Proto:Dr. Mario (NES)/Virus 1989 & 1990

Note: I will move this to the page whenever I feel like it's almost complete. Whilst then, feel free to make some edits.

Download Virus (1989 Dr. Mario Prototype) File: Virus (USA) (1989 Proto).nes (64 KB) (info)

The 1989 prototype of Dr. Mario is the earliest known build of the game. This prototype was the first one to be named Virus and the 2 prototypes after it share the same name. This prototype contains no music whatsoever and limited sound effects. Notable differences are for the lack of the dancing viruses on the left, and the non-animating viruses.

Title Screen

Virus 1989 Proto	Dr. Mario Final
	Much better.

The old title screen was Virus written in purple on a blue box with a syringe injecting the V letter. It has a completely black background. It lacks Dr. Mario, who does appear in the game, but not in the title screen like the 2nd and the 3rd known prototypes. It lacks the title music, and the 2 player option cannot be selected in the main screen, but rather in the options screen.

Options Screen

Virus 1989 Proto	Dr. Mario Final

This has no checkered background , nor did the title screen, but this time it has a blue background. At the top it says "Menu" instead of "1 player game" or "2 player game" depending on which option you picked. The "A" button changes the option to the next one and the "B" button does the opposite. This causes a sound effect to play, but nothing is heard if the player moves the cursor down or up. Surprisingly, this menu has a couple of features that the final game doesn't have at all! For starters, the FALL DOWN options determines whether half of a megavitamin falls down to the ground or not, which always falls in every other Dr. Mario game. Plus, as shown in the picture above, the player can select the Virus level upto 24 as if Level 20 wasn't hard enough. In fact, the player can access level 24 without cheats, but one must defeat Level 20 to 23 to reach there, then the game keeps repeating level 24. Finally, SET COUNT determines how many wins a player must achieve in the 2-player mode only. In the Final game, you can only have 3-set games, another mystery to why they removed this feature. However, the GAME LEVEL (also know as the SPEED in the final game) can only be set to EASY or NORMAL and no music can be set. For some bizarre reason, there are 2 blank options between FALL DOWN and PLAYER which don't appear to do anything whatsoever if A or B is pressed.