It was 1995. If you owned a PC, you probably weren't playing Mario. Nintendo kept their plumbing superstar locked tight behind the gates of the NES and SNES. But then, a file started floating around BBS boards and early internet shareware sites. It was called Super Mario Bros VGA.
It looked right. It sounded... okay-ish. It played like a fever dream.
Most people today call it Super Mario DOS. It wasn't an official release, obviously. Nintendo would have sooner sold their building than let a 1:1 port of their flagship title land on MS-DOS in the mid-90s. This was the work of Mike Wiering, a developer who basically decided to see if he could recreate the magic of the NES original using Pascal and assembly language. It wasn't just a fan game; for a generation of kids whose parents refused to buy a console because "the computer is for homework," it was the only way to experience the Mushroom Kingdom.
Why Super Mario DOS Felt So Different
If you fire up the original 1985 NES version and then immediately switch to Super Mario Bros VGA, you’ll feel the "uncanny valley" of physics. Mike Wiering’s version was remarkably accurate in visual style, but the momentum was off.
Mario felt heavy.
In the NES version, Mario has a specific friction and acceleration curve. In the DOS port, he felt like he was running on slightly greased glass. The jumping physics didn't quite have that iconic variable height control that Shigeru Miyamoto perfected. Yet, for a fan-made project coded from scratch without the source code, it was a technical marvel. Wiering used 256-color VGA graphics, which actually made the game look "cleaner" than the NES version, even if it lacked the artistic soul of the original hardware's limitations.
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The sound was the real kicker. Unless you had a high-end Sound Blaster card configured perfectly, you were likely hearing the bleeps and bloops of the internal PC speaker. Hearing the iconic theme song rendered through a tiny, buzzing motherboard speaker is a core memory for many 90s PC gamers. It was harsh. It was rhythmic. It was kind of awesome.
The Mystery of Mario Bros VGA and Nintendo's Legal Team
Nintendo is famous for their "Cease and Desist" letters. They guard their IP like a dragon guards gold. So, how did Super Mario Bros VGA survive long enough to become a staple of shareware history?
Basically, the internet was a different world back then. There was no DMCA in 1995. Distribution happened via floppy disks passed between friends or slow downloads from local BBS servers. By the time Nintendo really caught wind of the "Wiering Mario," it was already everywhere.
Wiering himself eventually had to pull the game from his official site after Nintendo finally sent the inevitable legal notice. But the genie was out of the bottle. Because the game was written in Pascal, the source code—or at least the methodology—became a learning tool for other aspiring DOS programmers. It proved that the PC, despite its lack of dedicated scrolling hardware compared to the NES, could handle a smooth-scrolling platformer if the coder was clever enough.
Technical Hurdles of the DOS Port
PCs in the early 90s weren't built for gaming in the same way consoles were. They were spreadsheets and word processors. To get Super Mario DOS running smoothly, Wiering had to bypass standard DOS interrupts and talk directly to the VGA hardware.
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- Mode 13h: This was the standard for 320x200 resolution. It allowed for 256 colors but didn't support hardware scrolling.
- Dirty Rectangles: To keep the frame rate up, the game only updated parts of the screen that actually changed.
- The PC Speaker: Coding polyphonic music for a speaker that only wanted to beep once at a time was a nightmare.
Wiering's version featured the first few levels of the original game, but it eventually diverged into its own thing. It wasn't a perfect recreation of World 1-1 through 8-4. It was more of a "Greatest Hits" or a reimagining. This actually makes it more interesting to play today than a perfect emulator. It’s a piece of folk art.
The Legacy of Mario on MS-DOS
There were other Mario games on PC, of course. We had the educational titles like Mario Teaches Typing and the weirdly unsettling Mario is Missing!. Those were official. Those were licensed.
And they were mostly terrible.
Super Mario Bros VGA was better than the official PC games because it actually tried to be a platformer. It understood that Mario is about movement, not typing "The quick brown fox." When people talk about "Mario on DOS," they aren't usually thinking of the Interplay-published educational games. They’re thinking of that unauthorized .EXE file that felt like forbidden fruit.
The game eventually evolved. Wiering went on to create Charlie the Duck, which took the engine he built for Mario and turned it into an original IP. You can still see the Mario DNA in Charlie’s DNA—the way the world scrolls, the enemy bounce mechanics, the secret areas. It's a direct lineage.
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How to Play Super Mario Bros VGA Today
You can't just double-click a DOS executable on Windows 11 and expect it to work. The architecture is totally different. Modern CPUs are billions of times faster, and if you did manage to run it natively, Mario would finish the level in approximately 0.0001 seconds.
To experience this weird slice of history, you need DOSBox.
- Download DOSBox (or DOSBox-Staging for better features).
- Find the original
MARIO.EXEorMARIOVGA.EXEfiles on abandonware sites. - Mount your folder and run the executable.
- Set your "cycles" in DOSBox to around 3000 to 5000. Any higher and it becomes unplayable.
It’s worth playing just to feel the difference in physics. It makes you appreciate how much work went into the original NES subroutines. You’ll notice things like how Mario doesn't quite "skid" the same way when you change direction, or how the hitbox on the Goombas is just a little bit more unforgiving.
Is it actually a "Good" Game?
Honestly? By modern standards, no. By 1995 fan-game standards? It was a masterpiece. It represents a time when the boundaries between platforms were rigid, and the only way to cross them was through pure, hobbyist sweat. It’s a reminder that gaming history isn't just made by big corporations; it’s made by people like Mike Wiering who just wanted to see if they could make a plumber jump on a computer.
The game is a snapshot of a transition period. It exists in the gap between the 8-bit era and the dawn of the 3D accelerator. It’s janky, it’s unauthorized, and it’s a vital part of the PC gaming underground.
Actionable Steps for Retro Enthusiasts
If you want to explore the world of Super Mario Bros VGA, don't just stop at playing the game. There is a whole subculture of DOS platformers to discover.
- Check out Mike Wiering's other work: Look up Charlie the Duck. It's the "spiritual successor" that won't get you sued by Nintendo.
- Compare the source code: If you're into programming, look for Pascal game tutorials from that era. The logic used to handle tile-based scrolling in DOS is fascinatingly complex compared to modern engines like Unity.
- Explore other DOS clones: Mario wasn't alone. There were DOS clones of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, and even Castlevania. Most were terrible, but they all share that same "wild west" energy of early PC gaming.
- Use a Gamepad: If you're playing in DOSBox, map your keys to a modern controller. Playing this game on a mechanical keyboard is authentic, but it’s also a great way to get carpal tunnel.
The story of Super Mario DOS is a testament to the fact that if a game is good enough, people will find a way to bring it to their preferred platform, legal or not. It paved the way for the massive fan-game scene we see today with projects like Super Mario Bros. X or AM2R. It all started with a guy, some Pascal code, and a dream of 256 colors.