I FINALLY beat super mario after 28 years

[Frozone212]

I didn't chicken out of world 8-3 and 8-4, I had to look up a guide. I beat 8-3 and 4 without rewinding if that's what you mean. I only did it for the earlier segments because of the hammer brothers.

[Tanooki]

My kid does, she is ADHD with OCD that causes mood swinging control freak issues.  I read you quite well, and my opinion hasn't changed.  You can do SMB1 without a crutch, you have convinced yourself you can't.  She pulls the same crap, we don't allow it, she loses her mind, and eventually cools off after arguing and being stubborn for hours, but it gets done and right.  I don't hate you, I know what you got, and I don't accept the excuses as I live with the bs daily.  It's why my free time largely sucks, is relegated to evenings, and half the time I pass the fuck out for minutes to commonly hours in my chair meaning nap time was free time.  Sorry not sorry, but mercy you won't get here because I live battling it daily.

[youxia]

7 hours ago, Frozone212 said:

[...]HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME! HOW DARE YOU STICK YOUR NOSE UP AT ME FOR TRYING EVERY SINGLE DAY!

EVERY DAY IN POVERTY, WHEN I WAS SICK, WHEN I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL, WHEN I HAD TO GO TO A FUNERAL BECAUSE MY GRANDMOTHER DIED, THE VERY REASON I GOT INTO VIDEOGAMES IN THE FIRST PLACE!

EVERY DAY I DREAMED OF IT, EVERY DAY I DEVISED A WAY!

 

You're nothing but a bully and you'll always be a bully because that's what you are! I do one thing wrong and you bear down on me like an eagle, even if I try to share one of the happiest moments of my life, even If i did cheat a bit.

and you don't give a shit do you? [...]

In a way, this is amazing, it's like large chunk of modern attitudes and approach to life encapsulated into a couple of paragraphs. The fact it's about beating a bloody videogame and not cancer or some such, makes this example even more vivid.

 

As for the subject itself, of course it matters if you use savestates, rewinds, or any other way of playing not originally intended to finish the game. In OP's defense at least they did mention that, whereas I bet a huge number of people on the net who blithely claim they have "beaten" X or Y don't. They think that modern emulator conveniences are a natural way of playing.

 

Similarly to other posters ITT, I'm not saying it to belittle this way of playing, but it really is necessary to make this distinction as these ways are hugely different experiences (the aforementioned "cheat to train" way is a bit of a special case here). I've spent a big chunk of my early gaming life as PC gamer, where Quicksaving is a given and I took it as a norm. Some more involved PCmasterracers would even use the lack of it it as a stick to beat consoles with. It's only later when I started using consoles and thought more about it, that I understood how corrupting this convenience can be. Later on getting the roguelike bug, and also getting into 1CC STGs, has changed my outlook completely.

 

When I was a kid, who could only stare at the arcades and only occasionaly had a quarter to spare,  an Ultimate Cheat was kind of a pipedream, which you would jokingly talk about with your mates. If only!...we could press a button and see what all lies ahead in Vastar or Gryzor. Well, this magic button is here now, but I've never actually used it. I've been playing Metal Slug, R-Type and countless others zillions of times in the recent years, but am happy dying at my customary 2nd-3rd level boss. But, I am also not judging on people who choose to see it through using some modern crutches. But a) please do mention it and b) don't throw a hissy fit when somebody states the other way might be better. It's only an opinion, sure, but with strong arguments behind it.

[MrBeefy]

Only real gamers beat the minus world in SMB. If you can't then GET GUD!

Edited September 24, 2022 by MrBeefy

[Austin]

1 hour ago, Frozone212 said:

I get it, but the issue is, OCD forces me to redo it and redo it and redo it. I can't enjoy a game that I can't beat. That's why I cheat, because it gives me a way around the issue. It's like titanfall. I couldn't continue into the main story because of the Becomes the master achievement. 

 

I get what you're saying but you need to consider my side. do YOU have OCD? if no, then understand that I literally CANNOT do SMB1 without some form of crutch.

you can go back to hating me.

