Mario Adventure: The Best NES Game Hack of All Time
February 7th, 2006 by Benj Edwards
In a way, I think we all thirst for a new 2D side scrolling Mario adventure. It’s some sort of basic human need, along with eating, sleeping and reproduction. Why, just last week I was about to keel over for want of Mario when, at the last minute, I found the greatest NES game hack of all time, Mario Adventure. But this isn’t your usual game hack, mind you. You’ll find no giant buttocks glued onto Mario’s forehead, no nude Mushroom Retainers, no Super Tokin’ Brothers with Luigi replaced by a white Rastafarian with a cannabis leaf for a hat. Nope, this is a real game — a new game, crafted with care and aplomb using the Super Mario Bros. 3 game engine. Who executed this masterful feat? Look no further than intrepid homebrew coder “DahrkDaiz,” who completed the game over the course of sixteen months, sometimes coding on paper during his breaks while working at a fast food restaurant (check out our interview with Mario Adventure’s creator here). Now that’s what I call dedication. This man deserves serious recognition for the creation of this masterpiece.
So what makes Mario Adventure so superlative in the world of lackluster and usually pointless hacks? Because, like I mentioned before, it’s a completely new game. There are new graphics, new enemies, new enemy behaviors, new power-ups, new items, new rules, and tons of all-new, completely original levels. The game even uses SRAM, a la Zelda, (albeit only emulated at the moment) to save your progress in the game. Here’s a quick overview of the most important changes between Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mario Adventure:
1. Completely new worlds and new levels. The level design is stellar as far as hacks go, with clever engineering and interactions between blocks, items, power-ups, and enemies.
2. Modified graphics, especially of the environments, backgrounds, coins, blocks, and some enemies. And they all look professional, like they could be official Nintendo originals. Notably, a few enemies were edited into shy-guys and shy-guy derivatives (who originally appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2). The pipes and the “?” blocks look a lot cooler, with a neat shading effect, and the “P” coin-to-brick block has been replaced with a bubbling potion.
3. At any time, you can switch between your current power up and the last one you collected, which is stored in your “item box” at the bottom of the screen. It’s just like Super Mario World’s item box, but switching between powers is instantaneous.
4. New power-ups. The following is quoted directly from the text file version of the manual, included with the hack:
Fire Fire Mario:
Fire Fire Mario is just like Fire Mario, except he throws straight fireballs that can go through walls and he can jump higher!Invisible Mario:
From the Mario 64 era, Invisible Mario can temporarily go behind any background on a level. Pressing [Down] + [B] activates his power for a limited time. While behind a background, Mario is almost invulnerable to attack. On the plus side, Invisible Mario can stomp many more enemies with this power up!Magic Mario:
Magic Mario is one tough cookie! He can take a punch three times before he’s down! He throws magic stars that are quite powerful and he can stomp a lot of enemies down!Kuribo’s Mario:
Not a new power up, but now Mario can use the shoe in any level and in any situation! Beating a level doesn’t steal the shoe away, looks like Mario better grow some bigger feet!
The new “Fire Fire Mario” power up is very common and very attractive. The fact that you can jump higher is nice, and the straight-shooting fireballs make it much more effective as an enemy killing tool. In the original Super Mario Bros. 3 I always stayed as “Raccoon Mario” and rarely used “Fire Mario” at all. In this game, it’s mostly the other way around, although the most useful combinations of power-ups to switch between that I’ve found so far are “Fire Fire Mario” and “Raccoon Mario.” There are many occasions where flying and destroying blocks horizontally are useful. As far as the more fancy power-ups go, I still haven’t played with them much yet — but they sound cool!
5. The long-lusted after “Kuribo’s Mario” listed above is really worth noting. You can get and keep “Kuribo’s Shoe” throughout any level of the game. You can even “store” it and “retrieve” (like taking it on and off) it at any time by pressing Up and B simultaneously.
6. Collecting coins no longer provides extra men. Up to 9999 are collected and used to buy chances for items at Toad’s mushroom houses. It costs 100 to 300 coins to play.
7. As far as I can tell, you have an unlimited number of extra Marios. But you’re going to need them because this game can get really tough. The game design rarely takes cheap shots, so the challenges seem legitimate. The board designer(s) seemed to want to meddle with your pre-conceived, rotely memorized Mario 3 game-play strategies, forcing you to think quickly and stay on your feet instead of just hopping along mindlessly through the levels.
8. When you start on any board, it can be randomly sunny, raining, dark, dusk, or snowing. The graphics (and physics in the case of snow) change to match the environmental conditions. A very impressive and neat graphical touch.
9. At the end of every level you beat a “Boom-Boom” to end it, instead of collecting a card.
10. Your goal in the game is to collect a hidden key from each of seven worlds. Here’s an excerpt from the manual:
Each world has 1 hidden key in it. Mario must travel from level to level completing each and keeping an eye for any odd areas that might be a potential door way to a key! If Mario can’t find it, he can always go back later on after receiving a clue after defeating the Koopa Kids. There are keys, there are locks on the Warp Zone. Coincidence? I think not!
11. New items. I haven’t found that many of them myself, so I’ll quote the manual again:
Mario has a plethora of new items at his disposal! The Spade and Heart power-ups can give twice the advantage where else the coin power-up can make the Mushroom coin currency rate sky rocket! The Warp whistle used to take you to the Warp Zone, but what does it do now? Just try it and find out for yourself! Every world has something to offer for the Warp Whistle!
