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Before he had a name, Mario was simply called "Jumpman." He first appeared in a video game called Donkey Kong, released in 1981, where his job was straightforward: climb up a construction site and rescue a girl from a giant ape hurling barrels down at him. The game was designed by a young Japanese designer named Shigeru Miyamoto, working for a company called Nintendo - a company that, at the time, was barely known outside Japan. Miyamoto wanted the character to be instantly recognizable even on tiny, blocky, low-resolution screens, so he gave him a cap (to avoid drawing hair), a mustache (to avoid drawing a moving mouth), and colorful overalls (so his arms and body would stand out clearly against the background). Surprisingly, the name "Mario" didn't come from the designers at all. According to the well-known story, Nintendo's American staff started calling the character "Mario" after their landlord, Mario Segale, who apparently resembled him a little. In 1983, Mario got his own game, Mario Bros., co-starring his brother Luigi, and the pair switched careers from construction workers to plumbers. But the game that truly turned Mario into a superstar was Super Mario Bros. in 1985, released for Nintendo's home console (the NES), which sold tens of millions of copies and introduced the world to mushrooms that make you grow, stars that grant temporary power, and green pipes leading to underground worlds. Today, more than four decades after starting out as a nameless "Jumpman," Mario is one of the most recognizable characters on the planet - arguably more famous than most movie stars.