The concept of actually thinking about what you are doing in these games and actually learning from your mistakes seems like a completely foreign idea to you. You constantly throw in the towel early and go on temper tantrums here, making excuses like a little kid and expecting us to feel bad for you.

 

You’re likely better than you think. You just keep psyching yourself out with your complaints and excuses and from an outside perspective it’s been tiresome to read about for quite some time.

[CapitanClassic]

1 hour ago, youxia said:

When I was a kid, who could only stare at the arcades and only occasionaly had a quarter to spare,  an Ultimate Cheat was kind of a pipedream, which you would jokingly talk about with your mates. If only!...we could press a button and see what all lies ahead in Vastar or Gryzor. Well, this magic button is here now, but I've never actually used it. I've been playing Metal Slug, R-Type and countless others zillions of times in the recent years, but am happy dying at my customary 2nd-3rd level boss

I would say that the only Arcade games I actually got good at, were the ones where I didn't have infinite continues due to virtual quarters/MAME. I used to play Magican Lord during my high school lunch break at a local mall. I got so good, I could play on one quarter until the 6th Level (Corridor Leading to Hell, those cat-girls suck). Some people were quite impressed (or annoyed,  because they wanted to get in a game of Nam 1975) I could play so far on a single quarter.

 

That practice made it so even now I can get pretty far in the game on a single quarter, from muscle memory alone. I am not back to my old skills, but I haven't played the game (except for a few recently) in 20+ years.

[roots.genoa]

I never beat SMB and don't have the patience or the time too (at least not without cheating). I don't have that kind of OCD but I don't like to let a game I own unbeaten (I don't own SMB on a cart). Recently, thanks to Pocket's savestates, I finally beat Fortress of Fear and The Amazing Spider-Man on Game Boy that traumatized me as a kid. And I feel great about that, even though I cheated.

 

Actually, if there are human beings that managed to beat those two games without cheating, I'll be the one making fun of them, because they're weird aliens to me. 😛

[Steven Pendleton]

I feel like I said this to you before, mostly because I did, but...

 

just

 

practice

 

A lot of newer games seem to be designed to ensure that the player cannot actually reach a failure state; check out Rayman Origins and/or Legends (Origins is better, BTW). Both of these games are absolutely incredible, and some of the best platformers you'll ever play in your life, yet neither of which actually have a failure state, so it's not possible to game over, as failure simply doesn't seem to be allowed in a lot of modern games from what I've seen. No skill, no problem!

 

A decent amount of old games require skill, which is obtained through practice, so, naturally, the cycle goes like this: get your ass kicked by the game, probably really, REALLY damn hard in some cases (greetings, Battle Garegga, Tatsujin Ou, Same! Same! Same!, and R-Type II, that's you guys! Still love you all, though~ Well, maybe not Tatsujin Ou, but yeah) -> practice, probably a lot -> absolutely destroy the game and maybe set world records.

 

2 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I never beat SMB

lol I'm not alone~ Maybe I'll go beat it this weekend. Made it to 8-4 last year, but never figured it out and got kind of hungry, so I quit to get food and decided to get revenge some other day. Apparently that day has not come yet!

[Wayler]

I beat SMB as a kid. Just like a lot of NES action games, the later stages require a lot repetition and pattern recognition. So practice, practice and practice. A chill pill is also needed apparently. 

 

One of the games I did not beat then was Blaster Master, stage 6 was probably my maximum. But my dad kept sinking hours into it and he was quite good at it. I remember that one time he got to the last boss and after a few tries he handed me the controller with 2 lives left. "Here, you try". Obviously I did not get the job done, although I seem to remember it was quite close. But that moment was vividly implanted to my memory. I can't believe he let me have a crack at it. I did not see him ever completing the game since. 

 

So years later after emulation was a thing, I was determined to complete BM with save states and see the end credits. And I did. There was a sense of relief and peace after.

 

But I did not feel that I had accomplished some grand feat because I know I had cheated. It was just something that needed to be done. 

 

RIP dad. 

