On this very day in 1985, Nintendo released a game that would forever change the company’s future, Super Mario Bros. Originally dubbed Jumpman, the character was eventually renamed by Nintendo USA after a surprise visit from their disgruntled landlord Mario Segale. Other fun facts about Mario include: he was originally a carpenter (not a plumber) and most of his iconic features (hat, suspenders, mustache) were added to give distinction to his  in-game face (which had to use 8-bit graphics). Since the original’s release in Japan twenty five years ago, the Super Mario Bros. game-franchise has sold more than 240 million units worldwide and Mario has appeared in over 200 different video games. The original version of Super Mario Bros. for the NES was the best selling video game of all time (40+ million units) until it was ousted by Wii Sports (41.5+ million units) just last year. Happy 25th birthday Super Mario Bros.

While the official 1-year anniversary of the App Store isn’t until Saturday, Apple apparently decided to start the celebration early. A new dedicated page headed with the colorful banner seen above appeared in iTunes this morning, proudly proclaiming that the App Store’s first birthday is upon us. So how is Apple celebrating this momentous occasion? By trying to get you to buy more apps, duh. Apple’s anniversary page is littered with Apple’s “favorite apps and games” alongside buy links to make sure they’re all nice and easy to snag. Shamelessness aside, there’s really no question that the advent of the App Store is among a handful of game-changing events that have taken place over the past few years. Over 56,000 apps… Well over a billion downloads… Every major competitor doing its best to mimic the offering… Yeah, it’s safe to say the App Store has definitely left its mark on the wireless industry.

Read (iTunes Link)