What do you do if you’re at work and you really have to stay committed to not leaving Excel and busting out some spreadsheets? Well, somebody found a compromise that isn’t super productive, but is wildly fun: They recreated the first level of Super Mario Bros. in spreadsheet form.
OK so technically they used OpenOffice (a free Excel alternative), but it functions virtually the same. We wish we could say it’s a playable game (it isn’t), but that fact that it’s a stop-motion animation doesn’t make it any less impressive. That’s still a great feat of its own, considering that the video above features over 1,000 frames, and if you look at the system clock and calendar in the bottom right corner of the screen, you’ll notice that the video was captured over the course of about a month (during downtimes at work, we’re assuming).
Everything is pretty spot on—from the sounds to the Goombas—with a few discrepancies, like Mario’s relative size and the at-times incorrect colors of his outfits. But also, this was made in a program designed to manage budgets and organize textual and numerical information, so come on, this is pretty fantastic.
If you want actual Excel games, the platform actually has a rich history in that field, believe it or not. Excel 95 and Excel 2000 actually had full-fledged games secretly built in to them, as well as Excel 97, which featured an impressive (for its time) flight simulator.
Watch the video above, and don’t blame us if you get inspired to reorganize your work priorities.
Featured image: Cinémavore