[digdugnate]

I've been thinking about this post and how to respond for the better part of a day, but I think it's still going to come across harsh; that's just the way it is.

 

First: It's cool that you beat SMB, even using rewind/etc.  It's neat to see the end of a game that you were struggling with.

 

HOWEVER:

 

You've been around Atari Age long enough to see how folks react to things and how in general this gamer crowd is personality-wise.  You made a post here that while it was a 'hey, i did this cool thing' it was FELT like a 'pat me on the head and tell me i'm a good boy'-type thing and that absolutely is not how it went down.  Lesson learned, I'd wager, maybe. Possibly.

 

Remember that you were also caught cheating on an online forum NES High Score contest that is meant for fun.  Try to remember that folks will see a lot of the posts you make come across as 'temper tantrums' because that's kinda what they look like to them.  I've (probably unnecessarily snarky) commented on your posts before that you complain a lot but you never offer solutions for your complaints or it seems you just don't want to hear it after you blast it out on AA.

 

There are lots of people here, representing soooo many different personalities and archetypes.  It is simply unrealistic to expect folks to accommodate you if you're not willing to look at everyone else in the same way.   Taking a step back as a parent, these are the SAME THINGS that we had to teach our oldest kiddo that if left unchecked would've made him a tremendous pain in the ass to everyone around him because he didn't perceive the world the way other people did.  A lot of outbursts were had and dealt with.

 

We want to hear your successes just like we want to hear your about failures, but it is all in presentation and how you go about it.  Be willing to listen to other's viewpoints and take a look at other things.  I feel like if you would do that you'd enjoy your time on Atari Age a lot more.

Edited September 24, 2022 by digdugnate

[Frozone212]

I did some thinking over the past few days and I apologize for my behavior. 

 

I tend to take these things too hard and I apologize to those i've hurt. Please don't think any less of me for this.

 

Once again, I am sorry

[mbd39]

Those who think that SUPER MARIO BROS. is too hard should try beating the original Adventure Island. Now that's hard.

 

[Frozone212]

*flashbacks*

[Tanooki]

Think less?  Nope.  I'm harsh, anyone would say as much that I'm blunt about stuff.  And while I don't usually let personal information fly, I did admit as much we struggle with some pretty hard core OCD issues legit ones stemmed in ADHD and control freak and anger issues over the OCD stuff wrapped in that mess with my only kid.  Living here when she's off school and home is basically playing a fun game of toss the lit match over a drum of old gas an oil rags.  Love her, but can't stand being around either at times because you don't know what He-Man moment of Man-E-Faces you'll get... cool, smart, explosive.  So when I see someone, anyone, use those issues as an excuse, personally having to put up with it daily I don't give quarter one bit.  We're slowly having to grind it down taking things away, monotone asking 'What did we say?', forcing her to prepare her own meals once cooked, not waiting for stuff any more to get done until it's convenient, and the list goes on.

 

That' enough of that though.  Sure you beat it, with help, it's a win, even if it's a bit of a hollow victory, it still is one, so it's something.  You did see the end, but I'd use that OCD behavior as a weapon yourself, go back and do the stuff again you breezed with a cheat until it's right because otherwise it'll mess with your head as I've seen it.  Everything just has to be right, a certain way, or else consequences.  An hour ago she wanted to play Sim City SNES, on my handheld, battery died, said use my SuperNt tried to turn it on...she flipped and left the room.

[Frozone212]

Will do. We cool? I don't want to wreck a friendship

[NE146]

I don't know but I use save states and the rewind function (if available) CONSTANTLY especially when playing through NES & SNES games on the Switch!   If Fast Forward is available, I'll use that too especially to speed through battles in Dragon Warrior 1, etc. It makes it way more fun and is the only way I'd play through that game again.

