---
title: "Which came first, JavaScript or Mario?"
description: "JavaScript vs Mario: Mario came first, by 14 years — 1981 against 1995. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/javascript-vs-super-mario/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, JavaScript or Mario?

**Which came first, JavaScript or Mario?: Mario**

1981 — 14 years before JavaScript

Mario came first, by 14 years. Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong.

## Side by side

|  | JavaScript | Mario |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1995 | 1981 |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Brendan Eich wrote it in ten days for Netscape Navigator. | Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong. |

## JavaScript

JavaScript was written in about ten days in May 1995, shipped in Netscape Navigator 2.0 later that year, and was called LiveScript until December, when Netscape renamed it as part of a marketing deal with Sun. It has nothing to do with Java beyond some borrowed syntax. Standardisation as ECMAScript followed in 1997, and the language spent a decade being treated as a toy before it became the most widely deployed programming language in the world.

## Mario

Mario first appeared in Donkey Kong in 1981, credited as Jumpman, four years before Super Mario Bros. of 1985 made him a household name. He wears a cap because animating hair at that resolution was impossible, and dungarees because they made his arm movements legible against his body — the design is entirely a consequence of an 16×16 pixel sprite.

## Common questions

### Which came first, JavaScript or Mario?

Mario, by 14 years — 1981 against 1995.

### When did JavaScript start?

1995. Brendan Eich wrote it in ten days for Netscape Navigator.

### When did Mario start?

1981. Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]