Phosphor Dot Fossils: Super Mario Commodore 64 (2019)

In 1985 when Super Mario Bros. was released for the NES here in the States – it was kind of a big deal. It was certainly one of the must have games for that iconic home console and you will see that online that many – rightfully – point to it as well as the Nintendo Entertainment System itself for reversing the negativity attached to video games from retailers and consumers over the video game crash of 1983. I can assure you that Super Mario Bros. was not only a game that was much loved by my Grandmother and myself – but we genuinely adored Nintendo’s mustachioed plumber brothers. That isn’t to say there wasn’t a bit of a steep learning curve however when we brought the Nintendo and Super Mario Bros. home from our local Kmart!

Now as many fans of classic video games and arcades will probably tell you – the video game crash didn’t exactly seem to slow down games for some systems. Around that time I had found myself graduating from the likes of the Atari and Intellivision to computers. Please don’t get me wrong, I most definitely played those systems still but more and more of my gaming needs were being met by the Commodore 64 my Father picked up for me. In fact it upset him to no end that for all intents and purposes I was using the computer for gaming more than learning to program. Although having said that, when I learned to program interactive fiction games like the Infocom titles I cherished so dearly… he still thought I was wasting my time.

It is impossible to count up the hours of enjoyment that I had with the Commodore 64. But I can tell you that if Super Mario Bros. had ever been ported to the C64 I would have probably had to get my hands on it – probably buying it at the local Waldenbooks. Did you know though that a version of that classic Nintendo game was ported to the C64 – the thing is it was just this year, thanks to the the hard work of a developer known as ZeroPaige. The developer has apparently been working on this project since 2012 – seven years is a long time to devote to such a project but as you’ll be able to see in this Phosophor Dot Fossils video from Earl Green… it totally looks like it’s worth it!

Just in case you are not aware – Earl Green is not only a good friend to myself and the arcade but has been featured on the Pop Culture Retrorama podcast! He is an avid pop culture historian and has one of the longest running sites on the internet – offering up episode guides for classic TV shows, arcade and home console reviews and history, not to mention he is a published Author, and a lover of Porgs – you can check out more at The Log Book.Com Here is the thing though, Earl also manages to find time to produce some fun Phosphor Dot Fossils videos on YouTube – like showing us ZeroPaige’s Super Mario Bros. for the C64!