supermariobros
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NES emulator on the iPhone
Wow-- something I've noticed after my little vacation last week is that the iPhone application community is at a full sprint (no pun intended) on making applications. When I left, people were dropping Hello World, and now we're up to the evolutionary step of NES emulator. By this time next week, we'll have a screenshot grabber (oh wait, we've already got that-- guess it's time to go for Open Office). Wily programmer "stepwhite" has brought the InfoNES core onto the iPhone, along with Mario, Zelda, and all your favorite NES roms. As you can see, it's not quite done-- the emulator runs too slowly to be playable, and the controls are implemented with an actual controller image which, as the programmer says, "...while cute, sucks." I don't know if theres any way to save states, either. Not a problem for Super Mario Bros., but Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy might be a little long to have all in one go. But it is awesome, and just amazing that we've already gotten to this level on the iPhone. At this rate, we may not even need an SDK. Thanks, Karl!
Who knew Mario could be so intense?
This fanart is so powerful that it seems to have crushed the Warp Pipe forums under the weight of its own pile of Diggs. We can understand why-- we've certainly been enjoying staring at it for a few hours.The full image is after the break, but even in the detail shown above, you can see the insane shading and dynamic movement that make Neo-Geo Forums user hermegildo's drawing so compelling. Faced with a dead Peach and a slavering, hulking Bowser, the usually-jovial Mario abandons his "Okey-dokey"s and flies into battle, fireballs blazing. It completely, awesomely rejects the mood of the Mario series.[Thanks, Jason!]
Bob Hoskins: Super Mario Bros. was a nightmare
In a burgeoning film genre like video game adaptations, Super Mario Bros. (it ain't no game, in case you were confused) should be considered sort of a patron saint. No, it didn't set a great example that those who came next could follow, but it did set a bar for future video game movies that was so low they could trip over it. Now, thanks to a new interview in The Guardian, we learn that Mario Mario himself, Bob Hoskins, was on the SMB-hating bus before that particular bus was cool."The worst thing I ever did? Super Mario Brothers. It was a f***in' nightmare. The whole experience was a nightmare. It had a husband-and-wife team directing, whose arrogance had been mistaken for talent. After so many weeks their own agent told them to get off the set! F***in' nightmare. F***in' idiots." See what we mean? Let's see another video game movie engender that kind of hatred from a distinguished British actor. It can't be done! The bar is simply too low.[Via Cinematical]
Super Mario Bros. 3 riding a Kuribo's Shoe onto the Australian VC
Australia getting a Virtual Console game before anyone else? Maybe! We can't be sure when Sonic 3 and Super Mario Bros. 3 will find their way onto the VC, but at least we know they're on their way, thanks to the Office of Film and Classification.The Aussie equivalent of the ESRB keeps a database of ratings just like the ESRB does. A bunch of games have been added, including a lot that are already out in other regions, and a few, like Mario 3, that are news. Of course, the best part of this for people who don't happen to have Australian consoles is that if a game is planned for one region, it's terribly likely it'll be out soon in others! Other things on the list that make us happy: Strider (although we don't know if it's the Genesis version or the NES version), Galaga '90, and Probotector II-- which is Super C. The full list of new updates is after the break![Via Vooks]
This is why we're dorks
Considering the amount of remixes Mims' hit rap single "This is Why I'm Hot" set off -- R. Kelly's "This is Why I'm Cold," the NBA's "The Phoenix Suns Are Hot," and Chubbs' "This is Why I'm Fat" for example -- we're surprised that it took this long for its catchy hook to reach video gaming's catch-phrase-hungry communities. Mirroring Mims' insipid lyrics, the simplicity of SnorgTees' shirt design leaves no room for confusion on its message or the company's plans to rake in crazy money by exploiting our nostalgia-addled minds. We can imagine the office congratulations and "props" received by the young designer who paired the 8-bit fire flower with the narcissistic mantra. They all agree, this is why he's hot. The $16.95 shirt comes in royal blue and black, its lowercase Myriad Pro text staying chalky white on both colors. If you haven't heard the song several hundred times already, you have the option of checking past the post break for an embedded music video of the club track.
The plant has his time
We've played through enough Super Mario Bros. games to have learned that no pipe should be approached without caution. After a lifetime of suffering piranha plant attacks, always at the least opportune moments, we've trained ourselves to scrutinize every green tube before hopping over it. We'll sit there for up to two minutes, staking out the pipe to make sure there isn't a hidden fly trap hoping to dupe us with its delayed pattern. Sometimes, we'll even see their eyes poking out, anxious to see why we haven't jumped yet.These guys seem to pop up everywhere! In addition to their appearances in almost every Mario-related title over the past two decades, the piranha plants extended their roots to Tetris Attack and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening! They've also been spotted in last Wednesday's Extra Life comic, illustrated by the always-awesome Scott Johnson. It's a predictable punchline, but no less hilarious because of it. We implore you to check it out!
