When Nintendo Games Were on Atari

[@GamingHistorian]

Hello everyone! This is a special video because it is the first episode written by someone outside of the Gaming Historian household. Ethan Johnson did a fantastic job and it was fun to collaborate on a project. More to come!

[@play_history]

Hello everybody! Ethan here. I am most pleased to be able to work with Norm on this. It was a supreme pleasure and I hope you enjoy the episode. I will be watching the comments for any suggestions or critiques!

[@ProximitySound]

@@play_history As one of the people who had to listen intently to this episode multiple times - your writing is great and it fits the format and style of Norm's videos very well. Hope we get more from you in the future!

[@stayfresh2468]

I hope it lives up to the standard you've worked so hard to set. I rewatch all your videos when I get bored but your videos also got me through a very hard time when the mother of my children was under quarantine and I had to spend most of my time without her for the first time in 9 years thank you

[@D0NU75]

Ethan should trick you into reading a very lewd fanfic in the guise of Gaming Historian episode.

[@rocko7711]

Great video

[@azisles02]

This video is vindication 33+ yrs in the making. When I was a kid, we had my uncle's old Atari 2600 & I knew I saw the Mario game, but no video game departments in the stores (Toys R Us, Child's World, Sears, KayBee, etc) believed me and thought Mario was only on Nintnedo. This was between 88 & 89. The Atari died in late 89 and I finally got a NES for my 6th birthday in 90.

[@R3troZone]

Those store clerks apparently didn't know their job. I had a copy of Mario Bros for my Atari 2600 for years. I was more shocked when I got an NES and those characters from one of my Atari games was now on Nintendo.

[@DblTap317]

Don't feel bad I never knew until this decade there was ever. Mario Bros game before the super Mario bundled in the original nes, mind blown

[@Parialated]

Damn you got gaslit son!! I'm glad you found your vindication!

[@Michel-Graillier-fanclub]

I can imagine their laughs and condescending looks

[@kingwilly8041]

I wanted Popeye for my Atari but was told that was on Nintendo so I got a Nintendo. I was a little kid so I thought everything came out on all systems and I didnt know about contracts and legal BS yet. Only a few years ago (thanks to KZbin) did I discover they really did release it on Atari back in the day.

[@DanJackson1977]

I begged for Atari Mario Bros for my 8th birthday, circa 85. I got it.. and I really loved it. I knew it wasnt gonna be arcade perfect but it was everything I needed it to be. A year later in 86 I saw VS Super Mario Bros. in the arcade, and my world changed... I worked for 9 months to buy an NES just because I had to own it. Playing SMB on the NES was a religious experience.. having played Nintendo games on Atari for so long, the experience of the NES was euphoric.

[@patrickholt8782]

I love hearing legendary stories of kids working to buy their games back in the day.

[@maxxdahl6062]

It was close enough for the hardware.

[@metpach]

@@patrickholt8782 yeah, the first console that I bought on my own with my own money was the Xbox 360. I was a teenager in high school. Gears of war had just been released. And I played it at my buddy's house. I had to have it. So, I got a job at a local chicken place. A few months later I was buying an Xbox 360 with a 20 GB hard drive.

[@RGGeek]

I begged for it to… for Christmas. My grandma scoured all the stores around and actually managed to find a Mario Bros for the Atari 2600. It really made my Christmas feel really special!

[@brostenen]

The 80's was a nice decade. But really bad clothes. Games were cool. I was 9 in 1985, and I did not know about game consoles. However. I knew about mainframes and Commodore64, and orher home computers. And my biggest dream was a Commodore64 with datasette. I already knew the price on floppy drives, so that was out of the question. But I wanted something to play on and program on. Heck, I even borrowed the book called Basic Computer Games at the library and tried to make sence of the code. But I was young and had nothing to practice on. Years went by. I got kids and all that. And finally got a C64 in 2016. Then I bought a blank SixtyClone PCB in 2019, and started to slowly build my own machine from scratch. The only parts that were bought used, were: Coil, DB9-plugs, cartridgebracket, and keyboard. The rest were NOS and factory new. Even the case is a new production.

[@jasonpdsi]

My friend and I stayed up for hours one night trying to see how far we could get on Mario Bros. He got to level 76. It was insane.

[@Mateo-qw9px]

Yo that's insane clip that

[@crb4059]

I cycled thru SMB on nes 8 times w/o dying. I think after the first run all the enemies move twice as fast ifir.

[@IndieGamerChick]

I'm friends with Donkey Kong programmer Garry Kitchen, and it just turns my stomach that there's this persistent rumor that Donkey Kong 2600 was made deliberately bad to make Colecovision look better. It's not true. He had a matter of weeks to take the game from concept to plastic. Weeks. This isn't the 2020s where you can crank out a game during a GameJam because you have tool kits and engines and pre-built assets to browse. He had to code it from scratch and make it look and play like a game that ran on one of the most intensive processors in arcades. He did a workman's job on it, and I don't think Donkey Kong 2600 is THAT BAD, especially compared to games like Atari's Pac-Man, which similarly had a nightmarish development time (though that was more of "this prototype is good enough. Send it to manufacturing"). I think that he should be proud of the work he did. It's Donkey Kong-ish enough for the time he had.

