Does Atarisoft PC Mario Bros exist?

[Jorpho]

Enquiring minds wish to know. Any evidence of an Atarisoft version of Mario Bros for the PC? Mobygames and other sources suggest that only the Apple II and C64 versions exist.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Enquiring minds wish to know. Any evidence of an Atarisoft version of Mario Bros for the PC? Mobygames and other sources suggest that only the Apple II and C64 versions exist.

If it's not in MobyGames, it's either because: A, it does not exist, or B, nobody's come up with a copy and submitted proof of its existence to the site. I'm guessing B.

[vintagegamecrazy]

It'd be interesting to see if anyone has more info on it as well.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, what's the chance I'd visit today (edit: yesterday, at this time - about a quarter day has passed since I started writing this) and see a question I can comment on?

A few years ago I paid a pittance for a whole bunch of the Atarisoft games. I'm assuming they're the real thing - they're brand new (look like it too) with hanger tabs and cellophane still intact, and come in three sizes of boxes. Most are very light (seem to have just one disk inside), and all have great print quality on the illustrations. Bought 'em from some group called "Sun Remarketing" on eBay.

Now, most of the games have a checklist on them. I've only looked at a few packages very carefully so far; Ms. PAC-MAN is from 1983 and only lists a few games in a regular list (all the other 1983 releases seem to conform to this, though there may be some changes as the list seems shorter than the number of 1983 games I own), while Track & Field and Gremlins are marked 1984 and have a checklist with many games listed.

I transcribed the checklists on the Gremlins and Track & Field packages, and I could transcribe one of the shorter lists from one of the 1983 releases, if anybody wants to see those. Only the 1984 releases include the checklist boxes or list some games (including Mario Bros.)

A quick count showed that I have 14 games, while the 1984 releases list 20 games in their checklists.

I do not have:
Mario Bros., Pole Position, Joust, Typo Attack, Donkey Kong Jr., or Crystal Castles.

I can't attempt to guess what their part numbers are as the checklists are shuffled around on the two (C) 1984 games I have.

I'm checking out the item numbers on the packages and writing down a bit more information. So far I have this:

(C) 1983
PAC-MAN - DX5501 - big box
Centipede - DX5503 - big box
Defender - DX5505 - big box
Dig Dug - DX5507 - big box
Donkey Kong - DX5509 - big box
Robotron: 2084 - DX5511 - big box
Stargate - DX5513 - big box
Jungle Hunt - DX5516 - small box
Moon Patrol - DX5518 - small box
Galaxian - DX5524
Ms. PAC-MAN - DX5526 - small box
Battlezone - DX5528 - small box

(C) 1984
Track & Field - DX5540 - small but thick box (like three copies of Gremlins or Ms. PAC-MAN stacked together) with a surprisingly light arcade controller inside.
Gremlins - DX5549 - small box

[Jorpho]

Only the 1984 releases include the checklist boxes or list some games (including Mario Bros.)

A quick count showed that I have 14 games, while the 1984 releases list 20 games in their checklists.

I do not have:
Mario Bros., Pole Position, Joust, Typo Attack, Donkey Kong Jr., or Crystal Castles.

Intriguing. Does anyone know if any of those last six games exist? Perhaps they were all announced but the line was terminated before any of them were actually released.

[Jorpho]

Any further thoughts on the matter?

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I'm not sure, but according to this, they exist:
http://www.dieterkoenig.at/ccc/index...qatarisoft.htm

[Jorpho]

...Except that the titles in question are listed as "Ultra Rare" and not actually in the "reference collection".

[Sothy]

I could swear ive seen it.

I dont know about a specific publisher or anything....

[Jorpho]

Well, there's "Mario Bros VGA", but that's an unofficial shareware remake by Dave Sharpless. (He also did a "Joust VGA".)

[diskoboy]

According to Wikipedia - there's only an Apple ][ version, by Atarisoft. I honestly don't remember ever seeing Mario Bros. on the Commodore.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atarisoft

[Jorpho]

How about a bump?

[koster]

Lemon64 has info on the Atari release of Mario Bros for the C64. I never saw a cartridge version of the game, just the disc-based one.

I especially like this old Usenet message about the game - that is the way I played two-player games, back in the day.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

Any evidence of an Atarisoft version of Mario Bros for the PC?

According to some internal Atari documents, last revision was 5/2/1984. No status report updates...never made it to the playable stage and never had a manual written for it. So no, it was definitely never released.

[Jorpho]

According to some internal Atari documents, last revision was 5/2/1984. No status report updates...never made it to the playable stage and never had a manual written for it. So no, it was definitely never released.

How mysterious. Not that I have any particular reason to disbelieve you, but where did these internal documents come from? I am intrigued as to how such bits of Atari history came to be so thoroughly documented.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

How mysterious. Not that I have any particular reason to disbelieve you, but where did these internal documents come from? I am intrigued as to how such bits of Atari history came to be so thoroughly documented.

A little penguin gave them to me.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Mr. Flibble has internal Atari documents?!??

[Mr. Flibble]

A little penguin gave them to me.

Did NOT!!!

[DarthKur]

I'm a big fan of Atarisoft games. Especially since they released some of my all time favorite game titles. I'm currently trying to acquire a copy of everything they ever released which is not an easy task.
While CCC's site about them, http://www.dieterkoenig.at/ccc/index...qatarisoft.htm , is quite interesting it's not entirely accurate. Particularly some of the rarity ratings are a little off plus the aforementioned fact of certain titles being marked as "ultra rare" where their very existence is in question. Such is the situation with both the IBM PCjr and BBC Micro releases. I have a picture of an ad that shows a copy of Robotron for the BBC so at least the box design was made. Of coarse that proves nothing since a lot of that sort of thing went on back then. I've never seen anything for the PCjr though so I seriously doubt any of those ever made it to production.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I've never seen anything for the PCjr though so I seriously doubt any of those ever made it to production.

They didn't.