Lost Mario game discovered

[MankeyMan]

I don't know if this has been posted already, I did a quick search of the forum and nothing came up so here we are.

Super Mario Bros. Special:

http://www.rllmuk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19632&st=0

You have to heap through a bit of stuff before you finally get there but it's worth it.

It's very hard, but very fun.

[Gamereviewgod]

Sounds like a hack to me, but I'm sure someone here will enlighten us.

[ubersaurus]

That's gotta be a hack.

[MarioAllStar2600]

Don't see that as being real but who knows. It would be pretty cool if it was real though.

[kingpong]

It might not have been posted here before, but it isn't a new discovery. Not sure when it was found by westerners, but I read a thread on it somewhere at least 6 months ago. No big deal IMO - just more of the same old mediocre Mario gameplay.

[rbudrick]

Upon reading the entire post, it doesn't appear to be. There's even a Hudson bee you canfind in level 1-1 just like in Hudson's adventure island....plus Hudson wrote the OS for the x68000.

-Rob

[rbudrick]

D'oh!

Looksl like it's PC 88

Hudson have anything to do with that?

-Rob

[TheRedEye]

I've played this before...I think it's PC-88.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hudson have anything to do with that?

WELL, you know, the screenshot, there, says 1986 HUDSON SOFT. I don't know...could that be an answer? LOL

(On the other hand, good eye! He says it's PC-88, so good job, soldier!)

I'm not going to start quoting the article, since MP3 Communist pretty much spells it out. (Have you ever seen that poster?)

But yeah, this really is rather strange. Unless he's BSing us, it's authentic. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it being a licensed product since, well, it looks like a pretty darn good conversion, and Hudson seemed to have buddies everywhere (and still do...after all, they're developing Mario Party 5, right?)

[Jive3D]

that is pretty neat.

Since we are on the topic of rare Mario Games... anyone ever heard of 'Super Mario's Wacky Worlds'? I got myself a 'copy' of that one recently and all I can say is WOW.

[digitpress Jim]

I think Hudson soft wanted to develop a special verison of "Super Mario Bros." for there PC 8001 since "Super Mario Bros." sold so many copies and is very popular so Nintendo went ahead and gave them the rights like they did with Philips for the CD-I verisons of Mario and Zelda. "Super Mario Bros. Special" was probably going to be released but the deal between Nintendo and Hudson Soft. did not go through for whatever reason so was only available in near fininshed proto-type format. If this is not the case then I think "Super Mario Bros. Special" is either the real deal or a hack.

Here is what I found out about "Super Mario Bros. Special" through reading further into the forum post.

"Super Mario Brothers Special", the game ran on the Japanese PC-8001 computer, and was created in 1986 by veteran developers Hudson Soft. Looking and sounding very much like the arcade/NES original, SMB Special has two major differences to its parent. Firstly, it contains a complete new set of levels, different from both the first game and the Japan-only "Super Mario Bros 2" which later appeared on the SNES Mario Allstars compilation. And secondly, rather than having a scrolling display in the manner of the other Mario games, SMBS features a flick-screen format which changes the gameplay significantly. (For example, a kicked Koopa shell will now rebound off the edge of the screen and come back at you whether there's an obstacle there or not.) I also found that a new verison of the original 1983 "Mario Bros." was included with "Super Mario Bros. Special."

[whoisKeel]

heh, looks pretty valid, man it is hard tho. does your screen 'blank out' for a second when you scroll screens?

yeah, heard of wacky worlds, i'd love to play it, but i do not have a copy,nor a cdi nor a cdi emu ;)

how complete is that game, btw? is it playable all the way through or what?

[Epicenter]

There was a title for the Genesis/MegaDrive called Wacky Worlds which featured Sonic and Tails, and I think was the only game to use the mouse. you built worlds w/ interactive objects, added music, composed your OWN music .. all in all pretty cool. Kind of like electronic legos and that Tails and the Music Maker game rolled into one.

what was this mario one? O.o

[whoisKeel]

wacky worlds:

http://www.classicgaming.com/blackmoon/smww.asp

http://spoonman.roarvgm.com/cdi/mario.html

[Jive3D]

Mario's Wacky Worlds is a prototype developed for CDi for the purpose of showing philips that the CDi could have a Super Mario World like title. the proto was developed in about 2 weeks, or so I have read, and served as a cash cow for it's developers until it was canned along with further releases of CDi games. I found the demo of it online, DLed it and burned it. It's a neat thing to check out, but it is by no means a complete game. the levels are bland, there are only a few koopas to step on who simply disappear when hit and you need to turn the CDi off and on again in order to go to a different level. But it is a novelty none the less.

At least Hotel mario was Kinda fun.

[Ed Oscuro]

I think Hudson soft wanted to develop a special verison of "Super Mario Bros." for there PC 8001 since "Super Mario Bros." sold so many copies and is very popular so Nintendo went ahead and gave them the rights like they did with Philips for the CD-I verisons of Mario and Zelda.

