Violinist plays Mario soundtrack in real time

In this video, violinist Teppei Okada plays the soundtrack to a real time Mario game live on his instrument. This — as do most creative geeky Japanese videos — was first made popular on Nico Nico Douga. I wonder if he coordinated the moves with the person who's playing the game. Either way, it's pretty impressive.

[via Laughing Squid]

• [Anonymous]

  There is no nes picture but a famicom only released in japan. japanese have different consoles from us

• [Anonymous]

  WOW!!!! this is amazing!!!!

• [cjp]

  Ow. I’ve had many blisters over the years both from playing Mario and the violin. This video is like a PTSD flashback to the pain.

  Do your Mario skills transfer to anything useful in real life? No, that only happen with WOW.
  http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/12/boy-survives-mo/

• [Anonymous]

  I have nothing but respect for this man.

  • [hdon]

    Watching Super Mario Bros. on a wide screen with that awful stretches-more-at-the-edges scaling algorithm makes me sad :(

• [Micah]

  My money is on the game being a pre-recorded video of a game rather than a real-time live game. Note that there is a DVD player in the picture but no NES.

  • [PauloButt]

    I think you’re right. Notice how he grabs the hidden 1-up mushroom but it’s game over the first time he dies. That’s not how it works.

    • [Purplecat]

      Look closely, there’s a subtle cut at around 1:10 That’s what allows the out-of-place “game over”

  • [virgilsoames]

    It might be recorded, but I doubt it. The device looks like the Famicom (original version of the NES) with the Disk Drive attachment (never came out here :( ).

    http://www.n-sider.com/media/database-hardware-famicomdisksystem01.jpg

  • [Anonymous]

    I think I see a famicom system actually.

• [benher]

  Holy Crap! He does Dragon Quest too! I wonder if he does bar mitzvahs…

• [Anonymous]

  its a Famicom with a disk drive. There’s an option there to record chunks of playtime and replay it. Too bad it never came out stateside.

  The funny thing is that if you were to dissect a grey box USA nintendo, and remove the metal cartdridge loader portion, and directly plug in the drive unit – it works!

• [Anonymous]

  There’s a group on Athens, GA (with Members of math-rock bands Cinemechanica, We Versus the Shark, among others) that plays the game soundtrack and sound FX live while another person does a speedrun. I’ve seen then do MegaMan, but they’ve done other games (Pitfall and Metroid, I think).

• [Anonymous]

  It’s not real time the second level screen said he had 4 lives not 1.

• [HairySammoth]

  It’s the white morning suit that really makes it.

• [lolbrandon]

  I love that he’s dressed up in a fancy suit. You just can’t play the violin in a t-shirt and jeans!

• [Anonymous]

  Isn’t that a VIOLA (as opposed to a violin)?

• [alllie]

  Does playing Mario Brothers produce any skills that are transferable to real life?

• [Anonymous]

  Who cares if it’s prerecorded or not?! It’s great fun and he did a fantastic job!

• [Anonymous]

  Nah, at the beginning you can see the ‘Play’ display box in the lower left, so I think it is recorded and not live. Still pretty great though!

• [rechnen]

  I can’t describe how awesome this is!

• [Amagineer]

  What we need here, is a TEAM of violinists (Or perhaps a full orchestra) so that the music isn’t interrupted for sound quality and such. Then we can make playing videogames look like it’s meant for the rich :D

• [Anonymous]

  Either way that is pretty good whether it was real time or not.

• [Drhaggis]

  For a real challenge, he should play along with a modern game, such as Guitar Hero.

• [caesar female]

  He’s fab. Love the humble bow at the end.

• [Anonymous]

  Still slightly more impressed with the Super Mario Beatboxer…

  http://www.frequency.com/video/super-mario/120886

• [Anonymous]

  Wow, that was amazing. As a Mario fan, I am totally loving this!

• [noah django]

  It doesn’t surprise me that this game is pre-recorded. My suspicion that it was seems to be confirmed by the other posters, but I think any disappointment that it’s not live is missing the point. By being able to practice to the recorded game, he can showcase not only his skill with the music, but his uncanny duplication of the sound-effects, which would be extraordinarily difficult (IMO impossible, though I don’t play violin) to do in real-time what with hand-placement and coming back to the score from the sound-effect interruption.

  What he’s really doing is using the game like sheet music–yes, sheet music that he’s practiced to. I say bravo.

• [headphonegirl]

  oh so beautiful. Nice rendition

• [zunjine]

  Perfect way to start a Saturday. Brilliant.