6 ms·

How Super Mario Bros. 3 was made

293 points by bpierre 15y ago

tudorizer 15y ago
503. Overload?
javanix 15y ago
Here's a cached version from Google. Seems some of the pictures didn't make it through though :( http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YvdCxzuq-hoJ:www.chrismcovell.com/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YvdCxzu...
- fuzzix 15y ago
  I don't believe Google caches images, just the text content so the inline images are still being pulled from the troubled site.
Pedrom 15y ago
HN effect? probably this news got into reddit and slashdot too.
- TheCapn 15y ago
  I don't see it on slashdot and refuse to hit reddit from work but my guess is just budget webhosting.
  - Pedrom 15y ago
    Yeah it got into reddit at least: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mario_bros_3_was_made/ http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mari... I always find this sort of DoS attack interesting. What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article?
    - byoung2 15y ago
      What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article? Amazon Cloudfront with the cheap hosting as a custom origin. Use a CNAME like cached.domain.com and share that link. If the original link gets shared, you could at least change the links to images, css, and js to the cdn copy.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
    - Strom 15y ago
      Google App Engine. HN + Reddit together doesn't bring enough traffic to move the cursor over the free quota even.
    - patio11 15y ago
      What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article? Publish like normal and accept that, if simultaneously on Slashdot and Reddit, you're doomed. If "doomed" is not an acceptable outcome for your online presence or if you have a greater-than-epsilon chance of going viral, don't use budget hosting. (Better options include a VPS or hosting environments which are not bottom-of-the-barrel.)
      - irahul 15y ago
        > Publish like normal Or may be, if it's just a blog post, let Google(blogger) handle it.
tpatke 15y ago
I love the picture of the programmers at the bottom of the page. Clearly not the best working conditions even though the office has nice desk space available (see background). Just shows how much more developers are respected now. ...thanks in part to these guys.
- rudiger 15y ago
  I'm not so sure it's an issue of respect for developers. It was a different time over 20 years ago...
  - patio11 15y ago
    Without specific regards to Nintendo, you could visit a lot of offices here which have the "N programmers at N computers on one table" office layout, and they're frequently a wee bit underpowered. (In 2010 I was rocking XP and fighting to upgrade from 512MB to 1GB of RAM for Java development.) This is, at least in part, because of the relative social statuses of people who program things and people who do important work for the company. One would think that game developers would be exquisitely sensitive to the needs of programmers because, hey, that is their business, but anecdotally they're treated pretty much like they are in the US: chew 'em up, spit 'em out, there will be more stupid boys to take their place next year. (I got a solicitation to work for a game company here by a recruiter who had heard of me from my ex-employers. I kid you not, the pay was $2k a month.)
    - jrockway 15y ago
      Interesting. Is the job market different from the US, where there is a core group of actual programmers that want real money, and then a group of people that could theoretically pretend to be programmers, and will work for free? (My first thought was, "well, the schools are better", but I went to high school for a year in Tokyo, and I did not touch a computer once. I has a scheme interpreter on a PalmOS device that I played with, and that was it.)
- kabdib 15y ago
  It's interesting to compare this to what we had at Atari. Typically the game would center around the engineers (for consoles, the software guys), and they'd be supported by artists and sound folks who were a shared resource amongst several programmers. There was usually no game designer per se, just a bunch of management. I think it shows -- the NES games were a lot more fun, more imaginative, more colorful, and (the big test) did much better in the market over time. If this same book had been written about (say) Star Raiders, it would have been shorter and pretty boring.
xd 15y ago
Coral Cache: http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- code_duck 15y ago
  I was excited to read this, and the main site is still down... but I'm at a coffee shop and OpenDNS says "Sorry, but www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net is blocked on this network."
Luc 15y ago
This reminds me of Iwatani's sketches for Pac-Man: http://www.control-online.nl/gamesindustrie/2010/06/22/iwatani-toont-gamesgeschiedenis-in-meest-pure-vorm/ http://www.control-online.nl/gamesindustrie/2010/06/22/iwata...
code_duck 15y ago
I can't read the article at the moment, but I was thrilled when I found out that the programmers, musicians and artists who made most of my favorite Sega Genesis and Master System games were using Amigas.
pjbeardsley 15y ago
It's crazy—I taught English in Japan circa 2002-2004, and those pages are laid out exactly the way our school newsletters were (and I'm guessing still are to this day). Right down to the oval portrait shot.
cosmez 15y ago
the reason i became a programmer,i should have read this article 15 years ago.
sonnyz 15y ago
"Since game systems are computers containing high-density and highly-integrated ICs and LSIs, even a single speck of dust can cause a malfunction." They aren't kidding. I think I remember this being a problem...
iqster 15y ago
Like many of you (I suspect), I got into CS because of video games (had an Atari 2600, a C64 and an Amiga 500). Sometimes I get really nostalgic for the good old days. I came across a hilarious series called "Code Monkeys" a few years ago that seems appropriate to point out here ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Monkeys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Monkeys http://www.g4tv.com/codemonkeys/index.html http://www.g4tv.com/codemonkeys/index.html
Groxx 15y ago
Neat. Anyone up for some proper scanlation work, though? It seems this would benefit from in-place translations.
neuroelectronic 15y ago
This article says nothing about how they were programmed. :(
wazoox 15y ago
In case you're interested in Mario's history, here's an incredibly detailed book: http://www.pixnlovepublishing.com/The-History-of-Mario.html http://www.pixnlovepublishing.com/The-History-of-Mario.html

293 points by bpierre 15y ago

503. Overload?

Here's a cached version from Google. Seems some of the pictures didn't make it through though :( http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YvdCxzuq-hoJ:www.chrismcovell.com/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YvdCxzu...

fuzzix 15y ago
I don't believe Google caches images, just the text content so the inline images are still being pulled from the troubled site.

