Danny Cowan, Press ([info]sardius_) wrote,
2008-10-17 01:28:00
  • Previous
  • Memorize
  • Share
  • Next

glitch, please

Laying out today's Gamasutra feature reminded me of a two-day hobby I had about a year or so ago: corrupting Super Mario Bros. It's stupidly easy to do, and while you may only get a playable result a fraction of the time, the results are often worth it.



This one was the best I came up with. All I did was open the rom file up in EditPad and copy and paste random chunks of code from one end of the file to the other, and all of a sudden, Super Mario Bros. became a very different game. Check it out, if you like -- FCEUltra gives the best results.

Please don't ever play it if you're at risk for seizures, though. I'd feel really bad if I killed you with a rom hack.



The king of all corrupted Mario hacks is still Proceduralglitch3.nes, though. I don't remember who made it, but I got it off of an old thread at selectbutton.net. It turns Super Mario Bros. into a race against impending and inevitable doom, as levels will gradually become more and more corrupt over time. As the glitches become more severe and the level layouts become less visible, it often becomes a desperate, blind struggle to find a warp pipe or finish a stage before the game crashes. It tests your familiarity with Super Mario Bros. in new and unexpected ways, and never plays the same way twice. I like it a lot.

Also I have a twitter now, for whatever that's worth. I still don't really know what to do with it.

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    Comments allowed for friends only

    Anonymous comments are disabled in this journal

    switch

    Your IP address will be recorded 

     
    Help
  • 14 comments

[info]ferricide

October 17 2008, 07:20:37 UTC 3 years ago

nice.

SMB was very very susceptible to game genie foolin', too. most be something of a volatile game or something. i still remember one of the best codes i ever found for it: AAAPON, which replaces all the enemies in 1-1 with different ones (cheep cheeps!) but unfortunately it only works in 1-1. i never was able to make it do anything else.

[info]computolio

October 17 2008, 07:38:03 UTC 3 years ago

I remember that shortly after discovering The Internet I would go through Game Genie code after Game Genie code fucking up the Mario Trilogy. That shit fucking ROCKED. You could fuck the music into oblivion and make Mario 1 crash into Duck Hunt, it was great.

Deleted comment

[info]drakee

October 17 2008, 18:05:54 UTC 3 years ago

My poor brother :(

[info]bbh

October 17 2008, 11:14:52 UTC 3 years ago

proceduralglitch3 fucking owns. I was surprised how far I got in that in the Great SMB Romhack Competition of 2007.

This reminds me that I need to do some sort of writeup about Skate Kid Bros. It's your average nonsensical graphics hack for SMB... except it actually got released in arcades somehow! You start off as a kid on a skateboard, then when you pick up a quarter (the magic mushroom replacement, which actually says "25C" on it like all quarters do), you transform into your big brother!.... what?

[info]sallybanner

October 17 2008, 16:54:49 UTC 3 years ago

you should do that, I am intrigued

[info]bbh

October 18 2008, 12:34:15 UTC 3 years ago

well here are a few screenshots


Goombas are replaced by... tanks. Grab that quarter!


Hammer brothers are... ninjas. With green belts.


Bowser is..... a football player?!


maaaan I don't fucking know

[info]sallybanner

October 18 2008, 14:23:46 UTC 3 years ago

that is INSANE

[info]bpmomega

October 25 2008, 07:53:43 UTC 3 years ago

HOLY CRAP.

I actually PLAYED that as a kid so many years ago!
... And if memory serves me right (which it may not), said arcade was at a skating rink. Kinda appropriate, eh?

Wow, thanks for unlocking this old memory!

[info]grunzen

October 17 2008, 12:14:27 UTC 3 years ago

I'm following you now too. :) Twitter is basically for "micro-blogging". In other words, stuff too small to blog or post to LJ about.

I remember playing your ROM hack at SGE. It was hilarious.

Good to hear from you Danny, it's been awhile. I bet you'll enjoy Persona 3. Don't play "The Answer" though, if you got FES. It's garbage. If you must see the rest of the story, do as I did and cheat your way through it.

[info]woekitten

October 17 2008, 21:01:53 UTC 3 years ago

Good thing I never saw any of this SMB shit when I was little. I think disembodied Bowser heads would make me piss my bed every night.

[info]solidbox

October 18 2008, 01:00:28 UTC 3 years ago

I loved that article and almost emailed it to the office because fucking NOBODY knows how to debug to find memory corruption issues.

Also: That rom hack is FUCKING RADICAL

[info]stupidoptimist

October 18 2008, 15:33:05 UTC 3 years ago

i correct myself, it's by sawtooth of butanpressfight. he is also a rad dude.

[info]xkeeper

October 19 2008, 00:27:42 UTC 3 years ago

somewhat unrelated but http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd8f5CiwaaE is a good example of what the newest FCEUX version can do

Also, SMB is really stable. The only things that usually crash it are Sprite 0 missing the background; other than that it's somewhat amazing.

[info]richter_belmont

October 20 2008, 02:45:46 UTC 3 years ago

Ah, very in-depth article. Reminds me of my old C programming days.

I remember playing proceduralglitch3 and the ROMhacks you guys made at SGE- rad indeed! Those were crazy challenges.

Also, yeah, I went ahead and made a Twitter as well. I guess that makes me really cool/totally lame.
Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Facebook Twitter More login options
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…