Mario Bros Difficulty Setting (?)

[+Trebor]

I have purchased a Atarimax Colecovision Ultimate SD Multi-Cart and appreciate the included games Mr. Chin, and especially Mario Bros.

 

However, respecting Mario Bros I notice there is no "fireballs" which are very common in this game. I highly doubt it was left out of this port and wondering if there is a difficulty switch setting via perhaps keypad combination, or some other way to configure the game settings to add fireballs and increase the overall difficulty of this port.

[Tursi]

There are fireballs in ColecoVision Mario Bros. You should start seeing them after a few stages?

 

Red fireballs come out on a timer, but I don't think the first couple of stages have them (going on memory). Green fireballs come out first on a timer, then after you stay on the same platform for more than a couple of seconds. You can see fireballs in most of the YouTube videos:

 

(if anyone has any other videos for Coleco Mario Bros, let me know? )

 

There are no difficulty settings, but the Rev A which I think comes with the Multi-Cart ramps up to a higher maximum difficulty than the original cartridge, though.

[+Trebor]

There are fireballs in ColecoVision Mario Bros. You should start seeing them after a few stages?

 

Red fireballs come out on a timer, but I don't think the first couple of stages have them (going on memory). Green fireballs come out first on a timer, then after you stay on the same platform for more than a couple of seconds. You can see fireballs in most of the YouTube videos:

 

(if anyone has any other videos for Coleco Mario Bros, let me know? )

 

There are no difficulty settings, but the Rev A which I think comes with the Multi-Cart ramps up to a higher maximum difficulty than the original cartridge, though.

 

I'll have to play slower then Must have completed the levels too quickly...lol.

 

It's been a week or two since I last played it, but recalled completing several levels without seeing one. When I played the Arcade, it appears the fireballs made an appearance earlier.

 

Thanks for posting the video.

 

Quick side question, I notice both fireballs were the same size/type, just a different color with obviously a different pattern movement. The green one in the arcade is considerably smaller to the red one. Curious if it was a limitation of the hardware which prevented two different size fireballs, a necessity from a programming stand-point for the aforementioned reason or another one, or just wasn't a consideration at the time (Unlikely)?

 

I wanted to also tell Collector Vision team that this port is incredible. It rivals the NES version, and I especially appreciate the physics of the player's movement - which is essential to the gameplay. It's not the graphics that hurt the many available ports, but the lack of attention to the physics of how mario should move, including height and duration of the jump. Really excellent work!

Edited April 6, 2012 by Trebor

[Tursi]

Just wasn't a consideration. Early in the development a lot of work was doing trying to keep the game from breaking the 32k cartridge limit. When it was decided to exceed that anyway, we just didn't revisit the fireballs. You can blame end-of-project burnout, I guess.

 

It's not a port of the arcade or any other version, it's a ground-up from-scratch rewrite. I worked hardest on the player movement, making sure that the jumps I did in the real arcade back in the day worked, and even lining up sound effects till it felt close. But it's all done by feel. I even found a local arcade during dev that had it (just finding a local arcade was a feat in itself).

 

CV should be glad of your comments, too. He worked the programmer very hard.

[+5-11under]

CV should be glad of your comments, too. He worked the programmer very hard.

 

Did you mean JF? :)

[retroillucid]

CV should be glad of your comments, too. He worked the programmer very hard.

 

Did you mean JF? :)

 

 

 

Seriously, it took ALOT of works from the programmer ...and I

As for me, I only worked on the GFX , with some precious help from Luc (Pixelboy)

Took me about 5 months to make and encode all GFX

 

The ''secret'' DK level was simply a nice addition!

[+Trebor]

It's not a port of the arcade or any other version, it's a ground-up from-scratch rewrite. I worked hardest on the player movement, making sure that the jumps I did in the real arcade back in the day worked, and even lining up sound effects till it felt close. But it's all done by feel. I even found a local arcade during dev that had it (just finding a local arcade was a feat in itself).

 

CV should be glad of your comments, too. He worked the programmer very hard.

 

Awesome and it all shows. I especially like your comment "But its all done by feel". That's a good way to express my attitude towards many of the other versions out there. They don't "feel" right. This version "feels" right to me. Of course it looks very close to the Arcade - an excellent job there as well, but most importantly; it "feels" like the Arcade original. That is a, if not the most critical part - the game play itself in how it all interacts and flows; again, especially player movement. Thank you for all the hard work you put into that, it really shows and shines.

Edited April 6, 2012 by Trebor

[retroillucid]

... but most importantly, it "feels" like the Arcade original. That is the most important part - the game play itself in how it all interacts and flows; again, especially player movement. Thank you for all the hard work you put into that, it really shows and shines.

 

THAT was the whole idea actually, having something that would feel right .... not just having beautifully CV rendered gfx

I'm still pretty happy with the result in the end

[NIAD]

The ''secret'' DK level was simply a nice addition!

Huh?

 

Did I miss something or not play far enough into the game? It's not April 1st anymore, so I know J-F isn't pulling our collective chains with another attempt at an April Fools!

[retroillucid]

The ''secret'' DK level was simply a nice addition!

Huh?

 

Did I miss something or not play far enough into the game? It's not April 1st anymore, so I know J-F isn't pulling our collective chains with another attempt at an April Fools!

 

 

You've to complete the 3rd(?) Bonus Level having all the coins and you'll be warp to the DK Level

 

No, it's not april fool , it's real

Edited April 6, 2012 by retroillucid