Firstly… this is not the same as the Ocean version released version that came in around 1986/87… but Atarisoft were actually doing an official conversion themselves back in the early 80’s.
We learn of this conversion thanks to Mat Allen who has documented the conversion briefly in Digital Press. The game itself seems to have sneaked out and was on Gamebase (Which is the entry we have borrowed).
Originally we believed the game was not released due to the video game crash, but actually it was due to issues with development – where the brick layers would not bulge on impact. Although the game was pretty much completed, it was decided not to fully release the game. Later on, Ocean Software did their own conversion of the game – but this is an interesting curiosity to check out.
However on a separate note, Phobos/Ready64 found a snippet in Video Game Update (August 1984 – see scans) which suggests that Jack Tramiel got Atarisoft to stop all C64 developments and focus just on Atari. It wasn’t the video game crash that caused the cancellation of titles. Thanks to Roberto Nicoletti and Phobos for the heads up.
We’re not sure how the game got leaked, but it is lucky that it has been – so you can see a different approach to the conversion.
Case closed!
Contributions: Mat Allen, Martin/Stadium 64, Phobos/Ready64, Roberto Nicoletti
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_Mariobros.zip (zip)
Gallery
Update history
- 11/09/24 – Atarisoft closure update.
This is the best port of Mario Bros on any system in my opinion.. I didn’t realise it never came out, thanks for the info.