Super Mario Unlimited (SMB) - Released!

[frantik]

cool, then you got the "proper" experience     and yeah if you've already beaten the game then you will definitely notice a difference when you don't collect them

[Karatorian]

Just wanted to congratulate you on finally finishing your baby.

[frantik]

thanks man.. actually still doing minor tweaks lol.. actually some major tweaks in this update:

*Fixed the mario coin bug
*Added more time to 8-5 and tweaked level so that it can actually be beaten without mario coins collected
*few other minor things

You definitely want to update your files with this patch: v0.996

[guitarpalooz]

Finishing my no coins run now....I honestly can't tell the difference without mario coins.  I notice more fire gates and enemies, but nothing specific.  I now have 700s on 8-5 without coins (which seems to me makes it easier than with the coins), and there was a hidden powerup on 8-4 that is now gone.  I may be rushing through it too fast?

Here's what I'd suggest about the game, having beating it twice:

1.  the 100 coin = star thing is a terrific gameplay element...except when it's not.  Getting a star right before or in the middle of a turtle jumping segment, which are pretty prevalent in the game, is frustrating.  Maybe consider having the select button to cancel the star?  Or, less ideal, 100 coins gives you a star in reserve you can activate with select.

2.  This was probably present in the original game and can't easily be changed.  When mario is up around the HUD, he can't shoot.  Get's me hit a few times, and lakitus laugh at me.

3. I think you're aware of this one, but getting hit over open water is instadeath because you sink.  However, it also seems way too easy to die when youre close to the bottom of a water level...like the swim button stops registering similar to not being able to shoot up top.  This problem doesnt occur in the water gap in 8-5, because it doesnt have the whirlpool effect probably.

4.  The first time stopper in 6-4 seems to freeze enemies in a way where you cant finish the jump

5.  The music note boxes just seem frustrating and unpredictable, rather than challenging.

6.  The turtle at the beginning of 7-2 likes to spaz out.  not a big deal

7.  It's good that you made the game beatable with no mario coins.  it has a much different and equally strong gamefeel when you can move through the levels quickly

8.  Ok this last one is more of a personal point, but I love hammer bros.  It would be cool if once you beat it, and play through again, every enemy is a hammer bro, but youd need to put wings on many of them (or only do it for ground enemies, since hammerbro jumping would be tricky due to, ykno, the hammers)


I hope this doesnt sound overly critical.  Love this hack, its one of those cases where so much is done right that there's only small fine tuning things to talk about.

[frantik]

Finishing my no coins run now....I honestly can't tell the difference without mario coins.  I notice more fire gates and enemies, but nothing specific.  I now have 700s on 8-5 without coins (which seems to me makes it easier than with the coins), and there was a hidden powerup on 8-4 that is now gone.  I may be rushing through it too fast?

the 700 ticks thing is a new change to the game and isn't related to the mario coins.  there wasn't enough time to be the game before w/o the mario coins.  you should notice that you can't go through 8-5 the same way w/o the mario coins..

Here's what I'd suggest about the game, having beating it twice:

1.  the 100 coin = star thing is a terrific gameplay element...except when it's not.  Getting a star right before or in the middle of a turtle jumping segment, which are pretty prevalent in the game, is frustrating.  Maybe consider having the select button to cancel the star?  Or, less ideal, 100 coins gives you a star in reserve you can activate with select.

yeah, star man right before a koopa jump segment is annoying.. you have to learn to keep an eye on your coin count a little more. 

2.  This was probably present in the original game and can't easily be changed.  When mario is up around the HUD, he can't shoot.  Get's me hit a few times, and lakitus laugh at me.

yeah this exists in original game

3. I think you're aware of this one, but getting hit over open water is instadeath because you sink.  However, it also seems way too easy to die when youre close to the bottom of a water level...like the swim button stops registering similar to not being able to shoot up top.  This problem doesnt occur in the water gap in 8-5, because it doesnt have the whirlpool effect probably.

this is a bug that exists in the original game.. you can actually "break out" of the animation and start swimming if you mash the B button though

4.  The first time stopper in 6-4 seems to freeze enemies in a way where you cant finish the jump

seems to be fine to me?

5.  The music note boxes just seem frustrating and unpredictable, rather than challenging.

practice more

6.  The turtle at the beginning of 7-2 likes to spaz out.  not a big deal

ok

[Sam Atoms]

There's still a pipe in 4-1 that tosses you out into thin air.

Terrific hack, even if the difficulty becomes ludicrous in the second half.

[frantik]

There's still a pipe in 4-1 that tosses you out into thin air.

i double checked all of the pipes.. did you mean another level?  you're using 0.996 right?

[Sam Atoms]

Hmrmm.  Looks like something screwy was going on with my Nestopia cache.... the "recent" menu must have loaded a previous version that I didn't think was still there.  When I tried 0.996, and was sure, I couldn't go down the loose pipe.... sorry, my mistake.

