Could Super Mario Bros. 3 have been possible for the 7800?

[Gorf]

Ah - the 12 color thing. I actually forgot about that. Been dying to try it, though. I don't have a good editor to work on Characters/Sprites for it. What do you use?

 

I can send you my editor I wrote. You may need a few DLL's as it only seems to work in debug mode.

[GroovyBee]

Of course, this is all null and void if we either use 12 color mode or when GroovyBee finally decides to share with us how he does it

Full screen 12 colour mode using indirect access and a 12 colour sprite per zone is going to be very, very close to the ragged edge of what MARIA can display.

 

I came up with an interesting way to use 160A mode (in theory only) over the holidays. I have a game in mind it could be used for. Its just finding the time to put it all together and work the wrinkles out.

[gdement]

The third zone DL down (after the two 320 mode score lines), put a DLI to change the Character mode to use white, light blue, and black. At the sixth DL down (just under the lower cloud), put a DLI to change the Character mode to use tan, brown, and black. Of course this means that no bricks/question mark boxes can be in the same zone as the clouds (or they would share the same color) but this would work. I used this in Super Pac-Man as suggested by kenfused (I change the color to green for the Super Pills, and back to lt blue for the Keys).

Oh, it's a palette change for character mode graphics, I see. Thanks for the explanation.

[krewat]

You have to take this with a grain of salt, but ...

 

Saying "something is possible" with the 7800 is a double-edged-sword.

 

The more graphics you employ, especially what you would call "sprites" means lesser CPU power.

 

If you take the Mhz of the 7800 processor (6502C running at 1.79Mhz) and compare to, say, a Commodore 64 (6510 running at 1Mhz) (and all other difference aside like the different instructions possibly helping speed things up)...

 

On the 7800, once you get the MARIA into doing too much, you lose a LOT of CPU because of the DMA access to RAM.

 

On the C64, the 6566 usually does most of it's processing inbetween 6502/6510 cycles, but it still can grab the bus for itself when necessary (don't remember too much about the C64, I didn't play with it's graphics a whole lot - I used it more as a serial terminal and data storage device).

 

What I'm trying to say is, it's a very tricky thing to do a lot with the 7800's CPU - AND get a lot of graphics moving all at the same time.

 

Not impossible, though.

[abraXXious]

To bump an old thread... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42-TPA5vWMI - this is supposed to be a demo of a Super Mario clone on the Atari 7800.... however it HAS to be fake. It looks like it has 60+ colours on screen at times and whilst it appears SOME of the backdrops are low res, others are definitely in high res amd the sprites all appear to be in high res mode.... is that possible on the 7800?

 

I am thinking it is a hack of Snes Lost Levels edited and then recorded in a very low frame rate to make it look jerky and unoptimised - supposedly running on a 7800.

 

If it IS legit, then the 7800 can graphically

[Rhomaios]

To bump an old thread... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42-TPA5vWMI - this is supposed to be a demo of a Super Mario clone on the Atari 7800.... however it HAS to be fake. It looks like it has 60+ colours on screen at times and whilst it appears SOME of the backdrops are low res, others are definitely in high res amd the sprites all appear to be in high res mode.... is that possible on the 7800?

 

I am thinking it is a hack of Snes Lost Levels edited and then recorded in a very low frame rate to make it look jerky and unoptimised - supposedly running on a 7800.

 

If it IS legit, then the 7800 can graphically

 

That's the first thing I thought. Looks like a hack of the SNES All-Stars. The sprites look weird, though.

[Magic Knight]

Looks like a nes background and a higher end drawn up sprite. The fine sprite and crude unfilled scenery don't match up somehow.

 

Besides I don't think you could get such a small detailed character like that on a 7800,

[YANDMAN]

All in good time. The style of the 7800 RPG was decided by a poll. Democracy in action!

Im late to the party on this GB, i didnt know the 7800 was getting an rpg thats awesome

[Classic Pac]

I see the biggest problem for an RPG on the 7800 is saving you game.

[gorfcadet]

I see the biggest problem for an RPG on the 7800 is saving you game.

I'm not sure how it works on the 7800, but even if available boards lack battery backup, couldn't the hi score cart be utilized as a work around for saves?

[desiv]

If we're talking a homebrew from today, then the savekey (AtariVox+) could also do the game saves..

 

desiv

[Trebor]

Back in the day, just like Nintendo did with the NES and games like Zelda, if Atari would have 'splurged' more on their cartridge types and added one with a battery, then save states would have been more than easily handled.

If a cart designed type was created today, again similar to the NES and Zelda, having a battery backup, then 7800 and saving would be no problem now as well.

The practically and probably of that happening is a different story of course.

The video posted is not running on a 7800. That is someone's 'mock up', but instead of just screen captures, they went a little further with the notion. See here: http://mariobrosx.webs.com/

 

That engine was used with the ability to heavily edit the entire game.

 

Respecting Super Mario Bros. 3, Nintendo used a cart with 256K for the PRG and another 128K for the CHR (The MMC3 "mapper" / TSROM-06 board); if a cart existed for the 7800 with that kind of memory included and with the right programmer(s) behind it, seems more than possible.

 

Doing something like adding '(ARM) assistance' via cart as has been executed for the 2600 utilized in Space Rocks, or what you see in 16-bit system like graphical chip enhancements Super-FX/DSP/SA-1 etc in the SNES, even more so.

 

All of this is not a matter of "if possible". Absolutely SMB 3 *is* possible...The probability for it or something like it to happen...Good question.

 

Seeing Bentley, Donkey Kong XM, and who knows what else down the pipe, already has shown a lot of not likely to impossible just 5 years ago, to be a reality today.

[Stun Runner 87]

Super Mario would be nice...................................