Comments on: Super VCS Bros.

Super VCS Bros.

griphus — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:28:07 -0800

Over at the AtariAge forums, user Sprybug has been coding an Atari 2600 Super Mario Bros. clone to run on the Harmony Cartridge. Some screenshots. The game running on the cartridge. The game running in an emulator. And some previous discussion on the difficulty of programming for the Atari 2600.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:44:26 -0800

Holy crap that's awesome. Fireballs and everything.

By: jedicus

jedicus — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:47:42 -0800

Incredibly, it's not even written in assembler but rather Batari, a compiled BASIC for the Atari 2600.

By: Ad hominem

Ad hominem — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:53:49 -0800

That is ridiculous in the best possible way.

By: jquinby

jquinby — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 09:54:27 -0800

I...that's amazing stuff.

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:02:52 -0800

THANK YOU MARIO! BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CONSOLE!

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:13:42 -0800

Man, sometimes I see something posted and I follow a link and I get really excited and forget where I was five minutes ago and think I NEED TO POST THIS TO METAFILTER and then here we are.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:14:25 -0800

Great post.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:16:20 -0800

You should totally do it, cortex, so that somebody else will get to delete it.

By: Pruitt-Igoe

Pruitt-Igoe — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:16:41 -0800

That's impressive

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:41:21 -0800

The music is surprisingly good, too.

By: mysterpigg

mysterpigg — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:48:59 -0800

That is incredibly impressive! I haven't looked at programming the Atari 2600 in a while, and was unaware that it was possible without delving into assembly! Even better, I see he includes the source, which may be interesting to look at if I ever find the time. Also, one thing that surprised me - for all the limitations this version has - lower-resolution graphics, moving platforms that stop when you touch them, smaller levels (or rather, levels that are separated into chunks via pipes), etc - it still has one thing that the original did not: bi-directional scrolling!

By: localroger

localroger — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:04:58 -0800

Back around 2001 when I was doing some VCS hacking I had suggested something like Batari, and everyone laughed and insisted it was impossible. Cool to see that someone went through with the idea.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:14:16 -0800

This is stupidly fucking cool.

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:53:38 -0800

I presume it's all done in 4KB, the biggest capacity 2600 cartridge. Very impressive.

By: localroger

localroger — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:00:06 -0800

LordSludge, over at the Batari site it's clear they are supporting bank switching, which is why the inefficiency can be tolerated. I also assume there are some cool generic kernals available to generate the video.

By: ShutterBun

ShutterBun — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:55:51 -0800

"Grampa, why did it take so long for personal jetpacks to be invented?" "Well, you see Timmy, back in around 2012 or so, our best & brightest minds were busy working on um...other projects that were...uh...deemed "culturally significant."

By: sleslie

sleslie — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 07:43:23 -0800

I had the same idea of creating tools for crafting traditional 2600 games with the imposed technological restrictions of that gaming system, localroger. It being the early 2000s, I was going to call the language Dogme 2600.

By: cortex

cortex — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:19:53 -0800

It being the early 2000s, I was going to call the language Dogme 2600. Oh, I can see that catalog now. Stuff like Super Dark Dancing, a lo-fi DDR-alike where the arrows become increasingly less visible as the game continues and if you miss too many you are executed by the state. Chiptunes by Bjork!