Super Mario Brothers Original 8 Bit

From the website

"Full Screen Mario is a fully HTML5 remake of the original Super Mario Brothers. You can play the original levels, play through some of literally millions of possible random maps, or create your own using the level editor. This whole project is open source and free"

While I am currently a non gamer that wasn't always strictly the case. This game holds copious amounts of nostalgia for me from playing it as a kid. Then digital games were not as prolific as they are today. Games and games consoles were quite expensive at the time as we weren't in the Euro, they were imported and in the mid eighties to mid nineties we were economically in a different place. My interest in gameing growing up consisted of playing games on the Atari 800  my uncle had then the Atari 1600 and later owning and playing games on the Commodor 64. I remember playing the original 'Mario Bros' on the original Nintendo, I'm not sure if it was one my friend owned or it was one we rented from the local Video (VHS) Store. As the years progressed and the bit count in consoles increased I got a Super Nintendo with which I used to play 'Street Fighter'. My friend had a Sega Mega Drive with a few games that I can't now really recall.  

While this is not exactly the same without the control pad, once I became familiar with the keyboard controls I remembered how it was Mario's control system that made the game both frustrating and addictive. It's just so hard to tell if you have enough speed or height to make that jump and usually you don't. Playing this reminded me of how my heart used to thump when I would make any progress, knowing that the lack of understanding of the controls would lead to my inevitable demise. The graphics are uber cute in their original 8 Bit form and hold up really well as does the soundtrack. All in all I really enjoyed the hour and a half I spent playing this. I would avoid it your in the office, it could become a productivity sink hole.