While its existence has long been known to video game historians, little has been seen by the public over the last 30 years, except for a video uploaded by the studio’s John Romero himself back in 2015 showcasing some of its levels.

Ultimately, Nintendo decided not to go ahead with the project, but many claim that the port went on to inspire Commander Keen. The Museum doesn’t yet have plans to exhibit the game to the public, but Borman said researchers and others with a relevant interest will be able to request it.Previously thought to be lost to time, the ported demo was created by id Software back in 1990 as a pitch to Nintendo to bring the massively popular franchise onto PC. “It is an early demo, though, and lacks many features and polish that would have been seen had the developers been able to work with Nintendo in creating a full retail release,” Borman said. “It wasn't something I expected to see in this donation, but it was extremely exciting, having seen the video Romero shared back in 2015,” he added.Bīefore trying out the game, Borman made a copy of the original floppy disk and ran it on an emulator to compare it to Romero’s video. “They did not work on this pitch, instead receiving during their work,” Borman said. Now thanks to the Strong National Museum of Play, it will live on indefinitely.Īndrew Borman, a digital games curator with the Museum, told Ars Technica via e-mail that a game developer donated a demo of the SMB3 PC port. They went so far as to send the game to Nintendo in hopes of getting the green light to work on an official offering, but Nintendo declined.Īlthough the story wasn’t exactly a secret, it wasn’t exactly widely known, either, until John Romero shared a video of the demo on Twitter back in 2015.

While Nintendo never took the team up on its offer to bring Mario to the PC, it's fun to imagine an alternate timeline where the two joined forces to bring Mario to desktops.īefore finding success with franchises like Doom and Quake, the team that would become id Software developed a proof-of-concept port of Super Mario Bros 3. 3 from the team that went on to form id Software has found its way to the Strong National Museum of Play. Through the looking glass: An early demo of a PC port of Super Mario Bros.

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