Posts by Mr Kite

Hey all,

thought I'd sign up to show a bit of what I've been working on in the last 6 months.

It's a Super Mario Bros 3 (SNES) graphics hack and, yes, on the face of it, perhaps not the most exciting thing to some of you. Thing is, SMB3 is my favourite game and while I prefer the style of the original, I prefer the more polished elements that the SNES brings to the table such as blue overalls for the bros, drawing the edge of the screen properly etc. So, I'm trying to aim for a sort of best of both worlds. It's still some way off finished (I'm aiming to have it done by the end of the year) but I've done quite a lot of work on it already, so I'd like to share a few screenshots on what I've been doing and hopefully demonstrating what I'm trying to achieve.

Please understand that although this is a graphics hack, it's involved far more than simply overwriting tiles in YYCHR. I've had to add a ton of objects back into the level data that were removed
during the porting process, as well as, in many cases rewriting the code which was deleted, which I've been doing with no prior experience with ASM. I've been working on this alone, although Yoshifanatic has kindly been helping me where I've gotten stuck with things.

Anyway, here goes...

Not done much with the title screen so far but I've made the letters all blue like in the original. I've not quite decided how much I'll be changing it......



Clouds from the original which were graphically updated for SMAS but went unused when they decided to go with detailed backgrounds instead. Also, screw panels cast a shadow on the background once more...




Those cool random powerup holograms/clouds...




Pyramids...



1-5 with its more "cool" original appearance...




Coloured airships once more, along with the moving cloud sprite restored by Yoshifanatic...





Bros enemies...






Fortress...




Ice...



Thanks for viewing!

Thanks all for the feed back. The colours are largely based on the original game although they're not finalized and I've been wrestling with the palettes to try and get everything working properly. So, that aspect needs refining.

I'll be trying to add shadows and other details where they appear in the original game. I might put the double bushes somewhere in the game, or at least get them working so it's an option for anyone using it as a base hack. But that will be in the refining stage towards the end.

Also, the SMAS backgrounds don't work well with the removed objects. I have checked it out, out of curiousity. 1-1's background has its own clouds and the NES clouds look weird and pasted on when used in combination. Same with the shadow cast by the screw panels. That's why they were removed. Besides, I'm goes for the original, almost "South Park" style aesthetic of the NES version.

Yes, exactly that.

The funny thing with SMAS is that it was the most awesome thing ever at the time, especially with SMW thrown in. Five great games on one cart. But as it's aged, some of the artistic decisions now come across as a bit cheesy, especially in SMB1. So, yes, I'm hoping to get back more of the atmosphere of the original but retaining the advantage of the SNES's superior hardware.

Anyways, thanks for commenting.

(And for the bump! ;) )

Oh man, this is hilarious. Love it!

No, I've wanted to do this for a few years now but wasn't sure where to start with it and, thus, get the motivation to do it. It was thanks to yoshifanatic's SMAS standalone disassemblies that I was able to start making it a reality. I've seen pocket's project though and it's interesting. Indeed, I see he wants some of the things I've already added to Smb3, such as the starry background in underground levels and coloured airship levels. I could possibly try and help him out with those things once I'm done, although I see that thread isn't so active these days, so I'm not sure if he's still working on it.

Like I said further up, the colour schemes are largely dictated by the NES version although they're not absolutely final RGB-wise. For instance, the World 2 ship will be green with a deep blue sky, as seen in the opening post, like in the orignal but the hue of the ship may changed a bit, as the SMAS-style wood is different to the NES version. I'm thinking it will probably end up a deeper green.

The 1-5 tileset looks like it was directly cut from an ice world because it is. More accurately, it's the ice palette of the underground tileset, found in levels like 6-5. I'm aiming to get 1-5 to look closer to the NES version...




... but like other things, I'll be refining the palettes.

Btw, here's the standard underground palette as seen in 4-3...





Thanks for the encouragement, mate. It really helps motivate me. \o/



Thanks for the kind words. Your help has been invaluable. Even without any of that help, just the SMAS disasseblies alone are a wonderful gift to the world. I'm hoping we see more SMAS hacking and tool support in the coming years, especially for SMB3, to make it more accessible to the casual hacker.

Thanks for the comments. A mix of both is what I'm going for. I'm not attempting to make it near indistinguishable from the NES version. I will, at least, off people another option when choosing to play through this classic game.

Hi there, everyone...

Some of you may remember from the previous C3 that I was working on a Mario 3 graphics hack which is intended to channel more of the original art style.

I said in that thread that I'd have it done by the end of the year but, unfortunately, that turned out to be unrealistic. Sorry about that. It's not that I haven't been working on it. I've put in hundreds of hours at this point and I am still working on it regularly. It's just that a couple of largish things I need to do (and probably need help on) plus tons of small things and refinements. Also, I'd like to do my own musical arrangements for it and I haven't even started on that yet. So, basically, I don't want to rush it unnecessarily. I want to get it looking professional.

I've been working on this for a year or so now and have been keeping it low key up to now. Other than my previous C3 thread, I've only been discussing this on yoshifanatic's server, as I pester him when I need assistance and he's always helpful, which I'm grateful for. I'm hoping to have it done by next C3 but please don't hold to that. If it's not ready, it's not ready.

Anyways, I'm just gonna put a load of screen shots here to show where I am with it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Cheers, Mr Kite.

Thanks all for the words of encouragement. It really means a lot.

I have a few more screenshots. I just felt it was a bit antisocial to have too many in the opening post....

Thanks for the comments.

There's no reason why the graphics couldn't be used for SMW hacks. It would simply be the case of adapting them to SMW's palettes. It'll be after the general release though.

Anyway, here's the last lot of screenshots. I went to the trouble of capturing them so may as well share them for the sake of completion...

Really impressive.

Btw, how are you porting the E-Reader levels? Are you somehow copying the level data from Super Mario Advance 4 or are you doing it purely by eye? I have a long term aspiration to get these levels into the SNES version, although without either the raw level data nor a reliable level editor, it'll be a real slog.

Awesome. Great to see SMB3 getting some love. Will deffo be giving this a try.

Your work is always amazing, YF. The rate of which you're creating disassemblies is superhuman.

Also, my project wouldn't really be possible without your Super Mario All Stars disassembly and all the subsequent help you've given me over the past year or so.

So, a big thank you for everything, from me.

So glad to see some SMB3 love. I concur with others and hope it helps the SMB3 hacking scene.

I mean, it can get lonely sometimes.

Gotta love the DIC cartoon "Koopa". Those portraits looks like the open to the SMB3 cartoon - "I'll get those plumbers!"