It was meant for someone else's festival — and it became a Mario game anyway.
Kensuke Tanabe joined Nintendo in 1986, on a team led by Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto. SRD, a programming company that worked on many early Nintendo games, had built a prototype, and the team was asked to make a game from it. “The idea was that you would have people vertically ascending, and you would have items and blocks that you could pile up to go higher, or you could grab your friend that you were playing with and throw them to try and continue to ascend,” Tanabe said.
In Tanabe’s words, “the vertical-scrolling gimmick wasn’t enough to get us interesting gameplay.” “Miyamoto looked at it and said, ‘Maybe we need to change this up,’” Tanabe recalled. Miyamoto suggested he add ordinary side-scrolling and “make something a little bit more Mario-like.” “As long as it’s fun, anything goes,” Tanabe remembers Miyamoto saying.
“Picking up blocks was the same thing as pulling out vegetables from the ground,” Tanabe said. Grabbing your friend and throwing them became grabbing an enemy and throwing it.
— inspired by Kensuke Tanabe, Shigeru Miyamoto
About this game
“I remember being pulled over to Fuji Television one day, being handed a sheet with game characters on it and being told, ‘I want you to make a game with this,’” Tanabe told Wired in 2011.
They were the Imajin family, the mascots of Yume Kōjō ’87 (“Dream Factory ’87”), a 1987 media-and-technology expo held by Fuji Television’s media group. The game came out that July on the Famicom Disk System, a floppy-disk drive for Nintendo’s Famicom console. You play as Imajin, his girlfriend Lina, Mama or Papa to rescue Imajin’s twin siblings from inside a picture book.
In October 1988, a reworked version reached American stores as Super Mario Bros. 2. Tanabe said: “We knew these Fuji TV characters wouldn’t be popular in America, but what would be attractive in America would be the Mario characters.”
Years later, Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata gathered the team behind the 2012 game Paper Mario: Sticker Star and asked each of them how they had first come to work on Mario. Tanabe answered: “On the developer side, it’s a bit complicated. Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic is the first title I directed. But later, that game was released as Super Mario Bros. 2 for North America.”
Hear it from the source
- ▶ Kensuke Tanabe, interviewed by Chris Kohler — “The Secret History of Super Mario Bros. 2”, Wired (April 1, 2011)
- ▶ Kensuke Tanabe — Iwata Asks: Paper Mario: Sticker Star, “Talking At Iwata” (Nintendo)
- ▶ Kensuke Tanabe — 社長が訊く『ペーパーマリオ スーパーシール』（任天堂）
- ▶ Kensuke Tanabe, interview — Nintendo World Report (May 18, 2004)
Gallery
The Story Behind
Yume Kōjō ’87 ran from July 18 to August 30, 1987, in Tokyo and Osaka. Fuji Television and the other companies of the Fuji Sankei media group put it on, with TV broadcasts, an idol group and a Famicom game around it. That game, Doki Doki Panic, was published by Fuji Television and went on sale on July 10, 1987, eight days before the event opened.
It ran on the Famicom Disk System, an add-on Nintendo released in Japan in February 1986. The Disk System plugged into the Famicom and read games from small rewritable floppy disks, so a game could write your progress straight onto the disk at a time when battery-backed cartridge saves were not yet common. In Doki Doki Panic, the true ending appears only after each of the four characters has cleared the game.
In Japan, the sequel to Super Mario Bros. was a different game: Super Mario Bros. 2, released for the Disk System in June 1986 and built for players who had mastered the first. Nintendo of America judged it too hard for the American market, so the American Super Mario Bros. 2 was made from Doki Doki Panic. That American version came back to Japan as a Famicom cartridge in September 1992, titled Super Mario USA, without the disk version’s save feature.
Tricks & Tales
The four playable characters — Imajin, Mama, Papa, and Lina — each had unique stats: Imajin for all-around balance, Papa for the strongest and fastest pull, Mama for a long, slow jump, and Lina for floating in mid-air. The game saved each character's progress separately to the disk itself. When adapted into Super Mario Bros. 2, they became Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, retaining their distinct abilities. The Disk System box included a sticker of Imajin and Mario.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The Famicom Disk System was sold exclusively in Japan and was never officially released in any other region. It was designed as an attachment to the original Famicom, using a rewritable magnetic Quick Disk format — a medium that no longer has manufacturer support and that Nintendo ceased rewriting or selling decades ago. Buyers outside Japan should understand that there is no Western-compatible equivalent: FDS software requires a Famicom console, the RAM adapter, and the dedicated power adapter, all of which are Japan-market hardware. The disk media itself is not readable by any standard floppy drive.
Maintenance Tips
The drive belt is the most critical maintenance item. The original rubber belt stretches over the decades and eventually fails, and then the drive can no longer read disks. Fitting a new belt takes small tools: precision screwdrivers, a small hex key and tweezers. A new belt is not the last step. Afterwards, test the drive with a disk you know is good. If it does not read cleanly, the disk speed and the position of the read head have to be adjusted. The head is set against a test signal on an oscilloscope, which is specialist work. The RAM adapter board contains electrolytic capacitors that should be recapped if the unit is used regularly -- leaking capacitors can damage the PCB and corrupt disk reads. Clean the battery compartment with vinegar and a cotton swab if corrosion is present. FDS disks should be stored in their cases away from magnetic sources.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic copies regularly.
Do I need anything else besides this disk to play it?
Yes. A Famicom Disk System disk cannot be played alone — you need the original Famicom console, the Disk System drive unit, and its RAM Adapter cartridge. This listing is disk-only, so buyers who don't already own a working Famicom Disk System setup will need to source those separately.
Does this game have a battery for saving, like later cartridge games?
No battery. The Disk System saved progress by writing directly onto the magnetic disk itself — this was how Nintendo games saved before battery-backed cartridges became common. The upside is no dead battery to worry about; the downside is that, like any magnetic media, disks can develop bad sectors over decades and lose data. Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic lets each of its four playable characters save progress independently, so you can return to where you left off.
Is the Disk System itself reliable after all these years?
The disk drive uses a rubber belt to spin the disk, and that belt commonly hardens or turns sticky after 10-15 years — most secondhand drives need belt replacement to work reliably. That's a drive issue, not something wrong with this particular disk, but it's worth knowing before you buy a disk without already having a working drive.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom Disk System disk wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
-
Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
-
Inspect the disk and its shell
Disk System media is fragile — the magnetic disk can wear, and saves are written back onto the disk itself.
Ask whether it was tested and reads reliably; look for cracks or a warped shell in photos.
-
Make sure it fits your console
This is Japanese Famicom Disk System media and requires a Famicom with a working Disk System drive.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
-
Mind the drive belt on the console side
Disk System drives commonly need a replacement belt to read reliably — this is a console matter, not the disk.
If reading is unreliable, the console's belt is the usual culprit, not the game.
-
Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
See what we have in stock →Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
Share your memory ↑From the Museum's Screening Room
Doki Doki Panic Yume Kojo Disk Only — Max Explains