Mario Bros different versions

[retroillucid]

All that I ever heard from Retroillucid was how much he hates Telegames due to all the variations that they introduced into the marketplace and then he goes and does this to everyone with Mario Bros. and a couple other CollectorVision releases!!!!

 

Oy vey!

 

 

My problem with Telegames is not about variations, but rather the crappy quality of their products

Except for a few titles like Alcazar, Boulder Dash etc..

 

[retroillucid]

 

I think we just confirmed that J-F doesn't know his alphabet too well and thought it went A, D.

 

[rodge2001]

Wow! Thank you for all that information. This is exactly what I was looking for all in one place. It helps me figure out what I have in my own collection and surely will serve as a resource for anyone in possession of any or all of these variants.

 

I myself have two copies of the red box edition but unfortunately one is without the instructions. I'd like to sell one but I've been waiting to come across a loose manual so that it would be a complete copy. I probably will not find one so I may end up selling as-is.

 

I also have an early arcade style box that looks a bit off and appears closer to that prototype box. The cart itself is black and has a plain black worded label. The top flap of the box has "CollectorVision" stamped under it. The game shows "Rev B" on the title screen so maybe this is rare but unauthorized copy. I got this on eBay a while ago not knowing much about this stuff.

 

I also have a 2013 Grey edition "Rev D" but without overlays so it must be after the first 100 copies. The cart is black with same plain black worded label like above rather than green cart with picture label. Perhaps after the first 100 copies the carts were done in this black style instead of the green.

[Swami]

I'll do my best to answer your questions but this may contain errors so hopefully others will provide corrections as necessary:

 

Development

 

Initially, Mario Bros was planned to use a standard 32KB PCB and a prototype of the game was developed as proof of concept. However, it was found that If they wanted to include everything from the arcade game then they would have to use a Bank-Switching scheme, which led them to use the MegaCart with a 64KB game for the released version.

 

Releases

 

2009 - First Release

• Red Edition (Red Box / Red Cart / Manual / NO overlays) - 100 produced
• Green edition, black edition and classic editions were discussed as upcoming but as far as I know these were never released at that time (2009/2010)

2010 - Rev A ROM Release

 

CollectorVision released the Rev A ROM as a freebie with the AtariMax Ultimate SD cart as well as on their website.

 

Mario Bros Revision A main changes:

• Made enemies speed up on higher levels (level 64 is now hardest level)
• Added music for all intermissions
• Added code for red fireball bounce sound
• Added code for green fireball sound
• Added attract mode tables and functionality
• Modified player and enemy wraparound to occur at x>248 (no more fully off-screen)

There is also a Rev.A ROM that has a different title screen:

 

2012 - 32KB Prototype Auctions & Raffle

 

To raise money for CollectorVision to buy a cartridge mold, @RelliK111 organised a number of eBay auctions and a raffle for 5 CIB copies of the 32KB prototype game under the CollectorVision Development Lab name.

 

 

2013 - Final Release

 

Initial announcement and pre-order threads. Total produced was greater than 100.

 

This release included a further update to the game code which was referred to as Rev.D. I do not know what changes were made between the Rev.A and Rev.D releases.

• Classic Edition (Arcade Box / Green Cart / Manual / Two overlays*) - ?? produced
• Grey Edition (Grey Artwork Box / Green Cart / Manual / Two overlays*) - ?? produced
• Green Edition (Green Artwork Box / Green Cart / Manual / Two overlays*) - ?? produced
• Orange Edition (Orange Artwork Box / Green Cart / Manual / Two overlays*) - ?? produced

* Note that only the first 100 games produced included the overlays.

 

ROM Revisions

 

The ROM revisions are quite confusing with CollectorVision stating that they were as below. However, this does not tally with other statements where Rev.A was stated as being an updated version of the game which was released in ROM format AFTER the red cart release.

 

REV.A ) The 32K Final Version

REV.B ) The official RED Cart Release

REV.C) Never been sold to public (Missing Intermission music and Fireball sounds added)

REV.D) FINAL Green Cartridge Release

 

...and yet all I ever see on eBay is the one $500 first edition. How is Rev. D different from Rev. A? Anybody know? I think I'd like to see Rev. D re-released.

[Ikrananka]

email sent

 

I’ve completed my review of the Mario Bros. ROMs that retroillucid sent to me with some interesting results. Note that the ROMs sent included a number of clearly in development ROMs and as such I have not analysed these. I have focussed only on those that have been released, or seem to be related to thise released. Unfortunately I still haven't seen a REV B or REV C for comparison. Also, if anyone has one of the REV A ROMs that retroillucid sold I would be grateful if you could PM me. I would like to verify if the REV A I have is the one he sold or if it is the one he just provided to me (yes they are different - see below).

 

Analysis

 

I have analysed the Megacart ROM files that are clearly ones that have been released at some point in time, either in cart form or as digital distribution. My analysis has focussed on four main areas:

 

1. Title screen revision text.

2. Documented features and gameplay changes.

3. Cheats

4. Byte count differences between key pairs of ROM files.

 

The results of the analysis are tabulated below (I have placed the ROMs in what I believe are chronological order):

 

 

Conclusions

• The attract mode tables and functionality is featured in all of the above and so was not added later with REV A.
• The ROM file release on the AtariMax Ultimate SD cart is essentially the same as the original Red Cart release from 2009. The byte difference is larger than I would expect but is still small enough that any differences other than the title screen text must be very minor.
• The mariobrosREVA.rom file retroillucid provided does NOT match the REV A rom file that I have and does not match his descriptions of the changes that REV A included. Specifically his REV A ROM is missing the following. My suspicion is that this ROM is in fact an in-progress development REV A and not the final version of REV A.

  - Music for all intermissions

  - Red and green fireball sounds

  - Character wraparound at x>248

• The number ‘9’ cheat changed from starting at stage 10 to starting at stage 64 when the enemy speed was ramped up with stage 64 becoming the hardest.
• The ‘#’ or ‘*’ cheat skips to stage 15 and not 9 as Tursi stated in an earlier post.

Speculation

 

Without having a copy of the REV B and REV C ROMs I cannot verify where these fit in. However, it is interesting that rodge2001 posted on AA that he owns what appears to be a one-off copy of the game that has REV B on the title screen. I speculate that REV B and REV C were used for two one-off carts with the REV on the title screen changed to differentiate between the releases and also to identify them if the ROMs from these were ever dumped and made public.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Ikrananka

[+lawdawg710]

JF, is it possible to buy a Mario Bros. box with the arcade cabinet on it? I have the red box, but I would also love to have the arcade cabinet version, if possible!!

[pcfreak324]

I am playing my Colecovision games on FPGA systems (MiST/MiSTer/Analogue Nt mini). Unfortunately these FPGA systems do not support 64K roms. But the 32K beta of Mario Bros. works fine. Is the 32K Final Version somewhere up for download? I'd even pay a few $$ to be able to play this rom.

Edited September 2, 2018 by pcfreak324

[retroillucid]

I am playing my Colecovision games on FPGA systems (MiST/MiSTer/Analogue Nt mini). Unfortunately these FPGA systems do not support 64K roms. But the 32K beta of Mario Bros. works fine. Is the 32K Final Version somewhere up for download? I'd even pay a few $$ to be able to play this rom.

 

There's no final 32K rom as we were forced to use bank-switching to fit the whole game