Super Mario Clone World 1-1 Playable Demo!

[evilevoix]

Amazing work

[Sprybug]

Mark down Nintendolife as another site this game got mentioned. I applaud your efforts, sir. I sincerely hope this game gets released to the AtariAge store when it is done. Please don't do a limited once only release of XX copies like they did with Halo. Also, since this is a legitamate homebrew, if you plan to release a cartridge version to sell, you may want to remove "Mario" from the title (but don't change the sprites), maybe call it "Super Jumpman" or something? Mario was originally "Jumpman" in Donkey Kong before he got a real human name. I'm only suggesting because Nintendo is very strict about protecting their IP and might issue a C&D if you use the name "Mario" in production. That said, I'm the biggest Mario fan on the planet (I've got every Mario Platform game on every Nintendo console to date, new & retro, 2D & 3D), and I've been dreaming of something like this ever since I got into Atari collecting a few months back. Someone did a Smurfs hack with Mario sprites, but it wasn't the same. I'm definitely loading the demo onto my Harmony cart to play through this weekend.

Believe me, I've been getting quite a bit of cart requests and because this is Mario we're talking about here I can't just start making carts of a copyrighted character. I would love to speak with someone at Nintendo and work something out with them that's at least reasonable. I just wanted to see if I could do this and didn't realize what I was jumping into. I wonder who I'd get in contact with.

 

I see you have a harmony cart! Weeee! I don't! I have a big favor to ask, besides letting me know how world 1-1 turns out on a real deal Atari, can you also load up the BowserJrTest I did as well on it and let me know what it looks like? I need to know if the flickering method I used works on a real Atari and TV. If it does, I'll continue using this method on the bosses.

 

Thanks!

-Chris

[Andromeda Stardust]

Nintendo is very strict about protecting their IP and might issue a C&D if you use the name "Mario" in production.

Introducing... "Super Atario World"!

But it's based on Super Mario Brothers, not World. And there's likely no "Brothers" in this game, so "Super Atario" is perfect! (just drop the "world" part)

Mark down Nintendolife as another site this game got mentioned. I applaud your efforts, sir. I sincerely hope this game gets released to the AtariAge store when it is done. Please don't do a limited once only release of XX copies like they did with Halo. Also, since this is a legitamate homebrew, if you plan to release a cartridge version to sell, you may want to remove "Mario" from the title (but don't change the sprites), maybe call it "Super Jumpman" or something? Mario was originally "Jumpman" in Donkey Kong before he got a real human name. I'm only suggesting because Nintendo is very strict about protecting their IP and might issue a C&D if you use the name "Mario" in production. That said, I'm the biggest Mario fan on the planet (I've got every Mario Platform game on every Nintendo console to date, new & retro, 2D & 3D), and I've been dreaming of something like this ever since I got into Atari collecting a few months back. Someone did a Smurfs hack with Mario sprites, but it wasn't the same. I'm definitely loading the demo onto my Harmony cart to play through this weekend.

Believe me, I've been getting quite a bit of cart requests and because this is Mario we're talking about here I can't just start making carts of a copyrighted character. I would love to speak with someone at Nintendo and work something out with them that's at least reasonable. I just wanted to see if I could do this and didn't realize what I was jumping into. I wonder who I'd get in contact with.

 

I see you have a harmony cart! Weeee! I don't! I have a big favor to ask, besides letting me know how world 1-1 turns out on a real deal Atari, can you also load up the BowserJrTest I did as well on it and let me know what it looks like? I need to know if the flickering method I used works on a real Atari and TV. If it does, I'll continue using this method on the bosses.

 

Thanks!

-Chris

I would hesitate regarding contacting Nintendo regarding making a Mario game. Knowing Nintendo, they exercise tight control over their IP, and while they will often license their characters on just about anything (T-shirts, etc), they will certainly say "No" if you try to license the characters or ask permission to make the game. That said, they're usually pretty lenient about stuff like fanart/fanfiction. Sure, the Boulder-dash people succeeded in getting a license, but they're a completely different company. Often when legitimate homebrewers copy a particular game series, they make up their own characters. Parodies are also covered under "fair use" laws, so I think you will be safe to title the game "Super Atario" and leave the in game sprites intact. So what if you distribute the ROM as "Atario" and people rename it "Super_Mario_2600.bin". If you release the Cart officially as "Super Atario" and make up some phony backstory to stuff in the manual other than "Save the Princess" (example: Trowser the Dragon stole Atario's girlfriend Plum; win back her heart by besting Trowser at his own game!), then legally that would be sufficient enough to qualify the game as a parody, thus your game would stay true to the original theme and at the same time it would be safe from Nintendo's wrath. It would also be pretty bad marketing on Nintendo's part to attempt to kill a homebrew project. That said, I believe your chances of getting C&D letters for making and selling carts for vintage hardware is pretty slim. For example, RetroUSB has been selling repros of 1st party Nintendo arcade games for years.