[@JuanR4140]

It is a really impressive port! I've been wanting to get into low-level programming lately and making an Atari game in Assembly sounds like a fun challenge! No idea where to start though :p

[@AChannelFrom2006]

@@JuanR4140 There's only 56 different instructions on the 6507 (the Atari 2600 processor). So just learn one at a time.. and then try to program within the limitations of the Atari 2600.

[@jsmith3946]

@@AChannelFrom2006 no it is true there where programmers who used the original Dev kits and put out a better looking game

[@patrickholt8782]

Yeah Donkey kong on 2600 plays really great. Mario has a nice jump on it.

[@BenchFox_]

It _is_ impressive, but isn't it possible Coleco gave him such little time because they wanted it to be bad? That might be where the rumour came from perhaps.

[@GameplayandTalk]

I love that you revolved an episode around Atari. Definitely a part of gaming history that sort of gets swept under the rug by the mainstream these days. I'm sure a lot of the younger viewers here learned a lot!

[@play_history]

My deliberate intention with this was to introduce people to some topics in Atari history! I think this was the best way to start approaching that topic.

[@ExtremeWreck]

Yeah, now-in-days a lot of people just want to forget that Atari ever existed outside of the video game crash. Atari has practically been considered a joke by many since 1985.

[@juha2031]

@@ExtremeWreck My Atari experience as a child was a console named Jaguar. My friend had it and it did not impress me at all. I did not know a lot about atari before AVGN videos came .

[@ExtremeWreck]

@@juha2031 Yeah the Jaguar was a mixed bag. Not as terrible as many people say it was, but it wasn't amazing either. It was just somewhat good & very interesting. Same with the Atari Lynx. Can't say the same for the 7800 though, that thing is just so generic & bland I barely remembered most of the games for that thing.

[@kwc0435]

@@ExtremeWreck the 7800 was pretty mediocre for the time but its a good system for atari collectors because it shares the controllers/accessories and having backwards compatibility with 2600 games

[@boRegah]

I've just recently stumbled across this channel and already binged it a fair amount. I love the old stuff too. You feel the passion.

[@mattpijan4896]

Welcome to the GH Family! Been watching since the beginning and look forward to every video.

[@froglover4203]

I myself am revisting it, since this video appeared in my recommended. I used to watch it all the time way back 6 years ago :>

[@KevinTheTimeGeek86]

I did the same thing when I found this channel a couple years ago. He does really good work, and is very thorough in his research. :)

[@SynGirl32]

I love how video game history has basically taught me everything I know about business. It's unconventional learning like this that makes something I would normally hate much more enjoyable, so cheers to that!

[@mikeworkman3593]

You call this unconventional? Really? Like everyone I know learns things from yt. Need to learn fix your brakes, yt Need to pick up women, yt Need to learn how to do anything, yt

[@rutgerb]

The Scandinavian guy and nintendo was a great story.

[@GogglesVonAwesome]

@@mikeworkman3593 I don't think it's the youtube part that's unconventional. I think the unconventional part is learning about business through the context of video game history.

[@FF2Guy]

Especially how Nintendo royally screwed up and created its competitor PlayStation

[@thundageon5962]

Same man, video games taught me so much things in life 100 times better than school.

[@no_one_from_nowhere]

This is one of the channels that will stand the test of time. I always have time for the gaming historian.

[@Demeech]

I was planning on covering Nintendo games on Atari, but I did NOT know Sky Skipper was ported over! Great video as always.

[@kennethchia4194]

Can confirm, I had "Mario Bros." on the 5200. It was good, until the jump buttons on the joystick broke, rendering it unplayable (only the lower of the side buttons served as a jump button, for some bizarre reason, and both lower side buttons on both joysticks ended up breaking).

[@GamingDelight]

No surprise, considering how the Atari 5200 had the worst controllers ever.

[@Lightblue2222]

Yea it was really dumb that most of the games only used the lower triggers. I have 2 5200 controllers. The Taiwan model the triggers always fail and it needs to be constantly taken apart and cleaned. The USA model "the original and rarer model" somehow still works and is a great controller, at least for the analog controlled games. I play Mario Bros on 7800 "which is 100% compatible with the Sega Genesis pad" .. some games are just better with a dpad. The 7800 version looks and plays as good as the NES, with the only major difference being sound. Makes sense since it came out in 1988. Same with DK and Junior DK. I no longer have an NES so the 7800 is my way to play them ♥️

[@mikeworkman3593]

How do you remember anything from 1983?lol

[@shaunspins]

I can remember the joys of playing a 5200 with broken buttons. I was amazed playing moon patrol with a working controller after years of playing on broken one.

