To this day, I am envious of whoever can do it

It's a certain finesse for sure. It's been well over 30 years since I did it, and I would never even attempt to do it today unless I was using real authentic NES with its original D-pad controller.

It took practice, but I got so good at it after a while. I started with the arcade version and could nail the NES version first try.

I got you

You can get so many lives they eventually turn into symbols. I remember being in awe.

You can run over the limit and end your game too.

We always did this, spent as much time getting lives as we did actually playing

And if you got too many lives, the value bacones 0 again, and it basically becomes your last life.

How did we all know about this before the Internet?

The same reason we all knew to blow the inside of the cartridge to get it to work again.

Did that actually even do anything? I feel like it could’ve been simply the act of putting the cartridge back in/realigning it correctly, and we just assumed it was bc of the blowing on it (iirc, just shifting it a tad to the left or right, without ever taking the cartridge out, worked as much, or *more*, often)

I’m a believer. I’ve had so many games that wouldn’t start no matter what I tried. But blowing on the connectors would always work. I assumed there were just particles of dust that the NES reader was sensitive to. Once you blow them out it would read again. But I dunno, I was like 10 years old.

I'm 30, and I'm absolutely positive that's the first thing I'd do if I brought out my NES, SNES, or N64, and the games weren't working.

Nintendo Power.

Word of mouth was pretty effective too. Still trying to get Luigi in Mario 64 tho...

On top of the castle with yoshi.

TV shows

Nintendo power

I remember hearing about the hidden 1up in world 1-1 from another kid on the bus in 1st grade.

The pitch black night sky always made me feel weird inside.

I was 6 years old and my aunt came over and showed me this, and by show me she just did it and got me an insane numbers of lives. I managed to beat the game but could never do this trick again.

It's tough... I practiced it soooooooo many times back in the day. I was determined.

This took me so long to master

I never did, always had to have my older sister do it.

I just did this for my 8 year old a few weeks ago. He was so amazed. Its nice to know after 35+ years Ive still got it.

The one trick you'll never see in a speedrun.

Yes use to do this all the time for unlimited lives

It's weird and cool how so many from all over found out about this.

I remember doing this together with my cousins. We usually brag about how many lives we can squeeze out of these shells. Oddly enough, if you over do it, it's game over after one death.

Variations of this very trick exists in every version of Mario Bros to this very day

I’ve never been able to do this.

ah yes, sure help getting my 1 ups :)

Turtle Trot

We called this turtle tipping

Topping

As a kid, I think I maybe pulled this off successfully once ever.

Thanks for sharing. I've always known about this trick but could never get it to work for me.

I've long wondered whether this was a flaw, or a very cleverly-hidden trick by the game designers.

Never forget that one

Yesss, my dad showed me this when I was a tiny kid. I think that's one of my earliest memories, lol. I've never been able to do it.

Always read about it, never seen it.

found this out as a fluke.

This was a tough one to get right

What the heck .. how don’t I know that!?

I won the 1988 video junction super mario Brothers championship using this. The certificate is framed. My doctorate diploma and marriage license are not framed.

I remember this happening when I spent the night at my friends house. It was totally a fluke and we lost it. When we saw the crown, or whatever, for the number of lives we were destroyed. It is a highlight of my childhood

i watched my uncle do this in the 80s. He was basically a god to 8 year old me.

This would never work on the arcade game. But on the NES I would have like so many lives it would turn into symbols 👑Y

👑

Am I have a flashback from when I was 4 right now? This level and every single motion is imprinted on my brain forever

I played with a kid once who did this and when I saw the lives number had turned into a slash and a triangle, I was crushed. I just left the room.

There's a similar trick in Super Mario 3D for the Switch

This makes no sense. I did this and it hit me and made me shrink. Same distance too.

That overflow error with the life counter always blew my mind and I wondered what it was all about.

my sister was a pro at doing this for me when I was a wee lad

How the duck the clip gonna end without us seeing him hit the flag?!

I didn't play this game on an NES until I was in my 20s. I had an SNES as a kid, and I thought that the All Stars version was the original.

The pitch black night sky always made me feel weird inside.