Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

January 23, 2009

In most legislative offices, the most exciting thing you'll find are brochures.

In Rep. Joe Pickett's office, however, you can try your hand at classic Mario Bros.

As reported by the Austin American-Statesman, Mario isn't the only thing that's different about the Texas Democrat's office in the Capitol Building in Austin.

At his own expense, Pickett has remodeled his digs to look like a 1950s-era burger joint, complete with juke box. Visitors are offered free gumballs, soda and ice cream. As for Mario, the game helps keep state politics from getting too tense:

[Pickett's] chief of staff, says the old "Mario Bros. " video game is a mood elevator. One day a guy who wanted to argue some issue or other marched in with a fierce face, ready to rumble.

"He walked in and saw the old Mario Bros. video game," Chambers recalled. "He looks and says, `Awwwwwwww, I love that game.' It even destressed him."

Posted in Coin-Op Democrats Politicians Who Play Simply Cool Texas

Comments

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by Calling All Humans on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 02:33.

Interesting, but to me, bah. Big pieces of furniture to play one game? I'm from that gaming era also, but hey, if I can play that game on a device that can fit in my mind, I'd not be paying for the piece of furniture. BTW, I feel the same way about cds vs. mp3s.

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Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by Wolvenmoon on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 15:06.

That's just beyond cool. I hope we get a bunch of clean politicians in in Oklahoma too, our latest elections though were just mud slinging back and fourth.

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by HarmlessBunny on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:41.

Ummmm wow... can Canada have politicians like that please?

==============

James Fletcher, member of ECA Canada

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by Bennett Beeny on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 11:26.

Massachusetts too please!

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by DeepThorn on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:36.

Wow... Donkey Kong is like $2,500 on E-bay... It seems these old farts are wanting to get the attention of gamers now... So what is next?

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Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by olstar18 on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 12:29.

I'm not so sure he's merely trying to get the attention of gamers. If that was true then why the 50's burger joint decur when he could have just left the office as is and put in a much cheaper wii.

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by DeepThorn on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 19:41.

Public attention, everyone else is already doing the Wii thing.

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Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by barra_sadei on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:18.

Best... politician... EVER!

Alright, I'm overexagerating, but I think it'd be cool to go in to meet your politician, and there's an arcade game. Honestly, if I ever had to see him again, I'd go early!

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by Doomsong on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:08.

Doesn't the presence of an arcade coin-op machine sort of throw off the whole 50s thing? I mean it's cool, but the only games they had in the 50s were lawn darts and brill cream....

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Benjamin Franklin

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. ...

Submitted by jasonla on Wed, 06/24/2009 - 05:54.

I dont see the big deal i think it takes up a lot of office space and he should have just got a console game at staples or something and a nice LCD flat screen to play on. Why have this thing in the office just to take space up?

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by GoodRobotUs on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:10.

I suspect that 'Mr Sandman' playing on a Wurlitzer would probably have just made people more stressed ;)

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by Bennett Beeny on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 11:25.

I love 'Mr. Sandman'!

Re: Texas Legislator's Office Features Retro Mario Bros. Game

Submitted by E. Zachary Knight on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 09:04.

I like how you explicitly state that he used his own money to remodel his office.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma

E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary

Shout box

Andrew Eisen: That article is over five years old, Uncharted. A fun blast from the past though.02/12/2012 - 10:47pm

Uncharted NES: Critics: 'Left Behind' game glorifies violence- http://tinyurl.com/wu64s02/12/2012 - 4:34pm

Zen: I felt Brutal Legends was a funny & beautiful look at the world of rock from Double Fines point of view. The only parts I wasn't hot for were the RTS bits as it felt forced. Otherwise fantastic.02/12/2012 - 1:34pm

DorthLous: Passed 1.5M$. And I'd also say that Brutal Legend is far from being a bad game. I just think it was a few levels under what people expected from the people working on the project.02/11/2012 - 8:25am

Technogeek: Brutal Legend wasn't bad so much as "marketing had no idea how the game actually played", causing it to suffer accordingly.02/10/2012 - 10:38pm

RedMage: It looks the CIA's website has been DDOS'ed. Anon?02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

RedMage: Brutal Legend.02/10/2012 - 7:52pm

ddrfr33k: Has anything Tim Schafer ever made been of crap caliber? I'm struggling to think of one...02/10/2012 - 7:37pm

Guamish: I think it is in good hands. Tim did a game for the GDC award show and that was fun for how short it was.02/10/2012 - 12:22pm

Andrew Eisen: It'll be tragic if the game ultimately sucks.02/10/2012 - 12:17pm

james_fudge: $1.3 million02/10/2012 - 11:32am

Uncharted NES: Germany Says It Won't Sign ACTA [Update: ... Yet]- http://tinyurl.com/7r2twrg02/10/2012 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Damn. Double Fine's Kickstarter fund has already passed a million dollars.02/09/2012 - 8:16pm

Andrew Eisen: Audrey didn't quote the sassy parts. Here's IGN's article: http://wii.ign.com/articles/121/1218359p1.html And here's my original post: http://tinyurl.com/7y68a3902/09/2012 - 7:50pm

james_fudge: I hope you some said something sassy! Where's the link?02/09/2012 - 7:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, neat. IGN quoted a blog I had writen only two hours earlier. I certainly timed that one pretty well.02/09/2012 - 7:38pm

Andrew Eisen: Toki Tori has been added to the Humble Bundle for Android.02/09/2012 - 5:11pm

james_fudge: Thanks for the heads-up DorthLous02/09/2012 - 4:33pm

DorthLous: Will do, my apologies.02/09/2012 - 4:14pm

Andrew Eisen: I appreciate the heads up but please keep typo alerts to the specific article's comments or PMs.02/09/2012 - 3:33pm

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