[@mikeworkman3593]

@@shaunspins Years? It was only out a short time before the NES came out, I only had mine for like a year or 2 before the NES came out, and idk whatever happened

[@mookymookymooo]

amazing to see the difference in graphics between the arcades and consoles during that period. I 'm amazed that people bought the console versions at all! I guess it goes to show that all the obsession with graphics will always be secondary to gameplay

[@Krakerwat]

Well you also have to think about how most people wouldn't want to go to an arcade all the time and spend money just to play the games when they could just buy it once and have unlimited plays within their living room

[@mookymookymooo]

@@Krakerwat yeah, that must have been worth the trade-off back in the day

[@MrSteve0720]

It wasn't really until the late 90s that there was complete parity between arcades and consoles. For graphics, arcades were king, but as others mentioned, it was expensive and inconvenient to have to actually go to an arcade and drop a load of quarters into a machine. So we just accepted the lower quality graphics because it was yours to own and you could play it in the comfort of your home.

[@Ziggyzaggy300]

When summoning salt AND gaming historian upload in the same week, you know its a good week.

[@michaelmcgee2026]

Nailed it

[@l-l]

Absolutely

[@EnjoySackLunch]

Nods creepily

[@grahamcurran8744]

Yep weekend is looking up

[@hellspawn32x66]

Great content to watch over the long weekend 😁

[@mokeimusic]

As a kid I never got to the second level of Donkey Kong in the arcade. We had a 2600 like everybody else and I could actually get to the second level because we had it at home. It’s hard to explain how hard it was to get to second levels as it cost serious money for an eight year old to even decide what machine to put a quarter in. 2600 really was awesome.

[@ahabduennschitz7670]

The second Level was actually the second Level of the second Level from the second Level. When I reached the second Level I took the second Level for the second Level because I knew how hard it was to reach the second Level from the second Level

[@LordTutTut]

I love hearing about Atari stuff, it's fascinating to see devs do their best with relatively primitive hardware. Fantastic work on the video!

[@brostenen]

Primitive by todays standard, but the wildest high tech back then. In 50 years, we will look at Playstation5 as some primitive low tech hardware.

[@brostenen]

@death to the suburbs I am so thankfull, that I did experience it all. But since the invention of 3D gfx cards. There has been no real new invention. All that has happened, is that things have gotten new features and faster. Imagine that. No real new invention the last 25 or so years.

[@The_Real_DCT]

@ghost mall actually they were pushing what was believed to be it's limits back in the 80's. Hell they were pushing it by 78 as the system was only designed to do variations of pong and combat. The only thing modern homebrewers have now is more advanced tools for coding, access to larger ROM sizes(4k ROM was at most programmers were allowed for years) and newer enhancement chips.

[@ProphetEKA]

One thing I love about this vid is it reminded me about the 7800 versions of a few of those original Nintendo ports. If memory serves, they re-released more arcade accurate looking versions of a number of older 2600 titles - the Mario Bros and the Donkey Kong games being some of the ones I own. Thanks to folks dumping their older tech off on my family when they upgraded to an NES, I actually ended up with both the old and "new" ports. It's neat to see both how far they came from those original versions and that I, too, enjoyed playing Mario game on my Atari all those years ago (and every so often nowadays). = )

[@mrp4242]

Yes! I had an Atari 7800 too. I liked being able to play these games on it.

[@williamrobertson8962]

I also had a 7800 before the NES, given to me by my cousin in 88, while I was only 5 yrs old - i loved it but still pined for an NES, which I did eventually get later in 89. My favorite games for the 7800 were Donkey Kong, Xevious, Food Fight, and to some extent Q-Bert. As I come to think about it, the box/label graphics allowed you to use your imagination to make up the lack in graphics haha

[@SarahLJP]

He didn’t actually mention the 7800 versions. Only the 2600 ones.

[@pretzelthedude]

OMG I LOVED that Mario Bros commercial back in the day, using the old theme from the Show "Car 54, Where Are You" with rewritten lyrics. I used to sing the commercial's jingle and my parents would just look at me like I grew a foot out of my skull. Good times.

[@troyandrew6154]

Herman munster: "CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?'

[@lukahmad5683]

Weird how the game that looks like my drawings of using Windows Paint in the early 2000s when I was 8, was a massive hits in the early 80s. Thinking of that, I'd imagine what videogames will looks like 70 years from 2023? Crazy how the technology has improved so much. Massive respect for all the programmers!

[@LordelX]

The 2600 version of Mario Bros was great fun. I loved that game. I remember thinking “When is SMB going to come to the 2600 or 7800?” It wasn’t unreasonable to suppose since the 2600 and 7800 had DK, DKjr and Mario Bros. I finally realized it wasn’t happening and bought a NES in winter of ‘88. Regular kids didn’t know about the concept of licensing back then.

[@sprybug]

I always thought the same thing too when I was a kid. When a developer language called Batari BASIC came out, I played around with it, and once I got the hang of it, I decided to take a crack at finally bringing Super Mario Bros. to the Atari 2600 with Princess Rescue.

