Retail Super Mario Bros. Title Screen Variations

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Here are some of the Super Mario Bros. title screen variants that I have found thus far. None of these were fanmade "hacks", rather all of these were released retail in one way or another by professional companies.

Edited February 22, 2023 by fcgamer

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

What distinguishes these companies as “professional”? An LLC? 

[fcgamer | 4,753]

7 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

What distinguishes these companies as “professional”? An LLC? 

They were actual established companies, not fly-by-night.

One of the companies worked with Sega, one was present even back in the Atari days, etc.

Edited February 21, 2023 by fcgamer

[MegaMan52 | 2,461]

21 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Oh yeah, that just screams professional.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Well professional might not be the exact correct word, but my point is these are done by actual companies of some sort of scope. I thought it was fun looking at the title screens and I thought others might enjoy it too. I have others I can add later.

I just don't want the thread getting filled up with a bunch of amateur Mario dick hacks from the emu days, as that's a completely different thing than the stuff showcased here.

[MegaMan52 | 2,461]

@fcgamer Is that screen with the Japanese SMB2 graphics and no title logo from "Mario Bors II"? Just curious, because I have a 110 in 1 multicart that looks like it has basically the same version of SMB.

Edited February 21, 2023 by MegaMan52

[Gloves | 11,830]

This is gonna go well, I can feel it.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

They were actual established companies, not fly-by-night.

One of the companies worked with Sega, one was present even back in the Atari days, etc.

What are the names of the companies? 

[fcgamer | 4,753]

Bit of Atari and Gamate fame is one of them.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

Yeah those are definitely professional companies, I agree. Nintendo should in fact be emulating their model if you ask me. 
 

Building game code from scratch to make a 100% pixel perfect mario title screen but without the IP name/ emblem takes some serious skill. And without any of the original code? High quality programmers. Do you think the programmers left their names for credit? I would want to be recognized for the hours of hard work. 
 

Cool idea for a thread! Can’t wait to see what other professional companies have to offer. 
 

Oh and I think defining “retail” is important. 
 

is retail something that is bought at a physical location? Directly from a company online? Mail away?

only because you are considering these true retail releases. 

[fcgamer | 4,753]

@MrWunderful if you don't care about or appreciate the thread, no use to post snark and trolling comments in it.

Everyone else might enjoy seeing some Mario title screen variants made by companies that were put out back in the day. At least I thought the spread was interesting.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

5 hours ago, MegaMan52 said:

@fcgamer Is that screen with the Japanese SMB2 graphics and no title logo from "Mario Bors II"? Just curious, because I have a 110 in 1 multicart that looks like it has basically the same version of SMB.

Yeah it was often referred to as this way, on that exact multicart and several others over the years.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

17 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

@MrWunderful if you don't care about or appreciate the thread, no use to post snark and trolling comments in it.

Everyone else might enjoy seeing some Mario title screen variants made by companies that were put out back in the day. At least I thought the spread was interesting.

I think you'd get a lot less snark if you mentioned the word "bootleg" in the title.  While they may all have been released at retail, calling it "Retail Released SMB Bootleg Title Screen Variants" would be more interesting, more accurate, and would invite far less snark.  And it still leaves a distinction that keeps the dick hacks off the list.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

23 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

@MrWunderful if you don't care about or appreciate the thread, no use to post snark and trolling comments in it.

Everyone else might enjoy seeing some Mario title screen variants made by companies that were put out back in the day. At least I thought the spread was interesting.

Oh but I am interested.

 

I was just asking you to clarify something you made a point of saying in your first post. I figured it was important to you because if it was just about the pics that info would have been left out. 
 

You said they were released retail, by professional companies and weren’t hacks. Could you get these at a southeast asia babbages back in the day? Or where would one purchase a copy? Do you have any pics of box art? Since All the games are originals but have a similar title screen, I would be curious if the boxes were similar too

 

Would you consider these part of any specific retail set?

 

 

[BlackVega | 583]

Or to just address the elephant in the room... it's a topic about the creativity of title screens to avoid a potential lawsuit

[Ankos | 463]

Were these released on cartridges or are they FDS releases?

