Skip to content
HHackerTube.videoSurprise me

The Story of Super Mario Bros. 3

The Story of Super Mario Bros. 3 on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2021–2023.

Gaming Historian

documentary · evergreen

Open on YouTube

A Gaming Historian documentary on the creation of Super Mario Bros. 3, the hype around its release and why it is regarded as one of the greatest games. It runs about 50 minutes in three parts.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN mentions it for the game design history it contains and as part of a list of good gaming history channels.

people recommended it
1
separate months
1
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2021–2023
“And at GDC, they talked about their Chemistry engine for BotW”
— iamwil, May 2023, in “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Release”

What HN commenters said

3 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

nzachNov 2021Recommends

Your comment got me thinking: "Wouldn't be nice if existed an 'awesome list' for this kind of content?" After a brief google search the best I could find is this [0] and it seems to be abandoned. Does anyone know a better source for this type of content? I'm leaving some random links to great channels that produce this kind of content: - CGA Graphics - Not as bad as you thought! [1] - DVD-RAM: The Disc that Behaved like a Flash Drive [2] - The Story of Super Mario Bros. 3 | Gaming Historian [3] [0] - [link] [1] - [link] [2] - [link] [3] - ▶ this video

in “Trackers: The Sound of 16-Bit [video]” · View on HN

iamwilMay 2023Cites it

Yes, it's rare, but they have. Game maker's toolkit has one on how they solved their open world problem for BotW: - [link] And at GDC, they talked about their Chemistry engine for BotW: - [link] - [link] Game historian has some tidbits of how they made certain design decisions for their successful games Mario Kart: - [link] Super Mario World: - [link] Super Mario Bro 3: - ▶ this video GMT, Snowman, and Extra credit does analysis of how Nintendo designs their Mario levels. - [link] - [link] - [link] - [link] - [link] Generally, it follows the ramp up and down of the Hero's journey in storytelling. 1. Introduce a new mechanic in a safe area where it's impossible to die. 2. Increase the challenge with the mechanic by adding variations 3. Ramp up challenge even more by combining with previously learned mechanic 4. Have periods of rest inbetween the challenges.

in “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Release” · View on HN

rzzztDec 2021Cites it

There is also some footage about digitization/level design in this SMB3 documentary (they might be using the same sources though): ▶ this video The mouse with the crosshair is a nice idea!

in “Street Fighter II paper trails – allocating sprite space by hand” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Game history & retro gamingGame designsuper mario bros 3nintendonesgame designretro gaming