[@stupedasso6819]

I remember in 1988 as a little kid everyone was playing Mario on the NES. One of my friends told me he had Mario Brothers on Atari and I didn't believe him, so we went to his house to play it and lo and behold he had it. I couldn't believe my eyes.

[@dwood78part23]

I had Mario Bros & Donkey Kong Jr for the Atari 2600. Man both bring back memories. A great one!

[@Kabullo76]

i had Mario Bros and Donkey Kong for 2600 and even if it's not a Nintendo title, Moon Patrol is the one I'm most fond of

[@lawrencemoody738]

Always puts me in a good mood to see new content pop up from this guy he is amazing some of the best quality stuff ever regarding video game history the tetris one was unbelievable

[@christopherjoy2872]

Another quality gaming history lesson. Thanks again, Norm!

[@LanieG1]

As a kid, I thought that the NES was the next Intellivision system, as in Canada, the NES was distributed by Mattel. Maybe you could do an episode on that.

[@brostenen]

I remember first time I saw a NES. It was back in the first half of the 1980's and it was on display at the local toy store. You know, with that game selector kiosk stand. I remember Super Mario was what we tried all the time. We did not like playing Zelda. We were kids, and as I am from Denmark, and we did not yet have English in school. Then we did not understand the meaning of Zelda. You really have to be able to read English in order to play it. But the music of Zelda. Oh boy. That first 10 seconds of the title song is burned into my memory.

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

Mattel distributed the NES in the UK, and handled it really poorly.

[@enochliu8316]

When Sega came to the UK market, they had a more experienced company do the marketing , which was much better, allowing the Master System to outsell the NES. Sega continued to release PAL-only Games on the Master System, even after the Mega Drive was released in PAL regions.

[@Drayton226]

Oh my gosh I am so happy you're doing this I've been wanting to play this game on Atari! I love your Channel

[@jrassinier]

I still recall going to our arcade and seeing Donkey Kong raised up on a pedestal in the middle of the game room when it first came out. Kids would gather around and just watch and wait their turn to play.

[@kabukimanindahouse]

i was born in 88 and my first console was a snes and i already feel like a relic. i'm 34 now and never played an nes until years later. atari was a word still kinda thrown around, as i remember my grandmother refering to my console as "yeah, his atari thing or whatever". also just think about how we came from a few pixel blocks to a ps5. crazy.

[@comfortabledoug85]

It's my birthday today! And so I consider this video drop a birthday present! Thanks for all the effort and love you pour into these videos!

[@BMFC]

I remember playing mario bros on my 2600. It was one of the few games that I found to be worth playing on that system.

[@BMFC]

@@YourChannel-r4v the NES version was better, but if you only had an atari 2600, that version was far from irrelevant.

[@andrewr4280]

It may sound weird but I listen to your channel whenever I go to sleep. I’m a documentary sleeper and yours are the best imo!

[@AreteG]

This channel is putting out content better than most television channels. LOVE IT!

[@Knuckelsix44]

Ayyyy for the first time YT actually sent me a notification about one of your new videos upon release. That bell works when it wants to. Awesome video man, I love your channel.

[@Neruomir]

That time Nintendo almost saved Atari but saved the entire industry instead.

[@SpencerDrummer]

Dude your videos are so friggen good. So polished and you have the perfect voice for it hahah! Love the content!

[@Super_Bros.]

Mario Bros on Atari 2600 always fascinated me as a kid, as it looks really good. I remember comparing it with the NES version and thinking they both looked great.

[@SoundsideSherry]

I love that charming little advert for the Atari 2600 port of Mario Bros. It's kind of funny how much their take on Luigi sounds and acts like the character we know today.

[@oliver424]

please do an episode on the colecovision! It's an amazing console for arcade games and had games from Atari, Nintendo, and Sega on it! It also has an interesting history

[@MightyMurloc]

Your videos are so comforting, take as long as you need to bring them out at this quality. It's ear candy.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

I remember the Mario Bros game on the 2600. My brothers and I played that one to death until we got a Nintendo. Confused our friends to no end. "This isn't Super Mario Bros!" Yeah, we know. It's just Mario Bros. They weren't super yet. Kind of like the prequel to Superman, known as "Man."

[@Nostalgicguy2242]

They were like the average plumber from downtown Brooklyn until for whatever reason, Princess Toadstool from the magical Mushroom Kingdom tought two plumbers no one gave two cents about were enough to rescure her and the whole kingdom from the evil, mighty and invincible King Koopa..

[@retroentertainment1340]

Gaming Historian, if you’re reading this, I’ve been watching your videos going back to your original 2 part videos on the Sega Dreamcast. I have to say your videos have gotten amazing. Many of your recent videos such as for Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World are just as good as feature documentaries with a lot of information on the games development. Keep up the amazing work, I look forward to seeing your new videos in the future.

