Anyone Interested in Doing "SMB Special" for NES?

[Runex]

Just seeing this for the first time, and wow looks very interesting. Didn't even know about the existence of SMB Special.
I would definitely play this hack!

[FUTURA]

I just want to release one patch and incorporate the options into the one rom.  It's eas(ier) to offer just the original colors and the new colors without graphic changes too.  I could offer THREE skin options to satisfy the various tastes, but I really feel like the mild hybrid look I'm working on is just the right amount of both systems look.  When porting from one system to another, you don't always make a one to one copy of the graphics and everything, if you can you want to make the graphics look better, just like how the gameplay is improved by having the better NES engine.

Maybe once I release the beta for testing if people still really think it needs a dithered mode it could be added in.  But to do it, it needs to be 100%, which is going to look terrible on some stuff.  Like for example, the water levels, the entire screen is dithered, which on a real NES or using an NTSC filter on an emulator creates a giant mess


Banding caused by dithering (example from Messatu's X1 style)



Water levels would have banding across the entire screen

I would like a dithered mode. I actually wouldn't mind playing it messy on an actual CRT TV. It would present a new challenge and I like that, because it might make playing it harder, and I relish higher difficulty.

Plus I love the retro look it gives off in that screenshot of it. I'd play the heck out of that mode.

[PowerPanda]

Implementing the the end game text scroll was long and tedious, possibly the lamest part of this hack!  But it's over now, mostly    I took a bit of liberty to "correct" the misspellings and funky grammar, though I'm not sure exactly how far to go.

One thing that's weird is in Hudson game, they spell some characters like Kuribo as Kuribou.. I don't know if this is a different romanization of the same word or what, but I changed them to match what Nintendo calls them in print literature, which does not have the U on the end.  I noticed there was one new ememy name which ends with OU, "SIGEBOU" (the fireball).. I suspect this should also be SIGEBO to match with Kuribo and Togezo.  If anyone has any insight into this, I'd appreciate it.  I want the text to be free of errors in English and Japanese

Other questions are what is 'Enemy Dispoed By' supposed to mean?  I assume it's "Enemy Designed By" since it follows "Course Design By".. and "Sound Effected By" is funny but also got changed to "Sound Design By"

The final screen is a bit tougher.. not much space to turn "Fly Sky" into something a little more coherent, for example.




Anyways, moving into the final phase of minor tweaks and bug fixes, hopefully should be done very soon

Good questions. The "O" vs. "OU" question is a matter of romanization. Japanese is a rhythmic language, and the time that you hold vowels can change the meaning of the word. When the O sound is lengthened, it there are 3 different ways to do it, but they all sound the same. Depending on how it's written in Japanese, and the romanization, you could end up with "O", "Ō", "OO", "OH", or "OU". The one that's taught to most Japanese students is "OU", because it mimics what they're doing in Katakana. However, for English speakers, the single O is preferred. (ie - Tokyo instead of Tōkyō, Tookyoo, Tohkyoh, or Toukyou.)

I think you're right on the "Enemy Designed By", and I'd go with your instinct.

For the final screen, "Fly in the sky" is the most natural to me, but I think you could shorten it to "fly in sky" if there are space limitations.

[frantik]

For the final screen, "Fly in the sky" is the most natural to me, but I think you could shorten it to "fly in sky" if there are space limitations.

Thanks for the help on the O/OU thing.  I went with all just plain O ending.  When I put out the test version please give it a double check that everything looks ok.

For the final screen, "fly in the sky" might just barely fit.. the rest of the power up descriptions are also pretty broken English sounding though.  And both the hammer and lucky star end up killing enemies.  I may just leave them, but we'll see


In other news, I switched back the original style title screen.. gonna add an "intro screen" that doesn't require any button pushing, and that intro screen will be the title screen used on RHDN to differentiate it, but the original title screen will also be there



also got the Bee to Bee the right colors

[mahou]

cool! everything looks great.
I've been searching the internet and wikis always end it with -ou
but it is true that this is due to the Japanese origin ...
So the most correct would be O, as you have chosen to leave it.
Cool!, I like the screen type Nes

want to try it
😁😁😁😁

[shanem]

Great job.

Will this version have SRAM saving of high score?

[PowerPanda]

I've been searching the internet and wikis always end it with -ou

Yes, that's Hepburn Style Romaji, and it's the easiest to use for Native Japanese speakers because it focuses on 1:1 relationships between hiragana/katakana characters and roman letters. For Native English speakers, it leads people into mispronunciations because English has letter combos and Japanese doesn't. For example, EA in English is "eee", and in Japanese it is "Eh-Ah". In short, ending these with a single O is by far the best choice. 

[TRIFORCE89]

1) Love that new title screen. And I think the new colours are starting to grow on me.

2) O vs OU... It isn't NES appropriate, but I go for Ō. Still curious to know what SIGEBŌ is though

[marioxb]

I vote for the normal NES colors, and Americanizing and un-Engrishing everything.

So for that screen you posted, I'd do something like this:

________________
New Items!

Honey Bee - 8000 Points
Hammer - Hit Enemy
Clock - Timer +100
Wing - Flying
Lucky Star - Clear Screen

Search for
these items!

Push Start
________________

Honey Bee is what they called it in Adventure Island. Also, I'd be tempted to turn the text and image itself from Lucky Star to POW Block, to make it consistent with Mario Bros and SMB2 and 3, especially since there already is a Starman already. Of course the enemies need THESE names:

Barrel, Fire, Sidestepper, Fighter Fly, Icicle

[frantik]

this is the "intro screen" that will display before the main title screen.. this release will be known as the "35th Anniversary Edition" 

Great job.

Will this version have SRAM saving of high score?

hmm.. maybe

[Vanya]

I dig it! What about the actual title screen, tho?

[frantik]

I dig it! What about the actual title screen, tho?

Scroll up!

Small shrubbery and small cloud, by request!

[mahou]

great, you implemented them too ... another step to make it the most complete version for Nes ...
thank you very much
they look pretty good.
So, you have already added everything exclusive in the hack.
or is there still something to be implemented?
title, credits, pipes, clouds, bushes, power ups ,dual power up on screen.
it's fantastic

[shanem]

So, you have already added everything exclusive in the hack.
or is there still something to be implemented?
title, credits, pipes, clouds, bushes, power ups ,dual power up on screen.
it's fantastic

Aren't the castle windows different for the huge castles on stages like 1-3 (at the end) also? Apart from SMB1.

[mahou]

Yeah true
in the nes version there is a large window and in the special version there are 4 small ones
(I thought this was in the previous hack versions, but it seems not)
(in the central section of the castle)

[frantik]

it looks like the castle is shorter because they couldn't fit the full castle on the screen.. also I guess the flagpole is shorter too.  I wonder if it will make it too easy to jump over the flag pole..   The changed castle looks so funny to me



In world 8 each level has a unique "big castle".. i guess I should add them now 

[shanem]

it looks like the castle is shorter because they couldn't fit the full castle on the screen.. also I guess the flagpole is shorter too.  I wonder if it will make it too easy to jump over the flag pole..   The changed castle looks so funny to me

Level data terminates with $FD. You could add scroll stops to levels (object $46) like SMB2J does to prevent jumping over the flagpole glitch.

[lilpuddy31]

I cant wait to play through this

[powerup_retro]

Love Mario games + Love Hudson games.

So definitely interesting and can wait to try / test it.

[Vanya]

I cant wait to play through this

Same here. Especially since the level design is so "weird" in comparison to Nintendo's levels.
And the extra enemies and power ups just make it feel like more of a "true" sequel to SMB1.