Super Mario Bros. Special for Commander X16

[SonicGamer2007]

I want to port Super Mario Bros. Special to the X16 using 6502 assembly language.

[Kalvan]

Well, Super Mario Bros. Special by Hudson Soft was originally written for the NEC PC88, NEC PC98, Sharp X1 Turbo, and Fujitsu FM77 A/V. Those computers featured either the Zilog Z80, Intel X86, or Motorola 6809 as their CPU. Any codebase for any of those versions would be completely incompatible with the Commander X16.


You would be better off trying to port the Super Mario All Stars version of the original. Mr. Murray already ported the original Super Mario Bros. as a demo, so this would be a ,logical next step. As far as I can tell, it doesn't use more than two parallax fields, so it should be doable with the only caveats being a smaller master palette and the need to Port the audio to VERA and the YM2151.

[TomXP411]

Mr. Murray already ported the original Super Mario Bros. as a demo

To be clear, MooingLemur did that port, and it still requires a copy of the original game to play.

And yes - that was much easier to port, since the NES uses a variant of the 6502. Trying to port things like SMB Special would indeed basically be a re-write.

Also - because it apparently needs to be said: this site does not accept unlicensed ports for upload. We might make exceptions in the case of orphaned works by companies that no longer exist, but if OP tries to port a Mario Bros game as-is - we can't host it. After seeing what happened to the Yuzu devs, we don't want any part of hosting Nintendo ports.

[hstubbs3]

>And yes - that was much easier to port, since the NES uses a variant of the 6502. Trying to port things like SMB Special would indeed basically be a re-write.


Well....
First, all of the main game logic would need to be re-implemented in 65C02.. one could start with a disassembly of the game binary or even original assembler for the other processor, and use macros to define opcodes that don't exist on the x16.
OR - if you disassemble to C, you could then recompile it... BUT it won't 'just run' because the hardware architecture is not aligned.

You have to account for -every- difference in the hardware - how does sound work, how the graphics are formatted for display, how things are shuffled about between different parts of memory. Does the program need to do bank switching etc..

essentially, unless you start by tring to write a generic PC88 emulator that runs on the X16, you do have to rewrite everything. or at least almost everything.

[RulsanSoftware]

How About Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels And Super Mario Bros. Special Three-in-One Game

[kelli217]

How about we don't incur the wrath of a multibillion dollar company that is well known for suing people who create unauthorized content based on their intellectual property?

[desertfish]

They even go after companies that were arguably the firs, by creating a new patent after other game was already available for months, and then suing for patent infringement anyway. See Palworld. You may no longer throw a ball at an enemy in your game, or Nintendo's legal bloodhounds will come after you.