[@SymTrkl]

I remember growing up playing the 7800 ports of Mario Bros and Donkey Kong, but every time I see a video on old Atari consoles, I become increasingly certain that I was the only person who actually owned a 7800. 😅

[@SneedyKetler]

The 7800 versions are perfect. Also the 7800 offers the only home port version of Ikari Warriors where 2 ppl can play at the same time!

[@klax001]

10:04 Mario just let a wretched fart out and Luigi can't believe how huge it was.

[@nwdothage]

I was hoping you might touch on the 7800 port of Mario Bros. It was my first Mario game and while it wasn't the Super Mario I wanted on the NES, I came to enjoy it. Graphically, it was much better than the 2600 and 5200 yet it played just as nice as the arcade.

[@robertskitch]

Yeah, it's a shame that he didn't get to the 7800 ports. Those were the versions of the games that I owned, and actually the first and last time that I ever had a game with either character (when the time came to buy a fourth gen. console we went with SEGA).

[@lonecom685]

Funny, I was watching the NES works episode which covers this topic just yesterday. Great Episode, dude!

[@ScratchMyAnchor]

it's always interesting to look at a time where home console ports were extremely inferior to the arcade cabinets. being born in the 90s I mostly felt like arcade games were outdated and only the home consoles had the good games

[@RARufus]

The pinnacle of this disparity was in the early 90s when Sega released the Model 1 and Model 2 hardware, then in the late 90s when they released the Model 3 hardware. Model 2 was so far ahead of everything else when it was released it wasn’t even close. It was only around the early 2000s that home systems started outpacing arcade graphics.

[@rosema7909]

You can’t really appreciate video games. You are just mimicking older generations

[@rosema7909]

@death to the suburbs calm down, look up and you’ll see it flying over .

[@feartheoldblood7222]

So close to 1 million subs... Been here for awhile and can't wait to see you reach this milestone!!

[@NOTLeavingLV]

Every time I see that Popeye arcade version, I am dang impressed. Looks amazing doesnt it?

[@toejamandearl8110]

Yes, and I still don't know why Nintendo hasn't ported it to the Switch.

[@NOTLeavingLV]

@@toejamandearl8110 sometimes it has to do with licensing for the character itself and who has the rights to use them now a days.

[@JackBandicootsBunker]

@@toejamandearl8110 Because you have the horrid 3D adaptation on sale? 🤣

[@The_Real_DCT]

Someone is doing a impressive port of it for the Atari 7800. Looks close to the arcade version even has Popeye blowing his pipe on the title screen.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I liked Popeye, but didn't get to play it enough to get good at it. The 2600 version looked so bad, I didn't get it.

[@jjstephenss9546]

1:34 I come home after school and check your channel every day. I love you bro

[@CaptainCat101]

This is why I have your notifications turned on: I love Mario, and my dad had an Atari 2600 (as well as every other popular game system until i was born)

[@christiancarrion9017]

Possibly fun fact: the song from the Mario Bros commercial is a re-write of the theme song for Car 54 Where Are You, a buddy-cop comedy series that aired on NBC in the late 50s-early 60s.

[@mageslime]

When I was little, I bought the 7800 version of Mario Bros. It was super expensive, but I loved it. It was a lot better than the older version.

[@Roboat06]

1:36 My opa's college roommate is the man who played Mario in this commercial, and he has starred in many roles in Hollywood since. If you look in the comments of a reposting of the commercial here on KZbin, you should find that he possesses the top comment, and I must mention that I am quite fortunate to have met him once. I believe it is mere coincidence that Coleco was owned by another Jewish family from Connecticut and headquartered in my father's hometown of West Hartford.

[@Justin-Hill-1987]

The song sung by Luigi in that Mario Bros. Atari video game commmercial parodies the theme song from that old TV show "Car 54, Where Are You?"

[@jasongoodwin387]

Hey I just want to say you're now one of my top two video game channels to watch in downtime.

[@EQOAnostalgia]

40 this month... and boy does this video make me feel it lol. Great stuff as always Norm. "Oil up and hit the Gym with me"?

[@RetrogradeScene]

My favourite channel on KZbin! Another great video

[@D3D3D]

This is the kind of recommendations that make me smile. P.s: Could you do a History on Mario Kart?

[@exzisd]

Gaming Historian is a key player in the historical “no fluff” video game documentary preservation world, few go to the lengths to get all the extra details and information on the business side of side of history. The production value has really gone up over the years. We could use a VGH Spotify playlist of all that background jazz and elevator music. Feel like I’m flying through Pilot Wings imbibing all this retro gaming information. I know I won’t remember all the fine point details but these episodes are always comforting. I’m actually learning a bit about part of history I care about and intrigued by. I hope there’s more channels like this in the future to document things in such a professional way. I also hope the video game museum business keeps growing as a way to display, educate, and inform future generations of gamers, programmers, and the public. Although I won’t remember all the fine points I think there’s interesting parts that will stand out to different people depending on their primary focuses in life. Sorry my English isn’t very good.

