Oldest game franchises that still release new games

[zzip]

12 hours ago, Tanooki said:

You are correct, found it.

Interesting.   I wonder if's a case that the Japanese simply didn't name him, but Nintendo of America decided to give him a name, and it stuck?

 

Even though I've seen the "Jumpman" name used,  the claim that the Mario name wasn't used at the time of Donkey Kong felt wrong to me.   I remember when the game was popular, we used to buy Donkey Kong trading cards/stickers, so I looked them up, and sure enough, they referred to him as Mario!  This was before DKjr was popular, though it might have been released.

 

[Tanooki]

@zzip Actually that's not a question you just asked to start, you pulled a Jeopardy! stunt and make your answer IN the form of a question.

To Japan, Miyamoto, anyone else involved in 1981 there was no Mario, it was Jumpman the Carpenter, his gf Pauline, and the king kong wannabe Donkey Kong wanting the girl.  But Nintendo had almost failed in their early days, problems with money, rents/leases and so on.  Long story short their landlord/building owner was MARIO Segale.  As a subtle homage and thanks to the man, and I believe he vaguely looked the role too of Jumpman, the US branch named him Mario a bit later in their print ads, yet all the original printed cabinet materials as shown says he is JUMPMAN.   Mario was adopted later by the US, and a rare reverse ripple of how things went back then, the Japanese suits went with the American name and it stuck.  That then lead to name in game/ads/etc of having Mario in DK Jr a year later, and after that with Mario Bros, which also gave us Luigi as they needed some name for the 2-player side.  Basically he has two names, the US branch and consumers, their largest sales base, forced their hand and mario Jumpman a memory and Mario a reality.  In the movie we recently received, Mario Segale, Mario, Jumpman are all referred to in the movie as a few different easter eggs.

[zzip]

15 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Actually that's not a question you just asked to start, you pulled a Jeopardy! stunt and make your answer IN the form of a question.

Haha, well I didn't actually know the answer.   But everyone these days says "Mario was called Jumpman in Donkey Kong and that's that",   and while I definitely remember hearing the name "Jumpman",  I have a hazy recollection that the Mario name was around then too.   I just never bothered to look into it.

[roots.genoa]

2 hours ago, Tanooki said:

To Japan, Miyamoto, anyone else involved in 1981 there was no Mario, it was Jumpman the Carpenter

Except I heard Miyamoto explaining "Jumpman" didn't come from him, and that he initially called him "Mr Video" as a successor to "Mr Game & Watch".

[Tanooki]

10 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Except I heard Miyamoto explaining "Jumpman" didn't come from him, and that he initially called him "Mr Video" as a successor to "Mr Game & Watch".

That's correct too, I remember reading that at least somewhere.  I'm guessing he wanted to keep the G&W guy kind of in mind, NCL wanted I guess something more literal perhaps.  Whatever happened it went how it did and it's weird, but it works.

[DavidD]

I've always assumed that:

• Miyamoto and NCL weren't really worried about giving Mario a name.  He probably had a nickname (see "Mr. Video"), but the protagonist's name was an afterthought.
• NOA staff in New York thought the short little guy with a funny mustache looked like their landlord.  No matter what the retellings claim, I've always been suspicious this wasn't necessarily complimentary... but I have no clue.
• Jumpman appears on the title cards as NCL/NOA made the units first, before NOA staff had a time to "think" about the game much.  The Mario name probably came about AFTER the initial artwork/run was done.

All of this seems probable.

 

The "Luigi" name was supposedly taken from a pizza parlor in Redmond.  NOA moved in 1982, I believe, so the timeline COULD work.

 

Game history books always imply that communication between NOA and NCL was somewhat limited in 1980-1982, but given that NOA was being run by Yamauchi's son-in-law and daughter, I'm sure communication was SOMEWHAT normal.  This could explain how NCL staff learned about the Mario name.

 

In other Donkey Kong tidbits -- while Miyamoto did the side art for DK (and, I assume, the radically different stylized artwork for DK Junior, Mario Bros., and DK3), the NOA poster/flyer art was done by Leslie Cabarga (http://lesliecabarga.com/) .

 

[roots.genoa]

The problem is at the time, the marketing team didn't control the consistency of things as much as it is doing now. I think it's telling that the name "Jumpman" appears on the cabinet instructions, because there are several examples of things some players consider canon because it appeared in some instruction manuals (like Yoshi being a dinosaur or dragon, I don't remember), but instruction manuals used to be written by random employees without consulting the creator of the game, especially when they were not from the same country, so a lot of them created stuff on the fly. Since they usually had a literary background, some of them even invented the story (and/or lore elements) of arcade games. Now you can consider it's canon since an instruction manual is an official document by definition, but it's debatable imho.

[electricmastro]

Happy 42 years to Wizardry!

 

[Tanooki]

@electricmastro I saw that drop on GoG via emails I get and I was shocked, it's the original modernized in ways, yet not, the best of quality of life without ruining stuff.  Had I the time I'd have bought it right now, but knowing how sales/cuts work with then (and steam) when my time frees a bit more I intend to try this.  Still considering checking out the odd NES version too we got.

[electricmastro]

So with Donkey Kong getting a remake this year:

 

Space Invaders (45 years)
The Oregon Trail (42 years)
Mario (42 years)
Donkey Kong (42 years)
Pac-Man (42 years)
Wizardry (42 years)
Bomberman (40 years)
Nobunaga's Ambition (39 years)
Galaxian (39 years)
Dragon Slayer (38 years)
Wolfenstein (37 years)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (37 years)
Dragon Quest (37 years)
The Legend of Zelda (37 years)
BurgerTime (37 years)

[Lost Monkey]

32 minutes ago, electricmastro said:

So with Donkey Kong getting a remake this year:

 

Space Invaders (45 years)
The Oregon Trail (42 years)
Mario (42 years)
Donkey Kong (42 years)
Pac-Man (42 years)
Wizardry (42 years)
Bomberman (40 years)
Nobunaga's Ambition (39 years)
Galaxian (39 years)
Dragon Slayer (38 years)
Wolfenstein (37 years)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (37 years)
Dragon Quest (37 years)
The Legend of Zelda (37 years)
BurgerTime (37 years)

Galaxian (1979) and Burgertime(1982) are older than what is listed. Actually so are DK and Pac Man

[electricmastro]

16 hours ago, Lost Monkey said:

Galaxian (1979) and Burgertime(1982) are older than what is listed. Actually so are DK and Pac Man

Those two haven't gotten new games since 2019, which is why I listed them that way.

[Lost Monkey]

18 minutes ago, electricmastro said:

Those two haven't gotten new games since 2019, which is why I listed them that way.

Got it - I was wondering what I missed!

[electricmastro]

Longest running franchises that got new games this year:

 

Mario (1981-2024) - 43 years

 

Donkey Kong (1981-2024) - 43 years

 

Contra (1987-2024) - 37 years

 

Megami Tensei (1987-2024) - 37 years

 

Prince of Persia (1989-2024) - 35 years

 

SaGa (1989-2024) - 35 years

 

Alone in the Dark (1992-2024) - 32 years

 

Mystery Dungeon (1993-2024) - 31 years

 

Tekken (1994-2024) - 30 years