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ID software used Carmack's Adaptive Tile Refresh[0] to make a Super Mario Bros 3 clone for PC, and tried to sell it to Nintendo. Nintendo basically said "no". W

ID software used Carmack's Adaptive Tile Refresh[0] to make a Super Mario Bros 3 clone for PC, and tried to sell it to Nintendo. Nintendo basically said "no". We got Commander Keen instead. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_tile_refresh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_tile_refresh

kevingadd 3y ago
I've always found this funny since there were home PC releases of Mario games. So Nintendo was at one point not opposed to that sort of thing, and the ports that did come out were atrocious. The alternate timeline where Nintendo games come out on PC and use idTech has to be a strange one.
- pipes 3y ago
  I didn't know this! Mario dos games? Officially licensed??
  - kiritanpo 3y ago
    They are all educational games of middling quality released in the first half of the 90s. Released for DOS, Mac and Windows. Some of the most known: * Mario Teaches Typing * Super Mario Bros. Print World * Mario is Missing! (also released on SNES) * Mario's Time Machine (also released on SNES) * Mario's Early Years! Fun with Letters There are also (bad) Donkey Kong ports for home computers of the 80s such as Atari 800XL, IBM DOS, VIC-20, Commodore 64. Full list and more details here: https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games#PC https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games#PC
    - pipes 3y ago
      Thanks :)
- jkoudys 3y ago
  There are so many shit ports that have been left on the ash heap of history. The Atari 2600 port of Pac-man was pretty infamous. The worst offenders all ignored the technical requirements and were clearly led by the marketing/business side.
jkoudys 3y ago
Only us olds really appreciate how groundbreaking Commander Keen was. The NES or Game Boy, with its graphics organized into tiles and layers, could give an extremely smooth experience for a certain kind of game. PC games in the pre-gpu era were extremely limited. Especially since researching and discussing development was much slower, too. The whole history of gaming could've gone very differently if adaptive tile refresh were the standard used early by everyone.
- karim79 3y ago
  I couldn't agree with this comment more. If my memory serves me correctly, the next step up for me, in terms of being blown away, was when my dad gave me a Sound Blaster card (the very first one released, which was 8 bits, from Creative Labs as they were called back in the day). I hooked up a couple of really crappy analog speakers to the 286SX with an EGA card and monitor. That was the first time I experienced non BEEP BOP crappy sound on a PC. ...There were those games from Access Software which touted their Realsound tech, or whatever it was called. The Sound Blaster was, for me, the beginning of a newfound respect for PC hardware; I was no longer jealous of my friends who had their Amigas. I really miss the awe and wonder of those days. The days where every seemingly minor advancement actually served as a huge leap in terms of the experiential qualities of games. These days people whine about ray-tracing performance and having to play stuff at < 120FPS. I get it - I just really miss the "before times". Like the first time seeing an image rendered in full 256 colour VGA. </end oldtimer rant>

kevingadd 3y ago

I've always found this funny since there were home PC releases of Mario games. So Nintendo was at one point not opposed to that sort of thing, and the ports that did come out were atrocious. The alternate timeline where Nintendo games come out on PC and use idTech has to be a strange one.

pipes 3y ago
I didn't know this! Mario dos games? Officially licensed??
- kiritanpo 3y ago
  They are all educational games of middling quality released in the first half of the 90s. Released for DOS, Mac and Windows. Some of the most known: * Mario Teaches Typing * Super Mario Bros. Print World * Mario is Missing! (also released on SNES) * Mario's Time Machine (also released on SNES) * Mario's Early Years! Fun with Letters There are also (bad) Donkey Kong ports for home computers of the 80s such as Atari 800XL, IBM DOS, VIC-20, Commodore 64. Full list and more details here: https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games#PC https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_games#PC
  - pipes 3y ago
    Thanks :)
jkoudys 3y ago
There are so many shit ports that have been left on the ash heap of history. The Atari 2600 port of Pac-man was pretty infamous. The worst offenders all ignored the technical requirements and were clearly led by the marketing/business side.

jkoudys 3y ago

Only us olds really appreciate how groundbreaking Commander Keen was. The NES or Game Boy, with its graphics organized into tiles and layers, could give an extremely smooth experience for a certain kind of game. PC games in the pre-gpu era were extremely limited. Especially since researching and discussing development was much slower, too. The whole history of gaming could've gone very differently if adaptive tile refresh were the standard used early by everyone.

karim79 3y ago
I couldn't agree with this comment more. If my memory serves me correctly, the next step up for me, in terms of being blown away, was when my dad gave me a Sound Blaster card (the very first one released, which was 8 bits, from Creative Labs as they were called back in the day). I hooked up a couple of really crappy analog speakers to the 286SX with an EGA card and monitor. That was the first time I experienced non BEEP BOP crappy sound on a PC. ...There were those games from Access Software which touted their Realsound tech, or whatever it was called. The Sound Blaster was, for me, the beginning of a newfound respect for PC hardware; I was no longer jealous of my friends who had their Amigas. I really miss the awe and wonder of those days. The days where every seemingly minor advancement actually served as a huge leap in terms of the experiential qualities of games. These days people whine about ray-tracing performance and having to play stuff at < 120FPS. I get it - I just really miss the "before times". Like the first time seeing an image rendered in full 256 colour VGA. </end oldtimer rant>