Mario Bros.

Name:	Mario Bros.
Company:	Atari
Model #:	CX-2697
Programmer:	Dan Hitchens
Year:	1983
Released?	Yes
Notes:	Mario Bros. was the first game in which Luigi was introduced.

Long before their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and his brother Luigi were just a couple of simple carpenters trying to make an honest living.  However things don't always go as planned...  From out the water pipes came deadly Turtles, dangerous Crabs, and worst of all Fireflies!  Mario must team up with his brother Luigi and rid their house of these deadly pests forever.

Since it would be years before Mario would begin experimenting with "Magic Mushrooms", he'll have to tackle these pests as plain old "non fireball slinging" Mario.  Your only weapon is your fist, which you use to smack the floor.  When you hit the floor directly beneath your enemies, they will be flipped over and become easy prey for you to kick off the screen.  However there are a few snags in your plans, Crabs require two hits to flip over (the first hit simply makes them angry), and Fireflies can only be hit when they're on the ground.  If things get really hairy you can hit the POW bar at the bottom of the screen. Hitting the POW bar is like hitting every floor segment at once, and will hit all the enemies (assuming they're touching a floor segment).  You only get a limited amount of POW, use it wisely!

Every time you successfully knock off an enemy a coin will come out of one of the pipes (in the 2600 version it looks more like a wafer), which you can grab for points.  After a few levels you'll get to play a bonus round in which coins are scattered around the screen in various patterns.  If you can collect all the coins before the timer reaches zero, you can score mega bonus points.  After a few levels fireballs will begin to randomly appear and cross the screen, so unless you want to be burnt to a crisp avoid them!  In later levels a nasty little monster called "SlipIce" appears and will freeze floor segments making you slip out of control.  Try and knock off this little blighter as soon as possible.

Mario Bros. is one of the few games that features two-player simultaneous cooperative play.  This means that you and a friend (assuming you have any) can play together as a team at the same time (a big deal for the 2600).  Amazingly almost all the features from the arcade were preserved in the 2600 version making it one of the more impressive games on the 2600.

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