Super Mario Bros. Was an Arcade Game?

[chuckee71]

When I was reading a book called The Ultimate History of Video Games, I heard that Super Mario Bros. was a Japanese arcade game, and the NES version is a port of it.  I have no idea where the author heard it from.  I looked it up, and there is no such information of Super Mario Bros. being an arcade game.  It definitely said Super Mario Bros., not Mario Bros.  However, I heard of Vs. Super Mario Bros., which I played at the local arcade last night via the Multicade (with Williams games).  Super Mario Bros. could be just exclusive for the Famicon and NES.  Please answer if you can.  Thank you.

[Glitchologteam1]

wasn't VS Super Mario Bros made in 1986 using super mario bros 2 (JAP) as a base?

[soporj1]

All I know is the arcade version was hard as hell. I had the home version down pat and thought I'd show the people in the arcade how it was done and got my butt kicked instead!

[JWK1]

This is from Nintendo Wikia (http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros.):

"Super Mario Bros. has found its way in the homes of over 40 million consumers. It was introduced to many Americans as an arcade title, though the home console version generated more sales."

It actually started as an arcade title in the states, too.  I can't think of the source, but I read about 6 years ago that it wasn't actually a port.  The arcade used the same basic hardware as the NES, as Nintendo wanted to attract people to purchase an NES, supposing that consumers would feel like they were getting "arcade quality titles at home."  Kind of the same concept as the Neo Geo, but a decade earlier.  The first time I ever saw/played Super Mario Brothers was at a bowling alley when I was five years old (1985).  I can't comment on whether or not it was part of the "Vs." Nintendo arcade line or not; I just don't remember because I was so young.  But when I saw Super Mario Bros played on an NES at a friend's house later that year, I was amazed to see it was basically the same thing as the arcade I'd seen at the bowling alley.

[Den1]

I remember seeing Super Mario Bros. in an arcade in Dayton, Ohio, before I ever played it on the NES.  I played it last year at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.  I got about halfway through it and as far as I could tell, it was identical to the NES version, graphics-wise and difficulty-wise.

[Wallyworld1]

I remember playing SMB on arcade back in the day. I always assumed it was just in a Play Choice 10.

Maybe it was a stand alone game I really don't remember.

[soporj1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vs._Super_Mario_Bros.#Vs._Super_Mario_Bros.

One alternate version, Vs. Super Mario Bros., is nearly a separate game in its own right. This game, one of several games made for Nintendo's NES-basedarcade cabinet, the Nintendo Vs. Unisystem (and its variant, the Nintendo Vs. Dualsystem), is based on Super Mario Bros., and has an identical format. The stages, however, are different; the early stages are subtly different, with small differences like the omission of 1-up mushrooms or other hidden items, narrower platforms and more dangerous enemies, but later stages are changed entirely. These changes have a net effect of making Vs. Super Mario Bros. much more difficult than the original Super Mario Bros. Many of these later, changed stages reappeared in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2.

[m0zart1]

The NES version I believe came first in Japan.  The arcade version was released there too as a modified port.  In fact, I am almost sure of it.  In the US though, many like myself saw the arcade game first.

The arcade version was the first one I ever played, and I played it for a year or more before I got my first NES.  I actually beat it before I played the NES version.  We had a group who played the game almost religiously and competed with each other.  The game didn't repeat after you finished it, instead you received 100K points for each extra man you had left.  So we would complete like crazy to get as many extra men as possible and not die, knowing that the score would greatly expand at the end.  Honestly, the reason most of my circle of friends who played that game in the arcade just HAD to have an NES was because we saw SMB on the NES and couldn't believe how similar to the arcade game it was.

When I got my NES and played it finally, I was pretty disappointed.  It felt like a gimped version of what I thought was the arcade original (not having realized that the cart version was the original).  The graphics were spot-on, but the game was way too easy.  The NES game gave too many extra men, and some of the stages repeated themselves later on with small modifications, such as shorter moving platforms or some other modification to make them slightly more difficult.  The arcade game instead had new stages in place of those that repeat in the NES game.

I own the arcade game cabinet and have it in my gameroom.  I've played the hell out of it and no longer touch it now.  I don't want it to rot though, so I intend to sell it eventually.

[Irenicus1]

I remember playing it on an arcade table top. As far as I remember the game was identical to the NES version. The only difference was that you used a joystick.

[Leo1]

That would be a Playchoice-10 table top then with NES games. Not Vs. Super Mario Brothers.

KLOV shows only standard uprights as being produced for Vs. Super Mario Brothers.