Super Mario Bros.: SMB Special for NES

Update: 1.0~rc1 - Offical Release Candidate

This release (1.0~rc1) is the first official release candidate of the Super Mario Bros. Special for NES port. SMBS is a SMB based game licensed by Nintendo and created by Hudson Soft for the Japanese PC8801 computer. It was later ported to the Sharp X1, as well as the Korean Samsung SPC-1500 computer. However, beyond these (now) obscure platforms, it was largely ignored and forgotten until suddenly becoming a cult hit in the emulation scene.

The game became notorious for it's fiendish difficulty and it's (unusual for a Mario game) use of single screens rather than smooth scrolling. The suggestion was made to give the game a facelift and expose it to a wider audience by porting it to the NES. This is the result of that effort.

An update of the hack with new enemies, power ups, enhanced palettes and more is available https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6067/.

SMB Special for NES - README - 1.0~rc1
Copyright 2008-2012 Levi "Karatorian" Aho
May be used under the GNU FDL

=== Introduction ===============================================================

This release (1.0~rc1) is an official release candidate of the Super Mario Bros.
Special for NES port. SMBS is a SMB based game licensed by Nintendo and created
by Hudson Soft for the Japanese PC8801 computer. It was later ported to the
Sharp X1. However, beyond these (now) obscure platforms, it was largely ignored
and forgotten until suddenly becoming a cult hit in the emulation scene.

The game became notorious for it's fiendish difficulty and it's (unusual for a
Mario game) use of single screens rather than smooth scrolling. The suggestion
was made to give the game a facelift and expose it to a wider audience by
porting it to the NES. This is the result of that effort.

In reality, the use of the word port is a misnomer. The level data was
reimplemented for the SMB engine (with required modifications) and no portion
of the SMBS engine code was used.

=== Package Contents ===========================================================

As the final patch format for the 1.0 release has yet to be decided on, the
current package contains two versions of the patch. They all are made against
the same ROM images and (should) function identically.

README This file
smbs-1.0~rc1.ups UPS patch
smbs-1.0~rc1.ips IPS patch

=== Patching ===================================================================

Simply apply the patch in the format of your choice to a clean SMB ROM image.
Installing and using patch tools are beyond the scope of this document, see
the excellent document and utilities collection at RHDN if you need help. For
your convenience, the CRC32 and MD5 checksums of the ROM image used by the
developers and the resulting image are included below.

smb.nes 0xd445f698 0x8e3630186e35d477231bf8fd50e54cdd
smbs-1.0~rc1.nes 0xb25c00ab 0x682b381e2e8ea3a53ea2d201d9fbd15c

Note: These checksums are as provided by FCEU. FCEU calculates the checksums
without the header data, so the sums reported by other tools may not match.

=== Beta Test Notes ============================================================

This is a beta release. Unless bugs are found, this patch will be used for the
1.0 release. To that end, we urge all interested parties to try it out and
report any issues found. Please report any issues to the official project
thread at 'http://www.romhacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,5671.0.html'.

We are especially interested in testing on real hardware. If you have access to
an MMC1 flash cart and a working NES, please let us know if you encounter any
difficulties.

Please note that no existing SMB bugs (or exploits) have been fixed by this
patch, so they shouldn't be reported.

Finally, we appreciate all the support the ROM hacking community has given this
project and would like to reflect the effort of all the dedicated testers
who've helped with this project. If you've playtested this or any other SMBS
for NES release and would like to be credited, please send a PM to 'Karatorian'
with the real name and or nick you'd like to be listed by.

Furthermore, if you're already credited in the Special Thanks section and
should like to be listed differently (or to be removed), just send a PM as
mentioned above.

=== Changes ====================================================================

* All levels replaced with those from SMBS.
* Title screen replaced with SMBS based one.
* Level height reduced to reflect platform differences.
* Inverted pipes added.
* Red piranha plants added.
* Additional block types to accommodate level changes.
* ROM expanded to accommodate larger level data and added code.
* Other minor changes to reflect SMBS differences from SMB.

Beta Bugs Found and Fixed

* Broken Vines by "Bitch in the Red Dress"

=== To Do ======================================================================

Feel free to ignore this section. It will go away soon.

* Fill in list of beta testers.
* Track down missing names in special thanks.
* Clean up source code for 1.0 release.
* Decide on a patch format.
* ...

=== Credits ====================================================================

--- ROM Hacking ----------------------------------------------------------------

Levi "Karatorian" Aho Engine Hacking, Tool Programming, Packaging
"Frantik" Engine Hacking, Level Editing, Graphic Design

--- Playtesters ----------------------------------------------------------------

...

--- Special Thanks -------------------------------------------------------------

RHDN World Domination

"SMB2J-2Q" Original Idea
"Doppleganger" SMB Disassembly
Andrew "Prez" Culver hexedit, bnuview, romjuice
"YY" yy-me
"M.K.S" SMB Utility
"tkdrg" pysr
Guido Van Rossum et al Python
... cc65
"SnowBro" Tile Molester
... FCEUltra
... mednafen
"Disch" NES Mapper Documentation
... PC88WIN.EXE
"DahrkDaiz" SMB Level Doc
... NESTech
"_Bnu" 6502 Doc
"Hybrid" Misc Info

=== Legal Notice ===============================================================

Portions of this patch are derived from code that is copyrighted 1985 by
Nintendo and 1986 by Hudson Soft and is used without permission. If you
rightfully own the original source materials, it is (within some jurisdictions)
within your legal rights of fair use to use and modify the code as you see fit.
You assume all responsibility for any legal ramifications you may incur by use
of this package.

All other contents are (c) 2008-2012 Levi Aho. All source code (c) Levi Aho
may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. All
documentation may be used under the terms of the GNU Free Document License.

This package comes with no warranty of any kind. If anything breaks, you get to
keep the pieces.

Hack and enjoy.

=== The End ====================================================================



Super Mario Bros. (JU) (PRG0) [!].nes
CRC32: 3337EC46
MD5: 811B027EAF99C2DEF7B933C5208636DE
SHA-1: EA343F4E445A9050D4B4FBAC2C77D0693B1D0922