One of the items that I think is mentioned here is sort of a “money mushroom.” Instead of hidden 1-ups, there are hidden brown mushrooms that give you varying amounts of coins. The ones I’ve seen so far usually gave me 50 coins in one ‘shroom. The warp whistle seems to take you to a special level on each world which contains power-ups and other bonuses.
Let Me Play it Already!
There’s even more that’s new to Mario Adventure than what I listed above, but it feels like too much to list out. You’ll just have to play it and find out yourself. I’ve saved you the trouble of the IPS patching and all that crud. Just download the complete, playable game here. It’s in a zip file because the text manual is included, which I recommend you read through quickly before you play. Oh, and you’ll also need an NES emulator. Try FCE Ultra (0.98.12), which is my current personal favorite. If you need a NES controller for your PC, look no further than here. Have fun, and let us know what you think!
Update – 02/11/2006: Special thanks to Derek for finding a cached copy of the original Mario Adventure home page on the Internet Archive.
Update – 02/13/2006: Check out our new interview with Mario Adventure’s creator, DahrkDaiz!
Update – 12/14/2006: For coverage of Mario Adventure 2 (and to play it!), click here.
February 7th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
The author can be found at http://dahrkdaiz.panicus.org.
February 8th, 2006 at 1:26 am
Thanks, MegaKitsune. I actually found his page right after I posted this entry. Unfortunately, all the links on that page are currently broken.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Great game mate, thanks for the linkage =)
February 8th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
My pleasure, Jakanden.
February 8th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
ooh! rain makes it easy to see invisible blocks
February 10th, 2006 at 7:31 am
Another extremely good SMB3 total conversion, which is just a level and minor graphic change and not a full gameplay change, is SMB3 Challenge which is hiding on this page (around the 9th entry): http://www.lincolnsoft.com/programs/mi3/levels.html. The name doesn’t lie though, it’s truly Nintendo hard.
February 11th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Wonderful article! Very excited to play this on my 1.5 PSP…
February 11th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
You can find the complete site here on Archive.org. Yay!
February 11th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
So what
February 11th, 2006 at 9:30 pm
Dude, wtf is with you windows n00bs zipping shit with useless directories showing that you run as root? Fix that shit, it lets the world know just how retarded you are.
February 11th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Thank you for the wonderful compliment, Big Dawg. Apologies about the superfluous directories in the Mario Adventure zip — it has been fixed (I hate WinZip). Why do I run my personal, single-user desktop installation of Windows 2000 as “root?” I dunno…I guess I let the all the raw power get to my head. It’s crazy, man…I can, like, delete anything I want.
February 11th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Does anyone have a good emulator I could download? I’d like to try this game.
February 11th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Nub,
Nesticle seems to do the trick. You can get it here: http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/nesticle.html
Make sure you get the Windows version though.
February 11th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Here, nub. Try FCE Ultra (0.98.12) — it’s my personal favorite.
February 11th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
How do I choose a path, what button do i use?
February 12th, 2006 at 12:39 am
Additionally, you may want to check out the forum that DahrkDaiz himself goes to and that houses many projects of similar caliber. You can find it by going to http://board.acmlm.org. Feel free to say ‘hi’ to him via PM if you decide to go; he currently full-moderates the forums and is fairly active and I’m sure would like the appreciation about this work.
Not to forget, he’s also working on a better project which you might see in the future sometime, earlier if you know him personally.
February 12th, 2006 at 1:09 am
Wow, I’m surprised that after two years of its initial release there are still people finding out about this hack! Admittedly, this hack has many major flaws, yet, it seems to continue to over shadow the next major hack I’m working on called Luigi vs Mario… What’s this?
Well basically it takes SMB3, adds Luigi as a seperate character with his own set of properties and powers, adds a few powers to Mario to balance him out with Luigi. Then I’ve created two COMPLETELY seperate quests for each characer. Luigi and Mario both have 8 seperate worlds with completely different maps and levels. Some items may be used with one character and not the other.
Also, there’s actual new enemies such as Para Spinies, Giant Buzzy Beetles and a new type of Venus Fire Traps and Ninjis.
Also are real new power-ups, such as the Panda Suit and the Mouser Suit, which lets you create Bob-ombs out of thin air and throw them, just like Mouser from SMB2.
Also comes the new item shop where you can choose what item you buy and each item has a seperate price.
So if you like Mario Adventure, stay tuned for my next project that’s in the works. For those checking my site, give me a little time, I’m working on putting it back up real soon.
February 12th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Digg!
February 13th, 2006 at 1:49 am
MegaKitsune: You get that name from SNES shadowrun?
What an awesome game. I needed about 15 sequals to that game.
February 13th, 2006 at 8:51 am
This sounds pretty sweet. Just wish there was a halfway decent NES emulator for Mac OS X (don’t even get me started on Richard Banister and his half assed ports). The ultimate of course would have been if this had been built on the Mario All-Stars version of SMB3.
P.S. Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox and Shadowrun was an awesome game. Wish somebody would make the Shadowrun 2 games that was hinted at during the ending sort of like this Mario Adventure game was made.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Wasn’t there some new about MS purchacing the rights to a Shadowrun sequal
a year back?
February 13th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Anyone know of an available download location for Mario Adventure?
February 13th, 2006 at 11:51 am
M, the link in the article above works just fine.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
Anyone able to run this rom on an XBOX running fceu v2? My emultaor doesn’t see the rom.
February 13th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
unclezoom I was running this on my xbox yesterday with no problems. Not sure what version of fceu I’m running though.
