Super Mario Bros. Special - PC88, X1

[ColecoFan1981]

Does anyone remember Super Mario Bros. Special for the NEC PC88 and Sharp X1?

It was developed and published by Hudson Soft under license from Nintendo. The SMBS port was released in 1986, a year after Nintendo's self-published NES version.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONLLWp1QIXI

I had recently inspired to come up with an NES version of this title, which looks like this:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GVq75n2ip0

But now I'm dying to see how it would look in 16-bit, to be given the Super Mario All-Stars treatment...

~Ben

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

I'm obsessed with this game. It is the definition of a kuso-ge (shitty game) in all the wonderful ways. I've played a long way into the original, and finished the NES hack-port several times. Thought about buying a repro.

Yes, It's definitely something that could be included in a Super Mario All-Stars 2. Along with a Lost Levels version of Super Mario Bros. 3 featuring the 33 "world e" levels featured in the GBA version of the game.

The level design is actually very solid. It is a Hudson game after all. You can really tell the level designer was intending the game to be played in the traditional way instead of the flicking screen.

There's a hack out there to restore the old color palette to the NES version. I need to try it out.
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/nes/images/titles/1011titlescreen.png

[bigbacon]

i would like to try the NES port of this. Watching the NEC version, it seems painful to play.

[JakeM]

I guess this is the reason Nintendo turned down id when Carmack went to them saying he recreated SMB 3 for PC?

[T.A.P.]

Wish I could find a ROM of that NES one. It looks like fun.

Anyone want to send a link my way for it? I'm not having any luck.

[ApolloBoy]

Wish I could find a ROM of that NES one. It looks like fun.

Anyone want to send a link my way for it? I'm not having any luck.
It's a ROM hack so here's the link for the IPS patch: http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/527/

[treismac]

Wish I could find a ROM of that NES one. It looks like fun.

Anyone want to send a link my way for it? I'm not having any luck.

You have to patch a SMB rom using Lunar IPS (http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/240/) to play the game's adaptation on the NES. Below are links to two versions of the hack- one with regular Super Mario Bros. graphics and one with X1 style graphics:

http://www.romhacking.net/reviews/110/

http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1011/

Note: Patch a copy of the SMB rom in a folder apart from your regular SMB rom so it doesn't alter it too.

[Jack_Burton_BYOAC]

I'm sort of divided on which hack is really the proper one to play.

On one hand you know the developers of the PC88 and X1 versions were working with a reduced palette and had to make due with what they had. If they had access to a full NES palette they might have made a game that looked nearly identical to SMB1 in the same way SMB2j did.

Or, maybe the would have changed things up to make their game more distinctive.

But either way, the PC88 and X1 versions did end up looking funky. And there's a certain charm to seeing Mario in action on a lower-powered platform. Playing the X1 version preserves a bit of this.


And to expand a bit more on OP's comments about seeing a 16 bit version of this; well, it would be pretty pretty easy to make. Lunar Magic is one of the most easy to use and detailed editors out there, and there are plenty of ways to use the Super Mario All-stars graphics. People have successfully created SMW engine versions of SMB1. SMBS would be no different. A little ASM hacking could even implement the special items and enemies seen in the PC88 and X1 version.

[bigbacon]

I guess this is the reason Nintendo turned down id when Carmack went to them saying he recreated SMB 3 for PC?

sad thing is, IDs actually worked and worked well I assume.

[Metalwario64]

I tried out the X1 patch, and was a bit disappointed after looking up images of the X1 version. Lots of work clearly went into it, but the underground palette and castle palettes were unchanged from the NES palette, when the underground colors in the X1 version are supposed to be a more dark basic blue and the castles should be a dithered cyan color of sorts. Also, the Stars should have smiles, and the enemies' palettes should remain the same throughout every level type.

As for the game itself, I actually think SMB Special has pretty darned good level design. It seems more varied than the original so far from what I've played.