155K views · Dec 14, 2015 · 6:08 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2019–2023
A short clip of the Super Mario Bros 3 proof-of-concept PC port built by id Software's founders to pitch Nintendo on a PC version. Nintendo passed, and the same technology led to Commander Keen.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited as footage of a famous piece of gaming history whenever id Software, Commander Keen, or scrolling tech comes up.
“They actually did a port of SMB3 and presented that to Nintendo.”HN comment, 2023
“they hacked a port of Super Mario Bros 3 to the PC, but as history can tell, Nintendo didn't bite on that one.”
id's SMB3 PC port prototype that Nintendo declined
The smooth scrolling is pretty hard. One of my favorite bits of Masters of Doom about id Software was when they hacked a port of Super Mario Bros 3 to the PC, but as history can tell, Nintendo didn't bite on that one. this video
“id software's demo for Super Mario Bros 3 on the PC[0]”
id's SMB3 PC demo pitched to Nintendo
One of the things that I wish was available to customers on a regular basis is the playable demo that was pitched to a company for a game that gets picked up. An example of this would be id software's demo for Super Mario Bros 3 on the PC[0] (even though that didn't get picked up). [0] this video
“They actually did a port of SMB3 and presented that to Nintendo.”
Footage of id's SMB3 port that led to Keen
They actually did a port of SMB3 and presented that to Nintendo. When Nintendo didn’t bite, they made new assets to make what became Keen. Here’s a video of the port: this video
