (come on), we might have official versions of Pokemon and Smash Brothers on the PC now. When a butterfly flaps its wings in Tibet...

jvolkman 11y ago
But we might not have Doom.
- rangibaby 11y ago
  I can see that, considering Nintendo's puritan stance on violence etc.
  - alricb 11y ago
    It's true that Nintendo had a puritan attitude, but I would note Doom was ported to the SNES, with blood, gore and inverted crosses; the port was released in September 1995: http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Super_NES http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Super_NES
    - rangibaby 11y ago
      The SNES had a pretty bad history of censorship, eg. Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3D, which were both playable but kind of pointless (no blood and censored fatalities in MK, no blood, dogs, or Nazi symbols in Wolfenstein). They relented somewhat after the introduction of ESRB ratings in 1994.
- trothamel 11y ago
  We might, though. I mean, this code was commercialized as Commander Keen, wasn't it? And the same team then went on to make Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. So there's no reason why this couldn't have been the first item in that sequence of things.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
nkozyra 11y ago
Was it guaranteed in any way? I don't recall a lot of smash PC hits around this time, and most of the ones that were big were games that weren't really console-esque anyway. Most of the successful ones were strategy games. It wasn't until hardware and insane innovation came together with Doom that consoles had a very real competitor in "action" video games. (perhaps Wolfenstein and its ilk could qualify, I remember it being big but never really registering as "mature" the way console games did) This demo is, to me, extremely impressive because it's close to the NES version. But it also has all the hallmarks of PC attempts at platformers. It never "felt" right. The reasons are explained a bit here, but there were ultimately a lot of limitations that made it very hard to compete even graphically with commonly-available hardware.
- wsc981 11y ago
  A few years after this demo, Jazz Jackrabbit [0] (1994) was a huge hit, I believe. Mario could have been successful as well. Though by releasing Mario on the PC, might have cost Nintendo console marketshare. I do think people by Nintendo consoles often because of the games / game characters like Mario, Zelda, etc... --- [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16upFloYak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16upFloYak
  - nkozyra 11y ago
    Sure, but there was "PC huge hit" and "console huge hit" and they were light years away in terms of metrics. Best I can tell Jazz Jackrabbit did not sell 1MM copies, SMB3 sold 17MM. Doom ended up selling something like 3MM, but the key difference was it was an experience that didn't exist much on consoles, and Carmack & Co. did everything possible to make it futuristic compared to anything then possible on PC. I just don't see an SMB copy doing anything noteworthy at that stage, and the end result probably would have stunk, too. But that was a limitation with the platform more than anything.
  - jerf 11y ago
    Jazz Jackrabbit is another interesting example of the tech difference between the two consoles. That YouTube video is running on a Soundblaster. PCs had superior storage and a lot of processor power compared to the consoles, so Jazz had incredible music compared to consoles because it could use modfiles, basically CPU-synthesized music using arbitrary wave files as instruments, played through the Soundblaster (used as a generic digital sound out, which may not sound impressive, but the consoles didn't have that yet, it still just had various cheap synthesis chips and a smidge of wavetable capability not sufficient to play dynamically-generated sounds). The PS1 was not quite out yet, so the current (popular, people I know actually owned them) gen was basically Genesis and Super Nintendo. Neither could pull that off. Graphically, Jazz had more colors to work with. But mechanically, Jazz at best had parity and at worst would have been considered a low-tier platformer at best on the Super Nintendo. I honestly don't know what it was with PC platformers of the era, if they were actually incapable of "feeling good" for some technical reason or if nobody ever, well, for lack of a nicer way of putting it, did it right. But they were always bizarrely floaty and had poor physics and feel. Whether or not the PC hardware could have competed on platformers, I do not ever recall playing one that felt as good as a console game did.
vlunkr 11y ago
It's not like it was random chance that Nintendo turned them down. Having control of their own hardware has been a core part of their strategy for a long time.
idebug 11y ago
Probably not. I doubt Nintendo would have impressed by the level of piracy on the PC back in the day. Besides, Nintendo made and still makes money on hardware, so that would have been a terrible business plan.
0xcde4c3db 11y ago
Nintendo actually did have some games on Japanese PC platforms [1] [2] [3], converted by Hudson Soft (better known for Bomberman and Adventure Island). However, they were significantly downgraded from their NES counterparts. [1] Super Mario Bros. Special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcEMPakkPg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcEMPakkPg [2] Golf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPSHI-1j1ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPSHI-1j1ZU [3] Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Excitebike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV-kZ_wPx-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV-kZ_wPx-Y
wiz21 11y ago
There was even Mario for Apple 2 ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV_iYmk1Sn4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV_iYmk1Sn4
- geon 11y ago
  That particular game was available on dos too. It is hardly smb, though. Just the same characters.
  - aaronem 11y ago
    It's not meant to be Super Mario Brothers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros.

