Zilch
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What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Sept 27, 2011 22:43:03 GMT -8
Hey everyone! As you may or may not know (probably not since I've only talked about this in the staff forum so far), I'm working on a Super Mario Bros. 3 hack titled ElSMB3. The name is short for "ElBlocko's SMB3", ElBlocko being my YouTube name. Essentially, it's a complete revamp of the original game with new and different, and usually more difficult, levels. I've been working on it for about three years now and it's nearly complete, so I've decided to release information about it to the public now. All the levels (minus Bowser's Castle) are currently in my YouTube channel, and once I've completed the final and fixed all the bugs I can find, I'll release the IPS patch for everyone to play with. Some of the levels in the channel have been slightly modified since I released their respective videos. Here are all the current world maps, something you won't see in the videos: World 1:  World 2:  World 3:  World 4:  World 5:  World 6:  World 7:  World 8:  (a quick note: the "level 8" tiles in Worlds 3 and 6 are only there so Mario won't fly back to the start tile if he dies after taking the boat shortcut. It's impossible to die in these level 8s, so you'll go back there if you fail immediately after that) |
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Post by t3h Icy on Sept 28, 2011 9:14:34 GMT -8
I've been following this for about a year now and I have to say it's amazingly well done. I can't wait to play it!
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Post by DragonAura on Sept 28, 2011 15:27:30 GMT -8
Looks interesting. I'd love to replay an old classic with new levels.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 1, 2011 2:05:57 GMT -8
I'm editing the in-game text as well. Here are a couple of samples: Toad House:  Toad's "Shop of Strange and Wonderful Things"  Yes, the secret Toad comes across as a bit rude... but you're intruding on his secret property, after all! |
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Post by t3h Icy on Oct 1, 2011 8:55:11 GMT -8
Haha, cute. Good stuff with the hex editing.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 1, 2011 15:05:23 GMT -8
Here's a couple more. Spade House minigame:  Card flipping minigame:  A little more interesting than the miniature instruction booklets from the original game. |
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 1, 2011 22:48:28 GMT -8
Yes! More text edits! Here's what the King has to say once you've beaten the Koopa Kid and taken back the magic wand. There's a variant for a normal victory, one with the Tanooki Suit, the Frog Suit, and the Hammer Bros. Suit. I really had to resist the temptation to have the King say "I wonder what's for dinner" in the first one.     |
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Isa
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FOREVER SECOND
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Post by Isa on Oct 2, 2011 0:30:05 GMT -8
Hahaha, this is awesome.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 3, 2011 23:11:53 GMT -8
All right. After all that text editing, level updates (especially Worlds 1 through 4), and bugfixes, I've finally begun working on Bowser's Castle. It's going to be a real doozy.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 4, 2011 23:32:56 GMT -8
BOWSER'S CASTLE IS LIVE!!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrdWUcvThLINow comes the tedious part: needing to play through the entire ROM to check for bugs and any little tweaks to level design I could perform here and there. |
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Post by t3h Icy on Oct 5, 2011 8:58:46 GMT -8
Awesome! I thought the Bowser fight was really creative and well made!
Can't wait to play!
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 5, 2011 22:37:20 GMT -8
Man... am I glad I'm debugging this first. Found a pretty serious problem with World 6 that forced me to redesign a good part of the map, but it's up and running now. Essentially, the boat shortcut was removed and replaced with a pipe accessible after you clear 6-1. It drops you right before the first fortress, so you skip 6-2, 6-3 and 6-Glitch.
EDIT: Another problem that's been bothering me throughout my hacking of this game is that if a lock is not on-screen when it "explodes" after you beat the appropriate Boom-Boom, the screen doesn't shift but it still shows the animation of the path or bridge appearing. The lock still goes away like normal, but it looks pretty bad. It was happening in Worlds 2, 4 and 6. World 2 was a simple matter of moving the lock somewhere else, but I had to completely redo portions of the World 4 map, including the addition of a new pipe system. World 6's redesign was already covered. More of a cosmetic change rather than an actual bug fix, but whatever.
Man, these are starting to seem like design notes...
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Post by t3h Icy on Oct 6, 2011 8:25:13 GMT -8
It all sounds good though! =D
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 6, 2011 18:49:33 GMT -8
Okay... Done a few tweaks here and there to early levels and I haven't spotted a bug in a while. I think I'll do one final playthrough just to make sure, and then I'll release it.
Incidentally, one of the bigger tweaks was made in the World 2 fortress. It's just one path now rather than two separate paths. The original concept was just too short and too easy.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 7, 2011 0:39:08 GMT -8
Final bug checks are done, and I've submitted the IPS patch, along with a companion readme, as a WinZip archive to Zophar's Domain. If everything goes smoothly, it should be up by tomorrow.
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 9, 2011 1:06:27 GMT -8
Hey everyone. I'm having problems actually getting the ElSMB3 IPS patch online because Zophar's Domain is pretty much dead and I refuse to use my poor excuse of a Freewebs site. Does anyone know of any good places where I can temporarily or permanently host the ROM/IPS until I can get a proper domain set up?
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Post by t3h Icy on Oct 9, 2011 8:08:02 GMT -8
Speedyshare?
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Zilch
Member
What's in the box?
Posts: 561
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Post by Zilch on Oct 9, 2011 10:35:00 GMT -8
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Post by Agent Syrup on Aug 30, 2012 10:54:34 GMT -8
Hey I tried out this hack, and it's pretty good! I always loved Mario Bros 3, and now I can play it with arguably better levels.
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Post by t3h Icy on Aug 30, 2012 13:15:01 GMT -8
It's pretty awesome, but also quite difficult! If you're a solid player of SMB3, this should be a good challenge for you!
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Post by t3h Icy on Aug 30, 2012 19:05:48 GMT -8
Oh, your links are dead, Zilch! I checked your freewebs for it, but it was outdated.
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