[frantik]

  yay i was hoping i hadn't missed another one

hopefully no more bugs will be found.  Dr. Floppy is gonna work on the pause-music issue but otherwise hopefully no other changes will be necessary  for the 1.0 release

[Bregalad]

I'm stuck in level 2-2 at a point where there is some really nasty jumps in a row.

[frantik]

keep trying.. that part you can actually run all the way thru   and remember you can super jump off enemies..

[snarfblam]

Awesome job on this hack. I have a few thoughts, but don't think I'm trying to rain on your parade. I loved the hack.

I've beaten 8-4. I'm not sure if I understand the puzzle. I took a stab in the dark and what I did seemed to work, but if I did it the right way, it doesn't really make sense.

There is also a bug I've run into. If you're on a ledge raised up one block, and you walk off onto an enemy, you take damage instead of the enemy. You don't get hurt until you actually fall off the ledge. It's hard to reproduce, and not consistent, but if you time it right it appears that the enemy does an about-face right as you land on him. I don't know if that bit has anything to do with it.

A couple of times I've jumped to ledges in a similar situation, where there is an enemy next to it, one block below, and seen the same result. It might be a bug you inherited from the original, but I'm having a hard time finding somewhere to test it.

My only other concern is level 6-4. I like that you added a lot of koopa hopping into the game, but sometimes it gets dodgy. Maybe it's just me, but the game's quirky physics, combined with the careful timing you need in 6-4, and the fact that you have to successfully koopa-hop across several gaps in a row to beat the level, led to a lot of frustration.

Anyways, thanks for the awesome hack!

[frantik]

There is also a bug I've run into. If you're on a ledge raised up one block, and you walk off onto an enemy, you take damage instead of the enemy. You don't get hurt until you actually fall off the ledge. It's hard to reproduce, and not consistent, but if you time it right it appears that the enemy does an about-face right as you land on him. I don't know if that bit has anything to do with it.

that is a bug that exists in the original engine, but i don't know if there are any places in the actual game it exists.  it seems to be mostly related to buzzy beetles

My only other concern is level 6-4. I like that you added a lot of koopa hopping into the game, but sometimes it gets dodgy. Maybe it's just me, but the game's quirky physics, combined with the careful timing you need in 6-4, and the fact that you have to successfully koopa-hop across several gaps in a row to beat the level, led to a lot of frustration.

yeah I think i need to make 6-4 a lil easier cause on my recent play thru, that level had too much of a "luck" element to it.  that will probably be the last major gameplay change made for the 1.0 release

Anyways, thanks for the awesome hack!

sure, thanks for the feedback

[segwayspeedracer]

Amazing!! Feels like a legitimate, stand alone game!

One thing I really have to ask: I noticed that you use three images for one sprite. That's probably the incorrect way of saying it, but for example: I can go into Tile Layer Pro and find three identical images of small mario's standing body sprite, and I can edit one image to have a see through arm, the next to have a see through shoe, and the third to have a see through body, resulting in the three images alternating for that one mario sprite in game!!
 
Wow! Do you realize the implications for that? Like I said, the images currently are identical, but if you decided, you could easily make them different. You could make mario shrug as he stood, a standing animation.

It's just something really interesting I've noticed. Even if you chose not to, is there a particular reason why you designed it that way? Perhaps the quickest method for having the rotating question mark on the item box?

[snarfblam]

I don't know what emulator you use, but try firing up FCEUX and opening the "PPU Viewer" under the debug menu. You'll see exactly what is going on with the graphics and animations.

[segwayspeedracer]

I don't know what emulator you use, but try firing up FCEUX and opening the "PPU Viewer" under the debug menu. You'll see exactly what is going on with the graphics and animations.

Oh thanks, snarfblam, but I wasn't posting about a bug issue. That was just me marveling how Frantik put the game together.

[frantik]

^ yep.. the animation is done with bank swapping.  there are 4 frames of animation.  any tile can be animated.. it's the "lazy way" but memory is cheap now so it's ok to repeat animation.

I found a minor bug in 0.997 which prevented the end level music from playing.. so, yet another new version:

download 0.998

[I hate turtles]

Thanks for the awesome hack.

It was a little too hard for me, probably because I saved only between levels. 8-3 was particularly exhausting. Maybe it needs a checkpoint somewhere. Actually, most of the levels felt somewhat luck-based. I've collected all the Mario coins though.

[Vanya]

Finally got around to trying this out. Damn good job! It indeed feels like a very well executed professional game.

[segwayspeedracer]

^ yep.. the animation is done with bank swapping.  there are 4 frames of animation.  any tile can be animated.. it's the "lazy way" but memory is cheap now so it's ok to repeat animation.

I found a minor bug in 0.997 which prevented the end level music from playing.. so, yet another new version:

download 0.998

Ha! The end level music played if you didn't acquire the Mario coin. I figure that was intentional; an extra reward for getting the coin. Wow, I wish I wasn't so illiterate with programming.  pretty amazing stuff