http://www.retrousb....778186b188342b0

 

I will go load the game on my Atari Saturday and give you my feedback. I also have a capture card for my computer, but it doesn't accept RF, although I do have a busted VCR that I can possibly use as an RF demodulator. If it works, I'll post a game play video (on real hardware) on Youtube.

 

EDIT: Video Uploaded. I loaded the ROM on my Harmony cart. The game looks and plays great with gorgeous colors on my TV set (well, gorgeous by Atari standards), but the colors do not show up so great on my capture card for some reason. Also, as I tend to get nervous, I don't play as well when I know I'm being recorded. My first [blind] attempt at the game, before setting up to record, was actually much, much better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF25v7LL5m8

 

On this demo world 1-1 loops over and over. Read about the project and download the demo ROM HERE:

http://www.atariage....-playable-demo/

 

Please excuse the poor quality of the video feed. This is a direct 480i NTSC video capture of a ROM being played on real hardware using a Harmony flash cartridge. Because the Atari VCS doesn't output composite video, and my USB capture device doesn't support RF, I had to use a broken VCR as an RF demodulator. Rest assured the colors on my NTSC CRT TV screen were bright and vibrant as I played it. I suspect either the A/V cable was bad, or my Capture device really didn't like the Atari and/or VCR, possibly due to off-tolerance NTSC timings. Whatever the reason, the video capture from Atari to VCR to Hauppauge USB is ugly B&W sh!t. I really don't know why but the colors looked flawless using the RF signal on my TV set. FYI, I have also used the same capture device to record NES composite video, which looked flawless as well.

 

Well, whatever the reason, I believe my Hauppauge USB video capture device is to blame. I tuned the Atari, VCR, and television set back on, and set my TV to composite input. Then I connected the same RCA cable that was connected to my Hauppauge USB dongle, and plugged it into the TV set. I can confirm for myself that the colors are perfect, ruling out the cable or the VCR. My capture device just doesn't like the Atari.

 

Here's a much better-looking playthrough video by Sprybug to compare to (three levels, emulated), because my first attempt at capturing Atari NTSC video was fail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmlghxf-Ios

Edited August 25, 2012 by stardust4ever

[Byte Knight]

The game is looking awesome! I was thinking it would be cool if you used the Life Counter minikernel instead of the pfscore bar for Mario's lives. You could use Mario's head for the lives icon:

 

lives:
%00000000
%01111110
%11100000
%10110110
%00101110
%01101000
%11111110
%01110000
end

 

I left a blank vertical row for proper spacing. The only downside to this is that you could only have a max of seven lives.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Byte Knight

[Andromeda Stardust]

It was late last night when I tested the game on my Atari, so I thought I'd rest a bit before I gave my feedback on the game. I found a muh better recording on Youtube that used a harmony cart and VHS cassette:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x5nbM8IroE

 

The Mario clone game is really fun, and I commend Sprybug on creating it. Of course, the physics aren't exactly like Super Mario NES, but the sheer fact that it runs at all on the Atari is a miracle. As a bonus, it actually does something the original Super Mario Brothers doesn't do: scroll both ways! You can also jump over the flagpole in world 1-1, too!

 

Anyway, from what I've played of the World 1-1 demo, it really does feel like Mario. The physics are a little off, but the original NES title calculated parabolic trajectories for Mario's jumps (or at least used lookup tables if it didn't calculate the physics), but with the Atari's processor spending nearly all of it's cycles just setting up each scanline, it's a miracle it does as much as you got it to do. You also mentioned you have a Bowser demo, but I haven't played it yet as I didn't see a link for it in your first post.

 

Sprybug, I don't know how hard this would be to program, but the original NES title often featured marching Goombas in doubles or triples. The Atari hardware does have native support for duplicate sprites, so maybe you could use the TIA registers to create the illusion of multiple Goombas, even if they only function in tandem as a single playfield object. Space invaders used this duplicate sprite mode to great success, and I think if you added a couple of double or triple Goombas somewhere in your worlds (especially if you've got any flat areas), it would add to the nostalgia effect of playing a "real" Mario game. Even if you can't get a working SMB-style "multi-bounce" mechanic going (example: smashing Goomba one also means smashing all two or three simultaneously), it would still be yet another very nice way to show off the Atari's unique graphical capabilities without adding processing overhead or flickering.