February 13th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
any way to get this to work on a Mac G5?
February 13th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
I’ve never quite found a decent NES emulator for Mac OS X. All the ones I’ve tried are Richard Bannister ports, like what Twist mentioned above. I mostly used Bannister’s port of RockNES on the Mac a few years ago. Since then I’ve been emulating solely on the PC platform (with FCEU for NES emulation). Try this link for Mac OS X emulators:
http://www.bannister.org/software/emu.htm
February 14th, 2006 at 3:41 am
Im trying to run this on RockNES for OS X…and all I get is a black screen and some music. Fun.
The manual talks about wild things like “patching”, and “mappers”, neither of which I am able to address with a standalone *.nes file.
Any ideas?
February 14th, 2006 at 3:46 am
Nevermind. I downloaded “Nestopia” and she runs like a beaut!
February 14th, 2006 at 4:02 am
Heyy. Where are the key in the zone 5? What zone in the world 5 stay a key?
February 14th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Picked up NESter-X for my xbox and it runs fine. Not sure what the problem was with fceu, could be my xbox setup.
February 14th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
The first key is pissing me off beyond belief! Between two hills, at the bottom of the world… I go to the middle bottom level, (the one where you can’t get out of without dieing) and there is absolutely nothing. I’m going absolutely insane trying to find this please help!
February 14th, 2006 at 6:48 pm
Huge, longtime Mario fan, still play the classics and even the somewhat devoid-of-my-favorite-enemies SM64, I’m on the verge of hating this just for how hard it is. Seems the guy lost sight of Mario being fun AND challenging, with a gigantic focus on challenging and a minimal on fun, of course, someone who plays a game so addictively for so long like that tends to focus on it in that way…Oh well, hopefully, one day, a true, new Mario, will grace us.
February 14th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I know what you mean, Revrant. The fact that Mario Adventure gets really hard limits the fun factor for me too. The funny thing is that, as far as Mario hacks go, this is one of the easiest ones that I’ve ever played! It seems like most, if not all Mario level hacks are designed to make everything harder and more challenging. I suspect it’s because the people who are dedicated enough to do the editing are already masters of the regular game and want a new challenge. It would be nice for a change if a game hacker would take the time to make a fun and completely new game for more casual players, instead of just a hard one for the “hard core.” With Mario Adventure, DahrkDaiz made a new game, but it still follows in the “hard difficulty-level” tradition of its hacked bretheren. Still, I think it’s the best NES hack of all time, by virtue of its completeness, originality, and quality.
February 15th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
This game is great. It’s hard, but not stupid hard IMO. I get frustrated on some levels, but it’s the good type of frustration. Every game I’ve loved over the years has given me that feeling of frustration. 6 worlds down, 2 to go, and 7 hours in!
I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this game before. DahrkDaiz, you are an immortal king among mortal men! I’m very glad you’ve decided to make another SMB3 hack and the details you’ve given so far are tantalizing to say the least. Thank you so much for bringing these hacks to our world!
February 15th, 2006 at 4:57 pm
congrats on the great game, DahrkDaiz. Wicked addictive. The only problem is, I’m totally stuck bewildered as to the key’s location in zone 5. You must feel pretty good having all of us fooled…. but end our suffering with a walkthrough!
February 15th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
DahrkDaiz, what tools did you use to make this hack!? It’s just amazing you’ve pulled this one! 😉 The game is hard, but brilliant! More info, please!! I want to hack some levels, too!
February 15th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Tursas, DahrkDaiz discusses the tools he used and more in my interview with him here:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/65
February 15th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
this hack is the shiznit.but where can i get more games.?ive searched but not much help.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:27 am
irked: I had less trouble with the world 5 key than any others. It’s in the fortress, and you need to get all the coins up to and including the coin arrow and then go back to the beginning part of the level where a door will appear (On the blocks that fall into lava when you stand on them) It takes you to the key, and then you exit the level. I don’t even know how to beat that level without getting the key.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:33 am
o yeah, if anyone is looking for another *REALLY* good hack, you could try Super Demo World. It’s a patch for the ROM of Super Mario World, so you need to have a SNES emulator and the SMW ROM already. Just patch the ROM and you’re set. This game has completely original levels, amazing puzzle design, and a few new features. It doesn’t add as many new things as Mario Adventure, but it makes incredible use of the SMW engine. The people who designed this game deserve a hell of a lot of credit.
February 16th, 2006 at 2:33 am
o yeah, if anyone is looking for another *REALLY* good hack, you could try Super Demo World. It’s a patch for the ROM of Super Mario World, so you need to have a SNES emulator and the SMW ROM already. Just patch the ROM and you’re set. This game has completely original levels, amazing puzzle design, and a few new features. It doesn’t add as many new things as Mario Adventure, but it makes incredible use of the SMW engine. The people who designed this game deserve a hell of a lot of credit.
February 18th, 2006 at 5:39 am
How can this be the best hack ever, if the gameplay is flawed?
February 18th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Because most hacks’ gameplay is even more flawed. And I don’t really think it’s flawed, personally — it’s just difficult.
February 18th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
That was super fun. It brought me back to the days of ordering pizza, staying home all night and trying to finish the game. I just finished it tonight in about 9 hours. It was so tough but also extremely fun. There were some excellent ideas in there which I won’t mention specifically so I don’t spoil it for anyone still working on it. I’m waiting for the next one to come out!
