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[Krejlooc]

Super Mario Bros is a classic game, practically defining the modern platformer for generations. And, not surprisingly, it has become the gold standard when it comes to homebrew devs who are itching to stretch their legs. Ports of SMB to various non-nintendo platforms are plentiful, and considering how studied the game has become, they are usually quite accurate. I figured it'd be neat to show off the most infamous unofficial (and one official) Super Mario Bros ports around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fSO-UTdCI8

Super Mario Clone
Platform: Atari 2600

Talk about a marvel - this game is amazing on just about every technical level. The mario sprite in particular is incredible for the hardware, and the cartridge uses a Harmony chip to produce the music. The level layouts and graphics for everything other than mario aren't too accurate, but the gameplay is there. This is just a proof of concept, the guy intends to build his demo out to the first 4 worlds of the original Super Mario bros game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8teXm6723-g

The Great Giana Sisters
Platforms: C64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, GP32, PSP, DS

Probably the most infamous Super Mario Bros clone around, the Great Giana Sisters came from a time in europe when clones were rampant. GGS was unabashed about how big of a rip off of SMB it was, proudly proclaiming "THE BROTHERS ARE DEAD" on the boxart for the game. GGS actually differs quite a bit from the normal SMB clone in that it attempts to add in its own twist via additional power ups. Your fireball, for example, can be upgraded, so that it acts like the bounce ball from Mario Land, or, ultimately, so that it can pass through walls. The C64 version lacks much musical fidelity (relying on the "wet" noise the C64 is known for), but the Amiga version is pretty well known for its weird soundtrack. Both versions are by Chris Huelsbeck, known for his rocking metal themes. This game brought the wrath of Nintendo, as the game was pulled from store shelves. Today, it is believed that no original copies of GGS exist anymore, as LemonAmiga has tried for years to find a non-cracked copy to archive (without luck). GGS actually still lives today, where it has spun off into it's own original, and legal, series. Great Giana Sisters DS was released a few years ago, and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams was released recently to warm reviews.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jysn0Z30oJI

Super Mario bros Special
Platform: PC-88

This one isn't actually unofficial - it's a real, licensed Nintendo game, developed by Hudson, for the PC-88, a computer popular in japan in the 80s. Despite being legal, the game is garbage. See, most of these old japanese computers lacked hardware support to scroll the screen horizontally (actually, the NES did as well, but special mappers in the cart gave the NES the ability to do so), so a major hurdle to overcome was how to fake scrolling. SMB Special uses one common method to circumvent this - it doesn't scroll. rather, the game uses what's called page flipping - where walking off the edge of the screen loads a new screen that places you on the other side. Think the Legend of Zelda to get a good idea of how this worked. The actual level designs aren't bad, the engine is relatively solid for the hardware, too. However, the extremely choppy nature of the game, which is a fault of the hardware, not the programming, kills any playability. This is probably the worst real Mario game available on any system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R09tiXxdF_8

Super Boy
Platforms: MSX, Colecovision, Sega Master System

Super Boy is a korean clone of Super Mario Bros originally written for the MSX. It is actually a relatively well-known series in Korea where it enjoyed massive success. Given the limitations of the hardware (the MSX also couldn't scroll horizontally) it is a master piece. Rather than resorting to page flipping, the game uses full-character width scrolling. That is, since the background tiles couldn't scroll, they'd shift the entire background over, 1 full tile at a time. Sprites, of course, can move smoothly, but the background scrolls very choppily as a result. The game, however, is very playable, and you quickly get used to the odd scrolling. Beyond the weird background, and a few color changes due to palette differences between hardware, it is an incredibly accurate clone of SMB, and probably the most playable of them all. The SMS port in particular is excellent, because it DOES feature hardware scrolling, resulting in a game that looks, sounds, and plays exactly like SMB on the NES.

