Mario Teaches Typing

Lore & Background

Mario Teaches Typing was conceived by Interplay head Brian Fargo, inspired by the success of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Fargo noted that most purchases were by parents wanting to teach children typing, and he believed Mario would be an effective teacher. Interplay executive Brian Fargo (or another staff member) secured the license from Nintendo, which was expanding into educational products. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto was not involved in development. The game was produced by Thomas Decker, with programming by Kurt Dekker and Jay Patel, and art by Dave Mosher, Todd Camasta, and Patrick Whelan. Music was arranged by David Govet and George Sanger, reusing tracks from Super Mario World.

Reader's Guide

Mario Teaches Typing is significant as the first video game to feature Mario speaking, with Ronald Ruben providing the voice for the initial release and Charles Martinet for the CD-ROM version. Martinet later became the official voice of Mario for 32 years. The game sold 800,000 copies and appeared in top ten educational software sales charts from 1992 to 1996. Reception was mixed; earlier releases received more favorable reviews than the sequel, Mario Teaches Typing 2 (1997). Critics praised the use of the Mario franchise for appealing to children but were divided on its effectiveness as a typing tutorial. Reviewers generally considered it more suitable for children than Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The enhanced CD-ROM version introduced Mario-In-Real-Time animation using VActor technology, with Martinet performing via tracking sensors. Nintendo continued its relationship with Interplay until ceasing endeavors outside Nintendo systems in the late 1990s.

Did You Know?

• Mario Teaches Typing features Mario speaking, though earlier instances of Mario speaking exist in other media; Ronald Ruben voiced him in the 1992 release, and Charles Martinet in the 1993 CD-ROM version.
• The game reuses music from Super Mario World.
• The enhanced CD-ROM version used VActor (Virtual Actor) Character Animation technology developed by SimGraphics Engineering.
• A German localized version supports QWERTZ keyboards and umlauts.

Conceived in the Shadow of Mavis Beacon

Brian Fargo, then leading Interplay Productions, drew direct inspiration from the 1987 educational title Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, created by media personality Les Crane, with whom Fargo was personally acquainted. After observing that the bulk of Mavis Beacon's buyers were parents seeking to teach their children keyboard skills, Fargo envisioned a typing tutor that would feel equally natural to a young audience. He concluded that Nintendo's Mario would make an ideal on-screen instructor. Interplay vice president Richard Lehrberg leveraged his existing relationship with Nintendo to negotiate the character's usage rights, and the company agreed enthusiastically. Nintendo's willingness reflected a broader corporate strategy: following strong North American growth, the company was exploring educational and creative software to counter 1980s parental criticism of video games, while believing a small number of such titles would not threaten its market dominance. Notably, Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto had no involvement in the project. The development team included producer and designer Thomas Decker, programmers Kurt Dekker and Jay Patel, artists Dave Mosher, Todd Camasta, and Patrick Whelan, composer David Govet alongside George Sanger, and sound designer Hamilton Altstatt. The soundtrack drew directly from Super Mario World.

Three Worlds of Keyboard Mastery

The game structures its curriculum around three progressively challenging stages, each borrowing the side-scrolling format familiar from the Super Mario series. In "Mario's Smash & Dash," a beginner lesson set outdoors, the player types individual letters to smash blocks and leap over Koopa Troopas. The intermediate stage, "Mario's Wet Word Challenge," shifts the action underwater, where completing words propels the character past dangerous sea creatures. The most demanding lesson, "Mario's Tunnel of Doom," takes place in an underground castle and requires typing full sentences to outrun falling Thwomps and escape quicksand. A separate drill called "Mario's Expert Express" is available from the main menu for extra repetition. The profile system lets students play as Mario, Luigi, or Princess Peach, set a words-per-minute target, and earn a printable certificate upon reaching it. Lesson settings allow restricting practice to the home row, adding the bottom and number rows, or opening up the entire keyboard. A status bar tracks play time, keys struck, WPM, and errors, while a hand diagram highlights the finger needed for the next keystroke. Localized editions, such as a German release, supported QWERTZ layouts and umlaut characters.

The First Time Mario Spoke

Mario Teaches Typing occupies a singular place in gaming history as the first title in which the character Mario ever spoke. For the initial 1992 floppy-disk release, the voice role was performed by Ronald B. Ruben, giving Mario his first audible words in any video game. When Interplay published the enhanced CD-ROM edition in 1993, the part passed to Charles Martinet. That single recording session proved career-defining for Martinet: he went on to become Mario's official voice actor, a position he held for the next thirty-two years. The transition from Ruben to Martinet between the two formats means that players who experienced both the disk and CD versions heard two different voices for the same character in a matter of months. The game's audio design also drew on existing Nintendo material, with the soundtrack reusing tracks from Super Mario World, arranged by David Govet and George Sanger, while Hamilton Altstatt handled the sound effects. In a project where the character's familiar presence was central to the educational pitch, giving Mario a spoken voice marked a quiet but significant shift in how Nintendo's most iconic figure was presented to audiences.

Chart-Topping Success and a Lasting Legacy

Mario Teaches Typing was released in the United States in 1992 and in the United Kingdom the following year, with Interplay promoting the title at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1992. The initial format was a floppy disk for MS-DOS compatible machines, displaying in either EGA or VGA graphics. A Macintosh port followed in 1993, handled by Interplay's MacPlay division with conversion work by Presage Software, and an enhanced CD-ROM edition also arrived that year. The title sold 800,000 copies and appeared on top-ten educational software sales charts from 1992 through 1996. Critical reception was mixed overall: reviewers consistently praised the Mario franchise presentation and the game's appeal to children, while remaining divided on its effectiveness as a typing tutorial. Many felt it was better suited to young learners than the Mavis Beacon alternative. A sequel, Mario Teaches Typing 2, was developed by Brainstorm and published by Interplay in 1997, updating the interface and adding new features, though it received less favorable reviews than its predecessors. Nintendo's partnership with Interplay on third-party titles continued until the late 1990s, when the company ceased endeavors outside its own systems.