Super Mario Bros 64
An 1:1 conversion of Super Mario Bros is now released for the c64 (and it's fantastic!). Things are looking good for the old breadbin what with Knightlore realeased a while ago too! :)
Thanked by 1dm_boozefreek
Comments
:)
Any chance of a link?
Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Member of the team that discovered, analyzed, and detailed the floating bus behavior on the ZX Spectrum +2A/+3.
A few Spectrum game fixes.
LOL
grabbed it though :)
Can't blame em' though Nintendo are one of the few companies who will actually re-release and update their old products for a new market, rather than just sitting on them and sueing everybody and their uncles cat for downloading, or emulating them.
Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
Member of the team that discovered, analyzed, and detailed the floating bus behavior on the ZX Spectrum +2A/+3.
A few Spectrum game fixes.
It's a really impressive feat on many levels even if recent games like Sam's Journey, designed for and with the 64's strengths in mind, at first seem much more technical.
It does seem they've put a lot of work into "emulating" the four channel sound of the NES and I wonder if that's where the real hit is. While it's impressive to make it really sound like the NES original, if it is the cause of slowdown I'm not sure it's a trade-off I'd have made personally. After all the NES is not reknowned for great sound, unlike the C64 - I'm sure SID rearrangements of the music could have been superb.
It is cool to see SMB as it might have appeared on other platforms though, even if the big N stomps down on any port rather harshly.
SMB has been disassembled years ago, with the 6502 and 6510 being basically the same CPU the logic can be lifted 1:1. Lots of bugs and glitches that worked in the famicom game works here as well.
The reason for the slowdowns are the differences in hardware, the game was designed for an entirely different architecture, the famicom had 64 (albeit tiny) sprites, better hardware scrolling, etc. The famicom CPU also runs ~70% faster than the c64's.
A game like this could be made from scratch with the c64's strengths in mind and run much better, but it wouldn't be a near 1:1 port then. For what this is; it's pretty impressive.
Well, for the c64 there has quite recently been 1:1 conversions of Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior and Frogger too with Bomb Jack on it's way. As well as Gunfright, Pentagram and Knightlore (Alien 8 is being worked on). Worth mentioning is that Knightlore runs very fast indeed, faster than the Spectrum in some rooms. A little slower in other...
There has also been bettered versions of Commando and Ghosts'n'Goblins with bugfixes and made to resemble the arcades more with all levels and stuff.
Yes, these can all be played on other platforms but i kind of like this way of rewriting history. Maybe it's the challenge of doing a port as close to the original as is possible that is the incentive for programmers to do it.
Smooth 8 way directional scrolling in 1985. That's not bad. :)
Yeah, lots of good releases of late on the 64, not all 1:1 but good nonetheless. If a port (or conversion) improves upon the original, either with better speed or more features then there's more of an incentive to play. I'm in no way undermining the effort and challenge required for these types of projects, it's just that, if not bettered, I rather enjoy the original myself.
The phrase "lazy speccy port" or "lazy ST port" are commonplace when looking at reviews for other platforms, largely because the coders took the source from one platform and tweaked it to run on another platform, even if doing so resulted in avoidable problems like slowdown. I find it strange that, because it's a modern or homebrew effort, people look upon the exact same process in a different light.
That's not to suggest the coder shouldn't have done it, nor that the result isn't impressive in it's own way (it certainly is), I just find the psychology of the reaction oddly curious and not something I entirely comprehend.
I can't really explain myself why i think these ports are so great, and probably won't even play them that much in the end. Maybe because as a kid i had both c64 and spectrum and loved to compare same game on both computers.
On the c64 Karnov, Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde and Fairlight spring to mind. Copied straight from the Spectrum without really putting the effort. But Super Mario Bros can't be compared to them, it's technically brilliant and playable even because of the slowdowns. I'm sure it would have received praise if released back then!
Well, it's already out there. Hope ZeroPaige won't get any grief from Nintendo. :(
Too late, Nintendo have come down on it :/
https://eurogamer.net/articles/2019-04-23-nintendo-takes-down-mario-bros-c64-port-which-took-fan-seven-years-to-make
I'm led to believe a small amount of Googling may well find a torrent...