Virtual Mario
Platforms: GP2X, PSP, Sega Saturn

The above screenshots are from the Saturn version of Virtual Mario, released today in fact. This is a "3D" remake of SMB that really doesn't play all that accurately and doesn't look that great either. However, given the platforms this game is written for, particularly the Sega Saturn, and particularly because it's written in BASIC on the Saturn, they're great technical feats. Impressive from a coding standpoint, but not all that great to actually play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhi9W15v60M

Super Boy IV
Platform: Sega Master System

Technically a part of the Super Boy series from above, and technically NOT a clone of SMB but rather Super Mario World, this game shows how great the pirates at Zeminia were and how close to later Mario games they actually came. After producing a near-perfect port of SMB to the SMS, they tried to up themselves and wound up creating a great game in its own right. You'll likely never, ever come across one of these carts in real life, as they were produced well after the SMS was phased out, even in Korea, and thus are hyper rare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZnl4eyu_Ao

Super Mario World
Platform: Famicom

I'll leave off with this game, which technically goes against the rules of the topic since it's running on Nintendo hardware. This is a high profile pirate which you can actually find pretty easily across china even today. It's a near-full port of Super Mario World to the famicom - it ends after the woods section of the game, but the final castle and final boss are actually coded, simply inaccessible. Similar to Super Boy IV, it demonstrates how the core mechanics of Mario World actually don't rely on the SNES hardware that much, and the art direction scales well to other, less powerful hardware (Mario Land 2 is also a good example of this). It plays well, which is surprising for a chinese pirate, and it's relatively bug free.

I'm sure there are other Mario clones out there, and feel free to post videos or screenshots of any I missed.

 

[-MB-]

Odd, I recall Giana sisters having music ingame on the C64, so I doubt that tidbit in the OP is accurate.

 

[Booya_base]

What a great post. This is exactly what I come to GAF for. I would love a copy of Super Boy IV for the Master System but I guess it ain't going to happen.

Is Psycho Fox for the SMS a rip off of Mario too? Or am I imagining that - I've only seen screenshots.

 

[Krejlooc]

Odd, I recall Giana sisters having music ingame on the C64, so I doubt that tidbit in the OP is accurate.

Whoops, phrased that weird. Lemmie fix that, the C64 version definitely has music.

 

[Piccoro]

This one was official:

But just like the CD-I Zeldas, it was pure trash.

 

[Krejlooc]

Is Psycho Fox for the SMS a rip off of Mario too? Or am I imagining that - I've only seen screenshots.

It really doesn't play much like Mario, no. It is part 2 in a series of games that span 3 systems, though - the other two being Kid Kool (NES) and Decap Attack (Genesis)

 

[ReyVGM]

Thread needs a title change.

I thought you were actually going to talk about official Mario games on non Nintendo systems, such as Hotel Mario, Marios Teaching, Atari Mario, etc.

It was mostly about pirate/bootleg/hacks

 

[-MB-]

Whoops, phrased that weird. Lemmie fix that, the C64 version definitely has music.

For a supposed clone that Nintendo hated, it actually turned me to try that game as well in the arcades as I hadn't played anything Nintendo prior to that.
So Nintendo gotta thank Giana Sistsers for creating a life long Nintendo fan.

 

[Krejlooc]

This one was official:

But just like the CD-I Zeldas, it was pure trash.

Not really, it's very much in line with the classic Mario Bros or maybe Wrecking Crew. Hardly trash.

But that has nothing to do with Super Mario Bros, honestly.

 

[Sectorseven]

Isn't there a Mario bootleg on Genesis?

 

[Easy_D]

Agh, that Atari 2600 footage. Why is it that music on that system always sounds like it's off by a half note? Other than that, legit impressive stuff

 

[Lupin the Third]

GGS was unabashed about how big of a rip off of SMB it was, proudly proclaiming "THE BROTHERS ARE DEAD" on the boxart for the game.

Actually it said "The Brothers are History!"

Good OP, needs more bad generic clones/mods of other games. And wasn't there a pirate SMB Genesis port?

 

[Krejlooc]

Agh, that Atari 2600 footage. Why is it that music on that system always sounds like it's off by a half note? Other than that, legit impressive stuff

There is indeed an explaination for this. The 2600 produced notes using polynomial
counters. This meant finding actual notes on the 2600 was a crap shoot. Atari used to actually send their programmers a sound chart with approximations for notes:

CHART KEY----------------------------------------------------------------------

COLUMNS=Distortion value (decimal) and variation from perfect pitch in CENTs.
        Values containing ? = unknown.  Values qualified with an additional ?
	means best-guess.

