

a rectangle that measured 16 pixels wide and 32 pixels tall, which was obviously just a placeholder until the actual player character was designed. started development as a prototype created by Miyamoto's desire to have a game where you can control large characters.

Here is the first specifications document, as seen from the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition history booklet. May 15th - Game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe.February 21st - Game released for the Famicom Disk System.October 18th - Game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA.September 13th - Game released for the Famicom.August 12th - Game was likely finished around this time according to the SMAS partial source code leak.July - Although the initial release date was intended to be during summer break, development time was furthered by 3-4 weeks to finish the game.July 19th - World 1-1 is finished around this time.June 27th - A draft of an early green title screen is drawn up.March 8th - Another planning sheet is created, possibly made for level planning.February 28th - Planning sheet is drawn up containing Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr.February 20th - Specification describing the mechanics of how becoming big would work is written.February 5th - An early control scheme is designed.Unknown Date - Specifications for Mario riding around in a cloud and rocket are drawn up.December - Miyamoto requests programmers at SRD to form an experiment with a controllable rectangle.Fall - Development started at the same time as The Legend of Zelda, after Devil World and Excitebike were finished.10.2 Unused Draft Level, Donkey Kong Girders and Donkey Kong Jr.
