Super Mario Bros (NES)
Super Mario Bros. This game single-handedly changed how platform games were approached after it stormed onto the scene in 1985. It established so many conventions that people now expect in side-scrolling platform games. When you approach a new platformer, what is the first thing that you try to do to dispatch the enemies? You jump on them. And you are shocked if that doesn’t work, scrambling for the instructions to figure out why they programmed their game incorrectly. See something that looks like a gold coin? Collect them all. See a brick that doesn’t look the same as the rest of the bricks on a platform? Get below it and try to smash it with your head.
Even as the series progressed, and new features were added, such as more advanced moves and different costumes, the key principles of the game never changed.
But there’s a whole generation of platform games released before Super Mario Bros was even a twinkle in Miyamoto-san’s eye (maybe). And the game owes as much to the history of those who came before as current platformers owe to SMB. Let’s take a look at a handful of important platformers popular before the Super Plumbers came to the NES.
Donkey Kong (Arcade)
Donkey Kong
We can’t really do this without at least acknowledging where Mario came from. Donkey Kong was a 1981 arcade release from Nintendo. At the time, Nintendo’s North American arm was in desperate need of a hit after the release of Radar Scope, which had seriously underperformed in US arcades. Junior employee Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the concept for the game, giving it something that platformers lacked at the time: a story. A giant ape has kidnapped a construction worker’s girlfriend, and you must help him rescue her.
Of course, our protagonist isn’t Mario yet. Here he’s known as “Jumpman” for obvious reasons. The early concepts for the modern platformer are taking shape. Jump over the obstacles. Take the ladders as you progress to the goal. Use the power-ups you are offered along the way (the hammers). Donkey Kong even offered different levels with a variety of mechanisms to reach your goal. It’s no surprise that this game became an instant success, and it was ported to pretty much every console and computer of the time. We even got versions as LCD Game & Watch-style games and a tabletop VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) game from Coleco.
Pitfall! (Atari 2600)
Pitfall!
The Atari 2600 was a major success for the company, as the home console market began to move away from simple pong-style television games and toward cartridge-based systems that offered a world of different experiences, attempting to emulate the arcade at home. While Atari would release a slew of first-party titles for the system, some of the most successful games would come from third-party developers and publishers. One of the most prolific of those publishers was Activision. They were notable not only for the amount, but more for the consistent quality of their releases. One of their early hits was the multi-screen platformer Pitfall!.
As a game, it was a simple concept. Travel from screen to screen, jumping over rolling logs, coiled vipers, and scorpions, and catch vines to swing Tarzan-style across ponds and pits. Make sure to collect the treasure along the way, and try to get as many points as possible before the 22-minute timer reaches zero.
Pitfall! added a sense of adventure to the platforming formula, as you explored the jungle, always proceeding to the next screen to face whatever the game would throw at you. Adding the timer to the mix gave your quest a sense of urgency. It also gave the game an ending, where other games at the time would go on nearly infinitely, as long as you could stay alive.
Lode Runner (Commodore 64)
Lode Runner
In 1983, Broderbund published a new puzzle-platform game from developer Doug Smith, Lode Runner. Sharing similarities with the classic arcade game Space Panic, Lode Runner was a single-screen platformer set across 150 levels. The basic goal of each level was to collect all of the gold on each level while avoiding the roaming guards. Once all of the gold was collected, a ladder would appear at the top of the screen, allowing the player to exit to the next level.
There were a number of complexities to the gameplay formula that set Lode Runner apart from other puzzle games. The guards on the levels have the ability to pick up the gold you are trying to collect. You have the ability to temporarily create a hole next to you in the floor. You can drop through the hole to whatever lies below, or you can use the hole to capture one of the guards, and if he’s carrying gold, he will drop it. You can then walk over the guard and collect the gold. Your hole will eventually fill back in. Though the guards can eventually climb out of the holes, if they are unable to do so before the hole fills in, they will be forced to respawn at a random position at the top of the level.
The levels themselves are populated with ladders, hand-over-hand bars, and sections of floor that you will not be able to create a hole in. You cannot jump, but you can fall any distance without taking any damage, assuming, of course, that you don’t land on a guard. On some levels, the gold you need to obtain will be located deep beneath multiple layers of floor, forcing you to quickly create and drop through holes, all the while avoiding the ever-present guards. As you progress later into the game, the level puzzles become truly diabolical, but it’s so much fun that you just keep coming back for more.
Jet Set Willy (ZX Spectrum)
Jet Set Willy
Over on this side of the pond, we didn’t really get the ZX Spectrum. Though we did receive a version of the machine, released as the Timex Sinclair 2068, it never reached a fraction of the popularity that the Spectrum line achieved in the UK. The library of games made available for the line rivals that of the Commodore 64.
Developed by Matthew Smith and published by Bug-Byte (later Software Projects) in 1983, Manic Miner was one of the most popular platformers released for the ZX Spectrum. It was later ported to numerous other computer systems. The following year, Software Projects released Smith’s follow-up to the game, Jet Set Willy.
Miner Willy, tired and ready for bed, has to tidy the house after a party before he can turn in for the night. You go from screen to screen, exploring your mansion, locating all of the items you need to find in order to complete the game, and finally get a good night’s sleep. Jet Set Willy exploits features that would become popular in modern platformers: exploration and item collection. Often, if implemented poorly, these can be detrimental to a game. But, as long as the encompassing title is well done and engaging, preferably with an appealing story to go with it, exploration and collection can make for an enjoyable time. Jet Set Willy has these in spades.
Pac-Land (Arcade)
Pac-Land
When Pac-Man burst onto the arcade scene back in 1980, the little yellow maze runner quickly became a gaming phenomenon. He was on clothes, watches, wastepaper baskets, and even lunch boxes. Heck, he eventually got his own cartoon. When the inevitable sequels to the game came, they were all a variation of the maze-running, dot-chomping original (with the exception of the pinball-video-game hybrid that was Baby Pac-Man, but that’s for another article).
When Pac-Land was released in 1984, it marked the most extreme departure from the established Pac-Man formula to date. It was a side-scrolling platformer that had an anthropomorphized Pac-Man, similar to his design for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, making his way across stages, or “trips”, trying to complete a task related to the area he was in. Along the way, you had to avoid the Ghost Gang (Iny, Blinky, Pinky, Clyde, and Sue), as well as other obstacles like fire hydrants leaking water, fallen logs, and quicksand. When you find and eat a flashing Power Pellet, the ghosts will turn blue, and you will be able to eat them for points.
While Pac-Land wasn’t the first side-scrolling platformer developed prior to Super Mario Bros, it was a significant one. It put the character in a colorful land of platforms, as the player ran, jumped, and avoided obstacles. Each level had a goal, and there were even end-of-level challenges. It was reported that the game was a significant inspiration during the development of SMB, though Shigeru himself stated that, while he did take the game into consideration, the only concept he really borrowed was the use of a blue background, as opposed to the black backgrounds of his previous games. Regardless, Pac-Land proved that the formula that made Super Mario Bros a success could work.
Most truly great games owe something to the games that came before them. Super Mario Bros. is no exception. While it’s a classic, there’s a vast universe of platform games that are also worth your time and paved the way for the modern platformer.
The post Life Before the Plumbers – Platform Games Before Super Mario Bros appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.