Weird SMB3 box art - ever seen this?

[Mr Fwibbles]

I was watching a Youtube video earlier which showed footage from news coverage of the popularity of the NES. They showed a few popular games in shop windows, but I couldn't help but notice that the box for Super Mario Bros. 3 looked very... off: http://min.us/iiNE2/weird_smb3_box.PNG
(http://min.us/iiNE2/weird_smb3_box.PNG)
Is this an early version of the box art? Doesn't seem likely, since it was recorded in a shop window. So what's more likely, they found a pirate copy of the game on sale, or this is just a drawing made by a reporter and used as a prop? Has anyone seen this image before?

[buzz_n64]

Do you have a link to the video?

[Baloo]

I'd lean more towards an early version of the box art. A pirate definitely wouldn't go to all that trouble to draw new box art, especially when it's so similar to the original. Why re-draw what's already drawn?

[Mr Fwibbles]

Do you have a link to the video?

Yep, I just found it again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ft_6nMnqo

[buzz_n64]

Looks like concept art to me, or just art to look like the box. Those aren't actual boxes. Pretty cool though.

[MegaDrive20XX]

That looks like the display card used on a Toys R Us World of Nintendo wall that has the sales ticket right behind it. Someone did a quick mock-up art it seems like.

[portnoyd]

It looks like Mario took some acid.

Otherwise, the above poster is likely correct.

[MASTERWEEDO]

It looks like Mario took some acid.



Clearly he liked shrooms.

[ShinobiMan]

That looks like the display card used on a Toys R Us World of Nintendo wall that has the sales ticket right behind it. Someone did a quick mock-up art it seems like.

I'm pretty sure you are 100% correct. That is how I remember seeing this box art. It may have been some kind of pre-sale thing. One of the first.

[mobiusclimber]

That is fuckin awesome. All I wanted to say.

[poloplayr]

Very interesting.

[BetaWolf47]

Until I saw the video, I thought that was a photoshop of Mama Luigi (Youtube Poop meme) onto the SMB3 cover.

[Thrillo]

I thought this was yet another question about the unplayable prototype level that's on the back of early SMB3 boxes, but I'm glad I was proven wrong!

[gamescanner.org]

OK now... Yes, I know, this post is few years old, but...

I actually found a nice, b&w press release photo taken in 1991.
Here's a link http://gamescanner.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/unreleased-super-mario-bros-3-box-shot-historical-photo/
Wonder what happened to the actually printed box? Does it still exist, and if id did, if was worth anything?

... wonder if this ever gets read.

[wiggyx]

Nice find on the photo! I'd be willing to bet that the mockup box pictured has long been worm food. Games weren't really collectible at that point, and something like a mockup box would have been absolutely worthless at the time. BUT, some of hose little placards that the toy stores used may be alive and well out there somewhere. Who knows...


Michael Kerzie's hair. That is all.


(@ 1:42)

edit: I just noticed the second pic with the dates. Those would most likely be the dates that different publications would have been in possession of the photo. Photos would be lent to the publication (news papers is what I'm talking here) for the purpose of, well, putting the image in the paper. They'd likely take a photostat† of the image along with the page that it was going to be on and then send the image to the next publication.

Companies didn't like a zillion copies of their PR images out there, so this was how it was done. When copy machines started to produce a duplicate that was very close to the original, this practice lost steam.

†http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photostat_machine

[BlastProcessing402]

I remember seeing that artwork being used in a few store ad flyers back in the day. Which store, I can't quite recall. Kaybee, maybe?

[fahlim003]

What's with the hokey funeral march.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=b_ft_6nMnqo#t=254s
No sound for the normal battleship/tank? Interesting clip all the same. Also, Game Boy proto cartridge sighting!

[Supergun]

I remember seeing that artwork being used in a few store ad flyers back in the day. Which store, I can't quite recall. Kaybee, maybe?

SMB3 was "widely available" in March of 1990.
However, I will never forget the following:

It was February 14th, 1990. I went into Toys R Us to do my usual check to see if anything was out, something I did once or twice a week, and low and behold, some of the Toys R Us stores had received a preliminary release batch of about 50 or so SMB3 carts. (this was the store at US-1 near Dadeland Mall in Miami, FL.

I was absolutely stunned! So much so, I bought two of them. (a very smart thing to do as I would later come to find out that they all sold out in a matter of hours and would not be restocked for a few weeks)

Anyhow, the point of the story is that the Vidco flap which was at the Toys R Us was full color, and virtually identical to the "normal" one, but alas it had that exact artwork, with the "wierd" looking mustached mario face. (not a very cute mario at all, especially compared to the final artwork used)

So I knew about that artwork for years. Perhaps that is one of the original concept sketches for it?

[gamescanner.org]

Nice find on the photo! I'd be willing to bet that the mockup box pictured has long been worm food. Games weren't really collectible at that point, and something like a mockup box would have been absolutely worthless at the time. BUT, some of hose little placards that the toy stores used may be alive and well out there somewhere. Who knows...


Michael Kerzie's hair. That is all.


(@ 1:42)

edit: I just noticed the second pic with the dates. Those would most likely be the dates that different publications would have been in possession of the photo. Photos would be lent to the publication (news papers is what I'm talking here) for the purpose of, well, putting the image in the paper. They'd likely take a photostat† of the image along with the page that it was going to be on and then send the image to the next publication.

Companies didn't like a zillion copies of their PR images out there, so this was how it was done. When copy machines started to produce a duplicate that was very close to the original, this practice lost steam.

†http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photostat_machine

Thank you for that explanation! I'm glad to learn a bit more :) I'm thinking about repro this early Mario artwork and making a mockup box. One afternoon with illustrator should do.