Super Mario 128 [GC - Tech Demo]

This tech demo know as “Mario 128″ was presented at the SpaceWorld 2000  and started with a 2D Mario, on a huge circular Monopoly board. After  a while, various 3D Marios appears from under the big 2D one, untill 128 Marios can be see on the screen. Each Mario moved and fulfilled various actions, but they were independent from the others.

Super Mario 128 is apparently the name of a series of projects by Nintendo to create a sequel to Super Mario 64, but really the project experimented with new technology and ideas to incorporate into later games. A demo of the project was released by Nintendo. The demo featured 128 Marios on screen at once. Other features of the demo included the use of “rapid generation”, later seen in the game Pikmin, and “sphere walking”, seen in the The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. Some confuse Super Mario 128 with Super Mario Galaxy, a game that incorporates the experiments from the Super Mario 128 project. However, Super Mario Galaxy may be the culmination of the project’s work, as Super Mario 128 sought to create an innovative sequel to Super Mario 64. Super Mario 128 could now be seen as Super Mario Sunshine or Super Mario Galaxy.

During his keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference 2007, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed what eventually happened to Super Mario 128. “What happened to Mario 128?” said Miyamoto at the end of his keynote, “most of you already played it…,” then the screen showed that Mario 128 equaled Pikmin.

But really the demo shown at SpaceWorld 2000, along with its source code, still exist, containin its all beta models, features and functions…. but probably it’s hidden somwhere in the Nintendo’s Office (Kyoto, Japan)

Under, there’s a video showing the game’s presentation at SpaceWord 2000. Miyamoto starts with a single Mario of 200-250 polygons (the same amount as in Mario64) and quickly brings 128 Marios on the screen. The bar at the bottom indicates how much processing power is being used. They go through different special effects modes showcasing what the system will be capable of.
Some minutes later, also cel-shaded versions of Mario appear, and after that, all Marios become invisible for a little amount of time…

Thanks to Shoyz, Ducky Wensel andMr. Game for the contribution! Also thanks to MarioWiki and IGN for some informations.

Clicca qui per la versione in Italiano ▼

Images:

Videos:

Do you want to add more info, screens or videos to this post? Click on the “Edit” link below! It’s just like Wikipedia (maybe).

Edit

1. Peach’s Castle [GameCube - Tech Demo]
2. Super Mario 64 [N64 - Beta / Unused Stuff]