Anyone Interested in Doing "SMB Special" for NES?

[Tomato]

I started playing this on stream yesterday ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M59eQyX22H4&list=PL8fufren85t_q1QlqcaOUHYNSTTG3qVb1 ) after lurking in this thread for years. I'm really amazed at how it turned out, but there were some odd parts that I was curious about. Especially the invisible blocks - I wasn't sure/couldn't remember if they were in the original game or not and was curious to know.

Besides that, we got some funny and silly situations to happen during the game too - enough so that now I want to check out the original game sometime! Thanks to everyone involved who worked on this!

[rbudrick]

I haven't checked this thread in years and was pleasantly surprised it was still going.  Anyone care to try this port in SMB Maker for Wii U.  Hah!

If noting else, perhaps someday the SNES All Stars version can be adapted to add the crabs and such.

-Rob

[Karatorian]

So I watched (a bunch) of that video and the evil invisible blocks that kept killing them aren't supposed to be there. (Or at least not most of them.) So now I'm wondering who screwed up? Does one of the ASM hacks (some of which add extra blocks) have a bug? Is the level data bad? Was the bug introduced by the X1 hack? (Is it an (unlikely) emu bug?)

I guess I'll have to go investigate.

Update 1

So I can confirm that the worst offender (the one on 1-3 that killed Poe and Mato repeatedly) isn't in the version I have sitting around (which makes me doubt any of the other ones are as well). Just to be sure, I downloaded the released patch and confirmed it produces the same ROM as the one I tested on. I looked into the X1 hack and verified that the raw level data is completely unchanged (which is not surprising given how involved editing the level data became with all our changes).

My current working theory is that there is a bug in the X1 hack that somehow borks the object drawing routines, causing the spurious blocks to appear. The level loading stuff was rather extensively modified, so hacks that work on vanilla SMB wouldn't necessarily apply cleanly to SMBS. I still have to actually test the X1 version and confirm the behavior. However, I have to go to work, so I'll look into it later tonight.

Update 2

So, I tried to reproduce the bug in the X1 (style) version, and that invisible block in 1-3 doesn't appear. I don't know what was going on. Oh well. If anyone else has any ideas, let me know.

[zacmario]

@ rbudrick
I plan a 16 bit version at somepoint.

[releasethedogs]

did the hammer, bee and extra monsters ever get added?

[VicVergil]

did the hammer, bee and extra monsters ever get added?

I have been wondering this as well.
Same about the item that makes Mario swim in air (which explains a lot about some obtuse level designs).

Is there even any info about these additions online? Seems like most people experienced Special through this romhack so not much info is out there. Even Karatorian's level design dumps from the Sharp version are no longer online.

[rbudrick]

Hey folks, just wanted to point out there seems there is a third version of SMB Special aside from the Sharp X1 and PC-8801.  There is a PC-6601 version:

https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/u177452970?al=11&iref=alt_1

Blown away by this news.  I had no idea. Received this in a Yahoo Japan auctions alert I had set from way back in the day for any listings of Super Mario Bros Special either in romanji or katakana.  Seems many years later, it paid off, at least in the manner that knowledge was gained. Wish I could have bid.

-Rob

[Vanya]

Judging from the other games on the system, I imagine it must be an even more primitive looking version of the game.

[nesrocks]

That is clearly mario bros special, not super mario bros special.

[Jorpho]

Yes indeed.
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/mario-bros-special/

[rbudrick]

Ah, you are correct.  My mistake.  Sorry to get anyone's hopes up!

-Rob

[SMB2J-2Q]

Has anyone saw this version of the SMB Special NES hack?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF0bp5vj1C4

Video: Faithful Dancing Star

This version actually has the old Mario Bros. enemies added in (Sidesteppers, Fighter Flies) and the Hammer from Donkey Kong.

~Ben

[Green Jerry]

Has anyone saw this version of the SMB Special NES hack?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF0bp5vj1C4

That video is a gameplay of SMB Crossover, and not the NES hack. After Mario dies in the demo (which is from the hack), it directly goes to the WORLD X-X screen instead of the title screen.

[frantik]

Does anybody have Karatorian's source code for the last release hiding somewhere on their hard drive?

[niuus]

and the data pack (if you want it) here.

Man, I really should write something about that in the README.
You can download it here: http://static.karatorian.org/gaming/nes/smbs-rip-x1.tar.bz2

I didn't bother packing up the tools, so it's just the level images and the text files that explain the pipe connections. If you're interested in the tools too, just let me know.

Ok, the current source code is availble here:
http://static.karatorian.org/gaming/nes/smbspecial-src-20100306.tar.bz2

Just found out about this hack today, 13 years later, or else i would have definitely archived a copy.

Sadly, only dead links, even the one in the romhack page. Kakatorian last time here was 4 years ago. 
http://static.karatorian.org/gaming/nes/smbs-src-1.0~rc1.tar.bz2

[frantik]

Yeah, I have a very old version ( 0.8 ) of the source on my computer, but it's missing some important stuff.  I have some ideas how to implement the missing parts of the port, would be nice to save time with the complete source


edit:  someone messaged me and pointed out the source was on archive.org

I packed the 1.0rc source, the 0.8 source, plus the original images and other level data that Karatorian had on their site into a zip file.  You can download it here

I managed to adapt Karatorian's source to ASM6 and got it to build.. no promises on anything but it seems like almost everything besides the hammer power up shouldn't be too difficult

EDIT2:

WE GOT BEE



Bee, Wing, Clock and Atom (lucky star) have all been implemented.. Hammer i'll worry about after i add the enemies

[niuus]

Yeah, I have a very old version ( 0.8 ) of the source on my computer, but it's missing some important stuff.  I have some ideas how to implement the missing parts of the port, would be nice to save time with the complete source


edit:  someone messaged me and pointed out the source was on archive.org

I packed the 1.0rc source, the 0.8 source, plus the original images and other level data that Karatorian had on their site into a zip file.  You can download it here

I managed to adapt Karatorian's source to ASM6 and got it to build.. no promises on anything but it seems like almost everything besides the hammer power up shouldn't be too difficult

EDIT2:

WE GOT BEE



Bee, Wing, Clock and Atom (lucky star) have all been implemented.. Hammer i'll worry about after i add the enemies

Awesome news! Thanks for the zip files, btw. I'll bee watching this.

[ShadowOne333]

Yeah, I have a very old version ( 0.8 ) of the source on my computer, but it's missing some important stuff.  I have some ideas how to implement the missing parts of the port, would be nice to save time with the complete source


edit:  someone messaged me and pointed out the source was on archive.org

I packed the 1.0rc source, the 0.8 source, plus the original images and other level data that Karatorian had on their site into a zip file.  You can download it here

I managed to adapt Karatorian's source to ASM6 and got it to build.. no promises on anything but it seems like almost everything besides the hammer power up shouldn't be too difficult

EDIT2:

WE GOT BEE



Bee, Wing, Clock and Atom (lucky star) have all been implemented.. Hammer i'll worry about after i add the enemies

Incredible!
I cannot wait for what you have in store and for you to "hammer" down the rest of the features haha. Finally, a faithful port of SMB Special on NES is on the horizon!

[frantik]

WE GOT CRABS



Still learning the ropes with regard to adding new enemies but got crabs and flies working right now.  these enemies don't replace other enemies either (though their graphics are replacing Bowser's.. will switch to a different graphics bank for the bowser fights)

[MathUser2929]

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

This is a updated version of the original hack. You should add this too.