ROWS=Note values (decimal).

===========================THE 2600 NOTE CHART=================================

		  
 NOTE       1       1 CENT  2          2 CENT     3          3 CENT     
 ---------- ------- ------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 
 00         C       -5      C#         -50        C#         -50        
 01         C       -5      C#         -50?       C#         -50?       
 02         F       -5      F#         -50?       F#         -50?       
 03         C       0       C#         -50?       C#         -50?       
 04         G#      +11     B          -50?       B          -50?       
 05         F       -5      D#         ?          D#         ?          
 06         D       +30     C#         -50?       C#         -50?       
 07         C       0       B?         ?          B          ?          
 08         A#      -8      C#         -50?       C#         -50?       
 09         G#      +10     MED RUMBLE            G#         +40? 
 10         F#      +50     RUMBLE                G          0?         
 11         F       -5      RUMBLE                F          0?         
 12         E       -50     RUMBLE                E          -40?       
 13         D       +30     RUMBLE                D          +30?       
 14         C#      +10     RUMBLE                C#         +50?       
 15         C       0       RUMBLE                C#         -50?       
 16         B       -10     RUMBLE                B          +25?       
 17         A#      -10     RUMBLE                A#         +10?       
 18         A       0       RUMBLE                A          +30        
 19         G#      +10     RUMBLE                G#         +40        
 20         G       +30     RUMBLE                G          +50        
 21         F#      +50     RUMBLE                G          -20        
 22         F#      -30     RUMBLE                F#         0          
 23         F       -5      RUMBLE                F          +20?       
 24         E       +30     RUMBLE                F          -50?       
 25         E       -50     RUMBLE                E          -30?       
 26         D#      -10     RUMBLE                D#         -20?       
 27         D       +35     RUMBLE                D          +30        
 28         D       -32     RUMBLE                D          0?         
 29         C#      +10     RUMBLE                C#         0?         
 30         C#      -50     LOW RUMBLE            C#         -30?       
 31         C1?     0       C#?        -50?       C#         -50?       


 NOTE       4 AND 5    4&5 CENTS  6 AND 10   6&10 CENTS  7 AND 9    8          
 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 
 00         SILENT                B          +40        SAME AS 6  WHITE NOISE 
 01         B          ?          B          +40        DIFF DIST  HIGH       
 02         E          ?          E          +40                   HIGH       
 03         B          ?          B          +40                   HIGH       
 04         G          ?          G#         -50                   HIGH       
 05         E          ?          E          +40                   HIGH       
 06         C#         ?          D          -30                   HIGH       
 07         B          ?          B          +40                   HIGH       
 08         A          ?          A          +40                   HIGH       
 09         G          ?          G#         +40                   HIGH       
 10         F          +50        F#         -10                   MED        
 11         E          -20        E          +40                   MED        
 12         D          0          D#         0?                    MED        
 13         C#         +20        D          -40                   MED        
 14         C          -5         C#         -40?                  MED        
 15         B          -15        B          +40?                  MED        
 16         A#         -20        A#         +50?                  MED        
 17         A          -20        A          +50?                  MED        
 18         G#         -15        G#         +50                   MED        
 19         G          0          G#         -50?                  LOW        
 20         F#         +15        G          -40?                  LOW        
 21         F          +40        F#         -20?                  LOW        
 22         F          -50        F          0?                    LOW        
 23         E          -20        E          +30                   LOW        
 24         D#         +15        E          -50?                  LOW        
 25         D          +50        D#         -20?                  LOW        
 26         D          -20        D          +30?                  LOW        
 27         C#         +20        D          0?                    LOW        
 28         C#         -50        C#         +30                   LOW        
 29         C          0          C#         -20?                  LOW        
 30         B          +50        B          0?                    LOW        
 31         B          -15        B          +40                   LOW        


