MARIO BROS. MORE THAN 40 YEARS OF JUMPINGThe story of
Mario begins in 1981, when Nintendo released
Donkey Kong, an arcade game designed by
Shigeru Miyamoto in which a small character had to dodge obstacles and jump over barrels to rescue a woman kidnapped by a giant gorilla.
Back then, he wasn't even called Mario. He was simply known as
Jumpman, and much of his appearance was born out of the huge graphical limitations of the time. With so few pixels available, Miyamoto had to come up with simple solutions to make that tiny character instantly recognizable.
The cap meant they didn't have to properly draw and animate his hair.
The mustache helped separate his nose from the rest of his face without having to draw a detailed mouth, while the overalls made it easier to visually distinguish his arms from his body when the character moved.
What we instantly recognize today as Mario was, to a large extent,
a collection of practical solutions to technical problems.
The name came shortly afterward. Nintendo of America began calling the character Mario after
Mario Segale, the landlord of the warehouse the company rented in the United States.
In 1983 came
Mario Bros., where he shared the spotlight with his brother Luigi and his profession as a plumber was firmly established. But the real leap forward came two years later.
In 1985, Nintendo released
Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. Mario began running through huge levels, traveling through pipes, hitting blocks, collecting coins and facing Bowser to rescue Princess Peach.
The game went on to become
one of the most important and influential titles in video game history, selling more than 40 million copies.
From there came Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey and dozens more. Mario also started racing karts, playing tennis, golf and soccer, competing in the Olympic Games, throwing parties and taking on pretty much every profession Nintendo could imagine.
Over the decades,
the Mario franchise has sold hundreds of millions of video games, and its universe has expanded far beyond consoles.
TV shows, toys, clothing, comics, merchandise, theme parks and movies have turned the character into
one of the biggest icons in global pop culture.
His image has become so recognizable that you don't even need to have played one of his games to know who he is.
A red cap, a mustache, blue overalls and an M are enough.
More than four decades after his first appearance, Mario belongs to that small group of characters that have managed to escape the medium they were originally created for. The internet has adopted him, transformed him, parodied him and reimagined him in pretty much every possible way.
And to think it all started with a handful of pixels jumping over barrels.
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AMATEUR FLESH: ITALLHAPPENSATONCEOur amateur recommendation today takes us by the hand back to
the early days of the Internet. Back to a time when photos took forever to load, digital cameras were only just starting to make an appearance, and nobody zoomed in on an image to check whether it was perfectly in focus.
Back then,
quality was the least of our concerns. Mainly because we had no idea how far all of this would eventually go. We didn't know how many megapixels were coming, there was no 4K, no HDR, and we certainly never imagined that one day we'd be able to see every last pore on someone's skin from a screen we carry around in our pocket.
So we were perfectly happy with much less. A photo could be slightly blurry, badly lit, or look like it had been taken with a camera found inside a cereal box.
What mattered was the intention. And if the intention was good, our imagination was more than capable of filling in the missing megapixels.
And there's definitely something about today's protagonist that brings back a little of that spirit. Her material has that
genuine amateur charm, far removed from perfectly lit productions, carefully planned shots, and videos that look like they were filmed by a twenty-person crew. Here it's basically a phone, a camera, a desire to show off, and not much else. Just like the old days.
Although there's something else she seems to enjoy almost as much as getting in front of the camera:
reading the reactions she gets from the other side of the screen.
Some of her posts make it pretty clear that she enjoys going through the comments and, when you think about it, that's hardly surprising. We all like hearing nice things about ourselves. And depending on what you've just posted, maybe
things that aren't quite so nice but are considerably more interesting.
Because uploading a photo is one thing. Finding out what went through someone's head when they saw it is another. What they liked, where their eyes lingered the longest and, above all,
what they'd be willing to do if, instead of looking at her through a screen, she was standing right in front of them.
I guess that's part of the game too. She shows, you watch, some of you leave comments, and then she comes back to see
just how far everyone's imagination has wandered.
And judging by the photos and videos coming up next, I have a feeling
she's going to have plenty of reading to catch up on today.
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