Official footage of Id Software's SMB3 DOS port

Cross-posted from Zdoom.

From John Romero, uploaded just a few hours ago. Showing off footage of the first world with only 1-1 being a carbon copy of the NES original.
(And this is not the Dangerous Dave version some people know about)

https://vimeo.com/148909578

Heh, now I see why Nintendo rejected it...

This definitely proves the technology was there and ready, it's only minor tweaks away from being an excellent port. I'm glad it didn't happen though, who knows how things may have unfolded if ID had gotten too deeply ingrained with Nintendo.

Woah! this is so cool! always wanted to see what it looked like :-)

Heh, looks kind of bootleg TBH

the SFX kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. not that i was expecting anything different though, heh. looks pretty neat.

Make the sprites pixel-by-pixel accurate, speed up player movement while running, get a sound designer in there and it'd be hard to tell the difference between this and the NES original, especially back in '90.

Jaxxoon R said:

Heh, looks kind of bootleg TBH

Definitely reminds me of some of the not-too-shabby bootleg pirate backports, like this Street Fighter version for NES.

It's quite similar actually... Terrible sounds, but the gameplay was ported pretty damn well.

Huh, pretty cool. To think this led to Commander Keen and, well, the rest is history.

Cool, but not Doom II Dildo-Toothed Monster Display cool.

Haha nice!

Where the hell is he pulling all this stuff out from after all these years? It's like he's rationing these so he always has stuff to drop!

"IFD" in the background presumably means "Ideas From the Deep"?

I'm glad they got turned down by Nintendo. It would be a sad history indeed if id had been consigned to history as a company known for their PC ports of Nintendo games.

ah adrian, never change your colour palette choices.

Oh wait. You never did. NM.

Because there is only a large black box, is there a download/direct link to the actual video content?

GhostlyDeath said:

Because there is only a large black box, is there a download/direct link to the actual video content?

You mean the Vimeo site does not work for you? Try it with Internet Exploder.

VGA said:

You mean the Vimeo site does not work for you? Try it with Internet Exploder.

Install adobe flash player... and use a current-day browser... or check your addblocker for realy generic and bad lines.

FireFish said:

Install adobe flash player... and use a current-day browser... or check your addblocker for realy generic and bad lines.

AND/OR make sure that NoScript is set to allow Vimeo.

FireFish, you don't need to add an additional 'd' for adblocker.

Well, it appears youtube-dl supports vimeo now so I just updated it.

I would have to say that Mario is looking a bit weighted.

VGA said:

You mean the Vimeo site does not work for you? Try it with Internet Exploder.

Internet Explorer is not supported for my platform.

FireFish said:

Install adobe flash player... and use a current-day browser... or check your addblocker for realy generic and bad lines.

Adobe Flash is not supported for my platform.

Also browser based video is very similar to watching ice melt, it is insanely slow. Mplayer/VLC on the otherhand can handle 720p just fine.

GhostlyDeath said:

Well, it appears youtube-dl supports vimeo now so I just updated it.

I would have to say that Mario is looking a bit weighted.

Internet Explorer is not supported for my platform.

Adobe Flash is not supported for my platform.

Also browser based video is very similar to watching ice melt, it is insanely slow. Mplayer/VLC on the otherhand can handle 720p just fine.

May i ask what platform ?

FireFish said:

May i ask what platform ?

Debian GNU/Linux on a PowerPC 7447A.

GhostlyDeath said:

Debian GNU/Linux on a PowerPC 7447A.

I had to google that one... I am not familiar with MAC's.

Also, the video is free to download and there is a download button beneath the player. It offers Original, 720p, 720p60, Standard Definition. I cant link you to them because they are using a shitty link generator instead of a permanent link.

Imagine going the other way around, using the SMB3 engine as a basis for Keen on NES.

Sodaholic said:

Imagine going the other way around, using the SMB3 engine as a basis for Keen on NES.

Now, that's an interesting romhacking project idea I'd like to see

Keep in mind this was done in 72 hours.

For what it is, it's a mind blowing feat that they accomplished that in only 3 days from scratch and just side-by-side comparison. The engine technology was beyond anything that the PC was known to do at the time, from the forward/back scrolling, smoothness, etc.

Cool, I want retail copy of this

This is really damn impressive, considering the 3 day production time.
Even though the sprites aren't 100% accurate, the fact that they managed to nail down the visual style so well is just incredible.
Pop on the proper music/sound effects, and of course clean up the animations, and you've got a near perfect PC port of the game.

The Civ said:

Pop on the proper music/sound effects, and of course clean up the animations, and you've got a near perfect PC port of the game.

Looking at the video makes me think that the physics related to jumping and gravity are seriously off the mark. And those are Actually an important part of making Mario feel like Mario.

And many years later in 1994 there was this, which also had that problem : http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/mario/

A fun game but the creator also did not hit the mark with the jumping and gravity, so it felt less like a Mario game and more like a fan made clone. Also note that many people seem to be recording videos in Dosbox while playing this at loads of random speeds or cycle-rates which usually are all but correct...

Yeah, the physics look wrong. I'm sure Nintendo would've given them the specs to recreate the NES game's physics if they approved of the project.

FireFish said:

Looking at the video makes me think that the physics related to jumping and gravity are seriously off the mark. And those are Actually an important part of making Mario feel like Mario.

And many years later in 1994 there was this, which also had that problem : http://www.wieringsoftware.nl/mario/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu9SO6WOnYY

A fun game but the creator also did not hit the mark with the jumping and gravity, so it felt less like a Mario game and more like a fan made clone. Also note that many people seem to be recording videos in Dosbox while playing this at loads of random speeds or cycle-rates which usually are all but correct...

You're right there.
Mario always needs some semblance of slipperiness in his running, and needs to always go fast when he's on the way up to the peak of his jump, slow down at the peak of the jump, and then pick up speed on the way back down again.
Almost all recreations, this SMB3 port being no exception, seem to all have very stiff movement, and a very "controlled" jump.

The Civ said:

You're right there.
Mario always needs some semblance of slipperiness in his running, and needs to always go fast when he's on the way up to the peak of his jump, slow down at the peak of the jump, and then pick up speed on the way back down again.

Unless it's Super Mario Land, which ignores almost all of this with Mario being able to stop on a dime and gravity immediately causing the portly bastard to drop like a fucking rock as soon as the descent after a jump begins.

When I was really young, I was firmly convinced that Super Mario Land was not an official game. Its actually way fun, but the sprites, physics and music are just nothing like any other Mario games of the era.

I like that demo. I want John to release it.