Which came first, Mario or Twitter?
Mario came first, by 25 years. Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong.
Side by side
| Mario | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1981 | 2006 |
| Date | — | 2006-03-21 |
| Category | media | technology |
| What happened | Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong. | Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet. |
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.
The first tweet — "just setting up my twttr" — went out on 21 March 2006, and the service opened publicly that July. The 140-character limit came from SMS: a text message allows 160 characters and 20 were reserved for the username. When the limit doubled to 280 in 2017 the SMS constraint had been irrelevant for years.
Common questions
- Which came first, Mario or Twitter?
- Mario, by 25 years — 1981 against 2006.
- When did Mario start?
- 1981. Mario debuted as "Jumpman" in the arcade game Donkey Kong.
- When did Twitter start?
- 2006. Jack Dorsey posted the first tweet.
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Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)