The existence of a PC port for Super Mario Bros. 3 developed by the founders of id Software has been around for years. And while it was also known that one of these, John Romero not to name him, had a copy of this unofficial port, no one knew that other people had accessed it throughout the year. To everyone’s surprise, a copy of the game has just appeared. But sadly, not everyone will be able to play it.

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The National Museum of the Game recently reported that it got its hands on an unofficial PC port of Super Mario Bros. 3 made by the founders of id Software in 1990, a few months after the game was released on the US NES. At that time, the structure did not yet have the name id Software and was called Ideas From the Deep (IDF).

The idea behind this incomplete project, prior to the development of Doom, was to propose to Nintendo that they make an official PC port of their famous platform game. Legend has it that Nintendo was impressed with the work done, but was unwilling to move on.

Officially, the existence of this demo has been known since 2003. But it wasn’t shown in motion for the first time until 2015 when John Romero, one of the co-founders of id Software, uploaded a video.

Not for everyone

Andrew Borman, curator of the National Museum of Play, explained Ars Technica have received this demo from a developer who did not work on this port, but received it from someone without ever specifying why and how. As of this writing, we don’t know how far this demonstration of the PC port goes. Andrew Borman, however, explained that he went from level 1-1 to level 1-4.

Unfortunately for gamers interested in this historical curiosity, the National Museum of the Game has no intention of releasing the software. Researchers and other students who need access to it for their projects can, however, submit a request to the museum curator.

For the record, the work done on this port was not used in vain. In fact, John Carmack, for the purposes of this version of Super Mario Bros. 3, programmed a scrolling algorithm that allows for smoother play than the brutal steps from one game level to another previously offered by DOS games. And once the project was rejected by Nintendo, the id Software team repurposed the work done at this port to develop Commander Keen.

Have you ever heard of this SMB 3 port from id Software? Would you like to be able to play it? Should the muse who compiled it make it available to all players? Give us your opinion in the comments below.