February 19th, 2006 at 4:13 am
RedWolf (and all enthusiasts), on this page there is a speedrun of the hack (second entry from the top): http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/movies.cgi?inpure=Y
Awesome shit!
February 19th, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Angelday, thanks for the link. I’ve actually seen it before and I thought I had posted a link to that already. Maybe I did — I don’t remember and can’t find it. But it’s worth checking out for anyone who needs help with the game.
February 19th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I remember seeing the speedrun somewhere on this site, but was too lazy to dig it up. Sorry for the re-post in that case. 😉
Now let me get back to “Shadow of the Colossus” game on which I’m definitely going to get my filthy hands.
To infinity and beyond!
February 24th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Jake Armitage: No, I hate Shadowrun… I’m a furry, so it seemed natural…
March 2nd, 2006 at 7:28 pm
so i can load the game and all…even bought the NES converted controller…the computer recognizes them…but they don’t actually work within the game…what the eff? please tell me i’m not this stupid…
March 3rd, 2006 at 3:02 am
Coi,
If you’re using FCEU, go to the Config menu, then select input. Then select the “Configure” button next to Port 1: Gamepad. Then click on each direction and button, one at a time, and press the key or joystick button you wish to use for each. Repeat until all keys are defined. Hit “Close” twice and you should be good to go!
March 3rd, 2006 at 1:49 pm
awesome…so then this game is only one player right?
March 4th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
DAMM U GUY HAVENT TRY nestopia for mac have u it’s much better than rock notto mention it has full sound suport
March 7th, 2006 at 9:30 am
awesome game!!! but I cannot save progress with the “freeze state” command on nestopia, it gives me an error, how do you save progress?
March 7th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
WOW!! great game! pretty need programming..impressive! i wish this game would be made playable on a REAL NES 😛
March 17th, 2006 at 9:58 am
i can’t afford game can you send game at my e-mail address
thank you
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Well I just wanted to say guys that those who are complaining about the difficulty: Mario Adventure 2 addresses this thoroughly. There are difficult areas, but I swear not insanely difficult, of course my opinion will differ since when I play through levels, I’m used to the new engine and know what to expect and handle situations, so before this hack rolls out for the final release I will have several people play through the entire hack and make suggestions on what to make harder or easier.
Are there any other suggestions from you players to not do in the next hack? The next hack will not have as much randomness (no weather effects, thank goodness) and there are more balanced power-ups (except Boomerang Suit, that’s pretty powerful but expensive and hard to find).
Also, best of all, this hack should work on real NES hardware (and thus, most NES emulators).
March 25th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Great game. You can play it online here – http://www.onlinevideogameplayer.com/play/hack/s/NES/g/Super-Mario-Bros-3-Adventure
April 4th, 2006 at 11:55 am
[…] and a NES game hack that’s actually an entirely new game. craziness! […]
April 20th, 2006 at 9:12 pm
HELLS YES!
April 24th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
hey i’m adam listen i’ve made a few mario games to but there not hacks and i’m very impressed with mario advenutre now i know how to make games with-out using coding i actually use a program called game maker if your familiar with it here my e-mail add me alright?
shadow_man898@hotmail.com
April 29th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
The keys aren’t too hard to find, but there’s a whole world to hunt around and sometimes the clue isn’t so specific about which level to go to. As a last resort, this page will tell you where to go for the keys.
World 1: Koopa Plains
“Between two hills in a level at the bottom of the world is a block you cannot seeâ€
Well, there’s three levels that fit that description, but it’s the middle level of the bottom row that has the key. You have to know to hold Down for a while on the white block to get through. A little while after the music note block pit, you’ll see two groups of hills with eyes on them in the background. In between them is a music block. Ride it to heaven. Finish the level (or die, it doesn’t matter), and reset the game to use your key.
World 2: Hot Foot Caverns “A fire spitting boo is guarding the entrance which lies near the end of the world and the level.â€
It’s the right-most level, and yep, it’s near the end of it. When you get to the Fire Boo, jump to the lowest wood platform. The left side of that has an invisible music note block. Unless you’re Fire Fire Mario, hop onto a higher platform before attempting to jump on the music note block.
World 3: Lakitu Glacier “Under the Bottom of the ocean is the key to finding the keyâ€
It’s pretty vague. Looking at the map, you’d probably go for the lower levels since they look like they’re underwater, but no, this ocean is actually above water. It’s the fourth level on the path.
When you see the chain chomp, swim down and to the right. There’s enough space to swim under the blocks. Move up the upside-down pipe to get the key.
World 4: Kuribo’s Woods “The right of the cloud gets the key… at least it did in the past!â€
The “past†past of the clue refers to the level one step left of the fortress. That level is based on World 1-1 from SMB1. A music note block appears just right of the first cloud, right at the start of the level. Now you get to play a new version of the level filled with Brothers, and the Boom-Boom is replaced by a key.
Actually, right of the cloud didn’t get a key, or anything for that matter, in the past, so the clue isn’t exactly right. Anyway, on to the next world!
World 5. Starry Slopes “The arrow points to the coins needed to pay the toll to see the doorâ€
Ok, so hopefully you remembered where there was an arrow in this world. Well I’ll just tell you; it was the fortress. The clue isn’t really accurate. The fact is, the arrow is made of the coins needed to pay the toll to see the door.
Anyway, start the fortress as normal, but make sure you collect every coin. When you get to the arrow, collect all those coins, but instead of dropping down, go back to the start of the level. The dropping music note blocks have a door on them now. Enter the door, pressing up as soon as you land on the block before it drops. Congrats, that’s key #5.
