Mario Quest (Super Mario Bros. Late 1984 Prototype) [Mockup]

Mario Quest, localized in the United States as Mario's Adventure, is a prototype of Super Mario Bros. developed by Nintendo. This version of the game seems to take more inspiration from Mario's earlier titles (Donkey Kong, Mario Bros.). This ROM was found in October 2023 and seems to be from around December 1984.

The game feels much slower to play compared to the final game, and mechanics unique to this prototype such as screen-by-screen underground scrolling, auto-scrolling sky levels, and branching world paths were cut for seemingly no reason.

This is a mockup made by me, as I wanted to throw my hat in the ring for some "found media" fan content. I wanted to add more like a castle level and King Koopa fight, but I got burnt out on this and kind of just wanted to move on. Even things that were almost finished like a different version of the Starman and Warp Zones (called Negative Zones in this version) were cut. Maybe someday I'll work on a better - more polished - Mario fangame.

Credit to TheCrushedJoycon over on The Spriters Resource for the amazing sprites used in this project, and Nimaginendo Games for some inspiration.