All of that seems to be correct except for the PC-8001 part. The game is for the PC-88, and there's a heck of a difference between the two computers. PC-8001 was a NEC machine, but it's from 1979 (link) (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=178)

[Jorpho]

I thought this was just going to be a thread about that weird pirate SMB3 Game Boy port. Interesting news, this.

[Ed Oscuro]

I find it funny that all these supposedly superior home computers of 1986 vintage (MSX 2, PC 88 roughly speaking) couldn't have sidescroller ports of Famicom games...even early ones (or Disk System games). Especially considering that the Famicom base unit's been around since August 1983.

[Jive3D]

I thought this was just going to be a thread about that weird pirate SMB3 Game Boy port. Interesting news, this.

Are you refering to the pirate SMB4? SMB3 was: Wario Land. The only pirate game that I have seen in the Mario Land series is SMB4, which used the N64 style flying mario on it's title screen. It's actually a hack of another GBA game, the name escapes me at the moment. I searched for the game for a while. I saw it on a multi-cart in Israel, but passed it up. I finally got my hands on the rom and it's really NOTHING special at all. I still love Super Mario Land 1 hands down, I could play that sucker over and over and over and...

[Jorpho]

Actually, Wario Land would be SML3. Super Mario Land 4 is a hack of Kureyon Shin Chan.

NESWorld (http://nesworld.parodius.com) had a really nice writeup of this SMB3 port a while back, but I can't find it anymore.

[digitpress Jim]

I think Hudson soft wanted to develop a special verison of "Super Mario Bros." for there PC 8001 since "Super Mario Bros." sold so many copies and is very popular so Nintendo went ahead and gave them the rights like they did with Philips for the CD-I verisons of Mario and Zelda.

All of that seems to be correct except for the PC-8001 part. The game is for the PC-88, and there's a heck of a difference between the two computers. PC-8001 was a NEC machine, but it's from 1979 (link) (http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=178)

I am just going by what the guy who said he discovered "SMBS" wrote. There is a link on the fourth or fifth forum topic page that will take you to his website called "World of Stuart" which contains Pics and all the info I posted here about "SMBS". http://www.worldofstuart.co.uk

[Ed Oscuro]

In other words, you're passing the buck :D

Yeah, I did visit his site. Early on in the pages of the message board thread he wrote "biscuit for that man" as a quoted reply to the first post that figured out it was a PC-88 game, which led me to think that he believed it was a PC-88 game.

Too bad his site doesn't list the correct machine.

[digitpress Jim]

just like you passed the buck on the PC 8001

[Jive3D]

Actually, Wario Land would be SML3. Super Mario Land 4 is a hack of Kureyon Shin Chan.

NESWorld (http://nesworld.parodius.com) had a really nice writeup of this SMB3 port a while back, but I can't find it anymore.

yeah, thats what I meant, SML3 = WarioLand and then SMl4 (pirate/hack cart) is the hack of Kureyon Shin Chan..

So there is another hack? There is a False Super Mario Land 3 that is NOT Wario Land? Someone explicate some mo'

[Ed Oscuro]

just like you passed the buck on the PC 8001

Eh?

I'm trying to be a bit less condescending today, but you really rather deserve it. I corrected you, take it like a man already. I don't mind if you had some comment after what I wrote since I do it myself (I'm wrong all the time, can't be a hypocrite about the fact that I don't take corrections terribly well sometimes) but I'm not looking for a fight over this.

[Ed Oscuro]

Just in case that was posted 'cause you thought I was wrong about it running on the PC-88...nope. If that was the case I certainly don't meant what I said earlier at all, as it would only be fair to bounce that back at me.

<_<

[Jorpho]

So there is another hack? There is a False Super Mario Land 3 that is NOT Wario Land? Someone explicate some mo'

It's exactly what it sounds like: it's a port of Super Mario Bros 3, for the B&W Game Boy. Actually, it's only the first few levels of World 1, and as I recall the play control is absolutely awful, but it is unmistakably SMB3. I think it used Mario Party artwork for its cover, and it was also called something along the lines of "Super Mario Bros. Special" (which is why this thread reminded me of it).

EDIT: Here we are. Mr. Nielsen provided me with the link:
http://www.nesworld.com/smb3gbc.htm

[digitpress Jim]

The point im trying to make is that if you paid attention to my post I said the info I found out about "SMBS" was discovered through searching deeper in the forum, that's how I found the website. Your making it out to sound like I am a know it all and came up with the info I found on my own. So I do not need to be corrected since this is some body elses info about "SMBS"

[SFCfan]

This game is sooo AWESOME!!!! :D :D It took me about a day to find a Macintosh PC-88 emulator HERE (http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/hideaki-i/n_on_mac/n-index.html) where the download friggin' works
TheVideoGameMaster wrote:
Here is what I found out about "Super Mario Bros. Special" through reading further into the forum post.