World 6: Colossal Classics In the Land of Giants, a tiny way is for tiny people where music notes are silent and fake
Look at the fortress, now take the low route to the left of that, and play the first level you run into. When you get to the part with the music notes, get shrunk into little Mario if you’re not already. Now go on the ? block and hop. The top row of music notes are fake. You get a key made out of coins, then go down a pipe so you can get the real key.
World 7: Desert Dares “Toot!†(letter comes with a whistle)
Toot the whistle.
May 13th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
best ROM hack ive ever played
May 14th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
how do you start it? all i get is this music…
May 23rd, 2006 at 2:49 pm
How do I download Mario Adventure?
Where?
May 25th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
[…] Retro Hack Review: Mario Adventure for the NES Emulator. Here’s my favorite NES Emulator to play said hack, the FCEUltra. […]
June 11th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
David, it’s at the friggin top.
I love this game. I just beat it for the first time last night. I don’t get what people are complaining about it being hard- you get infinite chances, and wands are very useful. Dark, if you’re reading this, you need to get hired by Nintendo. This is by far the best Mario hack ever, if not the best Mario game ever. I can’t wait for Mario Adventure 2. Starry Slopes and Kuribo Woods are my favorite worlds. The final battle with Bowser wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be- beat it on my 3rd try. It was just really fun and fairly long. I give this game a 9.5/10, with only half a point missing because there isn’t really anything to do after beating Bowser besides playing it again. But then again, that’s how the original was. I’m now attempting a No-Wand run.
Here’s a great strategy site I used- http://strategywiki.net/wiki/Mario_Adventure
Some level tips are here, Boss tips, and all of the keys can be found out about here.
July 14th, 2006 at 4:35 am
I want the mario game
July 19th, 2006 at 6:30 am
Please send me any website name whwre i could download snes games
July 19th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
yea i was looking up mario on google cuz i was bord and i saw this thing and it said “mario adventers the nes hacked game” and i checked it out and i was like oley crap this realy is the best hacked game ever! dude good luck on ur mario vs. luigi game and ween i see it ill get it too.and thax for the down load.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:09 am
Love it. Playing it on my 1.5 psp. Great work.
August 1st, 2006 at 6:52 am
[…] El Mario Adventure es una impresionante re-programación del Super Mario Bros 3 que acaba de salir y es lo que me ha llevado a escribir esto. Si el SMB3 es tecnicamente el mejor juego que jamás vio la NES, y, para mi juicio, el mejor Mario en 2D que hay (sÃ, mejor que el Super Mario World, es más completo y divertido, Yoshi es una lagartija de mierda), esta rom es para echar bastante baba. Absolutamente todos los niveles son nuevos, los graficos se han rediseñado con un acabado mejor que el original, el clima en las pantallas es aleatorio, hay nuevos power-ups…Pero no solo eso. El sistema de juego ha cambiado ligeramente, ya no hay que llegar al final, sino que debemos recoger unas serie de llaves, una por mundo, para completar el juego, al final de cada fase nos encontraremos un simpático Boom Boom en vez de la cartita de siempre, las monedas se pueden cambiar por items en lugar de dar vidas… En definitiva, un nuevo e increÃble juego del fontanero amante de los alucinógenos para la siempre eterna NES. […]
August 10th, 2006 at 6:10 am
[…] “In a way, I think we all thirst for a new 2D side scrolling Mario adventure. It �s some sort of basic human need, along with eating, sleeping and reproduction.”read more | digg story […]
August 11th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Look. I’m tired, I’m drunk and I’m excited.
I need a definitive link to download Mario Adventure. Not a link to the site in general. Nay. An actual link to the game download page.
I know it’s already on here somewhere… but as I said: I’m tired, pissed and excited.
I need a break.
I need some Mario Adventure
Help a guy out? (Put it in CAPS so I can see that bad boy.)
God bless you all and green mushrooms to you all.
August 13th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Man, I’ve seen the speed run of this cool hack on Youtube.com. This game is greatest retro-hack ever. Where I can download it?
And where I can get a nes emulator which also can play IPS-files?
Make more good hacks! 😀
August 13th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
There’s a pretty obvious download link in the “Let Me Play it Already” section of the article (it’s the last paragraph at the bottom). Have fun.
August 14th, 2006 at 5:49 am
when will it be ready 2 play ??????:P
August 15th, 2006 at 7:34 am
[…] El Mario Adventure es una impresionante re-programaci�n del Super Mario Bros 3 que acaba de salir y es lo que me ha llevado a escribir esto. Si el SMB3 es tecnicamente el mejor juego que jam�s vio la NES, y, para mi juicio, el mejor Mario en 2D que hay (s�, mejor que el Super Mario World, es m�s completo y divertido, Yoshi es una lagartija de mierda), esta rom es para echar bastante baba. Absolutamente todos los niveles son nuevos, los graficos se han redise�ado con un acabado mejor que el original, el clima en las pantallas es aleatorio, hay nuevos power-ups…Pero no solo eso. El sistema de juego ha cambiado ligeramente, ya no hay que llegar al final, sino que debemos recoger unas serie de llaves, una por mundo, para completar el juego, al final de cada fase nos encontraremos un simp�tico Boom Boom en vez de la cartita de siempre, las monedas se pueden cambiar por items en lugar de dar vidas… En definitiva, un nuevo e incre�ble juego del fontanero amante de los alucin�genos para la siempre eterna NES. […]
August 17th, 2006 at 6:39 am
i like all mario games can get for me web sites to download mario games please i am a mario fan my id On Yahoo Messenger is astronautul_yo93 im wating
August 18th, 2006 at 11:31 am
This may sound quite silly, but can you play it using a computer keyboard?
