Comments on: Now if only we could do this in modern games...

Now if only we could do this in modern games...

Pope Guilty — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:00:17 -0800

Thanks to the LUA scripting support in NES emulator FCEUX, you can do things like drag and drop enemies and powerups, alter gravity, give mario a jetpack, or make him shoot magic missiles. Super Mario Brothers not your thing? Perhaps you'd rather just have it play Pinball for you.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:30:37 -0800

Curses! I'd been sitting on some of these links for a while waiting to build a more substantial post out of them. But yes, these are very cool. Take note, the LUA scripting thing isn't changing gravity at all. Super Mario Bros. gravity naturally works like that. Mario actually falls slower at the beginning of all lives, areas and subareas until he jumps the first time. It's so when he falls into a pipe zone, he doesn't flash by the screen but floats down slowly. I'm pretty sure I've been killed at least once by this behavior.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:17:27 -0800

I don't get what I'm supposed to be seeing in the "alter gravity" video. To me, it just looks like Mario falls into a hole twice.

By: Simon Barclay

Simon Barclay — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:19:34 -0800

I'm very unimpressed by the guidance on those magic missiles. But all this stuff is really neat.

By: DU

DU — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:27:02 -0800

I was watching this the other day. And by "watching" I mean "sitting stock still with my mouth hanging open".

By: JHarris

JHarris — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:30:28 -0800

December, watch how quickly he falls from off the pipe. First death, he lands on the ground then falls into the hole. Second death, he falls in without touching the ground. The second time, he's had no chance to save himself with a jump. The player, not expecting this, probably won't be prepared to react for it.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:22:24 -0800

Lua is a freaking marvel, btw. It's also the scripting engine that powers World of Warcraft and allows for such interesting gamer-produced user interface enhancements. Really nice little language, easily embedded.

By: Monday, stony Monday

Monday, stony Monday — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:39:35 -0800

Lua is really great. It's the only language created in a developing country to have achieved global relevance. (awesome paper about The Evolution of Lua). And it's written Lua, dammit.

By: Servo5678

Servo5678 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:55:31 -0800

It's great to see that hacking classic video games doesn't end with sprite hacks and level editors. This kind of control is apparently specific only to the original Super Mario Bros. at this point, but goodness knows that there are quite a few frustratingly difficult NES games I would love to be able to "improve" in this manner. Imagine being able to toss away a swarm of Bladers in Mega Man or nudge Blob-turned-trampoline into a better position in A Boy and His Blob. The possibilities are endless. Then again, so are the time and resources needed to enable this sort of control in other NES games. I'm patient, fortunately.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 06:34:23 -0800

Servo, I thought that paragraph looked familiar, and sure enough, it was your blog that I got the initial link from. It never ceases to amaze me how many people turn out to have MeFi accounts.

By: Monday, stony Monday

Monday, stony Monday — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:18:13 -0800

Yeah, maybe you could make Battletoads beatable (or at least the overcraft level).

By: JHarris

JHarris — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:45:08 -0800

Battletoads is only unbeatable in two-player mode, MsM. I can vouch that, for one player at least, it is possible to beat that level. I've gotten pretty far in the game in fact, and only on a rental or two. Not that it's not horribly unfair and soul-crushing to do it, though. Honestly, to think that Rare thought they could make Battletoads into a franchise when it was SO HARD.

By: Clamwacker

Clamwacker — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 17:28:31 -0800

Play pinball? Ha! More like set the controller down and have a beer!

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 15:01:29 -0800

This is kinda like the stuff I can do when lucid dreaming.

By: DoctorFedora

DoctorFedora — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:36:27 -0800

Oh god, the only shortcoming I could possibly see there being to this post is that there is not more