
How Super Mario Bros. 3 was made - bpierre
http://www.chrismcovell.com/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html
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tpatke
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.

~~~
kabdib
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.

~~~
city41
Are you talking about the 2600 days or the 7800 days? From what I understand
of Atari, the 7800 era was pretty lousy? But Atari sure put out some really
great games for the 2600 considering the level of tech available.

~~~
InclinedPlane
2600 games are easy enough to build with a small team and simple enough to
have the game mechanics and story completely specified on, say, a single piece
of paper. There isn't much room to have a complex story, and there isn't much
ability to drift away from the proper story line (since there isn't much of
one). By the time of the NES that had definitely changed.

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xd
Coral Cache:
[http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_...](http://www.chrismcovell.com.nyud.net/secret/weekly/Stars_of_the_Family_Computer.html)

~~~
code_duck
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."

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iqster
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://www.g4tv.com/codemonkeys/index.html>

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sonnyz
"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...

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javanix
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:YvdCxzu...](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)

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

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

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pjbeardsley
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.

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code_duck
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.

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

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

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

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

~~~
TheCapn
I don't see it on slashdot and refuse to hit reddit from work but my guess is
just budget webhosting.

~~~
Pedrom
Yeah it got into reddit at least:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mari...](http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/nf659/how_super_mario_bros_3_was_made/)

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?

~~~
patio11
_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
> Publish like normal

Or may be, if it's just a blog post, let Google(blogger) handle it.

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tudorizer
503\. Overload?