"Super Mario Brothers Special", the game ran on the Japanese PC-8001 computer, and was created in 1986 by veteran developers Hudson Soft. Looking and sounding very much like the arcade/NES original, SMB Special has two major differences to its parent. Firstly, it contains a complete new set of levels, different from both the first game and the Japan-only "Super Mario Bros 2" which later appeared on the SNES Mario Allstars compilation. And secondly, rather than having a scrolling display in the manner of the other Mario games, SMBS features a flick-screen format which changes the gameplay significantly. (For example, a kicked Koopa shell will now rebound off the edge of the screen and come back at you whether there's an obstacle there or not.) I also found that a new verison of the original 1983 "Mario Bros." was included with "Super Mario Bros. Special."
The question I have is, how do you access the Mario Bros. game? :hmm: :hmm: :? :?

[Ed Oscuro]

Did you get the game to run?

[GaijinPunch]

One of the links was to a Japanese retro game site. He mentioned that the MB Special game ran "on a PC only"... and never mentioned about SMB Special.

The mystery lives on. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

It was the PC-88...I don't see how there's a mystery here... :/

[goatdan]

I dled the game to try it out, and I somehow got to do the jumping-on-the-Koopa-shell-to-get-tons-o-1Ups, a trick I have NEVER managed to do on the real ones. I got to level 2-1 before giving up.

I think that my computer emulates the game too quickly. I felt like Mario was going too fast in a lot of parts. It wasn't unmanageable, but if it would have been slowed down I think I would've done a lot better. I would think my computer could handle the emulation, but the sound seemed screwy too.

The game had some obvious design flaws. Having Level 1-3 in that type of environment totally kills it. If Hudson had designed the game to work with the screen limitations it had, it would've been great... but they didn't. Instead, we are left with an adventure that would be fun if it worked like the NES version, but is extremely frustrating because it does not.

Now, lets have someone hack SMB with these levels. I would LOVE it.

[digitpress Jim]

This game is sooo AWESOME!!!! :D :D It took me about a day to find a Macintosh PC-88 emulator HERE (http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/hideaki-i/n_on_mac/n-index.html) where the download friggin' works
TheVideoGameMaster wrote:
Here is what I found out about "Super Mario Bros. Special" through reading further into the forum post.

"Super Mario Brothers Special", the game ran on the Japanese PC-8001 computer, and was created in 1986 by veteran developers Hudson Soft. Looking and sounding very much like the arcade/NES original, SMB Special has two major differences to its parent. Firstly, it contains a complete new set of levels, different from both the first game and the Japan-only "Super Mario Bros 2" which later appeared on the SNES Mario Allstars compilation. And secondly, rather than having a scrolling display in the manner of the other Mario games, SMBS features a flick-screen format which changes the gameplay significantly. (For example, a kicked Koopa shell will now rebound off the edge of the screen and come back at you whether there's an obstacle there or not.) I also found that a new verison of the original 1983 "Mario Bros." was included with "Super Mario Bros. Special."
The question I have is, how do you access the Mario Bros. game? :hmm: :hmm: :? :?

I am not to sure yet how to unlock the original Mario Bros. I just know that there are pics of the original/new verision Mario Bros. that can be found at this website http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~t-suzuki/vol.04/mario_b_s.htm

The whole website is in another language, however I am now positive "SMBS" ran on the PC-88 and not the PC-8001. If you look along the bottom of the first picture that shows the "Mario Bros. Special" title screen you will see PC-88 as the proof. :D

[Ed Oscuro]

Like I said, the PC-8801 was obsolete by '86 as it was nearing (or past) seven years of age.

Looking at that page using Altavista's Babelfish translation, though:

The top screenshots are for one version of the game with "horrible degree of hardness" and the second one is the one we've been talking about. I guess you knew that. The top classic Mario screenshot from our game (above the screenshot with Big Mario) has the following text:

"The [Mario?] throwing the punchball, the enemy is pushed down! (Why is! Laughing) Well, however simply is just that, don't you think? (wry smile).
When most it falls to the earth tube of the floor which is under, the fact that it dies is the [?]."

Anyhow, gameplay tip maybe?

[rbudrick]

Yeah, it's in Japanese...I ran it through Babelfish too, and as usual, it is unintelligible.

-Rob

[SFCfan]

Today I made it to World 1-3. This is so hard even though I beat SMB2 for the famicom disk system. When you translate Japanese through Babel Fish the translation is literal, so look for hidden meanings. ;)

[aaron7]

I hate to bump such an old topic... but they locked the new one :roll:

Anyone have a copy of this ported to an NES emulator? I'd really like to try it but a lot of the links here are dead now.

[Jorpho]

There is more information and up-to-date links in the thread that isn't three years old.
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84383

[Jorpho]

(Specifically, http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/special.htm .)