 NOTE       12 AND 13  12&13 CNTS 14         14 CENT    15         
 ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- 
 00         A          -20?       E          +40        SAME AS 14 
 01         E          -40?       E          +40        DIFF DIST  
 02         A          -20        A          +40                   
 03         E          -10?       E          +40                   
 04         C          0?         C#         -50                   
 05         A          -40        A          +40                   
 06         F#         +10        G          -50?                  
 07         E          -20        E          +40                   
 08         D          -20        D          +50?                  
 09         C          0          C#         -50                   
 10         A#         +30        B          0?                    
 11         A          -20        A          0?                    
 12         G          +50        G#         0?                    
 13         F#         +20        G          -20                   
 14         F          0?         F          +20?                  
 15         E          -20        MED BUZZ                         
 16         D#         -20        BUZZ                             
 17         D          -20        BUZZ                             
 18         C#         -15        BUZZ                             
 19         C          0          BUZZ                             
 20         B          +15        BUZZ                             
 21         A#         +32        BUZZ                             
 22         A#         -50        BUZZ                             
 23         A          -20        BUZZ                             
 24         G#         +10        BUZZ                             
 25         G          +50        BUZZ                             
 26         G          -25        BUZZ                             
 27         F#         +15        BUZZ                             
 28         F#         -50        BUZZ                             
 29         F          0          BUZZ                             
 30         E          +50        BUZZ                             
 31         E          -20        LOW BUZZ                         


ATARI 2600 VCS DISTORTION DESCRIPTIONS (XX & YY = exactly the same notes&dist.)
--------------------------------------

DECIMAL
DISTORTION
VALUE		WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE
----------	---------------------
00 & 11 	TOTALLY SILENT
01		Buzzy tones
02		Carries distortion 1 downward into a rumble.
03		Flangy wavering tones, like a UFO
04 & 05		Pure tones
06 & 10		Inbetween pure tone and buzzy tones (Adventure death uses this)
			Maybe filters off the highs here
07 & 09		Reedy tones, much brighter, down to Enduro car rumble
08		White noise/explosions/lightning, jet/spacecraft engine
12 & 13		Pure tones, goes much lower in pitch than 04 & 05.
14		Electronic tones, mostly lows, extends to rumble.
15		Electronic tones, mostly highs, extends to rumble.

 

[Afrodium]

This is a great thread. Awesome work OP. It's really interesting that Giana Sisters, and to a lesser extent Super Boy, became their own series despite originating from unabashed rip-offs of SMB.

 

[CO_Andy]

You forgot Dangerous Dave In Copyright Infringement by John Carmack and John Romero -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4HJkeQSg0

 

[Krejlooc]

For a supposed clone that Nintendo hated, it actually turned me to try that game as well in the arcades as I hadn't played anything Nintendo prior to that.
So Nintendo gotta thank Giana Sistsers for creating a life long Nintendo fan.

Many people from europe told me they first encountered GGS as a hacked title with mario sprites reinserted. So for a good number of people, Giana Sisters likely was their introduction to mario entirely, lol.

 

[Booya_base]

It really doesn't play much like Mario, no. It is part 2 in a series of games that span 3 systems, though - the other two being Kid Kool (NES) and Decap Attack (Genesis)

Oh that's cool, I didn't know that. I've played Turbo Magical Flying Hat Adventure so I think I will try Psycho Fox if it's in the same vein.

 

[JamesJoyce1882]

Very interesting list, thanks. There's a ton of clones on iOS as well.

 

[Krejlooc]

Oh that's cool, I didn't know that. I've played Turbo Magical Flying Hat Adventure so I think I will try Psycho Fox if it's in the same vein.

the games got progressively better. Psycho Fox is fun, but it has the most fucked up physics. You accelerate like a slug in molasses.

 

[Afrodium]

When I was a kid there was an ice rink near me with a Super Mario World arcade cabinet. It was just SMW and you had to pay more quarters when you ran out of lives. I was looking it up to see if it was Nintendo developed or outsourced, and can't find any record of SMW being in arcades.

 

[blame space]

There's a great chapter in Masters of DOOM where they figure out how to reverse engineer Super Mario Bros. on their computers, which eventually leads to them developing Commander Keen. The screen scrolling was a huge deal.

 

[Krejlooc]

When I was a kid there was an ice rink near me with a Super Mario World arcade cabinet. It was just SMW and you had to pay more quarters when you ran out of lives. I was looking it up to see if it was Nintendo developed or outsourced, and can't find any record of SMW being in arcades.