 

Way I see it, it's no fun for me to constantly die, get lost, fall through a false floor, or restart a level in Blaster Master, Ninja Gaiden, etc, or whatever.  But rewind/save states just let me sit back and enjoy and have fun playing the game. Anyway, anyone who'd want to criticize me for doing it is welcome to my history of beating any of those games (Ninja Gaiden, Blaster Master, SMB, Ys, Phantasy Star, and countless others) multiple times on a regular NES/SMS in the late 80s'. I even beat Castlevania 2 not knowing anything about it and with zero guides (literally spending days walking around). But today, there's no way I'd play it regularly.  Not that it'd matter anyway. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by NE146

[Tanooki]

I'm fine, you're not setting me off.

 

By the way, here's an interesting compromise I think even the hard core types would be cool with.  Save states/load states -- because you can't just do it in one sitting.  Doom was brought up and auto-save or save yourself by the stage and PC masterrace types are fine with that as it's standard going on like 30 years now.  The old pre-battery games, password or not, more so not, they can get a bit long and interest may fall, tired, distracted, fed up... why turn it off to start over?  Save the state, just don't abuse it.  Commit to using it when you're fed up, not as a crutch to re-load and get back 5 lives.  That's a solid fair way to honestly beat the game, it would in a way, be like the kid who covered up the red light on the NES to hide from the parents they left their game on overnight to not lose progress.

[Atariboy]

Regardless if you really finished the game or not by using the rewind feature many NES emulators now offer, you're definitely missing out by not fully experiencing all 32 levels of this classic game when you rely on the warp pipes.

 

Discovering the warp pipes and seeing how quickly you can finish the game is a fun alternate way to play SMB1 after you've learned the full game, but only after you've learned the game. Otherwise you're missing out on most of the game by just looking up the warp pipe locations and relying on them every time like it sounds like you've done. 

On 9/23/2022 at 8:17 AM, Tanooki said:

The NES doesn't have a rewind feature, the NES Classic Edition does as do many popular emulators.

It's entirely unimportant and besides the point, but the NES Classic Edition actually doesn't have a rewind feature. That was added to the SNES Classic Edition.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Atariboy

[Frozone212]

Well, I managed to beat SMB without the use of rewinds. Worlds 7-4 and 8-4 belong in hell

 

Not even going to attempt the second quest. I'm beat

[CapitanClassic]

Glad the practice paid off.

Congratulations

[Tanooki]

39 minutes ago, Atariboy said:

Regardless if you really finished the game or not by using the rewind feature many NES emulators now offer, you're definitely missing out by not fully experiencing all 32 levels of this classic game when you rely on the warp pipes.

 

Discovering the warp pipes and seeing how quickly you can finish the game is a fun alternate way to play SMB1 after you've learned the full game, but only after you've learned the game. Otherwise you're missing out on most of the game by just looking up the warp pipe locations and relying on them every time like it sounds like you've done. 

It's entirely unimportant and besides the point, but the NES Classic Edition actually doesn't have a rewind feature. That was added to the SNES Classic Edition.

True, in a literal sense yeah I forgot about that.  You still can save like 4 states per game, you can basically back pedal the hell out of your games at the flip of a button on it though.

 

And even if the icon is just a lame THANKS, it's the fact it's a trophy, he gets that stamp -- earned it.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Cool! Now beat Gradius!

[+Gemintronic]

One game made for save states is Super Pitfall.  It can have some unfair moments and glitches.  But, you really have to have attention to detail as the "keys" to access new areas are hidden.  Bad game but may play to your gaming style.

[Frozone212]

I will, thanks

[MrBeefy]

On 9/24/2022 at 4:57 AM, Wayler said:

One of the games I did not beat then was Blaster Master, stage 6 was probably my maximum. But my dad kept sinking hours into it and he was quite good at it. I remember that one time he got to the last boss and after a few tries he handed me the controller with 2 lives left. "Here, you try". Obviously I did not get the job done, although I seem to remember it was quite close. But that moment was vividly implanted to my memory. I can't believe he let me have a crack at it. I did not see him ever completing the game since. 

I loved Blaster Master as a kid. It totally needed a password or save file. It was a long ass game otherwise (or at least was to me as a kid). It was hard beating it in one go. I think it was one of the few games I left the console on for while at school or some crap.

 

I need to play the sequel on the GBC. It at least added a password feature.