Nintendo Released an Album in 1991

 In 1990 Bobby Brooks, a talent agent, died in a helicopter crash along with Stevie Ray Vaughan. To honor him, MCA Records released a Nintendo-themed CD ("White Knuckle Scorin'") that included a whole host of songs and artists that had absolutely nothing to do with Nintendo or video games in general.

The first song, "Ignorance is Bliss" by Jellyfish is the only Nintendo-related track. It's set within the Super Mario World... world. Sung by Bowser, he tells the kids not to read. It's a clever case of that reverse psychology - the kids ARE encouraged to read, you see! I'm not sure how successful that was, considering that the kids are already into video games - that's time not spend reading - and all the time spent listening to a song on a CD is just more time not spent reading. So...

From there on, not only does it have no connection to Nintendo games, check out the hot artists that the kids love: Crosby, Stills and Nash; Dire Straits; Roy Orbison; Britny Fox; Sheena Easton among others.

The Roy Orbison track deserves a drill-down. "I Drove All Night" is a previously unreleased track and was also released posthumously, as Orbison had died in 1988. Releasing his music on Nintendo CDs is probably what he would have wanted, I guess. The music video features black and white footage of Jason Priestly making out with Jennifer Connelly, which makes it all-time peak 1991, as far as I'm concerned. The video also features old footage of Orbison and "subtle background references to the Mario series and the album's title" according to Wikipedia. 

But does it contain subtle references? I see a sign that says "Princess" and a sign flashes on screen that says "White Knuckle Scorin.'" It's up there for about a tenth of a second, so I guess the claim is technically true. I guess. There's also a "Dino Dogs" sign that could be construed as referring to Yoshi. Seems pointless.

Having listened to the full album (time I could have spent reading, by the way), it just makes no sense. The artists are pretty stellar, the songs are generally good, it's just they don't belong together and the fact that they're released within a Nintendo context is just crazy.

Hey, I have an idea how you could make a CD with a collection of unrelated pop artists which would have a Nintendo/Mario connection AND it just so happens that my plan ALSO involves Roy Orbison.

As you probably remember, almost all of the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3 (and Super Mario World), were named and styled after some musician:

So there's your lineup. You've got your album right there. You're coming straight outta the gate with U2, then on to The Plasmatics, then some Iggy Pop, then Roy Orbison, then Motorhead and finally Beethoven. Then, since Bowser is the final boss, you can tack on the "Ignorance is Bliss" track. Going out on a bang. That's your absolutely absurd collection of bands/artists all on one compact disc that has the Nintendo label on the front. Sure, it'll appeal to no one but at least this one has a tenuous connection to Nintendo.

New Glitch Discovered in Super Mario Bros.

 

A new glitch was recently discovered in Super Mario Bros. which allows speedrunners to shave 20 seconds off their time (though pulling it off is very difficult).

This is another video that gets into the nature of the glitch by digging into the programming.

The Super Mario 3 Roulette Game Was Rigged

I always assumed that there was something I was missing about the Super Mario Bros 3 sliding picture game - I was sure there was a skill or "trick" to it, but I never figured out what that trick was. The following video goes pretty deep into NES programming, it's not going to be for everyone, but the point is: there is no skill or trick that would guarantee success. It was frustrating because it was always down to blind luck.

AVGN - Darkman

 It's time to take you back to the past...

Forget about insane levels on Super Mario Maker 2, apparently the real action is Darkman...

Game Grumps - Friday the 13th

Take a trip in the Wayback Machine to the late 80s. The Game Grumps attempt to play "Friday the 13th" for the NES.

As the title suggests, it's scary garbage.

Mike Tyson vs. Mike Tyson

This is a video a long time in the making. The actual Mike Tyson faces off against Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.



Obviously he's going to lose. Of course. But I was actually surprised by how well he did. As far as we can tell, he's never played the game before in any capacity and he actually lasts longer than I think I would by dodging some of the punches.

By the by, Mike Tyson was on the show to promote his new show "Mike Tyson Mysteries". If you haven't seen the show, it's worth checking out. It's a 70's-style cartoon show (like a "Scooby-Doo" or the Mr. T cartoon) where Mike Tyson travels the country in a van to solve mysteries. Helping him are his 18-year-old Asian daughter, a 19th century English ghost and his pigeon (voiced by Norm MacDonald). If that's not an interesting set-up for a show, I don't know what is.

Gaming #1

I recently bought a CRT TV and already owned an NES and SNES so I've been enjoying some retro gaming recently. In addition to playing some of the classics that I own, I've been purchasing other games on ebay and amazon piece-by-piece.

Here's what I started out with...

Obviously it's a classic. There's one weakness though: no saving! Without the chance to save progress, I had to schedule out a Saturday and try to go through it all in a day. I've probably beaten this game several times over the years but this time was different in two ways: 1) It was 1-Player this time and 2) I didn't use any warps or shortcuts.

Any time you re-approach a game after years, you hope that your age will mean you're much better. I was NOT much better. This was hard and I died muchly.

Here's something weird that I never noticed before.... Super Mario Bros. 3 doesn't have any credits. Every game tells you who made it but this one doesn't.

Another classic and another one that I had already beaten several times.

This is where I learned the value of being able to save progress. I could pick this up and play it casually, every now and then, beat a few levels and turn it off.

I beat the game but something weird happened after that... the next time I turned the game on, all my game data was erased. I know that errors happen with computers but I've never seen any data on any nintendo game ever be lost like that. Pretty strange. Fortunately, I had already beaten it anyway.

Lookit how hyped-up that crowd is. That arena is rockin'.

This one is also a classic. It's one of the first nintendo games I ever played and I still love it as much as I did back then... but I've never "beaten" it. I suppose if you play the computer at the highest speed and win, you've beaten the game, in a sense. So far I've managed to win against the computer at Speed 1 but it was tough. USA vs. the USSR, obviously. Classic days. 

I did something that I don't think I ever did in this game... regulation ended with the score tied so it went to a shoot-out. But then the shoot-out ended with the score still tied and it went to overtime. But in the overtime, there are no goalies. That's several layers of weird. I have no idea how to play without a goalie. The best strategy I came up with was just to take a player and try to block the net with him. 

I also found a code that allows you to play with a frictionless surface that I haven't tried yet.