 

Just another 2 cents, the colors showed up gorgeous on my CRT TV set, so I'm sure it was the Hauppauge USB capture device that was to blame. If you want to comment on the captured video quality, I have made a separate thread about it here:

http://www.atariage....ntsc-atari-vcs/

Edited August 25, 2012 by stardust4ever

[Stun Runner 87]

I wonder what this would look like on the atari 7800.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I think the demand is higher for 2600 than 5200 or 7800. A lot more people own 2600/VCS consoles, although side scrollers are probably much easier to pull off on 7800.

[djmips]

Hey there. Very cool! Love it. Nice to see another bBasic demake. This one is much more complete and I like how you've worked with the limitations. The sound is very good, that's key. It's fun!

 

- David Galloway

Mega Man 2600 guy...

[Sprybug]

The game is looking awesome! I was thinking it would be cool if you used the Life Counter minikernel instead of the pfscore bar for Mario's lives. You could use Mario's head for the lives icon:

 

lives:
%00000000
%01111110
%11100000
%10110110
%00101110
%01101000
%11111110
%01110000
end

 

I left a blank vertical row for proper spacing. The only downside to this is that you could only have a max of seven lives.

That is something I considered and when I read up on it, it was one of those things that you don't get for "free" meaning it'd take extra cycle time away from things that need it. Besides, Mario's lives are not shown on the game screen anyhow. Only on the level display intro screen (like in the real game). The bars at the bottom are for the time and coins.

[Sprybug]

Sprybug, I don't know how hard this would be to program, but the original NES title often featured marching Goombas in doubles or triples. The Atari hardware does have native support for duplicate sprites, so maybe you could use the TIA registers to create the illusion of multiple Goombas, even if they only function in tandem as a single playfield object. Space invaders used this duplicate sprite mode to great success, and I think if you added a couple of double or triple Goombas somewhere in your worlds (especially if you've got any flat areas), it would add to the nostalgia effect of playing a "real" Mario game. Even if you can't get a working SMB-style "multi-bounce" mechanic going (example: smashing Goomba one also means smashing all two or three simultaneously), it would still be yet another very nice way to show off the Atari's unique graphical capabilities without adding processing overhead or flickering.

 

Guess what. I've thought about doing this before and always talked myself out of it because I knew how much more code and extra detections it would take to pull it off. But I like the idea so much that I said screw it and gave it a try tonight. I got it to work with Goombas. I only did doubles instead of triples because there would have been a lot more code and checking involved to pull that off. I have to limit this to what characters can have this trait since there are certain enemies that don't die instantly and the 2nd one is just a copy. So I can do this with Goombas, Spineys, Bullet Bill, fireballs, and the one I'm looking forward to the most: Thwomps. I might do this with the pirahna plants if I have two pipes right next to each other. Can't do this with koopas of course because if you put one in the shell, it'd put the copy in its shell too. And when you kick a koopa shell into a double set goomba, it gets rid of them both at the same time since they'd both get hit anyway. I had to do a little fancy smancy programming to make it so when you jumped on one, it'd find out which one you got (the real or the copy) based on the coordinates and then it would rather change the NUSIZ back to normal or change the NUSIZ back to normal and move the sprite 16 pixels over where the copy used to be depending on which one you hit, so it worked out pretty darn well. Plus the collision detection when using the hardware set one for the enemy on left/right detects worked on the copy as well, which is nice so no extra programming was needed for that. I had been using a PFREAD for the enemies colision detections but now that I'm doing this, I had to switch the left/right to a hardware collision detect and with a little altering it worked, but it caused some minor glitching elsewhere that I'll need to go back and fix, but it's working out pretty well so far. And yes, you can do the bounce-bounce off of the two goombas quite well! I'll upload the latest one in the near future so you all can experience. As a side note, I decided against using flicker on the boss characters to create more colors on one line. It was taking up too much code space to pull it off and if I really don't need to do it. But hey, Bowser Jr. Still looks pretty darn good without it!

[Sprybug]

Hey there. Very cool! Love it. Nice to see another bBasic demake. This one is much more complete and I like how you've worked with the limitations. The sound is very good, that's key. It's fun!

 

- David Galloway

Mega Man 2600 guy...

