Anyone Interested in Doing "SMB Special" for NES?

[coinheaven]

i did test this again, just to make sure it wasnt the board and still got the same results.  i can start level 1, but it wont let me move mario at all.  i can press start and pause it though, and the music is there as well.  i am pretty sure i patched the mapper fix ok, but i think someone should send me a 32k chr file, then i will know it is correct.  it shouldnt have anything to do with me expanding the rom, i have done this many times and never had a problem.  what i might do is put the 32k chr file and 128 prg file back together in a .nes file to see how it runs. 

i edited the world 1 level header, not the NES header.  i can send you the rom if you want, but i dont think thats what you mean

it could be any number of reasons why it's loading like that though probably :\ it seems like SMB is tolerant towards stuff being slightly modified and the game still working, just certain things look messed up

coinheaven are you able to play the game?

[frantik]

From what you describe, I suspect you would be able to play the game if mario could fall lower.  The game prevents you from controlling mario at level start until mario falls below a certain height.  The height mario starts the level at is also defined in the level header.. everything displayed on the titlescreen points to a level header read error.  it's very strange it works fine in emus AND the powerpak, but not a an actual dev cart

[MathUser2929]

I seen a posting about this on the main page. I'm glad to see the hack is back on track. Keep up the good work guys.

[Karatorian]

coinheaven, does the cart you're testing on have SRAM and if so, how much. For complex technical reasons, the cart needs 8k of SRAM to load the level data to. While we don't use it for anything other than extra ram (i.e. we don't actually use it for game saves), it would be sure to not work without it.

Come to think of it, how common are MMC1 carts with at least 4 banks of PRG and 8k of SRAM? At the time, I didn't really worry about this issue as I've done all my work on emulators (my NES hardly works, so I haven't bothered getting/building any flash carts). I mean, I've got one (not flash modded), but it's an original Final Fantasy, I wouldn't want anyone to use one of those for a doner cart.

I suppose I should put exactly what is required of the cart in the README, although, IIRC, it's all in the header anyway.

[coinheaven]

it works perfect now!!  i use a board from al unser racing, which as 8k sram and it works fine now.  thanks for the help!

Joe

[Karatorian]

coinheaven, that's good to hear. I was kinda worried because I have no hardware to test on. I really wanted the game to work on a real NES. (I don't consider a ROM hack complete unless it does.) And, of course, without hardware to test, it's nearly impossible to debug hardware issues. So I'm really thankful that you've tested it.

I'll add a note to the README about the what sort of cart is needed, so nobody else has this problem in the future.

The version coinheaven has is slightly modified from the last beta release. According to the information Disch posted on mapper behavior, the bug I fixed shouldn't effect either emulators or hardware. However, it is technically incorrect, so I'll make another release later today. Unless anymore bugs come up, this should be the last beta test. (Then again, I've said that before...) Thank you all for your help.

[frantik]

glad it works 

[coinheaven]

the correct board that is needed is called SKROM

[Xkeeper]

I can throw it on the PowerPak if anybody's interested, I guess.

Edit: Wow, okay. Whoever made this archive is fucking retarded.

*145521 ~Xkeeper> [527]smbs-20090219.tar.bz2
*145525 ~Xkeeper> -> [527]smbs-20090219.tar
*145531 ~Xkeeper> -> -> [527]smbs-20090219 (no extension, actually another TAR)
*145536 ~Xkeeper> -> -> -> actual archive contents

[frantik]

219 is an old version anyways i think

there's a zip here http://static.karatorian.org/gaming/smbs/smbs-20090224.zip

and .tar.bz2 i think is standard unix style compression

[Xkeeper]

and .tar.bz2 i think is standard unix style compression

I am more than well aware with this (I work with Linux on occasion), but that doesn't excuse it being a tar.tar.gz, especially with no damn file extension.

[frantik]

i'm pretty sure there is no 2nd tar.. it's just a folder.. but i dunno, you'd have to check with Karatorian.  In winrar both the zip and the tar.bz2 act identically

[Karatorian]

It's not a tar file, it's a folder. It's standard practice (in most cases) to place the contents of a tar file in a folder. Just because it's fairly uncommon in zip archives (though still annoying), that doesn't excuse the name calling when you or the archiving program you use misunderstand this fact. Just to check (that the GNU toolchain wasn't somehow mistaken), I created a version of the archive that actaully was packed they way you described it. As expected, 'tar tj' listed just the interior tar file, unlike the original version (which listed the full contents). If you're really interested I could post it somewhere, though it seems rather pointless to me.

As there hasn't been any new bug reports, I guess 1.0 is ready to go. I'll make the release some time soon. (Although, nothing of substance will change, just the version number and readme.)

