I suppose this is what getting older feels like.
Here’s Mario at nearly 30 years ago (29 years):
Mario 64
I remember everyone gathering around the TV to see this because it was so unbelievable.
A buddy of mine bought an N64 with Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 on launch day. We didn’t know that it would sell out so quickly. He worked at a retail store and got into talking to a customer about him having the N64. Apparently the guy was a father that was desperate to get an N64 for his kid. He offered to pay 4x what my buddy paid at retail. It was a lot of money for a young guy in his late teens. He sold it to the guy out of his trunk the next day for the cash. It would be 6 months before inventory returned in stores and he was able to rebuy an N64.
It still bugs me that your life count reset to 4 if you turned off the console.
This was Mario 40 years ago:
That’s what’s mind blowing to me. The difference between games used to be staggering. The original Mario Bros compared to Mario 3 was huge. And jumping up to Mario 64 in less than a decade was even bigger still.
Obviously games have continued to improve since then, but we’ll never have such rapid massive leaps again.
The original Mario Bros compared to Mario 3 was huge.
And that was on the same system.
Honestly, I believe technical progress has grinded to a halt. Moore’s law was broken with regards to hardware. I cannot think of novel tech after smartphones. Now, it feels like everything new is a wealth hoarding scheme by corporate greed.
We’ll know there’s been a new tech revolution when HL3 comes out
One of my University students asked me the other day if I was doing anything special for the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith.
I told him he needs to remember I control his grade.
It’s not an anniversary the Jedi would celebrate…
Super Mario 64 is 29 years old.
The bottom picture is Super Mario Sunshine. Released in 2002, so will be 23 years old this summer/fall.
Yeah I’m saying that author with 20 years is optimistic. Given development time of video games someone saw 3D Mario 30 years ago.
I can’t believe SNES mario was only 6 years before that. I’m so glad I was around to have my mind blown when firing up N64 mario for the first time
I remember watching someone playing tekken in TV store in 1995. That was 30 years ago and I’m old as fuck.
Galaxy was 2007 so unless I’m forgetting a game between the two then the post is still accurate
Galaxy is not pictured.
My point was that this was the most recent Mario game 20 years ago because Galaxy wasn’t out at the time
I consider that new. I’ve still got a few GC games on my “to play” list…
Have you played that crazy pinball game?
No, but it looks interesting. Never seen a pinball RTS before.
I did recently play a pinball platformer, in Yoku’s Island Express.
Why would you say this
STOP THIS
The first time I played Super Mario on the N64 I can still recall how it made me slightly dizzy, which delighted me. That effect only lasted a short while, but it was a lot of fun to feel that disoriented by a video game, if but briefly.
It was the first time I remember people struggling to mentally map the controls.
Your grandma or little sibling could understand how to move NES Mario around (not necessarily being good at it, of course), but 3D was too intimidating for a lot of people to even try.
to be fair the sort of primitive camera controls took some getting used to
Yeah the controls on the early N64 games weren’t as intuitive as controls now. It wasn’t really until Halo that 3d games felt good to control.
turok was good on the n64.
quake was good in the 90s
I think what’s more interesting is Mario today doesn’t even look much different than Mario 20 years ago. The Switch just never bothered, plus graphics in general are flattening out.
You shut your mouth, the 90s were definitely like 10 years ago right?! :P
Yes. The 90s will always be 10 years ago.
Wait, the 90s ended?
Not in Portland.
Crysis is roughly as old now as Super Mario Bros 3 was when Crysis first released.
Hey… Shut up.
yeah… PS3 is “retro” now!
I honestly don’t agree with that at all. 360 and PS3 are old but their games aren’t very different compare to the big budget games of today. A few fads ended and others took their place, but that’s it. To me retro systems end with the Wii, mainly because Wii was just an overclocked Gamecube.
I am with you on this one, but ask people who are in the business or “retro” and/or ask people who are 15-20yo today! it’s a sad truth: 2 generations ago and you’re already “retro” :)
Actually I’m in my 20s myself. I just can’t see games like Call of Duty 4, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, GTA 4 and The Last of Us as retro when they are largely identical to what we would expect from a modern AAA title.
2007 was a long time ago, but not much has changed since then in mainstream big budget game development.
Halo 3, Modern Warfare, Mass Effect, GTA4, Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed, and Portal all launched closer to the original Sonic the Hedgehog than today.
It got worse after a closer look - realizing this is Sunshine, and not something earlier…
I nearly assumed I was looking at sm64, but that one is turning 30 next year…
I love SM64 but Sunshine is actually a great game as well.
Agreed but did some reason I keep going back to SM64. Sunshine is a lot harder to get into in my 30s compared to when I first played it as a teenager. Probably cause the mechanics are more complex. Meanwhile I can jump into SM64 at any time and still remember all the controls.
This year the original SMB will be forty years old.
Thanks, now I can’t get Delfino Plaza out of my head again.
