Before iD Software revolutionized the first-person shooter with Doom, it managed to port Super Mario Bros. 3 to PC.
These days, the name iD Software is pretty much synonymous with Doom, and its first-person shooter revolution. But before it went hunting demons on Mars, iD made several PC platformers in the Commander Keen series, and alongside 3D Realms with Duke Nukem helped bring the sides-croller to PC. To celebrate Keen’s 25th birthday, developer John Romero has released a video showing the prototype that helped bring Keen’s adventures to the PC: a fully-functional PC port of Super Mario Bros. 3.
Completed on September 28, 1990, the Super Mario Bros. 3 PC port was a test of iD (then known as Ideas From the Deep)’s new side-scrolling engine. “Back in the day, side-scrolling on PC was very difficult,” said Digital Foundry’s tech guru Rich Leadbetter. “iD cracked it.”
While the game isn’t quite as polished as the console version, and is missing a lot of animations and sound effects, it is completely functional, and even has a bunch of brand-new levels.
“id Software has always revered Nintendo,” Romero said on Twitter. “Their game designs were extremely influential and they saved the industry in 1985.”
A very cool, and interesting piece of gaming industry. I wonder what things would have been like if Nintendo was more open to its games being ported to other platforms?
Source: Twitter