Meet the NES cell phone
A phone that has the ability to play NES roms isn't anything new, but a phone that was designed specifically for that purpose (see the "A" and "B" buttons) is plenty to trigger our desire synapses. Oh, and dig this: It's got TV out, so you can play on a big screen, much to the delight of people at awful parties everywhere.But now, as you've probably guessed, it's time for the sad news. You can't buy the phone (made by Hong Kong's Gionee) here. But, maybe that's for the best. Can you imagine how irritating it would be to watch YouTube videos of Super Mario Bros. speed runs interrupted every 20 seconds with "Gram Mam Calling"?[Via Cell Blog]
LBP taunts us with Mario Sack Boy concept art
We're more than just a tad bit envious over LittleBigPlanet, Media Molecule's ultra-cute, ultra-customizable platformer for the PS3; ever since the title was announced at GDC, we've been downright jealous. Videos of the game's cooperative possibilities have turned us into internet stalkers, following every online preview and press release in secret, constantly reloading LBP's MySpace page every five minutes to make sure that other guys aren't moving into our territory with flirtatious comments. So seeing that players will not only be able to create landscapes that mimic scenes from classic games (e.g. Super Mario Bros., World 1-2), but likely also dress up their characters to look like Nintendo's mustachioed mascot has inflamed within us the sort of covetous lust that Moses warned against after coming down from the mount. The Virtual Console has been a great way for us to play old classics, but seeing Sony's plans for its PlayStation Network and comparing it to what we've heard so far about original, downloadable games coming to the Wii has us feeling like chumps. [Thanks Elmer!]
Perler bead crafting evolves
This question mark block has extended its form into the fabled third dimension! This mysterious realm of depth is unexplored by either 8-bit explorers or Perler bead artists. This bold scientific discovery promises to usher a new age for Super Mario Bros. crafts!Shown above, an artifact from the third dimension, looking very much like one of our own question mark blocks, but somehow composed of many two-dimensional blocks working in tandem to form a strange array of squares. These squares exist simultaneously in the normal two dimensions and in the newly-discovered third! This is a hypersquare.[Via Wonderland]
Japanese show contestant plays Super Mario Bros. with eyes closed
For how many hours we've spent playing the game (heck, we still play it on the Virtual Console almost daily), we can't say that we could clear world 1-1 with our eyes closed. Oh no, that honor is held down by the Japanese gamer above, who busts out the DS and shows us all how to do it. And, you know what? He doesn't make it look easy ...Check out the video past the break.
Complete World 1-1 without looking, get on TV
It got one guy on TV, at least, in Japan. Super Mario Bros. has completely become a spectator event, and deservedly so-- check out this guy's virtuoso performance of the first stage (of the Famicom Mini version of Super Mario Bros. played on a DS Lite). Sure, he wanders a bit, but that's only because he's playing it without looking.We're going to start training to perform this feat ourselves. And then we're going to practice our creepy vacant smile so we'll be ready for our big television debut. Check out the video after the break.
Super Mario Bros. played with eyes closed
We've seen the original Super Mario Bros. beaten in five minutes, listened to countless remixes of the theme song, and gawked at gigantic mosaics made out of fridge magnets. This stunt takes the Mario-shaped cake, however. A Japanese television show (why can't American TV be this ... interesting?) features a man playing the first level of Super Mario Bros. with his eyes closed. Every jump and every enemy nailed without fail. He even realizes he missed a coin in one of the sub-worlds and goes back to grab it. That's dedication (craziness), folks.Check out a slightly more impressive video after the break. This guy plays the first two levels of the game with his eyes closed and his back turned. If he did it underwater while drinking a glass of milk, we'd worship him.
Hacked Super Mario Bros. is better than LittleBigPlanet
Feeling that Super Mario Bros. lacked in user-generated content, the folks over at SelectButton decided to start randomly inserting text into the Mario ROM (yarrr) and see what happens. Apparently the game is stable enough to run decently with junk added to it, and the results are ... playable and strangely beautiful. Random invisible blocks, palette changes, bizarre sprites, Mario's freaking head is on upside-down, etc. It's pretty significant that some minor shot-in-the-dark hacking can end up generating new Mario levels that instantly make a near-perfect game infinitely more fun. They should be doing this at I am 8-Bit. If only we could do this kind of user-generated level design on the Virtual Console,we'd have a compelling answer to Sony's LittleBigPlanet. Go ahead and argue with us on that point. We <3 Hacked Mario.Wii Fanboy does not endorse the use of copyrighted ROM images. Just go gawk at the screenshots for a while; that should be enough entertainment.
Super Mario Bros. in less time than it takes to warm up a Lean Cuisine
Looking for a way to waste time with the Virtual Console? Well, if you do this right, you won't be wasting much time at all. This Super Mario Bros. speedrun performed by Andrew Gardikis takes only five minutes. In comparison, the Super Mario Brothers movie is 20.8 times longer. The coolest thing about this speedrun is that it makes use of Mario glitches inherent in the game, but seems to be done without save state assistance. That means that it's theoretically possible to replicate it on your Wii or your NES. Oh, but only if you're awesome. And just to rub it in a little, only Andrew Gardikis has proven to be this awesome. Sorry, everyone else, including ourselves! [Via Game|Life]
Super Toilet Seat Bros.