 

Thank you. Fan of your Mega Man 2600 demo! It helped inspire me to try a SMB game. I like the fact you took advantage of the vertical scrolling hardware that the Atari was capable of. Doing a horizontal scroll really isn't that difficult to pull off BUT it takes a lot of cycle time to do it since it's doing it on a software level.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Guess what. I've thought about doing this before and always talked myself out of it because I knew how much more code and extra detections it would take to pull it off. But I like the idea so much that I said screw it and gave it a try tonight. I got it to work with Goombas.

:-D

And yes, you can do the bounce-bounce off of the two goombas quite well! I'll upload the latest one in the near future so you all can experience.

:-D :-D :-D

 

As a side note, I decided against using flicker on the boss characters to create more colors on one line. It was taking up too much code space to pull it off and if I really don't need to do it. But hey, Bowser Jr. Still looks pretty darn good without it!

Meh, flickering can be useful if used in moderation. I think as long as the flicker is only every other frame (30Hz), it's acceptable. It didn't bother me at all in Ms Pacman, for instance. The original Pacman was crap, though. It only wreaks havoc when posting Youtube videos, because Youtube automatically limits the framerate to 30Hz, deleting every other frame, which causes sprites to completely vanish during the playback videos. But if you can pull it off without the flickering and save a lot of valuable code, more power to you. At least on the NES, hardware sprite flickering was kind of automatic (example, with Super Mario Bros, with Mario, one Koopa, three Goombas on the same line, 10 sprite tiles total out of a maximum of 8, the enemies only turned off one frame out of every four), but with the Atari, you've got to hard code in everything or else nasty bugs will emerge.

[ZylonBane]

Does the background music ever get overridden by sound effects? There's something disjointed-sounding about the music when the action gets busy that I can't quite put my finger on. The BGM that's in place is an impressive start, but I believe it could be significantly better. Take a look at

for an example of how well TIA can perform in this type of application, using one channel dedicated to music and one channel dedicated to FX. The important thing is that nothing ever interrupts the music (other than, y'know, death). Edited August 26, 2012 by ZylonBane

[Pioneer4x4]

I tried it on my Harmony and it seemed very good. I only tried it briefly. I also hooked up my internal video capture card to capture my old VHS camcorder tapes of my kids, so I can try capturing the atari now.

[Sprybug]

Does the background music ever get overridden by sound effects? There's something disjointed-sounding about the music when the action gets busy that I can't quite put my finger on. The BGM that's in place is an impressive start, but I believe it could be significantly better. Take a look at

for an example of how well TIA can perform in this type of application, using one channel dedicated to music and one channel dedicated to FX. The important thing is that nothing ever interrupts the music (other than, y'know, death).

As you know the Atari's TIA can only has 2 channels of sound it can produce at one time. The SMB Overworld theme wouldn't sound as complete without the melody and harmony parts going at the same time. Whenever a sound effects happens it plays over the melody track, but keeps the soundtrack going so it doesn't stop it, thus just hearing the harmony part underneath the sound effect for a brief moment. On the underworld levels, I made the soundtrack on just one channel because it's a very simple melody that's only in octaves, thus I have sound effects on one channel and the melody of the soundtrack there on x-2 & x-4 levels.

[Sprybug]

I tried it on my Harmony and it seemed very good. I only tried it briefly. I also hooked up my internal video capture card to capture my old VHS camcorder tapes of my kids, so I can try capturing the atari now.

Go for it. If you post it on Youtube, you might not get the 100,000 views that kwvtads got because he was first to post a video and the initial news and rush is over, but you should get some good viewership. I posted mine a few days later, which includes 1-2 and 1-3 along with a clearer display and it only has about 3000 views.

Edited August 27, 2012 by Sprybug

[Pioneer4x4]

Will you be posting your updated one?

Also, the game looked very smooth to me except for flicker on the opening screen. I honestly haven't looked to see why.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I tried it on my Harmony and it seemed very good. I only tried it briefly. I also hooked up my internal video capture card to capture my old VHS camcorder tapes of my kids, so I can try capturing the atari now.

Go for it. If you post it on Youtube, you might not get the 100,000 views that kwvtads got because he was first to post a video and the initial news and rush is over, but you should get some good viewership. I posted mine a few days later, which includes 1-2 and 1-3 along with a clearer display and it only has about 3000 views.