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

6 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I think you'd get a lot less snark if you mentioned the word "bootleg" in the title.  While they may all have been released at retail, calling it "Retail Released SMB Bootleg Title Screen Variants" would be more interesting, more accurate, and would invite far less snark.  And it still leaves a distinction that keeps the dick hacks off the list.

I just want to know what he means by retail- because that is a distinction not commonly used to delineate a “set” (licensed, unlicensed) but used as evidence for something to be included in licensed sets (was it available at retail?)

 

Retail generally means to us North Americans, “able to buy at a store or major chain”.
 

Could these be bought at the local taiwanese walmart?

[Ankos | 463]

5 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Would you consider these part of any specific retail set?

For game companies that did pirate stuff in addition to originals I usually consider the pirate stuff part of their set, so some of these could be tied to bit corp (The folks who made the first unlicensed Taiwanese fc game, and made one of the earliest famiclones. They also had their own handheld game system called the gamate. Some of their more legit stuff got internationally released, out in Europe and Australia).

[fcgamer | 4,753]

26 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I think you'd get a lot less snark if you mentioned the word "bootleg" in the title.  While they may all have been released at retail, calling it "Retail Released SMB Bootleg Title Screen Variants" would be more interesting, more accurate, and would invite far less snark.  And it still leaves a distinction that keeps the dick hacks off the list.

Fair point. I was having a brain fart how to describe these, as they're from actual companies from back in the day, and were sold in shops, not made by fifteen years old dick hack kiddies for distribution as ips patches or NES romz.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,091]

21 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

You said they were released retail, by professional companies and weren’t hacks. Could you get these at a southeast asia babbages back in the day? Or where would one purchase a copy? Do you have any pics of box art? Since All the games are originals but have a similar title screen, I would be curious if the boxes were similar too

Dave is on a life-long crusade trying to convince VGS and the rest of the world that the garbage video games that Taiwan has been pumping out for thirty-plus years isn't entirely populated by bootlegs and pirates and hacks.  So far, after 22 years of postings, he has one "official" adherent....      himself.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

26 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

Oh but I am interested.

 

I was just asking you to clarify something you made a point of saying in your first post. I figured it was important to you because if it was just about the pics that info would have been left out. 
 

You said they were released retail, by professional companies and weren’t hacks. Could you get these at a southeast asia babbages back in the day? Or where would one purchase a copy? Do you have any pics of box art? Since All the games are originals but have a similar title screen, I would be curious if the boxes were similar too

 

Would you consider these part of any specific retail set?

 

 

They are hacked title screens, but they were not hacks done by inspiring emu kids running nesticle, rather these were edited (in some of the games they are referred to as "editors" by industry people to be sold at electronic shops, markets, stationary shops, toy shops, etc. 

Some were sold as individual games, others on multicarts.

[Tulpa | 3,534]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Dave is on a life-long crusade trying to convince VGS and the rest of the world that the garbage video games that Taiwan has been pumping out for thirty-plus years isn't entirely populated by bootlegs and pirates and hacks.  So far, after 22 years of postings, he has one "official" adherent....      himself.

 

[fcgamer | 4,753]

25 minutes ago, Ankos said:

Were these released on cartridges or are they FDS releases?

The above titles were found on multicarts, though I have a few (not posted yet) from single carts. Simpsons, anyone?

[fcgamer | 4,753]

24 minutes ago, MrWunderful said:

I just want to know what he means by retail- because that is a distinction not commonly used to delineate a “set” (licensed, unlicensed) but used as evidence for something to be included in licensed sets (was it available at retail?)

 

Retail generally means to us North Americans, “able to buy at a store or major chain”.
 

Could these be bought at the local taiwanese walmart?

I'm not even sure what the "Taiwanese Walmart" would be today...french carrefour, American Costco? 

Anyways, these would have been available and electronic shops, toy shops, stationary shops, etc back in the day.

Retail here is important as it differentiates from fanmade hacks from the late nineties onwards.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

They are hacked title screens, but they were not hacks done by inspiring emu kids running nesticle, rather these were edited (in some of the games they are referred to as "editors" by industry people to be sold at electronic shops, markets, stationary shops, toy shops, etc. 

Some were sold as individual games, others on multicarts.

Oh so they are unlicensed then. 
Curious on your thoughts regarding editing vs hacking. What makes them editors, and not hackers?

 

do these title screens have any games attached? Or just screens?