August 18th, 2006 at 11:34 am
John,
Yes, you can play it with a keyboard. All NES emulators support using a keyboard as a controller.
August 19th, 2006 at 9:55 am
Oh man, this game is so boombastic!!! But one thing nerves me!!!
World 5, the level, after you’ve beaten one of two ways with a level, I doN#t get it! There’s a huge wall and there’s no way to pass it!!! What I’m makin’ wrong? Could anyone tell me how to beat this level?
August 19th, 2006 at 8:46 pm
Just wondering… This game sounds really cool but I never tried any of these emulation things. I know they’re not exactly legal but what are the chances of like getting caught? I know alot of other guys that use it and somehow get by easily… Is it risky or not?
August 19th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
forget what i just said actually
but a new question… how exactly do you like jump or slect levels or anything? the only thing i can do is move around with the arrow keys… i tried pressing every button on my keyboard. i read the manual that came with it. it didnt say anything about the buttons you press. keyboard’snot the same as a controller but for now its all i have
August 20th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
How can I find out the keyboard controls then?
August 20th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Different emulators usually have different default keyboard-button associations (try the “Ctrl” “Alt” and “Shift” keys first for the “A” and “B” buttons). Otherwise, you’ll probably have to figure out how to change the “input” settings in your particular emulator to define which key on the keyboard corresponds with which “button” on an imaginary NES control pad. For instructions related to the FCEU emulator, check out my previous comment about it here:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/63#comment-453
August 20th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
hey where can you get a good controller for this? i’m guessing ebay but what would you search for?
August 20th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
For the best NES controller on a PC, look no further than this:
http://www.retrousb.com/nintendo.html
I reviewed that guy’s FourScore USB unit on VC&G here:
http://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/8
Other than that, you could search for “PC Gamepad” or “PC Joystick” on eBay — assuming you’re using a PC.
August 22nd, 2006 at 4:38 pm
slt , c souna de france je veux vous disez vous pouvez me envoiyée les jeux de mario adventures
August 22nd, 2006 at 5:09 pm
ok cool ill check that out. i want to get a SNES emulator too… which is the best one in your opinion and does that regular nintendo controller work for it also? or do u have to get another. if so i’d rather just get a generic controller or gamepad
August 24th, 2006 at 10:53 am
My favorite SNES emulator is SNES9X, but ZSNES is equally capable. The nintendo controller would work for that as well, but you’d only have two buttons instead of six, so it would be very limiting. You can buy a SNES USB pad from Retrozone as well, but if you need something more versatile, just get a multibutton PS2-style pad for your PC.
September 8th, 2006 at 1:14 pm
[…] Via VintageComputing […]
September 15th, 2006 at 12:18 pm
what’s up people
October 10th, 2006 at 7:32 am
do you think there would be a possible SNES Version of this? or is programming for SNES more difficult than NES?
October 25th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Man, I wish they’d create an NES emulator for my Nintendo DS! Then I could play this sweet game on the go. There has to be some way to take files from external flash media (ie a thumb drive), and put ’em onto a DS…
‘Til then, the game stays on my Mac.
Speaking of which, if you have a Mac, try playing this game with Richard Bannister’s Nestopia. Get it here:
October 25th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Mac Lover,
I’m not into the DS homebrew scene at the moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has made a DS NES emulator by now.
I do know of a really good NES emulator for the Game Boy Advance (http://www.pocketnes.org/), and if you have a GBA flash card you can use it. Also, since the DS plays GBA games, you could easily use that emulator on your DS as well.
Thanks for the comment!
November 13th, 2006 at 10:12 am
such a brilliant game. Strange thing is, the other day I was telling my buddy that I hoped that people would start trying to program games for NES emulators. And then I found this game.. it really made a dream a reality for me.
I really hope that a scene for this developes. I suspect this game will inspire some other talented coders to attempt such a feat.
Actually, the appeal of playing a redone mario 3 game is much greater than playing a new PS2 game or whatever. All of my favorite games were made in the 80’s and 90’s, with a few exceptions.
hats off to you, Darhkdaiz.
November 26th, 2006 at 12:44 am
HOW DO I PLAY??!!? i unzipped it and all i see is words and words and words and odd funky letters.
November 26th, 2006 at 12:51 am
nevermind.. i got it to work.. now .. what are the controlls?!? lol
November 26th, 2006 at 1:04 am
HEY THIS GAME IS FUN!!!! =D
December 2nd, 2006 at 9:17 pm
…. I can’t get this game to work. I’m using a Macintosh version 10.2.8 and I recently downloaded a Nestopia version 1.1.2 (I would’ve downloaded the recent version, but my Macintosh isn’t above 10.4). Everytime I try to turn on the game, all I get is a blank screen with repeating music. Can someone help please?
December 8th, 2006 at 4:52 am
retro gaming need this sort of thing excellent work, never stop
December 8th, 2006 at 5:00 am
also on a retro gaming note could somebody fix bignose freaks out for nes by camerica to work on emus? would really love to play it but cant find a working rom
December 8th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Can someone reply to my last post please? I really want to play this game
December 8th, 2006 at 4:43 pm
I’m not sure what to tell you, anonymous. The best I can do to help you is point you to the other comments on Mac emulators on this article. Search for “mac” and see what they’ve said. Maybe someone else could help you more.