As far as we're concerned, Mario spends way too much time saving princesses, racing karts, and partying with minigames. Meanwhile, we've got leaky pipes, a shower with almost no water pressure, and no one around to fix them in sight. For a guy posing as a plumber, Mario doesn't devote much of his day to practicing his plumbing trade.Extra Life's Scott Johnson, bathroom gamer extraordinaire, devised an evil stratagem to put the lazy plumber back to work. Drawing upon the power of ancient gods whose names were long forgotten before our sun even birthed its first flames, he set off a chain of inescapable events that left Mario's visage and eternal soul trapped on a toilet seat lid. What once was an ordinary lavatory now serves as his dark prison.Scott captured the sorcery on video, which you can watch past the post break. It's impressive to see that the only tools he used throughout the entire project were a Sharpie marker, a sheet of paper, and several demonic runes blessed by shadow priests of the underworld.[Via Infendo]
DS Fanboy Favorites: Eric's top five
All this week, the DS Fanboy staff is letting you in on a few of their favorite titles. Each day, a different member of the staff will present their personal top five DS games along with a snapshot of their gaming paraphernalia and habits, in an effort to provide our readers with a little more information on the tastes and personalities of our writers. When my afternoons aren't busied by hours of photoshopping cat heads onto pictures of my friends, I pass the time with puzzlers and plumbers on my DS Lite. But those kitten-free days are few and far between, so I end up being able to only fit either the most polished or the most eccentric games into my packed schedule. Wario: Master of Disguise? Sorry, I've got things to do and feline faces to retouch. Lost in Blue 2? I'll have to pass -- I'm already lost in trying to get these whiskers to look perfect. My collection is a mishmash of AAA titles and niche releases, their cases piled atop one another like a Jenga stack of mismatched blocks, threatening to topple over at any moment. Just pulling a game from the middle of the shaky structure is an act preceded by hours of anxiety and self-doubt. Having my wife provide commentary during the ordeal, remarking "Oh god, it's going to crash this time for sure, I just know it. Why'd you even try, Eric?! Game over, man! Game over!" as I tug out my copy of Advance Wars DS doesn't make the challenge any easier. So when I do manage to put aside the pussycat photos and secure a game to play, it better damn well be worth it. Journey forth and read which of those titles have captured a place not only on my top five list, but in my heart.
Mario Bros. in ur Shopping Channel, stealing ur coinz
We've been privy to undocumented Wii features like the 192-Piece Picture Puzzle and the elusive Help Cat for a while now, but did you know that there's a secret Shopping Channel animation of Mario and Luigi swimming together while you're at the download screen?During a recent roundtable, the developers behind the Wii Shopping Channel talked about how they overcame obstacles with the project, which elements they're proud of, and what they hope to see implemented in the future. One little touch that the developers were pleased to include was this Minus World-esque scene of the Super Mario Bros. paddling through and collecting coins while you download games. It doesn't show up very often, so don't be too upset if you've never come across anything besides the Fire Mario animation before. We didn't even believe it at first, but Nintendo included a video with the interview transcript to prove its existence. It's a good thing they did too, or we would've gone through our life savings downloading Virtual Console titles, trying to get this alternate animation!
The Famicom Disk System's Minus World
Here's a bit of game history: when Super Mario Bros. was rereleased for the Japan-only Famicom Disk System, the "minus world" generated via a well-documented glitch changed along with the format. Instead of an infinite water level, players were treated to a whole suite of glitch-tastic levels, loaded with air-swimming and Princess Toadstool sprites floating in mid-air.This kind of classic minutiae is exactly what we want out of the Virtual Console. We'd seriously buy Super Mario Bros. again for a crack at this new minus world. Check out the video after the break!
Ugliest Luigi ever
Poor Luigi. The lanky plumber already has enough problems dealing with his older brother always stealing the spotlight and Princess Daisy's failure to commit to a serious relationship, but now he has to worry about embarassing photos from 20 years ago resurfacing on the internet. We all have our fair share of unflattering pictures from the 80s, but the images posted for this vintage Super Mario Bros. doll auction are downright embarassing. This 3.5'-tall toy was a promotional item from Nintendo that was never released to the general public. Head past the post break to see what the green guy looked like before he tamed his hair and trimmed his mustache. He really let himself go back then -- look at that hat![Via GameSniped]
Super Mario Bros. 2 theme done percussion style
Of course, the Mario theme has been done to death with a variety of instruments and without. But this is Super Mario Bros. 2 and, upon hearing these fine kids rock it percussion style, we're forced to throw up the horns and bang our head with the best of them. Rock on young band folk, rock on!Video, as usual, is embedded past the post break.[via Infendo]