[@ethaniall]

My mom always swore she played Donkey Kong on an Atari 2600. I just thought she was misremembering things

[@bugradio]

I remember the 7800 version of Mario Bros. being very fun, and visually impressive to me at the time. This video explains a lot of stuff I always kind of wondered about atari and nintendo, but never wondered too intently. This was cool to learn what happened.

[@salt9485]

Donkey kong looks like a melted sour patch kid

[@hyperpuppy2]

Another Fantastic Video!! I'm glad someone finally covered this. I have to say, your research skills are top notch. Also love the chapter time stamps. I really look forward to when you put out videos. Keep up the great work!

[@8BitSamurai]

Huge props to the guy who decided to keep one cabinet in storage. That's a Chad move

[@ejbuhner]

Been dying for some new content! Happy to see this pop up today

[@guillermobranas]

todo tipo de historia bien contada es excelente, muchas gracias por este buen trabajo!!! many thanks

[@redrum0127]

2600 palettes were done using an interesting method... the sprites are only capable of one palette color per horizontal line. the programmers had to get VERY creative to work with this particular limitation. that being said, i think they did a pretty good job.

[@chad017]

*I was 9 years old in 1982. Being able to play Donkey Kong at home on the 2600 was one of the greatest things ever for a kid in the early 80’s. I spent countless hours playing that game. It’s easy to say today the characters didn’t look right and it’s not so enjoyable because there were only two levels, but honestly we didn’t critique the graphics because that’s how all the games looked and we were playing arcade games at home. The flaws we see today in the games really went unnoticed. To give a fair review you really need to frame it in the perspective of the time it was released.*

[@theantiadult]

Many people even then did criticize these badly made 2600 ports. Atari could have done better and therewere much better home versions, like on colecovision and the atari computers

[@javidThoman]

The Atari 7800 was my first Console that my parents bought me. I loved that thing.

[@MrWolf12000]

Great work from Ethan and as always you hit it out of the park. Youre a GD treasure Norm

[@JohnnyFromVirginia]

This is fascinating. I had a system once that had the Atari games on it and I honestly coughed these ports up as “fan made retroactive ports” - turns out they were legitimate cartridges after all. Good stuff friend, always appreciate your content!

[@lmeeken]

This was interesting! I had no idea there was a 2600 port of Mario Bros. Since you went as far as the 7800 era, it might have been helpful to touch upon the 7800 versions of DK Jr. and Mario Bros - I'm curious how their sales stacked up against the reissued 2600 ports. (The 7800 versions are also much more solid ports of the source games!)

[@elbiggus]

12:05 A million internet points for calling it the "American home console crash" instead of the more common "videogame crash", a term that really irks me; in 1983 the home computer market was booming worldwide, and Atari's troubles actually caused an *increase* in console sales in Europe as they started dumping unsold stock at lower prices - prior to 1983 the VCS was priced well beyond the means of most people, particularly compared to the low-cost home computers that dominated the market.

[@play_history]

While I do think the Crash affected the rest of the world in indirect ways, I do make a point to specify the region in my writing for that reason.

[@arseniclullaby]

Atari had a lot of games that just on playability...still hold their own against anything today on the "fun" scale. The game they shipped with every console "Combat" 4bit graphics (lol) yet the two player version still fun as hell.

[@theantiadult]

I think that game is soooo boring! The controls r so hard!

[@philosophyoftrucking]

My cousin and I bought Mario Bros. for 2600 back in the day at Big Lots. We had a lot of fun playing Atari when we were very young.

[@OffTheCover]

Man, I wish I could relive this era. Best childhood ever.

[@apferrando]

I’ve got Mario Bros for my 2600, and Donkey Kong on my TI99-4A. Cool video, nice memories.

[@MattMcIrvin]

"Sky Skipper" has the peculiar distinction of having been ported to exactly two consoles: the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Switch. Makes it a good trivia question. I remember being unimpressed by 2600 Donkey Kong because I'd also played the 8-bit Atari computer version, which was much, much better. But, really Donkey Kong is not that bad for a 2600 arcade port. The ape looks bad, but the gameplay is mostly there.

[@jasonviande5053]

I think these games today exist more as a curiosity for collectors, and also as ammo for YT creators to sneer at when talking about gaming history (this video being an exception).

[@herbderbler1585]

I really hate to play the "not a real gamer" card, but who didn't know about Atari Mario if they were around during that time? He was a huge arcade character long before Famicom/NES, and crappy arcade ports were common at that time. It was one of the staples of our Atari library, my siblings and I played the crap out of it. I even remember either the box or the manual incorrectly listed him as a carpenter rather than a plumber. It was my first experience with translation errors in video games.

[@Gatorade69]

Mario is just a Jack of all trades, master of none. After he got home from Vietnam it was like he had a new job every year. He even moonlighted as a doctor, until he got busted overprescribing opiates.

[@ExaltedUriel]

That's not a translation error, Mario just *was* a carpenter in Donkey Kong. He didn't become a plumber until Mario Bros.