December 8th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Never mind. I tried this on a FakeNES, and it works perfectly!
December 11th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
HEY GUYS I NEED HELP HOW CAN I ENTER A WARP PIPE???
PLEASE TELL ME!
December 14th, 2006 at 5:33 pm
Anyone who wants to play an incomplete (but awesome) version of Mario Adventure 2 should check this out.
December 21st, 2006 at 2:19 am
I have finally beat this game. it took me 12 hours. i know that i am a slowpoke but i just wanted to say that this game is amazing since the beginning and continued to amaze me throughout the game until the end. i just wanted to thank this site for pointing me in the right direction and i also want to thank dahrkdaiz for creating this hacksterpiece. you are sick in the head bro!!! oh and by the way those keys were riduculous to find man holy crap. take it easy people.
oh yeah and i cant wait until the sequel. i played the unfinished version as like a sample and it seems interesting. im digging those new outfits.
December 21st, 2006 at 3:46 pm
oh by the way i was slow because i whipped the games ass on my keyboard.
December 27th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
How do I play this game? What are the keyboard controls? I can use the arrow keys to move around, but I can’t figure out how to “choose a path” or anything else. Thanks
December 27th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Nevermind, I figured it out…I just kept pushing buttons until I figured out the rest of the controls…for anyone else out there here’s the controls that worked for me (on FCEUltra emulator):
Control = B button (spin tail, etc.)
Alt = A Button (Jump, select something)
Enter = Start Button (Pause, some selections)
Arrows = move around, duck
I think that’s about it.
February 20th, 2007 at 7:11 am
Hi!
I’ve got a problem…
I’ve collected all keys, but none of it came to the inventory (i realized they should when i looked on a pic). But! I got the key of the world 6 (wierd enough) and i locked up one door…. but how can i get thoose other keys? They wont show up in the inventory when i get them… Help?
Btw, all keys are displayed in the gui….(but not in the inventory).
March 4th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Hi guys! Let me say this is GREAT work! I’m amazed about how this guy worked on it and also had to work and study in his normal life! Two thumbs up!
But I have a problem with Invisible Mario! It just worked a couple of times, but then it stopped working. When I have Invisible Cap and press Down + B, no transformation happens! I’m using latest version of JNES, and I worked a couple of times over FCEU….
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!
March 5th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
How do you download from this site?
March 6th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
cool! More Hack games!
March 14th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Hey Cocodrilo,
I’m afraid that you collected the proper keys and left them in your inventory where they subsequently got replaced buy other collected items. One bit of information that I was unable to find anywhere on this game, was that you should use the keys ASAP so they do not get replaced since you can not recollect them and your inventory is limited.
To get out of your plight, you can use this code while on a playing screen: Press Down, Down, Left, Up, B, Select, A, Left, Left. If done correctly, you’ll hear a coin sound. Reset the game and you’ll see world 8 accessible on the Warp Zone.
BEFORE you do that, and to be fair, continue playing your game until you have beaten all seven worlds AND collected all of the remaining keys. This way it’ll be like your problem went away and you played the game in an honest manner. That’s what I did and the result was fine.
Good Luck!!!
P.S. Dahrk Daiz, you and your Mario Adventure are truly legendary. Won’t you please reconsider completing Luigi VS Mario/Mario Adventure 2? If the merging of the two ideas has become disjointed, perhaps a sequel isn’t in order. Instead, an entirely new game would eliminate those pressures of merging the two. I’ve played the incomplete Luigi VS Mario and it is a great game thus far. I think it would stand up just fine as it’s own entity next to MA without any game relation.
Let me also bring to light that you also have a legion of willing and able people who would be honored to help you out if you need it. All you have to do is ask…
April 10th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
nice, but i only want the exact mario adventure… unhacked version…
April 12th, 2007 at 7:01 am
It takes ages to find the correct SMB3 rom (N American Version) game for this IPS. I have done all the hard work now for you, all you need to do now is get the already patched rom I have done!,
Zts 🙂
(I used IPSWIN to patch.)
April 12th, 2007 at 10:04 am
Z-Tzar: Unfortunately, all your hard work was unnecessary, as there is a completely patched version of the game ready to download and play, which is linked to in the last paragraph of the article (under the “Let Me Play It Already” section).
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 am
yes!!! this is…………….AWSOME!!!!!!
the dificulty is just right for an “Experienced gamer” like me.
May 6th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
how do i play? i rly want to play!
June 6th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
i really can’t select my path please help
June 16th, 2007 at 10:43 am
pretty helpful page. im having problems finding the keys . i can beat the worlds but if i have no keys whats the use of playing. please help
July 27th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
@Jimtoxicated:
Hi!
I’ve tried the code, and all doors are unlocked…
I can go to the last world, but im getting stuck, and cant move in the map, and when i playing in the current level, it freezes, like it got a wrong address or something…
Any idea?
July 31st, 2007 at 2:27 am
Jimtoxicated,you are right . I had the same question to Dahrk Daiz.
August 7th, 2007 at 1:25 am
O Mario Adventure Nao Funsona No Emulador
August 17th, 2007 at 1:50 am
I am Tommy and I like very much marios game.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
WTF, why when I get my keybord configured and when i go to open my file for MA, I get these weird sounds with no picture! Am i doing something wrong or what?!
