The original Hotel Mario from 1983

[Calavera]

A few days ago I was playing random Atari 5200 games and came across Looney Tunes Hotel. It has the exact same gameplay as Hotel Mario for the Phillips CD-I. Looney Tunes Hotel was made in 1983 but for whatever reason they ended up not releasing it. The game is estimated to be 85-90 percent done. Only some rough graphics and a high difficulty level keep the game from being complete. So it was unreleased and that was that. Then over a decade later in 1994 Hotel Mario is released for the Phillips CD-I. They switch out the Looney Tune characters for Mario characters and updated the graphics but the gameplay is still essentially exactly the same.

It makes sense because Hotel Mario seems like it might have made for a decent 80s arcade game. Now I'm finding out it originally was. I don't know any of the story of how Hotel Mario ended up being based on an 11 year old cancelled game for the Atari 5200. I'd be interested in knowing how it happened. Maybe somebody who worked on the Looney Tunes version back in 1983 ended up working at Phillips in the 90s and suggested they use the same gameplay. I'm surprised that some retro gaming youtuber hasn't done a video about it. I've never heard anybody mention Looney Tunes Hotel when talking about Hotel Mario so I'm guessing that most people have no idea about it.

[Big Boss Man]

They most likely used the basis of the Looney Tunes game to create Hotel Mario, like when they used Doki Doki Panic for Mario 2.

Found this about LT Hotel

http://www.atariprotos.com/5200/softwar ... ytunes.htm

and

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/20248 ... nes-hotel/

[Dr. Zoidberg]

It looks like a cross of Door Door and Elevator Action.