[frantik]

hold off on the 1.0 release.. i played through the game and there's a handful of minor changes i want to make

[Obob]

I just played through this, and I found a couple bugs (or at least I assume they are bugs; I haven't played the original).

In one of the levels of world 4, there is a beanstalk that leads to a room that can't be escaped.  There is a pipe in that room, but it doesn't go anywhere. 

In one of the levels of world 7, there is a pipe that takes you to a little bricked in room with a mushroom and a 1-up, right by the end of the level.  After taking this pipe, the flag was not on the flagpole.

The castle at the beginning of one of the levels in world 7 looks glitchy; there is a row of tiles at its base that doesn't belong.

This may well not be a bug, but the castle at the end of 7-3 is a small castle.

It was fun to play this.  Good work.

[florent]

hello , i tested the game and i noticed the following things :
- in world 1-1 near the pipe there's a ? block with a star in , in the original game it's not a ? block , it's a brick
- in the orginal game when you enter in a pipe while you are invunerable , the star effect remain for a few second , not in the nes hack.
-in the original game the honeybee give you 8000 points in the nes hack it give you 1 up.
-near the middle of the world 1-1 there's 2 koopa troopa one fall on bricks and the second don't fall on the bricks , in the orginal both fall on the bricks.

i have 3 version of the PC-8801 rom of super mario bros special  :

Super Mario Brothers Special (1985)(Hudson)[a].d88
Super Mario Brothers Special (1985)(Hudson).d88
Super Mario Brothers Special (1985)(Hudson)[a2].d88

i also have the SHARP X1 rom of super mario bros special :

SUPER MARIO.2D

the sharp x1 version is BETTER than the pc-8801 version and i advice the team of "smb special for nes" to make a port based on this version than the pc 8801 version. (the sharp x1 version have more advantage and is more playable that the pc 8801 version and it's not corrupted so you can see how look like the not corrupted levels)

if the team of "smb special for nes" is interested in these alternate roms please contact me

to answer obob's question  : the beanstalk in world 4 is a trap because it's the same in the sharp x1 port.

[frantik]

I just played through this, and I found a couple bugs (or at least I assume they are bugs; I haven't played the original).

In one of the levels of world 4, there is a beanstalk that leads to a room that can't be escaped.  There is a pipe in that room, but it doesn't go anywhere. 

that's how it is in the original.

In one of the levels of world 7, there is a pipe that takes you to a little bricked in room with a mushroom and a 1-up, right by the end of the level.  After taking this pipe, the flag was not on the flagpole.

thats a SMB engine glitch

The castle at the beginning of one of the levels in world 7 looks glitchy; there is a row of tiles at its base that doesn't belong.

yeah thats on my list to fix

This may well not be a bug, but the castle at the end of 7-3 is a small castle.

i will check it out

It was fun to play this.  Good work.

thanks

hello , i tested the game and i noticed the following things :
- in world 1-1 near the pipe there's a ? block with a star in , in the original game it's not a ? block , it's a brick
- in the orginal game when you enter in a pipe while you are invunerable , the star effect remain for a few second , not in the nes hack.
-in the original game the honeybee give you 8000 points in the nes hack it give you 1 up.
-near the middle of the world 1-1 there's 2 koopa troopa one fall on bricks and the second don't fall on the bricks , in the orginal both fall on the bricks.

these are all minor differences mostly due to the two different engines.  the game is not an exact copy, but a port to the nes smb engine.  there are some places where i had to make some significant changes.  overall i tried to make sure not to change the gameplay if at all possible

if the team of "smb special for nes" is interested in these alternate roms please contact me

i'd love to check em out but this project is pretty much complete.. i have a last round of bug fixes i would like to make but neither karatorian nor I have been actively working on this project for quite some time

it's not corrupted so you can see how look like the not corrupted levels

karatorian managed to fix the corrupted levels so that's not a problem.  he's even put out a patch which i think is available on this site

[SMB2J-2Q]

How it is coming on the NES port of SMB Special, so far? Any new bug fixes for this? I am missing out on the posts so far.

~Ben

[frantik]

i hope to fix the minor bugs present in the last release some day after I release Super Mario Unlimited

i doubt there will be any more changes.. certainly not the enemies added, at least not any time soon

[Wario Bros.]

Well, good luck on the update.  I am so interested in this game that that I'm gonna rip the maps (PC88 Version) and send them to VGmaps (Currently making savestates starting at each level before I start ripping.)  Plus I found out when using the M88 emulator, setting the game speed to 50% makes the game feel so much more like the NES game (but the music is WAY slower =P) thus the clock the NES fast and the physics are MUCH smoother than it was at 100% speed.

Once again, good luck on this project.