Blog: Raining from the ceiling (07/11/22 - 07/15/22)

It's time to get back into the groove of things. COVID knocked me out for almost 2 weeks! But I'm finally feeling back to 100%. Unfortunately, there was a mishap with my new air conditioner/handler. I went into my office and saw water coming out of the ceiling and wall!

That can't be good, right?

The HVAC company came out and fixed the issue at no charge. They also said they will fix the wall/ceiling too. I have no idea when though. With that out of the way, let's get back to work.

Monday, July 11th

Since I was away for a while, I needed to catch up on a lot of stuff. 

With the Microsoft video released, it was time to turn my attention to the "Nintendo Games on Atari" video. I needed to finalize the edit, send it off for audio mixing, and make a thumbnail. 

For the thumbnail, I figured showing the Mario Bros. Atari game would be best. It is the most iconic character and has the best cover art out of all the games. I also wanted to show a little Atari wood grain as well. I came up with this...

I still need to add some text, but I think this design works well!

After I finished that work up, I decided to clean my office. I was working on two videos at once, so it was kind of a mess! 

Starting tomorrow, I'll be going all-in on the Mario Kart video in the hopes of releasing it on the 30th anniversary (August 27th, 1992).

Tuesday, July 12th

It's time to deep-dive into Super Mario Kart! One of the first things I wanted to do is get my magazine archive sorted. 

Famitsu is one of the best sources for Japanese video game history research. I wanted to search every issue from 1992 to see what the vibe was with Super Mario Kart. But first, I had to index the issues. Indexing allows me to perform very fast searches on PDF files. It can take some time to set up, but it is definitely worth it!

I found some fun stuff. One reader wrote into Famitsu and complained that the Battle Mode is making people sick! Another commented that the game is too hard. When I was younger, I always played Super Mario Kart with my friend. It made the Grand Prix races easier because you could work together and try to win. Having played the game alone recently, I didn't realize how hard it is!

Another interesting hurdle I encountered today: I could not find Famitsu's review of the game! Typically, I search the kanji for any mentions of Super Mario Kart. But for some reason, I could not find the review. I had to manually dig through multiple issues until finally...

I guess Adobe didn't recognize some of the kanji in the review so it threw my search off. Pretty interesting scores! I'll get some of these articles translated for the script. 

Wednesday, July 13th

I did quite a bit of digging today. I went through GamePro, Video Games & Computer Entertainment, and Electronic Gaming Monthly.

I also found a Sear's ad for Super Mario Kart. Check out the alternate box art! I've never seen this before. I actually really like it!

Research for this video is going quickly. Believe it or not, there wasn't much hype for Super Mario Kart in the media. However, it really blew up after it was released, especially in Japan. There were even rumors Nintendo was going to make a new version of the game every year to keep people entertained. 

Thursday, July 14th

Another solid day of research. I think I have gone through all the magazines I can. I'm also bidding on a few Super Mario Kart merchandise items to feature in the video. 

As I mentioned before, Super Mario Kart exploded in popularity in Japan. It was the best-selling game on the Super Famicom. So naturally, there was plenty of Mario Kart merchandise going around. I found these cute Takara plush dolls. I also found a magnetic track racing toy, but it was very expensive. I might have to hold off on that one. 

I also recorded a commentary video on the Universal vs. Nintendo case! You can check that out here.  

Friday, July 15th

I got this really great promotional photo for Super Mario Kart on eBay! I'm going to scan it and feature it in the documentary.

As far as research goes, I really don't have much left. Today, I focused mostly on other racing games. Specifically, Mario Kart clones and other racing games that were available at the time of Mario Kart's release.

What is your favorite Mario Kart clone? Let me know in the comments.

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

- Norm