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8894

 

[Krejlooc]

There's a great chapter in Masters of DOOM where they figure out how to reverse engineer Super Mario Bros. on their computers, which eventually leads to them developing Commander Keen. The screen scrolling was a huge deal.

Yes, this is when John Carmack developed Adaptive Tile Refresh, the first of one of his many enormous breakthroughs.

 

[whiteninja]

lol the superboy version just says "SORRY NOTHING" when you beat a castle.

 

[Theorymon]

I enjoyed the Giana Sisters DS game. It took Mario mechanics, but had a pretty different approach to level design. Since theres no run button, The game felt like more of a percsion platformer than Mario, and some of the later levels are a lot more labyrinth like than your usual Mario title.

I mean granted, I prefer the Mario games for sure, partly because I like their pacing more. Hell, I think I like New Super Mario Bros DS more than Giana Sisters DS, which is sorta saying something considering how NSMB DS was like the most disappointing game ever for me... HOWEVER, I feel like for a "knock off" effort, Giana Sisters DS is pretty good, and at least feels different than the usual Mario title.

However... theres an interesting unlockable in the DS game. If you get all the red gems and don't get a game over, you unlock the entire original Giana Sisters levels from the C64 as a final level! It's a cool unlockable, but one issue: I wasn't really impressed with the level design of these levels. Maybe the new game made changes to them or something, but the levels felt... really slow and boring compared to the usual Mario levels. Does anyone know if the DS game screwed them up or something?

Heres a video of world 1 for Giana Sisters DS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irn7cvAqs0U

Anyways, great thread Krejlooc! As a huge Mario nerd, I look froward to seeing other stuff you guys find =)

P.S.: My god Super Mario Bros Special is terrible >_>

 

[blame space]

I guess it was Super Mario Bros. 3. Really great book.

 

[Enosh]

You forgot Dangerous Dave In Copyright Infringement by John Carmack and John Romero -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj4HJkeQSg0

iirc they straight up remade the game (including mario, being able to break the blocks etc) after that one and send it to nintendo asking them if they want to release it on the PC

probably the most important mario clone of them all despite never being actually released

 

[Imbarkus]

Well if you take the "Super" out I had the cartridge for plain old regular Mario Bros for the 2600.

 

[Oersted]

For a second I thought Virtual Mario is something created in Minecraft.

 

[Peltz]

Yes, this is when John Carmack developed Adaptive Tile Refresh, the first of one of his many enormous breakthroughs.

Can you talk more about this and what it is exactly?

 

[Krejlooc]

Can you talk more about this and what it is exactly?

So the problem with old ega and cga graphics is that they only allowed dma from the cpu to the framebuffer in 64kb chunks, which wasnt enough to update the entire screen at once. So what adaptive tile refresh does is keep track of which tiles actually change per frame and only change those tiles to reduce the draw time. Look at the image of the dangerous face pic - most of the sky is solid blue..if you have a blue tile, and the tile next to you is the same color, you really dont need to redraw either tile, the movement is unnoticeable. So, rather than waste time and resources updating tiles like that, they just dont update at all.

A bunch of video codecs to this day operate on the same principle, using keyframes to completely reset the image periodically so things dont get too messy.

When I first began learning computer programming and graphics programming, books would devote entire chapters to adaptive tile refresh. The technique was so important in pre-vesa days. In fact, even after modern display standards arose, I would still use adaptive tile refresh in stuff like visual basic lol. It took me a long while to realize it was no longer necessary as computing standards provided so much extra room to work with that such cost cutting techniques arent needed.

 

[Why would you do that?]

So the problem with old ega and cga graphics is that they only allowed dma from the cpu to the framebuffer in 64kb chunks, which wasnt enough to update the entire screen at once. So what adaptive tile refresh does is keep track of which tiles actually change per frame and only change those tiles to reduce the draw time. Look at the image of the dangerous face pic - most of the sky is solid blue..if you have a blue tile, and the tile next to you is the same color, you really dont need to redraw either tile, the movement is unnoticeable. So, rather than waste time and resources updating tiles like that, they just dont update at all.

A bunch of video codecs to this day operate on the same principle, using keyframes to completely reset the image periodically so things dont get too messy.

