In case you did not know this (I didn’t until today), there is actually a ROM hacking team out there that pushes out a hacked Tecmo Super Bowl ROM every year with updated rosters.
Fire up your NES emulator and grab it here.
In case you did not know this (I didn’t until today), there is actually a ROM hacking team out there that pushes out a hacked Tecmo Super Bowl ROM every year with updated rosters.
Fire up your NES emulator and grab it here.
This morning, for their allotted video game time, my two oldest children (9 and 8) decided to play the NES Super Mario Bros. (they have been enjoying New Super Mario Bros. on both the Wii and the DS recently). I wanted to be part of this, as I figured they might have some trouble with it—if you haven’t played it in a long time, as with many older games, it’s actually quite difficult.
What I was not ready for were the barrage of questions about very basic things, most of them related to changes in how games are designed and play between my childhood and theirs. I’m still watching them and other than an adventurous warp zone expedition to World 4-1 by my son (who had seen me do that the other day) only one of them has managed to make it past World 1-2 in the last 30 minutes.
So here’s the list of things your children won’t understand if you try to get them to play Super Mario Bros.:
If you’ve done this with your kids or can think of any other likely things they don’t understand, post a comment and let me know. I doubt these two know anything of what a password is to continue a game, either.
On the other hand, there are some things that are still pretty masterful about this game and that play well. The jump “feel” is still awesome and they picked it up without too much trouble—I’m still watching them get a grasp on the acceleration and air control. They both knew about holding B to run and had a good understanding of the basic rules and physics of the game, and in that way I don’t think Mario has changed all that much (which is part of its appeal for me). They both knew 100 coins earns you another life.
What was most interesting to me was that other than the complaining about how they weren’t any good at it or that the other child was getting to play more—and both of them did this at different times—is that they had fun. As limited as the technology was at the time and as rough as the game looks compared to contemporary games, they still found aspects of it interesting and fun to discover. Joshua just warped to World 2 instead of World 4 just so he could see what it was like and how it’s different.
They’re even commenting on influences they see that went more or less directly into New Super Mario Bros. It’s interesting to think that in a small way the Mario series, with games separated by two decades, has provided us a shared language for games.
This listing is for a custom knit baby Mega Man suit. It includes a knit helmet, arm bands, long booties, and a diaper cover/soaker. All items are knit in 100% wool yarn. This Mega Man suit is knit in bright blue, with lighter blue accents. I can make this in virtually any color combination you would like. If you’d like something other than the blue, please include your color choice in the notes to seller at checkout, or through a convo. If no alternate colors are specified, the set will be knit exactly as shown here.
FRIGGIN’ RAD.