Retro Replay Retro Gaming History, Reviews & Emulation
Mario’s first job had nothing to do with pipes. When he appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981, he was a carpenter. The game took place on a construction site, so Shigeru Miyamoto gave its little hero a job that fitted the surroundings. The plumber everyone knows came later.
There’s a nice reminder in an old Donkey Kong sticker card: underneath Mario, it says “The Brave Carpenter.” He’s got the cap, moustache and overalls already. He just hasn’t made the career change yet.
A carpenter on the girders
In Nintendo’s Iwata Asks interview, Miyamoto explains that the construction-site setting made a carpenter the obvious choice. Mario’s design also had to work with very few pixels. The overalls helped show where his arms were, while other features made the tiny character easier to recognise.
You don’t spend Donkey Kong measuring boards or building anything, of course. Mostly, you’re trying to get up the ladders without a barrel knocking you flat. Grab a hammer and you can finally hit back, at least until it runs out. It’s a rough first day on the job.
The screenshot above comes from the later NES compilation Donkey Kong Classics. The setting still makes the old occupation easy to picture: beams, ladders and a hero in work clothes, with a very large problem waiting upstairs.
Then came the plumbing
Miyamoto told NPR in 2015 that the plumber idea came from Mario Bros. That game put Mario in the sewers, with turtles coming out of pipes. A plumber made sense there, just as a carpenter had made sense on the building site.
That’s a wonderfully straightforward way to settle a character’s profession. Change the workplace, change the job. Mario kept his familiar look, and the pipes became a much bigger part of his world.
The card kept his old job title
The “Brave Carpenter” card is especially fun because it isn’t trying to surprise anyone. It simply calls him what he was. Looking at it now, when Mario and plumbing seem inseparable, the label is the part that catches your eye.
His adventures have taken him well beyond either trade. But before the Mushroom Kingdom, before the green pipes became such a familiar sight, there was a carpenter trying to get past a gorilla. Mario’s working life started badly and got considerably stranger.
Sources
- Nintendo: Iwata Asks, “The Reason Mario Wears Overalls”, for Miyamoto’s explanation of the carpenter role and character design.
- NPR interview with Shigeru Miyamoto, via WNYC, for the move from construction work to plumbing.
- Donkey Kong sticker-card archive, for the “Brave Carpenter” scan.
- Retro Replay: Donkey Kong Classics, for the screenshot from the later NES compilation.
More #RetroReplayFYI
For another unexpected Mario job offer, read about Arnold Schwarzenegger being approached to play King Koopa. Or follow Miyamoto into another adventure with the Indiana Jones connection behind The Legend of Zelda.