When I first began learning computer programming and graphics programming, books would devote entire chapters to adaptive tile refresh. The technique was so important in pre-vesa days. In fact, even after modern display standards arose, I would still use adaptive tile refresh in stuff like visual basic lol. It took me a long while to realize it was no longer necessary as computing standards provided so much extra room to work with that such cost cutting techniques arent needed.

While I thought that's what Carmack did, the Wikipedia article seems to say something a little different:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_tile_refresh

Unless I'm misunderstanding it...

 

[Beer Monkey]

https://youtu.be/kF88g4rF2mc

 

[Krejlooc]

While I thought that's what Carmack did, the Wikipedia article seems to say something a little different:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_tile_refresh

Unless I'm misunderstanding it...

The wikipedia article says what I said, it just goes into more detail in pixel-width tile scrolling, which carmack did not invent. In fact, that is how horizontal scrolling in smb3 works in the first place, the nes frame buffer (2 screens in length) are arranged vertically (which is why smb3 can scroll vertically, which is why the leaf is a power up in the first place) while the right most edge of the screen, which should reside in overscan, is scrolled between 1-7 pixels until an entire tile is refreshed. If you have ever played smb3 on an emulator and noticed thd garbage graphics on the edge of the screen, that is why they exist. Again, overscan would have hidden that on a normal crt.

Said pixel scrolling wasn't possible without adaptive tile refresh because the frame buffer for the entire screen was more than 64kb in size. Look at stuff like early msx titles like gradius to see what was supposed to be the norm - tile-width scrolling. That is to say, scrolling 8 pixels at a time by changing pointer registers.

 

[Rich!]

SMB ported to the Mega Drive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CikUGpUpj-A

 

[Arcadehero]

While not "Super", the original arcade Mario Bros. was found on the Atari 2600, 7800 and XEGS.

Back in August 1989, Mario Fever was such that the port was the #1 ranked game across those platforms, as rated by the fans. (wasn't the case in the May/June and October issues of that magazine but it still showed a pretty strong desire for Mario even on competitive platforms). The previous page to that Top 30 had a fan letter where they flat out asked for SMB to be ported to the 7800.

 

[Peltz]

The wikipedia article says what I said, it just goes into more detail in pixel-width tile scrolling, which carmack did not invent. In fact, that is how horizontal scrolling in smb3 works in the first place, the nes frame buffer (2 screens in length) are arranged vertically (which is why smb3 can scroll vertically, which is why the leaf is a power up in the first place) while the right most edge of the screen, which should reside in overscan, is scrolled between 1-7 pixels until an entire tile is refreshed. If you have ever played smb3 on an emulator and noticed thd garbage graphics on the edge of the screen, that is why they exist. Again, overscan would have hidden that on a normal crt.

I've actually always had CRTs that have shown the garbage. I just got lucky back then.

P.S. Thanks for the info!

 

[Why would you do that?]

The wikipedia article says what I said, it just goes into more detail in pixel-width tile scrolling, which carmack did not invent. In fact, that is how horizontal scrolling in smb3 works in the first place, the nes frame buffer (2 screens in length) are arranged vertically (which is why smb3 can scroll vertically, which is why the leaf is a power up in the first place) while the right most edge of the screen, which should reside in overscan, is scrolled between 1-7 pixels until an entire tile is refreshed. If you have ever played smb3 on an emulator and noticed thd garbage graphics on the edge of the screen, that is why they exist. Again, overscan would have hidden that on a normal crt.

Said pixel scrolling wasn't possible without adaptive tile refresh because the frame buffer for the entire screen was more than 64kb in size. Look at stuff like early msx titles like gradius to see what was supposed to be the norm - tile-width scrolling. That is to say, scrolling 8 pixels at a time by changing pointer registers.

Yeah, I guess I was thrown off a bit because the Wiki article mentions the scrollable screen buffer, which made me think of the NES and its scrollable nametables. But thanks for the explanation, I was never entirely sure how Keen's graphics worked. I really don't know anything about CGA, EGA, and VGA graphics for some reason.

(Also, thanks for reminding me about the atrocious scrolling in MSX shmups, lol. I'm just happy they were able to take it out for the PSP versions of those games...)

