Has Super Mario Brothers ever been ported to the C64?

[commodorejohn]

The original ROM is actually 40 KB - 32 KB of program ROM plus 8 KB of tile data.

[knue]

But the NES can mirror sprites in hardware. This basically means that the sprite data almost doubles in size on the c64.

[Tom-Cat]

But the NES can mirror sprites in hardware. This basically means that the sprite data almost doubles in size on the c64.

The c64 version unpacks and mirrors the sprites in realtime and caches them... so the data is not exactly doubled... maybe it is even less because of packing.

[Mayhem]

As long as there's enough cycle time... Impossible Mission flips the sprites in memory in real time btw!

[knue]

ah cool. didn't know that. I always thought that mirroring sprites in real time is for most games not really an option as it wastes too many cycles.
The fastest code I can think about is this:

Code: Select all

ldy #63                 ; 2 cycles
-
lax (base), y           ; 5 cycles * 63
lda mirrortable, x      ; 4 cycles * 63
sta sprite_frame_0, y   ; 5 cycles * 63
dey                     ; 2 cycles * 63
bpl -                   ; 3 cycles * 63 + 2

And then have 8 variants. That's more than 19 raster lines for mirroring just one sprite frame - not counting any setup code. For 8 sprites that wastes about 160 raster lines - half of the raster time available.

[Lasse]

Usually not that many sprites change animation frame during one screen frame, so you can get away with quite little wasted rastertime, as long as you cache the results. And make sure that you don't glitch if you overshoot the frame rastertime, but just slow down.

[NM156]

ah cool. didn't know that. I always thought that mirroring sprites in real time is for most games not really an option as it wastes too many cycles.
The fastest code I can think about is this:

Code: Select all

ldy #63                 ; 2 cycles
-
lax (base), y           ; 5 cycles * 63
lda mirrortable, x      ; 4 cycles * 63
sta sprite_frame_0, y   ; 5 cycles * 63
dey                     ; 2 cycles * 63
bpl -                   ; 3 cycles * 63 + 2

And then have 8 variants. That's more than 19 raster lines for mirroring just one sprite frame - not counting any setup code. For 8 sprites that wastes about 160 raster lines - half of the raster time available.

You have to consider that Impossible Mission does this during the turning animation.

[knue]

IC. But they only mirror the sprite frames for the main char I guess. Also Mission Impossible doesn't have to waste lots of raster time for scrolling.

[Dave3622]

I'm confused by the sprite colours in those screenshots. I thought multi-coloured sprites had two common colours, yet Mario has Red, Brown and Pink and Bowser has Green, White and Pink! Without Sprite overlays how is this possible?

edit; noticed that mario has hi-res brown so guess that's the overlay!

[redrumloa]

This looks amazing! Sounds close to release? Will it be released as Super Mario Bros? if so, will it fly under radars? Some silly Amiga "Smurfs" game was released for free, and the developer got demands for cash or he'd be sued. he did make a whole website promoting it, which probably didn't help.

Maybe Super Tramiel Bros? Super Commodore Bros? Super Vic Bros? Super Butterfield Bros?

[Rekrul]

This looks amazing! Sounds close to release? Will it be released as Super Mario Bros? if so, will it fly under radars? Some silly Amiga "Smurfs" game was released for free, and the developer got demands for cash or he'd be sued. he did make a whole website promoting it, which probably didn't help.

The more a game remake is hyped and promoted, the greater the chance that the original copyright holder will squash it like a bug. Which is why I always say that people should do these projects in secret and only tell the world when it's finished. Once it's released, it's too late to stop it and even if they take it down like the company demands, it will live on.

Maybe Super Tramiel Bros? Super Commodore Bros? Super Vic Bros? Super Butterfield Bros?

I vote for the Goldbergs' version; Super Immigrant Plumbers.

[zaphod77]

i'd actually prefer multiload, if only so people could make editors.

[ZeroPaige]

Thanks for the nice comments. Yes, it is definitely close to being done and it will be released in a couple of days. As for the name, it is called: Super Mario Bros. 64

I have uploaded another video. Mainly to show the difference from the one I uploaded almost 6 years ago, but also to show it really is running on my C64.


https://flic.kr/p/2e9foqn

[OmegaMax]

As for the name, it is called: Super Mario Bros. 64

[retroscener]

omgomgomg that looks amazing, and released in just a couple of days?

My new Commodore two button sega mastersystem style gamepad has just arrived too. It should be perfect for this

My girlfriend boasts about beating this game on the NES. I will have to put her to the test on this