---
title: "Which came first, the Macintosh or Mario?"
description: "the Macintosh vs Mario: Mario came first, by 3 years — 1981 against 1984. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/macintosh-vs-super-mario/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the Macintosh or Mario?

**Which came first, the Macintosh or Mario?: Mario**

1981 — 3 years before the Macintosh

Mario came first, by 3 years. Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong.

## Side by side

|  | the Macintosh | Mario |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1984 | 1981 |
| Date | 1984-01-24 | — |
| Category | technology | media |
| What happened | Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert. | Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong. |

## the Macintosh

The Macintosh launched in January 1984 with a graphical interface and a mouse, and beat Windows to market by almost two years. Neither invented the idea — Xerox PARC had built the Alto in 1973, and both Apple and Microsoft were working from what they had seen there. Mac OS X, the ancestor of today's macOS, arrived much later in 2001 and is Unix underneath.

## 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, the Macintosh or Mario?

Mario, by 3 years — 1981 against 1984.

### When did the Macintosh start?

1984. Apple launched the first Macintosh, two days after the Super Bowl advert.

### 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]