When Nintendo Games Were on Atari

Before Nintendo launched the NES, their games appeared on other consoles, including the biggest: the Atari 2600. Learn about the history of these ports and that weird time when Mario competed with himself.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Introduction
00:45 - Donkey Kong
03:08 - Donkey Kong Jr.
04:14 - Sky Skipper
07:01 - Popeye
08:40 - Mario Bros.

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[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!

[azisles]

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.

[DanJackson]

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.

[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.

[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.

[pretzelWAH]

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.

[PlateTechTony]

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.

[Demeech]

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

[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!

[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

[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.

[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.

[SynGirl]

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!

[Neruomir]

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

[Ziggyzaggy]

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

[DebunkingFlerfTurds]

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.

[kennethchia]

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).

[Roboat]

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 YouTube, 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.

[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.

[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!