jvolkman 11y ago

But we might not have Doom.

rangibaby 11y ago
I can see that, considering Nintendo's puritan stance on violence etc.
- alricb 11y ago
  It's true that Nintendo had a puritan attitude, but I would note Doom was ported to the SNES, with blood, gore and inverted crosses; the port was released in September 1995: http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Super_NES http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Super_NES
  - rangibaby 11y ago
    The SNES had a pretty bad history of censorship, eg. Mortal Kombat and Wolfenstein 3D, which were both playable but kind of pointless (no blood and censored fatalities in MK, no blood, dogs, or Nazi symbols in Wolfenstein). They relented somewhat after the introduction of ESRB ratings in 1994.
trothamel 11y ago
We might, though. I mean, this code was commercialized as Commander Keen, wasn't it? And the same team then went on to make Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. So there's no reason why this couldn't have been the first item in that sequence of things.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

nkozyra 11y ago

Was it guaranteed in any way? I don't recall a lot of smash PC hits around this time, and most of the ones that were big were games that weren't really console-esque anyway. Most of the successful ones were strategy games. It wasn't until hardware and insane innovation came together with Doom that consoles had a very real competitor in "action" video games. (perhaps Wolfenstein and its ilk could qualify, I remember it being big but never really registering as "mature" the way console games did) This demo is, to me, extremely impressive because it's close to the NES version. But it also has all the hallmarks of PC attempts at platformers. It never "felt" right. The reasons are explained a bit here, but there were ultimately a lot of limitations that made it very hard to compete even graphically with commonly-available hardware.

wsc981 11y ago
A few years after this demo, Jazz Jackrabbit [0] (1994) was a huge hit, I believe. Mario could have been successful as well. Though by releasing Mario on the PC, might have cost Nintendo console marketshare. I do think people by Nintendo consoles often because of the games / game characters like Mario, Zelda, etc... --- [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16upFloYak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16upFloYak
- nkozyra 11y ago
  Sure, but there was "PC huge hit" and "console huge hit" and they were light years away in terms of metrics. Best I can tell Jazz Jackrabbit did not sell 1MM copies, SMB3 sold 17MM. Doom ended up selling something like 3MM, but the key difference was it was an experience that didn't exist much on consoles, and Carmack & Co. did everything possible to make it futuristic compared to anything then possible on PC. I just don't see an SMB copy doing anything noteworthy at that stage, and the end result probably would have stunk, too. But that was a limitation with the platform more than anything.
- jerf 11y ago
  Jazz Jackrabbit is another interesting example of the tech difference between the two consoles. That YouTube video is running on a Soundblaster. PCs had superior storage and a lot of processor power compared to the consoles, so Jazz had incredible music compared to consoles because it could use modfiles, basically CPU-synthesized music using arbitrary wave files as instruments, played through the Soundblaster (used as a generic digital sound out, which may not sound impressive, but the consoles didn't have that yet, it still just had various cheap synthesis chips and a smidge of wavetable capability not sufficient to play dynamically-generated sounds). The PS1 was not quite out yet, so the current (popular, people I know actually owned them) gen was basically Genesis and Super Nintendo. Neither could pull that off. Graphically, Jazz had more colors to work with. But mechanically, Jazz at best had parity and at worst would have been considered a low-tier platformer at best on the Super Nintendo. I honestly don't know what it was with PC platformers of the era, if they were actually incapable of "feeling good" for some technical reason or if nobody ever, well, for lack of a nicer way of putting it, did it right. But they were always bizarrely floaty and had poor physics and feel. Whether or not the PC hardware could have competed on platformers, I do not ever recall playing one that felt as good as a console game did.

vlunkr 11y ago

It's not like it was random chance that Nintendo turned them down. Having control of their own hardware has been a core part of their strategy for a long time.

idebug 11y ago

Probably not. I doubt Nintendo would have impressed by the level of piracy on the PC back in the day. Besides, Nintendo made and still makes money on hardware, so that would have been a terrible business plan.

0xcde4c3db 11y ago

Nintendo actually did have some games on Japanese PC platforms [1] [2] [3], converted by Hudson Soft (better known for Bomberman and Adventure Island). However, they were significantly downgraded from their NES counterparts. [1] Super Mario Bros. Special: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcEMPakkPg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcEMPakkPg [2] Golf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPSHI-1j1ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPSHI-1j1ZU [3] Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Excitebike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV-kZ_wPx-Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV-kZ_wPx-Y

wiz21 11y ago

There was even Mario for Apple 2 ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV_iYmk1Sn4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV_iYmk1Sn4

geon 11y ago
That particular game was available on dos too. It is hardly smb, though. Just the same characters.
- aaronem 11y ago
  It's not meant to be Super Mario Brothers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Bros.