Super Mario Bros. Launch Date - The Investigation Continues!

[David]

The mystery of SMB's North American launch continues to puzzle the gaming world.  Luckily, our Super Mario's Release Date Is Missing! article now has company in the form of Frank Cifaldi's excellent article "Sad But True: We Can't Prove When Super Mario Bros. Came Out."  Cifaldi covers much of the same ground as our piece, but brings new interviews and a special system registration card from the 1985 NYC NES launch!  Make sure to take a look at this excellent piece of gaming journalism, and feel free to reread TMK's piece as well.

Link:  GamaSutra.com - "Sad But True: We Can't Prove When Super Mario Bros. Came Out"

[BP]

So it wasn't a NES launch title? Or what?

[Luigison]

I read somewhere that Nintdendo first marketed the NES as a toy thus the "Entertainment System" moniker.  They didn't want it labeled as a video game system since the Atari era was over and people where more interested in personal computers and toys than gaming systems.  If it weren't for the NES with R.O.B. and the Zapper getting into stores via a Hasbro commission we might not have Nintendo games today.  Had they launched with SMB I think they would have still made it, but the thinking at the time was that video games were a fad. 

[ShadowBrain]

It's really quite amazing to me that this is an issue of dispute. I mean, I don't know when it came out either, but man!

[Toad]

I don't know if arcade SMB came before the NES version, but I do remember that the arcade version is different from the NES version.

Speaking of arcade Mario games: Does anybody remember an arcade version of SMB3? I recall it pretty well..