Brother (Card)
Welcome, as I continue my 40-day countdown celebrating 40 formats in honour of Mario’s 40th anniversary! Today’s format might surprise you – it’s the Brother embroidery card!
Most people know Brother as a Japanese electronics company that makes printers, desktop computers, and sewing machines. But you might not have associated Brother with Nintendo-licensed Mario software before.
These embroidery cards are actually a type of proprietary memory card manufactured in the late 1990’s/2000s, and were designed to hold embroidery patterns for use with Brother’s computerised sewing machines.
The Brother PE-100 was the first example of these machines and was compatible with designs in the “Photo Embroidery Stitch” format. Although still popular with consumers, they have largely now been replaced with USB flash drives
While this isn’t typical Mario software, the cards feature designs from Super Mario World, Super Mario Kart, and Super Mario All-Stars – all key titles in Mario’s legacy! These cards helped bring Mario to wider audiences with a creative crossover.
The Japanese version of the Brother embroidery card is part of the “Home Store Embroidery” series and focuses on designs for home décor and other textiles. The packaging is beautifully presented, with a slip case, reference booklet, and a template positioning sheet included.
Embroidery has long been an important aspect of Japanese art and culture. From traditional kimonos to modern-day home décor, embroidery has had a rich history in Japanese craft.
By partnering with Nintendo to feature Mario IP on their machines, Brother blended traditional craft with modern gaming culture, in a way that spoke to different generations, and those with different interests.
The software was released in the West but with less elaborate packaging. It was simply known as “No. 17 embroidery card.” It’s not a format that many remember, but it’s a good example of Mario’s unexpected legacy in different media through innovative licensing partnerships.
The Brother system is just one example of Mario’s crossover into the world of embroidery – and I’ll touch on another later in the countdown, as well as some knitting software for the Famicom Disk System!
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