SMB ported to the Mega Drive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CikUGpUpj-A

I should add that this homebrew port is noteworthy because it was created from an assembly translator which translated the 6502 ASM source to 68000 ASM. The code was supposedly 75% untouched after conversion.

For more info on that, look here, where the homebrew was originally released:
http://devster.proboards.com/thread/613

 

[Krejlooc]

I've actually always had CRTs that have shown the garbage. I just got lucky back then.

P.S. Thanks for the info!

Yeah, overscan was never a set thing, which was kind of crazy. The general rule was a 10% boarder when designing stuff, I.e. Never place important info in the outter most 10% of the screen because you couldn't be assured it would be visible. Some sets had more than 10% obscured. Some has less.

Really weird quirk about old tvs.

 

[darbian]

Regarding the last game from the OP (the NES port of SMW), there is a full version of the game ROM. There's a 45-in-1 ROM with the full version of the game; the standalone ROM is the incomplete version.

 

[Evenball]

See, most of these old japanese computers lacked hardware support to scroll the screen horizontally (actually, the NES did as well, but special mappers in the cart gave the NES the ability to do so)

The NES does have the ability to scroll horizontally or vertically without a special mapper. In fact SMB uses no special mappers. Mirroring can be either horizontal or vertical depending on a wired jumper on the cart PCB.

Also as far as I know the 2600 version was released as Princess Rescue, but was pulled by a CAD.

 

[Kobun Heat]

Yeah, I was gonna say -- the "Mario Clone" is titled "Princess Rescue," and it was released. Guy's finishing up "Zippy the Porcupine" now.

 

[NoFaceNico]

There's a Chinese device I bought which has a game called "Risk-King" that is an extremely poor imitation of Super Mario. It has a lot of Mario elements and even a flag pole at the end!

Check it out here:

https://youtu.be/o18dkoiSF0o?t=14m45s

If you want to see a playthrough (it's not that long of a game, it has like 4 or 5 levels) let me know and I'll record it.

This device also has an imitation of Mario Brothers (@ 25:05) and Donkey Kong 3 (@ 20:05).

 

[IrishNinja]

awesome thread

Thread needs a title change.

I thought you were actually going to talk about official Mario games on non Nintendo systems, such as Hotel Mario, Marios Teaching, Atari Mario, etc.

It was mostly about pirate/bootleg/hacks

they're games, not seeing the problem here

Not really, it's very much in line with the classic Mario Bros or maybe Wrecking Crew. Hardly trash.

But that has nothing to do with Super Mario Bros, honestly.

also a fair call

 

[Bomber Bob]

 

[Akzel]

Well if you take the "Super" out I had the cartridge for plain old regular Mario Bros for the 2600.

Haha I still own that cartridge

 

[Rich!]

Haha I still own that cartridge

Me too! Somewhere!

I inherited an Atari back as a kid. My god compared to my SNES it was a step back, but it was cool as hell

 

[Lupin the Third]

An error in the OP:

Actually [the C64 Giana Sisters box] said "The Brothers are History!"

Also, when I was in elementary school, our school library had this game available to play: it's "Super Mario Bros.", but it's really just Great Giana Sisters modified to look like SMB proper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9JDlQ1GW80

There was also ANOTHER Genesis SMB port that, unlike the new one, was a garbage adaptation and sounded awful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pU-5EVnvM0

Also, how about "Super Mario World" for Genesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiC-zAWmgEM

 

[-MB-]

Many people from europe told me they first encountered GGS as a hacked title with mario sprites reinserted. So for a good number of people, Giana Sisters likely was their introduction to mario entirely, lol.

I played the proper GGS first, I was trying to find if there was some illegit port of the arcade SMB that I played after I finished GGS1 and 2 and was itching for more of the same, thus stumbled upon the arcade cabinet of SMB. I found the GGS with Mario sprite inserted which was labelled as Super Mario Bros. and was severly disappointed that it was basically just a paletteswap. It lead me to go buy a NES and play SMB proper instead of wasting time throwing quarters in the arcade cabinet version heh.

 

[dose]

snip

What the hell are you doing copying/pasting exactly the same thread as a 2012 Penny Arcade one?
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/165959/super-mario-bros-on-non-nintendo-hardware