[@johnpenguinthe3rd13]

One guy who didn't know about Mario on Atari consoles was the guy who wrote that book and included the Yasmine Bleeth quote of her saying she played Mario on Atari for the purpose of making fun of her when in fact there really were Mario games on various Atari consoles (2600, 7800, etc). Yasmine Bleeth actually knew what she was talking about.

[@Compucles]

"Around during that time" are the key words. You'd have to be at least in your mid-40s now to remember that time period.

[@herbderbler1585]

@@Compucles back when she was being made fun of, the Atari days weren't so obscure and far gone. I could see someone now being unaware if they're not in their 40's as you say, but that video of her "gaffe" was from the 90s. Anyone over 15 had a good chance of being at least aware that Mario existed before Nintendo consoles. I was playing Atari Mario well into the mid 80s because the 2600 was all we had. Most people in the west wouldn't have known about Nintendo Mario until like 1986. It just saddens me that so many people were so quick to jump on a hate bandwagon based on obvious ignorance.

[@TrevorAWilliams]

Keep up the good work!

[@GamingHistorian]

Appreciate the support, Trevor!

[@rphntw1n]

So glad you're making regular content again!

[@WesCoastPiano]

Yasmin Bleeth's redemption arc

[@davidandadamplaygamesphelp3601]

Love these videos. Theyre like therapy for me

[@Billytub8003]

Hey Norm, you should do a history on the Neverhood Inc! Could be cool

[@goriya]

Agreed!

[@gamingintrospection]

Your content is always so inspirational. Fantastic look at ports that many gamers, myself included, had no idea were found on Atari brand consoles. Keep it up!

[@endlesswanderer1753]

Back in the 70s and 80s, I'm sure I would have been upset if I paid $80 for a pretty lousy port of Donkey Kong or Pac-Man. But these days I just can't help but be impressed by them. The 2600 came out in 1977 and it was initially designed only to create Combat and Pong clones. It's absolutely insane how little they had to work with and how well they managed to recreate some rather complex games, especially in the 80s. If you gave a modern game developer the same tools Warshaw had in 1983 and told them to make something as complicated as a multi-screen scrolling adventure game with a defined end goal, music, and ALL IN MERE KILOBYTES OF SPACE in five weeks, they'd probably laugh in your face and say it was impossible. But that's exactly what the much-reviled and joked about ET was. A game made in a single month written entirely in Assembly, with a scrolling map, collectibles to find, and enemies would steal them away from you. Yes, it was not that fun to play, even back then. But as a technical achievement, it's incredible.

[@OneManGSG]

What's crazy about this video is just a couple weeks ago I seen a pic of old Atari games & I noticed Mario Bros & I was like "I was today years old when I found out that Mario Bros was on Atari." Now I'm watching a whole video about it

[@bryancook6345]

That’s when Nintendo had no consoles you should know by now Nintendo doesn’t share their games with anyone you’ll never see Nintendo games going to xbox PlayStation or Atari once the NES was released Nintendo made sure all their games go to just their consoles but since Nintendo is having a hard time making a powerful console it would be better they add their games to xbox and PlayStation and get to play their games Mario and Zelda the way they were meant to be played

[@Gitsune]

"Nintendo is having a hard time" lol lmao even. Nintendo is definitely NOT having a hard time making money especially with the Switch. With how much profit Nintendo make on the Switch there's no incentive for them top port their games anywhere else not even to PC let alone Playstation where it's widely known that Nintendo and Sony have a bad blood from the fallout of Nintendo Playstation in the 90's. Keep begging for Mario, Zelda etc to come to your Playstation 6 though I'm sure it'll happen if you beg hard enough :^)

[@Suhadisgood]

@@Gitsune Nintendo is not having a hard time they are selfish they need to share games like Sega who they were competing against when Sega Dreamcast was here you wouldn’t see just crazy taxi just on Sega consoles it would go on Nintendo PlayStation xbox I see no hope for Nintendo games they will die along with Nintendo cause if Nintendo stops making consoles that means no more Nintendo games very sad

[@emadstarns291]

Not all the adults really play on Nintendo anymore maybe gamers who are collectors don’t care about improvements like RGT85 metal Jesus not enough to tell Nintendo anything people moved on from Nintendo to PlayStation Xbox and gaming PC I don’t play on Nintendo anymore cause they don’t upgrade their consoles if you play games like streets of rage 4 on Nintendo Switch then go play it on PlayStation and then xbox and PC you can see what Nintendo is doing that’s wrong

[@Gitsune]

@@Suhadisgood "they are selfish" lmao. You do know Nintendo is a for-profit public company right? They don't care about being "selfish" when profit/money is their main motivation to keep making and selling consoles/games. Sega lose the console war so they went 3rd party. Nintendo? They're thriving right now with the Switch so there's no incentive for them to release their precious exclusive games on another platform. They are in the business of selling both console (Switch) and games. Stop thinking like a child ("they are selfish" lmao) and just face the reality.

