A memory brought up by
@It's Thinking 2 's Bootleg Mac games post:
When I was young, I was playing with a cousin at my grandparents house. He had brought an Oldschool Gameboy with him:
View attachment 1018
Very good cuz. Right on!
He had a nifty little carrying case for games and I remember going through them thinking "wow, these are neat!" Tried some out, had fun. There was the usual assortment of Tetris, some space shooters or another, Kirby, etc-etc. But I remember one in particular that stood out. It was a Super Mario cartridge! Not just any Mario cartridge, though, but a mysterious one! You see, the game was clearly an unlicensed/bootleg game.
I saw the label and recognized the characters right away: Mario and Luigi. But something was different here... these weren't the friendly illustrated Brothers I was used to seeing! No, instead, gracing the cover of the cart were the likenesses of none-other than Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo! The Mario Bros. from one of my (at the time) favorite movies!
At the time I didn't know any better; games were made about movies all the time. I thought it was in-line with all the RoboCops and Terminators and so on. Clearly I was wrong.
The cart looked something like this:
View attachment 1019
This is a real quick and dirty mock-up of what I remember. Not the actual cart.
In reality the photo of the two was different (it had the two actors standing shoulder-to-shoulder naturally, not superimposed) and the background behind them was white.
But just like in the mock up here there was no title or text or description. Just the photo.
The game itself was janky nonsense. No title screen, no intro, just plop into the game. I'd later come to recognize the assets as It appeared to use the sprite of Mario from Super Mario Land 2
View attachment 1020
But no power-ups, no little Mario sans-Mushroom, just as he is there.
One could jump and run, so there was that. I recall a few baddies (goombas, most likely) But the game only scrolled for a little bit until one reached a wall/cliff. The top of which was juuuuuust higher than Mario could jump so... well, that was the end of it, I assume. We never got past that part and moved onto something else.
Years would go by and I'd mention this to folks around either at school or on the net and no one would have any idea what I was talking about. There's no mention of the cart or game on the web, no one's ever seen the that weird level before, its a mystery.
There's a whole scene of enthusiasts for knock-off/bootleg Nintendo that this also eludes. I am absolutely stumped.
I've actually gotten some sh*t from folks claiming the story and the game are all BS; made-up internet nonsense. To them I say "NAY"!
It was certainly a real thing and not a dream or misremembered instance because on a subsequent visit from that same cousin I had asked about it and he talked about how he traded all his Gameboy stuff for a GameGear citing that game. But the trail goes cold after that. No origin. Nothing.
I have a theory though!
My uncle (his father) was in the tech profession and lived in San Fran. He was always around and wheelin' & Dealin' with the techie-type folks. My guess is that the cart was perhaps a homebrew/ethusist thing he had come across originating from one of his peers or clients.
But that's just a guess.
Who even knows?
So, RGT cohorts, my call unto thee:
Has anyone ever seen or heard of this thing? Or anything similar?
