To celebrate Commander Keen's 25-year anniversary, id Software co-founder John Romero has shared the demo that started it all for the platforming series.

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Romero and company actually created a PC demo version of Super Mario Bros. 3 in 1990, which they reportedly pitched to Nintendo. However, Nintendo said no, so the team utilized the side-scrolling tech created for the demo to power Commander Keen. Super Mario Bros. 3 Demo (1990) from john romero on Vimeo Along with the video, Romero wrote on Vimeo : "This is a demo of IFD's (soon to be id Software) Super Mario 3 demo created for Nintendo on the PC. The demo was completed on September 28, 1990."Nowadays, it's a tad easier to make Mario levels, thanks to the release of Super Mario Maker . But it's neat learning new tidbits about the NES classic. In fact, earlier this year, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed that Super Mario Bros. 3 was all a play All in all, not only is Super Mario Bros. 3 the top game of all time for IGN , but it also inspired the Commander Keen series. For more on id Software, be sure to check out IGN's piece on how the studio changed gaming

Evan Campbell is a freelance writer who scripts the Daily Fix , streams games on his Twitch channel , and chats about movies and TV series on Twitter