HUMMER = HUdson + haMMER. They meant to spell "hammer" but could have misrepresented the Hammer Brothers as the "Hudson" Brothers (a Portland, OR-based music act from the 1970s and early 1980s).

~Ben

I have some ideas to "euthanize" the player whenever Mario gets in a trap - i.e. the hidden block-Mushroom puzzle and the underground vine area trap.  For the former, a little while after small Mario hits the hidden block, he gets killed off.  For the latter, if Mario tries to go inside the pipe, he dies instead.  I think it would be better than waiting for time to run out, because that could piss off impatient players.    Of course though, I don't think they're really necessary - or even realistic for an "early" game - but they could be nice touches.

I'm more in favor of keeping it as is.  I'm all about being as accurate as possible rather than changing stuff around just to convenience people.  The game is SUPPOSED to piss you off!

-Rob

With the amount of engine hacking already in this game, I'd not really be in favor of adding invisible kill mario blocks, pipes of doom or other such nonsense. Furthermore, such concepts "break the rules" of the Mario universe and fly in the face of player expectations.

Nothing is more frustrating to a player than dying for "no reason". Of course, there's always a reason of some sort (even if it's just a bug), but players don't see it that way. A properly designed game has a set of rules that become understood and expected by the player.

Mario dies if he falls in a hole, gets touched by an enemy's side or bottom, or stomps on the un-stomp-able. He doesn't die when he encounters invisible blocks of doom or goes down pipes of doom. While the physical laws of the Mario universe aren't accurately based on our own, they're just as real and violating them elicits a negative player response.

Of course, one can argue that these sorts of traps violate the rules as well. True, traditionally, Mario level design is done in such a manner that getting stuck isn't possible. However, I would argue that this is more of a convention than a rule. A convention Hudson has decided to alter and one we've carried over into the port.

The traps in the game abide by the rules of the Mario universe. Mario can only jump so high, so if he ends up in a hole taller than that, he's stuck. There are pipes one can come out of, but can't go into. Etc. These all follow the "laws of physics" as it where. The proposed "solution" violates them.

That said, the issue of having to wait for Time Up if you end up in such a situation is unfortunate. Perhasp a "start select" mechanism loosly based on the one in SMW would be in order. This solves the issue of "euthenizing" the player without breaking the rules or usurping player control. A similar mechanism is the "kill" console command in Quake.

If you get stuck or otherwise feel that respawning would be handy, Quake provides a convient method of doing so. (While you do not normally get stuck in Quake, it is possible, especially as the game supports user designed levels that may not provide a way out of every area. (Especially as some areas can be reached that where never intend to be reachable. This is by means of glitches that exist in the physics engine and have since been embraced as features of Quake physics.)

Of course, unlike SMW, the mechanism would work on all levels, not just those you've already beaten (as such isn't really relevant in SMB). In addition, it would cost you a life. If I do impliment it, chances are it will be considered dying due to time up.

In regards to the time thing, it can easily be added. We just need to figure out the proper speed.

I have something like that implemented in SMU... lemme find the code

edit: here you go just modify the pause code starting at clr pause timer.  you will probably want to change the action to jump to the lose life routine or something too.  I just have it jump to the reset vector so i don't have to worry about the stack or anything like that.  I have the buttons as Up + Select to avoid accidentally resetting the game but you might want just select to activate the loss of life?

SMB2 also had a instant kill code. I think you needed to push some buttons on controller 2 or something. Apparently it must of been possible to get impossibly stuck in that game.

There was also this platformer called Hi no Tori (a platformer game). There were several one-tile wide pits you could fall in, that were too deep to jump out of. (your character had the ability to magically make blocks appear, so he could build his way out of a pit that was at least two tiles wide.
There was also an invisiblity power-up. You could run through enemies, and walls. Guess what happens if the power-up runs out while you're in a wall?
There is also this river stage with fish or something that constantly flies out at you. They're supposed to stop when you reach the boss. But I remember taking a different route across the screen, to get a life-refill powerup, and the flying things didn't stop coming during the boss fight. That a glitch, or is that a penalty for getting the powerup?
Well, at least they made Select a suicide key.
(Still, though. How could Konami make such a crap game? Did they decide to get only the staff with bad ideas together? )

Could we please get back on the topic of trying to finish this SMB1 hack?

EDIT: But please do find some way to incorporate the SMB2USA suicide code into this SMB1 hack...

Thank you,



Ben