Pedrom 15y ago

HN effect? probably this news got into reddit and slashdot too.

TheCapn 15y ago
I don't see it on slashdot and refuse to hit reddit from work but my guess is just budget webhosting.
- Pedrom 15y ago
  Yeah it got into reddit at least: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mario_bros_3_was_made/ http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mari... I always find this sort of DoS attack interesting. What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article?
  - byoung2 15y ago
    What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article? Amazon Cloudfront with the cheap hosting as a custom origin. Use a CNAME like cached.domain.com and share that link. If the original link gets shared, you could at least change the links to images, css, and js to the cdn copy.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - Strom 15y ago
    Google App Engine. HN + Reddit together doesn't bring enough traffic to move the cursor over the free quota even.
  - patio11 15y ago
    What would be the best way for an indie guy with a budget hosting to share an interesting article? Publish like normal and accept that, if simultaneously on Slashdot and Reddit, you're doomed. If "doomed" is not an acceptable outcome for your online presence or if you have a greater-than-epsilon chance of going viral, don't use budget hosting. (Better options include a VPS or hosting environments which are not bottom-of-the-barrel.)
    - irahul 15y ago
      > Publish like normal Or may be, if it's just a blog post, let Google(blogger) handle it.

tpatke 15y ago

I love the picture of the programmers at the bottom of the page. Clearly not the best working conditions even though the office has nice desk space available (see background). Just shows how much more developers are respected now. ...thanks in part to these guys.

rudiger 15y ago
I'm not so sure it's an issue of respect for developers. It was a different time over 20 years ago...
- patio11 15y ago
  Without specific regards to Nintendo, you could visit a lot of offices here which have the "N programmers at N computers on one table" office layout, and they're frequently a wee bit underpowered. (In 2010 I was rocking XP and fighting to upgrade from 512MB to 1GB of RAM for Java development.) This is, at least in part, because of the relative social statuses of people who program things and people who do important work for the company. One would think that game developers would be exquisitely sensitive to the needs of programmers because, hey, that is their business, but anecdotally they're treated pretty much like they are in the US: chew 'em up, spit 'em out, there will be more stupid boys to take their place next year. (I got a solicitation to work for a game company here by a recruiter who had heard of me from my ex-employers. I kid you not, the pay was $2k a month.)
  - jrockway 15y ago
    Interesting. Is the job market different from the US, where there is a core group of actual programmers that want real money, and then a group of people that could theoretically pretend to be programmers, and will work for free? (My first thought was, "well, the schools are better", but I went to high school for a year in Tokyo, and I did not touch a computer once. I has a scheme interpreter on a PalmOS device that I played with, and that was it.)
kabdib 15y ago
It's interesting to compare this to what we had at Atari. Typically the game would center around the engineers (for consoles, the software guys), and they'd be supported by artists and sound folks who were a shared resource amongst several programmers. There was usually no game designer per se, just a bunch of management. I think it shows -- the NES games were a lot more fun, more imaginative, more colorful, and (the big test) did much better in the market over time. If this same book had been written about (say) Star Raiders, it would have been shorter and pretty boring.

xd 15y ago

Coral Cache: http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_...

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
code_duck 15y ago
I was excited to read this, and the main site is still down... but I'm at a coffee shop and OpenDNS says "Sorry, but www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net is blocked on this network."

Luc 15y ago

This reminds me of Iwatani's sketches for Pac-Man: http://www.control-online.nl/gamesindustrie/2010/06/22/iwatani-toont-gamesgeschiedenis-in-meest-pure-vorm/ http://www.control-online.nl/gamesindustrie/2010/06/22/iwata...

code_duck 15y ago

I can't read the article at the moment, but I was thrilled when I found out that the programmers, musicians and artists who made most of my favorite Sega Genesis and Master System games were using Amigas.

pjbeardsley 15y ago

It's crazy—I taught English in Japan circa 2002-2004, and those pages are laid out exactly the way our school newsletters were (and I'm guessing still are to this day). Right down to the oval portrait shot.

cosmez 15y ago

the reason i became a programmer,i should have read this article 15 years ago.

sonnyz 15y ago

"Since game systems are computers containing high-density and highly-integrated ICs and LSIs, even a single speck of dust can cause a malfunction." They aren't kidding. I think I remember this being a problem...

iqster 15y ago

Like many of you (I suspect), I got into CS because of video games (had an Atari 2600, a C64 and an Amiga 500). Sometimes I get really nostalgic for the good old days. I came across a hilarious series called "Code Monkeys" a few years ago that seems appropriate to point out here ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Monkeys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Monkeys http://www.g4tv.com/codemonkeys/index.html http://www.g4tv.com/codemonkeys/index.html

Groxx 15y ago

Neat. Anyone up for some proper scanlation work, though? It seems this would benefit from in-place translations.

neuroelectronic 15y ago

This article says nothing about how they were programmed. :(

wazoox 15y ago

In case you're interested in Mario's history, here's an incredibly detailed book: http://www.pixnlovepublishing.com/The-History-of-Mario.html http://www.pixnlovepublishing.com/The-History-of-Mario.html