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 the lack of the dancing viruses on the left, and the non-animated 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 on the title screen like the 2nd and the 3rd known prototypes, but he does appear in the game. Also, 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 in the final game, 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.

1-Player Game

Virus 1989 Proto	Dr. Mario Final

• Probably the most obvious change is the panel on the left. In the final game, it showed the 3 viruses dancing in a magnifying glass, but in the prototype you get this weird picture of a frowning cartoon dog sitting on a chair in front of a woman (I guess, it could be some sort of nurse like Nurse Toadstool). Every 6 seconds, the dog sneezes which creates no sound effect. They could be in the Mushroom Kingdom Hospital. The nurse or whoever she is, is holding a mysterious white bag which might carry the viruses.
• Every sound effect is slightly different.
• The virus aren't animated, which they are in the final game.
• The clipboards are coloured differently: They have black paper and the edges are purple.
• The pills don't have the outlines they do in the final. They were present in the third prototype of Virus.
• Dr. Mario looks considerably different: He has a different sprite design, and he isn't wearing his trademark stethoscope. His shoes are coloured white as well.
  • Dr. Mario has only one animation: Tossing the pill. In the final game, he had 1 extra animation which was when he loses a level. The animation is him shrugging.
• The background is just blue, whilst the final game has a checkered purple and black background.
• Virus is displayed on the top right instead of Dr. Mario as the game title was different. The Virus logo is identical to the one used in the title screen, though the Dr. Mario logo in this screen is different from the one in the title screen.
• In Virus, the right clipboard shows you how many Megavitamins you have tossed (indicated in the PILL counter), which was replaced by the speed level in the final game.
• Sometimes In Virus, one of the viruses are missing in the first level. But in Dr. Mario, every virus have appear at least once in every stage. This might be because of the dancing viruses on the left of the screen.
• The default high score is 5,000.
• The player's score caps at 999,999 in Virus. In Dr. Mario, it was increased to 9,999,999.
• Losing, brings up the MISS box that was absent in Dr. Mario.

Virus 1989 Proto	Dr. Mario Final