"Power-up" and "1-up" are examples of a
common form of wasei-eigo, in which the word "up" is prefixed by some
desirable quality. The general meaning of X-up in Japanese is "this will
increase your X" and this construction is regularly used in areas such as
advertising. This is similar to another phrase, X get, as seen in Super Mario
Sunshine's Japanese version's "Shine Get!" phrase. Pac-Man is
credited as the first video game to feature a power-up mechanic.
The effect of
the power-up was illustrated by one of the first cut scenes to appear in a
video game, in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and the
ghosts chasing each other around. The power pellet entered popular culture with
a joke on the controversy regarding the influence of video games on children.
In 1984, Sabre Wulf introduced power ups which provided effects such as speed
up and invincibility. In 1985 Super Mario Bros. introduced the Super Mushroom,
which has entered popular culture described as "the quintessential power-up".
The original game idea was to have an always big Mario as a technical advance,
but later the power-up was introduced to make him "super" as a bonus
effect. The development team thought it would be interesting to have Mario grow
and shrink by eating a magic mushroom, just like Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland. Konami's 1985 game Gradius had the first use of a selection bar
where the player could select which power-up effect to trigger, instead of
having a fixed instant effect. In 1986 and the years after, the concept of
permanent power-ups appeared in the action role-playing genre in the form of
perks.
