Id Software cofounder John Romero has posted a demo video of a PC version of Super Mario Bros. 3 from 1990.
The demo was originally made by IFD (later Id) as a failed attempt to partner with Nintendo.
Though it looks and plays similarly to the genuine article, the IFD remake has no music, un-Mariolike sound effects, and some graphical and level design changes.
For 1990, getting scrolling to work on PCs as it did on consoles was a significant innovation, given the lack of game-specific hardware on MS-DOS machines.
Obviously, the attempt to court Nintendo failed, but the technology behind the demo later formed the starting point for Commander Keen, which released twenty-five years ago today.
The success of Keen led to the creation of Wolfenstein 3D, and the rest is history.
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