I don't think this really needs additional context or commentary. All you need to know is that Super Mario Bros. turned 25 yesterday.
etherlad: Happy 25th anniversary, Mario. We're sorry, but your cake is in another castle.
wilw: Happy 25th birthday, Super Mario Bros! Your cake is in another castle.
etherlad: @wilw DAMNIT WIL I JUST SAID THAT
wilw: @etherlad I'm fairly confident that you and I are not the only exceptionally clever people who will come up with this joke today.
etherlad: @wilw TouchΓ©. Can we at least tip our hats and clink our glasses in honor of our exceptional cleverness?
wilw: @etherlad Indeed we can. Just let me adjust my monocle first, old chap.
etherlad: @wilw Jolly good, old bean.
wilw: @etherlad *clink*
etherlad: @wilw *clink* *mustache twirl*
This is all, of course, set up for this.
(thank you, Ian, for making me laugh)
Ohmygod! That picture is hilarious!
OMG! That picture is The Most Awesome picture since …. No, that picture is simply The Most Awesome picture ever!
You both look like you escaped from the Monopoly box π
His humour can be hit and miss with me (though mostly hit), but I loved Scott Kurtz’s take on it:
http://www.pvponline.com/2010/09/13/mushroom-for-error/
That… that is AWESOME!
I don’t know which is better, you as the Old Spice dude (http://twitpic.com/2d5m3k) or this.
It’s the symmetrically extended pinkies that really make that picture the sauce of awesome.
Love it! The whole exchange had me chortling in my office, with laughs in an out loud way when I saw the picture. Now everyone thinks I’m nuts(er).
Once, fine gentlemen would have swapped quotations from poetry.
You just need a double rainbow to go with that monocle smile. π
Mario’s older than 25 isn’t he? He first appeared in Donkey Kong at the start of the 80s did he not?
I played SMB with my daughters yesterday. They were not impressed.
Oh man … I'm so sorry.
I curse every day that I don’t make @wilw smile. I am not clever. I do, however have a cute puppy: http://yfrog.com/56ukaz
That is hilarious! I love it! Twitter rocks…as do clever people π
It’s OK. They enjoy Mario Kart 64. They are pretty good for a 3 and 4 year old. I’m working on getting them into the Secret of Monkey Island. Any suggestions?
Is it too late to get a refund (for your daughters, that is)? Did you save your receipt when they were born? π
How come no one has mentioned this t-shirt yet?
http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QC-AWKWARDNESS-SHIRT&Category_Code=QC
I can only hope they will come to embrace retro gaming as they get older. I’m trying to be a great geek dad.
I came home from school to find that the entire Internet wants to add me on Twitter. Holy crap.
Thanks, Wil! I just wanted to make you smile; I certainly didn’t expect to be featured in a blog post. (:
fair enough *bowing before the master*
Thank you, but I humbly disagree. I have a picture of Batman riding Robot Unicorn.
First it was just because cut-and-paste was easier, but then I realized it couldn’t have been done any other way.
Thank you!
I don’t know if you saw my geeky response/joke to your 8-bit cake comment yesterday. I thought it was pretty inspired:
Eating too much 8-bit cake causes anti-aliasing (it makes you round).
I played a fair amount of SMB back on the NES, but I’ll admit it wasn’t one of my favorite games. I gravitate more toward the RTS and FPS, and some RPG and puzzle games. My sister was the big SMB hound in the family. I’m pretty sure she finished it (possibly one of my brothers too). Zelda, Crystalis and Metroid were my top favorite NES games. I’ve been pretty impressed by how popular and how enduring Mario has been over the years, though most of it’s allure has been lost on me. I’ve always been much more attracted to PC gaming than consoles.
All I can think of is Commander McBragg
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nkZzLUvuLLU/0.jpg
Pasadena, 1985….I distinctly remember getting a distress call from Princess Toadstool…
Once you bring cake into it, it will eventually devolve into:
Cake bursts open to reveal Toad in open sequined vest with tassels on…where his nipples would be if he had them…
Toad: We’re sorry, but our princess is in another cake!
When in doubt, pinky out. Now that’s fancy!
Funny. Mario doesn’t look a year older than 8-bits.
You tell ’em Wil “Ultimate Nerd” Wheaton!
Funny, I was just telling my nephew about this the other day while he as playing Super Mario 10,000 or whatever he was playing on the Wii. π
“Back in my day Sonny, he just called Jumpman! And his hot pixelated girlfriend was called Pauline or maybe Pauly Shore…damn, brain cells are going erm, yea, something like that.”
For a minute I was thinking…crap, I might be getting old to actually remember before he got his name…but as I think more about it, it’s pretty freakin’ cool!
But, if we really want to go super nerd level 5…didn’t Mario really first get his name via Donkey Kong Jr in 1982? ^_^
I got my first computer, an Apple //e when they first came out – 1983, I think.
The big game for me was Wizardry by SirTech. It was a wireframe dungeon for you to explore. I set it up on my dining room table and spent every waking hour for the next two weeks playing that game.
Then we got into the Zork trilogy – with no graphics at all – straight text. Fun times building maps from that!
Anyone know if these games are still available in a format that will play on a PC with WinXP?
Seriously…
In the ’90s there was a package put out called “The Lost Treasures of Infocom.” It is sitting just to my right as I type this, though as it’s on 3.5″ floppies and my USB-run floppy drive bit the dust last year, I can’t presently test if they will run on my XP system. The games:
the 5 Zork games
HHG
Planetfall, Stationfall
Enchanter, Sorcerer, Spellbreaker
Deadline, Witness, Suspect
Lurking Horror
Ballyhoo
Infidel
Moonmist
Starcross
Suspended
The package also contains a massive hint book, manual, reproductions of various ephemera such as maps, and a coupon — surely long since moot — for a “SPECIAL OFFER – The original Leather Goddesses of Phobos text adventure can be yours for only $9.95 plus Shipping and Handling – IBM version only.”
My Q: Just the other day I was reminiscing about some text game where the player started out in a castle, looked in a mirror, and saw holes in his/her neck. I remember Eric R_____ in my Computer Math class bringing that game, among many others, on little 5.25″ floppies, where we would play whenever we’d finished our programming assignments. This was back before I knew what “pirated” meant, so I never saw the actual package or cover for the game. Does this description ring a bell, and if so, what’s the game’s name? The only other thing I remember is the fun we had giving it commands like “Eat holes” just to have it say, “YUCK!”
Soo… according to one of my friends, you twote that you were playing Mad Scientist University. How did those secret lairs turn out?
My favorite so far has been using cheese to make the best party ever. The obvious answer… is cheese golems. Give various cheese-carving/melting/shredding implements to cheese golems and set them in matches agains one another, and eat the losers.
I had a hard time solving Monkey Island when I was in my teens, but I bet if you played together and only offered hints in the style of InvisiClues, it could be a bonding experience.
Oh man, I ADORE Monkey Island. I think my favorite is the Curse of Monkey Island.
Oh… there’s… a… monkey in my pocket
and he’s stealing all my change…
His stare is blank and glassy,
I suspect that he’s deranged!
Good times.