[@MisterSmith2025]

@@Gitsune what’s your point selfish isn’t a good thing people don’t like Nintendo that much anymore as they used to in the 80’s when Nintendo was caught up with everyone 16 bit Super Nintendo 16 bit Sega Genesis now Nintendo is no longer caught up so gamers want Nintendo either make a powerful console as Xbox series X or PS5 or Nintendo stop making consoles like Sega and release their games to Xbox and PlayStation nobody needs a weak console

[@harukami912]

A2600 Donkey Kong is like every entity you can find in retro game related creepypasta stories.

[@JonB1991]

One of the very few gaming KZbin’s I enjoy when a new video comes out quality content keep it up!

[@TheCreepypro]

as an nes kid it blows my mind that these games were on any atari systems but then again that is what makes it so fun to learn about

[@zinith4524]

"Nintendo's first massive arcade hit, Donkey Kong, was brought to the Atari 2600 by Coleco." That single sentence already invites corporate drama without even knowing the story beforehand.

[@ziyyigotipyigo6833]

I have some questions about the details of Coleco publishing Donkey Kong that the video seemed a little vague about: 1.) Around 1:07 you say that Coleco "acquired the rights to port Donkey Kong without ever knowing the game would be a success." But then you go on to say at around 1:31 that they secured the rights "after it had been a smash hit in the arcades." Did the bidding process take that long? Was Atari not able to increase their bid between when Donkey Kong became a success and when the winning bid was declared? 2.) Around 11:20 you start discussing Donkey Kong playing on Coleco's Adam. You seem to imply that what was seen was the cartridge version (probably co-branded as being compatible with both the ColecoVision and the Adam) running on the system as you talk about publishing rights bound to particular media. But Coleco also produced a "Super Donkey Kong"(and "Super Donkey Kong Jr.") on cassette for the Adam as well. I think this needs a little more clarification. And a quick note: the jingle for Atari's Mario Bros. commercial is a variation on the theme for the 1960's sitcom "Car 54, Where Are You?"

[@play_history]

"Did the bidding process take that long?" Yes. It is complicated. I didn't want to go too much into the story in the video. Basically Eric Bromley saw Donkey Kong before it was released (or so far as he understood). He had Coleco bid a high sum and they got the license in "theory". Nothing was signed yet. Nintendo decided to give the license to Atari sometime before the Winter 1982 CES and Bromley had to convince Hiroshi Yamauchi - who was there - to reconsider. Only after this near loss of the rights did Nintendo actually sign on the dotted line, February 1, 1982 according to court documents. By that time. Donkey Kong was a big success in arcades. As to the Adam thing, the full story of this situation is not known. Presumably if Atari had exclusive rights then Donkey Kong would have never shipped for the Adam, but whatever the case was I think the reason Coleco would have believed they had these rights is by the nature of the contract. It's an extension of the Colecovision - therefore we can have it run on this new system. It was a blurred line and I only stated my assumption in the video. Lastly, I did know the Car 54 fact, but it just didn't fit as a break in the video. Thanks for the thoughtful comment though!

[@TVsMrNeil]

12:45 Does that commercial mean that there was a live action Luigi long before there was a live action Mario?

[@benda18]

Can confirm. I had a friend whose mom didn't get him an nes, so I remember getting Atari Mario for him with my dad for his birthday

[@lmoore3rd]

We had a Sky Skipper arcade cabinet in the Nintendo of America break room in 1998 / 1999. I used to play it before my shift because I had never seen it anywhere before as a kid in the 80's. Didn't realize it wasn't widely released.

[@jaybeedub]

I was right in the crosshairs of that that Atari/Nintendo battle growing up. I had wanted an NES probably in 87/88, but my parents couldn't afford one, so they bought me a 7800. While it wasn't ideal, I made the best of it, being able to scoop tons of Atari games at garage sales and flea markets and amass a huge collection of games. While I'd played the clearly superior NES before even experiencing the Atari, I did have Donkey Kong and Mario Bros as my first intro to those games, as I was too young to have played them in the arcades. Thanks for all the background, I found I never quite understood the 2600/5200/7800 eras, and the weirdness of seeing the 2600 being sold new, while barely ever seeing 7800 support in stores. I doubt I had more than 8-10 7800 games out of the lot, the rest were 2600.

[@mightyfilm]

The Sky Skipper one is news to me. Then again, I didn't know the arcade game existed until a few years back, so I'm not surprised it went under the radar.

[@keithtorgersen9664]

@Gaming Historian, on an unrelated topic, recently I started watching your videos. Thank you for all the incredible detail and insight! One thing I wondered though- in the long history of the channel, I’ve not seen any in depth discussion of Metroid and it’s impact on gaming as a whole. Is there a possibility of that in the future?

[@hidden_characters]

Nice! I actually picked up "The Ultimate History of Video Games" at a thrift store or library sale. What a find!! Awesome video