Hopefully, your "internal" capture card likes the Atari VCS signal better than my USB external did. I made a thread about it here:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/201952-hauppauge-usb-video-capture-device-doesnt-like-my-ntsc-atari-vcs/

[Pioneer4x4]

I hope so to, I looked at that other thread as well. I have a tape from 1995 running now, maybe tomorrow.

[Sprybug]

Will you be posting your updated one?

Also, the game looked very smooth to me except for flicker on the opening screen. I honestly haven't looked to see why.

 

I used some software to grab what was on my computer screen while running it in Stella which explains why it was crystal clear and didn't show the flickering all that well. However this was before I knew about ALT-P in Stella. Next video I do, I'll be sure to have Phosphor (Alt-P) enabled. It makes it looks like it's not flickering.

 

-Chris

[S1500]

The VHS junk on it makes it look even more retro.

[Pioneer4x4]

Will you be posting your updated one?

Also, the game looked very smooth to me except for flicker on the opening screen. I honestly haven't looked to see why.

 

I used some software to grab what was on my computer screen while running it in Stella which explains why it was crystal clear and didn't show the flickering all that well. However this was before I knew about ALT-P in Stella. Next video I do, I'll be sure to have Phosphor (Alt-P) enabled. It makes it looks like it's not flickering.

 

-Chris

I was refferring to on my actual TV, and not a complaint, just a comment that it is noticable.

[Synthpopalooza]

That's not a bad idea, but can the Atari 2600 hardware detect the second button? If so, I'd be more than happy to make the option available, it wouldn't be that hard to add. Maybe someone can chime in on this if its possible to use a controller that has more than one fire button (such as the CX-78 and/or Genesis) on a real 2600?

 

For the Genesis/Mega Drive controller you use joystrick trigger 0 for one of the buttons, and paddle 0 for the other one ... button A, select, and start are unreadable without modifying the controller with hardware.

Edited September 17, 2012 by Synthpopalooza

[Sprybug]

 

 

For the Genesis/Mega Drive controller you use joystrick trigger 0 for one of the buttons, and paddle 0 for the other one ... button A, select, and start are unreadable without modifying the controller with hardware.

 

Got it and already done. Did it about a week back. My next release though won't be until everything is finished and then ready for some beta testing. And to update, it almost is. I've got all the levels finished. I just need to tweak some of them. I need to add a title screen and fix a big bug that has to do when you shoot a fireball, sometimes it will automatically go right to an enemy that spawns when scrolled on and I have yet to find out where that is. The "death when having starman" bug seemes to have gone away so far. I haven't had it happen to me in a few weeks. Maybe there was some code somewhere that I tweaked for another purpose that may have fixed it. I also added a feature that if you beat the game, you get to go on a second quest, just like the original SMB, where it gets harder because goombas turn into beetles, most of the enemies go twice as fast, your platforms shrink to half in size. I'm thinking of throwing in a few other things, such as Bullet Bills constantly shooting out on x-3 levels and making the boss battles a touch harder. It's a little present for beating the game and adds to the replayability which is really important.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Sprybug was nice eniugh to loan me one of his alpha builds. The Genesis support works, although "B" button jumps and "C" button runs/fires. Unfortunately, the button arrangement is swapped from the original Super Mario Brothers NES layout, so that takes getting used to. It's also possible to continue on level 1 the same world you died on, and use the left difficulty switch to set the number of starting lives to 3 or 5.

 

Sprybug, I see now you have only disappeared for the past few days to only cram more content into the game! if you want to make the boss battles tougher on the "second" quest, maybe you could just go and change the number of required hits from 4 to 6 without really messing up the mechanics. I still believe it should only be 3 hits for the first quest though. I was under the assumption that you were quickly running out of ROM space. Where did you find the room to add multiple difficulties? Also, won't the "Double Goomba" sprite mechanics get messed up if you change them into Beetles and attempt to kick the shells? Don't forget the Koopas/Beetles moved slightly faster in second quest mode of the original. Also, is there a different ending for the second quest? Either way, I really hope I can get to see Peach at the end of 4-4. Even if it's just a black static background with Mario and Peach sprites and "THE END?" printed across the top of the screen (the question mark alludes to the second quest), she needs to be present in some form. And add a little fanfare music if there's any room left. The original SMB princess victory music was much shorter than the extended mix found in SMB3 and later games in the series, so it shouldn't take too much space to program. If there's no room left in the music banks, you maybe can still place it in the victory and title banks. That would be great!

 

Also, when the fame gets completely finalized, you should really talk to Albert about the possibility of adding it to the AtariAge web store. I'll definitely want it on cartrige format.