September 1st, 2007 at 6:34 pm
looks good let me try it now…….hold on
September 1st, 2007 at 7:02 pm
HMMM……. man job well done you get a 8 outa 10
groot hack””
September 17th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
hey do you have a mario or popeye book that you can get me please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
gr8 publish ! and gr8 game ! playing it on my ipod touch as we speak and its frikin awesome !!!
November 5th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
In World 2, I found another way to get the key and actually fight the boom-boom at the end of the level: Just fly over the area with the three 50 coin mushrooms and you’ll find it. That one was really easy for me because of the glitch I abused to find it…
November 18th, 2007 at 6:53 am
Thank you for making this game, i love it. It’s like playing smb3 for the first time.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Easy game. Complete in under 6 hours. All keys easy to find (found 2 without getting the clue)
One problem. The levels that are survival levels where you must survive 50 seconds to win, should SAY they are survival levels (like the level that tells you to collect all coins to find the exit) It took me a few trys to realize that the bob-omb levels you just need to survive 50 seconds to win the mini-level (that world with like 50 levels on it).
Now do a metroid hack!
December 15th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
My god, this game is so hard. >_
December 27th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I like this, but there are WAY too many cheap tricks to kill you, like hitting invisible blocks when jumping over a hole, when there is nooooo sign that the block are even there.
December 27th, 2007 at 12:17 am
oh, and having a thwomp spawn directly above you at the beginning of a level is fun… >:(
January 17th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
This is so kool and i have never played anything like it before
January 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
ummmmm this is a great game. i am a mario freak. i love chukey the doll killler. he is sooo hot. i am a doll too. and im going too kill you evry one soo try too run away. wa ha ha ha ha ha ha
January 20th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
i am a doll and im going too kill you wa ha ha ha ha ha jenafur tilly
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
MARIO IS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
February 8th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
askldjbhfsadkljhfsadbofi2ewfnbwklfjnawflsadfsadfsdfsdfsdfsdfsadgsagfdfgdsfgdsfg
May 13th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Hey, I’m wondering how to save my progress in the game – I keep doing the start, and then when I leave the fceu program and go in it next time, I have to do it all again.
Thanks for the game, by the way – it’s awesome… well, what I’ve manage to play so far, anyway…
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
great game, but it would of been even better if you made a SNES version usig the super mario all star graphics
July 4th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
If you like that hack, “Some Usual Day” is also worth your time
July 12th, 2008 at 3:31 am
How do I selecet a world when I open the game? I press 1 and then comes this : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
select
What do I do then? I tried pressing every key on my keyboard but nothing selected my option.. Help please, I really want to play it :{
July 25th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I feel I should post this, or this information might be lost forever as the author’s site is down.
These are cheat codes that can be used in game.
Music Test
On the title screen (when it says Press Start) press:
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Select and “Grassy Hills” should appear. Pressing left or right will change the track, pressing A will play it.
Frog Suit (BAD LAD)
While playing a stage: Press B A Down Left A Down
P-Wing (LUB DA DD)
While playing a stage: Press Left Up B Down A Down Down
Invincibility (RUBBA DUB)
While playing a stage: Press Right Up B B A Down Up B
9900 Extra Coins (SARSLAB)
While playing a stage: Select A Right Select Left A B
Unlock World 8 + Unlock all locks (DD LUBS ALL)
While playing a stage: Press Down Down Left Up B Select A Left Left If done correctly, you’ll hear a coin sound. Reset the game and you’ll see world 8 accessible on the Warp Zone
August 24th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
See my SMB hack, Super Mario Dark… in: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=v0c5BXQWcMA
January 10th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Cool game!
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Yo I just gotta say this
If you’re looking for Super Mario Bros 4 (or 5, if you count SMW as 4), this is it. Look no further.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I can’t get the game to work. Any suggestions?
October 8th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Awesome. Thanks a lot 🙂
January 1st, 2010 at 12:59 pm
This game is practically made for Nestopia…
http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
February 14th, 2010 at 12:55 am
what do you use to open it
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 am
I have FCEUltra on my wii homebrew but for some reason, the game isn’t working. i’ll put it on my sd card, go to the emulator, select it from the list of games i have, and all that happens is the screen goes black and i hear the warp zone music (i know it’s in the intro to the game) sped up and looping constantly. no icons or screen, just black with the sped up, looping music. why can’t i get it to play?
April 26th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
What are the controls for the game?
August 28th, 2010 at 3:57 am
i know how to save my progress while playing on computer
November 10th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
I played it and I wasn’t that impressed. You get some visual alterations and a couple extra (yet useless) powerups, but other than that… it’s just… meh. Unless you are a die hard SMB fame and loves a game that looks and plays the same but is slightly different, you may enjoy this.
Also… “the best NES Hack EVER”?? Ok, maybe if this were 1997. -___-
November 20th, 2011 at 8:56 am
If your wondering how to play I discovered it already. Alt is jump which is A.Ctrl Is to run which is B. And Tab is select. I added select because its for the hacks of the game.http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mario_Adventure/Cheats is the website with the cheats. Enjoy! Warning! This happened to my computer if you are using NESTLE as a elumator or player you might be in trouble. Click Ctrl to many times and the screen will turn weird. So Be Careful!
March 7th, 2016 at 8:26 am
Wow, 10 years since this was published…
May 1st, 2017 at 4:05 am
Not able to load this game through retroarch….any idea guys?
December 27th, 2017 at 1:32 am
I really love this Mario Adventure game and it is wonderful