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Geek Culture / 8 Secrets about Mario

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Phaelax
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 06:57
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http://www.omg-facts.com/lists/43/8-Secrets-About-Mario-You-Probably-Didn-t-Know/1

Number 4 is interesting. They say they wanted Mario to ride yoshi since the first super mario game, but technology didn't make that possible for another 6 years. Really? Cause I'm pretty sure Little Nemo the Dream Master managed to do it on the NES.

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mr Handy
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 08:19 Edited at: 1st Feb 2014 08:33
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Fact about "death" on cover the most interesting.

Quote: "Just after the first game came out in 1985, Miyamoto had wanted Mario to ride a dinosaur in a following game, but as he explained, the technology to have a player be able to activate and hop onto a totally different control scheme just wasn’t there. "

That is a most stupid statement in gamedev I ever heard. Mario could hop on an enemy, could swim (different controls), but Yoshi - no. Facepalm.

Also about NES tech. Here is Bio Force Ape, an unreleased game. It is fast as Sonic on Sega! And it is obvious that NES hardware is not upgradeable. Just look:

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Phaelax
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 09:00
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That is the loudest NES controller I ever heard in that video! It's funny how they kept going on and on about "blast processing".

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nonZero
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 09:34
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No real limits for that. Final Fantasy 3 had tons of classes that could b4 switched at the drop of a hat (I mean the real FF3 that was never released outside Japan). Now, if it was that much of a strain on the hardware (poorly optimized code), they could have done what Capcom did and stuck an on-board chip on the cartridge to handle some of it.

"You realise you're not nearly as funny as you think you are," said Onii-chan.

"I know that, which means I must be as funny as I think I am; in a paradoxical sort of way," I replied.
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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 16:33 Edited at: 1st Feb 2014 17:18
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Regarding: 4.

Pretty much all these systems have a limit to the number of hardware sprites that can appear across a scan line. Most of these limits can be overcome via multiplexing the sprite channels, but I suspect they wanted flicker free experience. I actually don't have any of my 8bit stuff anymore, but these Thesius XII shots show the technique being used for about a 1/3 of the screen on an Amiga/OCS.

Bellow is a interest video about a guy porting his modern game back to the NES.





On another note: Thesius XII is over 20 years old


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nonZero
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Posted: 1st Feb 2014 23:35
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Yes, re the sprite-limit, Rockman pushed boundaries occasionally and had flicker. But in this case we would need 1 extra sprite while Mario was dismounted. There were never many on the screen at once in the game to begin with.
On a lesser-sane path of thinking: accessing the backbuffer was prolly possible which means that, in theory, one could do all gfx processing on-chip on the cartridge. Yeah, I realise that cost of hardware and R&D for implementation would be insane but it's possible. They could justify the costs with "for the sake of it" like some crazy tech demos I've seen.

"have to write here. As, we may not throw the fan. He's sure to blow your way. You can say to another. do not spit into the well from which you drink. do not spit into the wind." ~ greenpavel
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Van B
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2014 15:47 Edited at: 3rd Feb 2014 15:49
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6 years to figure out alternate control schemes... hmmmmmm

Shenanigans I say - that whole article is just an excuse to show that '2 girls 1-up' image - the info is just regurgitated trifle that anyone who knows Mario, already knows, except maybe with some more precise details.

Like, rather than saying they wanted Mario on a dinosaur from the start but it wasn't possible, they could just have said that it wasn't practical with a Mario game until the SNES. Heck, it's not like SMW was the first game to have a mount!

That's something that annoys me with Nintendo - they give absolutely no credit to the rest of the industry.

Besides, Donkey Kong was a terrible game, let's be 100% honest here - it wasn't the game that I'd spend my 10p on, there were far more interesting and playable arcade games than Kong... heck I'd probably rather play pinball instead of Kong back in the day. There's only 1 platform game hero from my childhood, his name is Willy, and he's a retired miner come millionaire playboy.

I am the one who knocks...
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mr Handy
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2014 17:25
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Quote: "Donkey Kong was a terrible game"

I'd say on SNES too. 3D is so ugly.
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Phaelax
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Posted: 3rd Feb 2014 23:29
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If you're talking about donkey kong country, then blashphemy! That was a great game!

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