Mario Museum

I picked up some cool new items at Nintendo Store KYOTO last week. The Super Mario × JR Kyushu campaign features specially wrapped, Mario-themed trains operating in Japan from 29 Nov 2025, to the end of June this year. The Nintendo Store is selling collectable magnets and stickers to mark the event.

Just added – Donkey Kong Super Game Pack, factory sealed box for the Coleco Adam. This is the second variant I have in the collection alongside the rare arcade retail box version.

30 days to go! New details have been revealed by Kyoto Marathon and sponsor Nintendo.
Super Mario Bros. music will be played to liven up the start of the race!
Runner's bags, the runner name board and photo spots will all feature the Super Mario Bros 40th logo.
I really can't wait for this one!

Wow. Right place, right time!

Finishing touches are being made to the Nintendo pop-up store in London at Westfield London, opening tomorrow! Image courtesy of hannahfrancescook (IG)

A very nice, vintage Nintendo commemorative medal sold at auction today for over ¥81,000. That's about $531USD/£401GBP

Probably dating from the late 1960s/early 70s, it features the N&B Block logo, Nintendo's short-lived line of toy bricks, intended to rival Lego. Very cool!

I bet that was cool. I think he interacted with a lot of fans through his website back then as well. But these days I suppose things have changed a little with such a busy schedule.

It was an honour to meet you! Thank you for all the years of fun, and inspiring @Mario.Museum!

The original, and legendary voice of Super Mario, Charles Martinet, turns 70 today!! Woo hoo!! Have a fantastic birthday @CharlesMartinet 🎉 🫶 #mario #supermario #nintendo

I was interviewed by @BBCNews for an article marking #supermariobros40 Check it out! 👇https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6x5574enpo.amp

As digital downloads rise, who knows what the next 40 years will bring. But for now, let’s take a moment to appreciate this truly iconic period of gaming history!

If you’ve enjoyed this #SuperMarioBros40 retrospective, share, tag a friend or follow #MarioMuseum for more! 🙏 3/3

Let’s take a look at the journey!

19 types of game cartridges
5 optical disk formats
7 floppy disk variants
5 different game cards
2 cassette sizes and a couple of other niche formats!

#SuperMarioBros40Formats 2/3

📼 💿 💾 💽

Happy 40th Anniversary Mario! 🎉
Ok, he’s been around a little longer than that, but it was 40 years ago today that the iconic Super Mario Bros. was released on the Famicom. To celebrate this milestone, I’ve spent the last 40 days counting down 40 different Mario formats! 1/3

19/ 💬 Most of us have a memory of playing Super Mario Bros! What's your experience of playing it? I’d love to hear your thoughts as I wrap up this 40-day journey celebrating 40 years of Mario! Thanks for following along!

#SuperMarioBros40Formats #SuperMarioBros40 #MarioMuseum

18/ Today, the Famicom cartridge is iconic not just for the games it was home to, but for its place in video game history. It made it possible for Mario to become one of the most beloved characters in all of entertainment.

17/ Even 40 years later, fans continue to find hidden behaviours in the game’s code. Super Mario Bros. has been a treasure trove for game archaeologists and ROM hackers alike. There's even a fully playable browser version of the game re-written in JavaScript.

16/ ⏩ Super Mario Bros. is also a pillar of the speed running community. It’s the subject of frame-perfect races, tool-assisted runs, and world record attempts down to the thousandth of a second.

15/ The game itself fits into a tiny 40 KB of data – smaller than a single image on most websites. Despite that, it packed in 32 unique levels, varied environments, hidden secrets, and responsive controls. It became the benchmark that every other platformer would be compared to.

14/ Koji Kondo’s overworld theme is the most recognisable piece of video game music ever created. It’s been remixed in nearly every Mario game since, covered by orchestras, and experimented with by fans in innovative ways! And let’s not forget the satisfying sound effects too!

13/ It was one of the first games to make “learning by doing” fun – and it’s still used in university game design classes today!

12/ It teaches you the rules without any tutorial text. World 1-1 is often praised by game designers as a masterclass in intuitive design: a Goomba teaches you about danger, a Super Mushroom surprises you by moving away, and a pipe invites exploration.

11/ This was the one that started it all for me, it’s packed full of nostalgia! That feeling of reading the words “Welcome to Warp Zone!” for the first time. Or humming along to the music. Gaming joy in its purest form. It has a timeless “pick up and play” appeal.

10/ The iconic side-scrolling action, clever level design, and unforgettable power-ups like the Super Mushroom and Fire Flower made this game a phenomenon, and it is still considered to be a masterpiece of design 40 years later.

9/ Super Mario Bros. (1985) is the game that defined an era. It’s a timeless masterpiece, introducing Mario and Luigi to the world and setting the standard for platformers.

8/ Mario’s first appearance on the Famicom was in Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., both launch day titles in 1983. By this time, Mario had moved on from being simply known as ‘Jumpman.’ And unusually (in hindsight at least), Mario also played the villain role in DK Jr..

7/ Two of my favourite obscure Mario appearances have to be “Mario World”, a mini game/educational software found on the Family BASIC V3 cart (1985) and the rare Gold Punch-Out!! cart (1987) featuring Mario as referee.

6/ MarioMuseum.com features almost 30 Famicom titles that have some connection to the Mario universe, and are made up of the usual vibrant mix of mainline games, cameos and spin-offs.

5/ Over 1,000 official titles were released for the Famicom, not even counting multi-game carts or unlicensed titles. The Famicom’s explosion in popularity led Nintendo to develop lockout chips to combat piracy, setting the stage for its future consoles.

4/ But it wasn’t perfect. Its hardwired controllers were short and easily tangled, and the early model lacked AV output. Its sound chip had limited channels too. Even so, the Famicom’s flexibility and brilliant software support made it a cornerstone of gaming history.

3/ Its design allowed for smooth scrolling, colourful sprites, and layered backgrounds, which helped developers create games that felt rich and alive compared to those of the early '80s. Thanks to clever programming techniques, its library expanded rapidly. 🚀