Mario's Time Machine

Mario's Time Machine is a game within the both developed and published by The Software Toolworks for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and MS-DOS in 1993. There is also a Nintendo Entertainment System version, published in June 1994, that has the same premise but substantially differs from the Super Nintendo and MS-DOS versions.
==Plot==
Bowser has used the Timulator to steal various historical artifacts and put them in his museum, which serves as the hub world. The game opens with the dialogue:
It's time, my cunning Koopas, to use the time machine and steal the most valuable artifacts that history has to offer... Mario, my collection is almost complete... and there's not a thing that you can do to stop me! Bowser's museum is inside his castle... I have to get in there and return all the stolen artifacts before history is changed forever... At last, Bowser's castle! I'll show that no good reptile! He can't mess with history as long as I'm around to set things right! The greatest collection of ALL time is nearly complete, and it's all mine! No one can stop me now... ...not even Mario!
In response to this, Mario goes on an adventure to return the artifacts to their proper places in time.
There are three different endings, decided by how many points have been scored and the order in which the artifacts are returned. If Mario spends too much time returning all the artifacts or returns any artifacts in the wrong order, there is a non-standard Game Over in which Bowser escapes to Paradise using the time machine; or Mario gets sent to the Cretaceous Period where he looks in different directions of the screen. A message reminding the player to return all the artifacts either in a more timely manner or in the correct order appears on the screen. After that, the player must start over from the beginning, or use a password to go back to a previous point. However, if they meet these two objective conditions, the time machine overloads, self-destructs and sends Bowser to the Cretaceous Period where he gets stepped on by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Right beforehand when Bowser notices it, his eyes shrink with realization of what will happen to him and he meekly opens an umbrella in the hopes it will protect him. After Bowser is squished, a raptor grabs his remains and throws them like a Frisbee.
== Gameplay ==
The central hub is the museum within Bowser's Castle. The museum is three floors high, with five artifacts being on each floor, therefore giving Mario a total of fifteen periods of time to travel to. Mario must take an artifact from a pedestal, look at the date and location labeled on it, and then program that information into the time machine and travel to that point in the timeline. Mario surfs the ripples of time, collecting mushrooms and avoiding hazards.
When Mario arrives in the appropriate time period, he must explore and converse with the various residents that live there. In doing so, the player learns about the artifact, the time period, and the person associated with it. To get more information, Mario has to receive items from certain residents and give them to others in order to satisfy their needs. For example, in Vienna, one resident will complain about the heat until Mario retrieves a fan and hands it to the person, who will then continue to give information. After Mario has talked to everyone, the player has to fill out a History answer sheet consisting of a two-page biography about whoever is associated with the artifact and the time period, with blanks replacing several words. Using the information they received earlier, the player has to correctly fill in the blanks. If the player fills in the wrong answer more than twice, Mario is forced back into the present, but if they succeed, Mario can return the artifact to its owner before returning back to present time. In Bowser's Castle, after all of the artifacts on a floor have been returned, Mario progresses upward to the next floor.
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System version is a truncated port of the PC version, due to having limited cartridge memory space. There is less content overall, and Mario travels to fewer time periods. Mode 7 is utilized during the sequence on time's waves, and Mario can move in all directions on the water. In the same area, after Mario collects ten mushrooms, he then has to enter the whirlpool to access the corresponding time period.
==Gallery==
de:Mario's Time Machine
fr:Mario et la machine à remonter le temps
nl:Mario's Time Machine
it:Mario's Time Machine
es:Mario's Time Machine
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Category:Super Nintendo Entertainment System games
Category:Educational games
Category:MS-DOS games
Category:1993 games
Category:1990s games