American FDS

[adori_12]

Wow, I thought Arumana no Kiseki was a 4-way-only scrolling game, but I just had a look on it and it's not.
So now we know it is possible to have both HUD bar and 8-way scrolling on FDS games, so maybe an FDS port of Mario 3 is indeed possible after all. Now I love to see if fitting that game on a disk can be done.

[P]

Ah good! Arumana no Kiseki is indeed doing 8-way scrolling and split screen effect for the status bar. It was released 1987 (Metafight is 1988).

We knew it is possible with the stock Famicom, but the question is if developers back in the day knew, and had the time to implement it.
If MMC1 (Metafight) can do it, FDS games can.

I did some googling and it seems like the IRQ counter in the FDS can be used to count scanlines and use it for split screen effects. Both Zelda and Almana no Kiseki seems to use it for the status bar. I thought it was only used for disk-related stuff. That makes Metafight even more impressive.

[boye]

The SMB3 rom size is 222kb, so it would fit on two disks. It might have been smaller earlier in dev.

[P]

222 kByte or kbit? Either way it's not right. The PRG ROM is 32 kB and CHR ROM is 8 kB, and since the iNES ROM image format includes both ROMs and a 16 byte header, the ROM image file should be 40 976 byte (40.015625 kB). One FDS disk side is about 64 kB. There is an FDS version of SMB, and it's using only one disk side, so does Super Mario Bros 2 which has twice as many levels.


Or are you talking about SMB3? It is 256 kB PRG and 128 kB CHR ROM so it would need at least 3 disks (no FDS game used more than 2 disks).

[boye]

I meant SMB3 used 222KB.

222 kByte or kbit? Either way it's not right. The PRG ROM is 32 kB and CHR ROM is 8 kB, and since the iNES ROM image format includes both ROMs and a 16 byte header, the ROM image file should be 40 976 byte (40.015625 kB). One FDS disk side is about 64 kB. There is an FDS version of SMB, and it's using only one disk side, so does Super Mario Bros 2 which has twice as many levels.

Or are you talking about SMB3? It is 256 kB PRG and 128 kB CHR ROM so it would need at least 3 disks (no FDS game used more than 2 disks).

Heh.

[80sFREAK]

256/128K is effect of "more memory avaliable, so why bother about neat coding and compressing data".

The question is - do you want SMB3 in form of FDS game? With extra sound channels used?

[boye]

It would be cool, but impractical to put an FDS version of SMB3 on THREE DISKS.
Edit: I did the math (FDS disks actually use 112 kilobytes per disk) and SMB3 would have to be on, make sure you're sitting down for this: FOUR WHOLE DISKS. (The SMB3 filesize (PRG + CHR roms) is 384 kilobytes.)

[L___E___T]

 



Really?  I'd love to see that.  

I don't see why it's so impractical - it's SMB3 after all.  

The level select is split into three areas, there are three whistles, three chests in each mushroom house, 3 types of end level card bonus.  

And there's more, so why not 3 disks?

[boye]

Well, I'm talking about bare filesize, but if there was an SMB3 FDS port, someone might be able to cram it into 3 disks.

[ericj]

I realize this is different, but there is a SMB3 game doctor disk version. It requires the TGD6 to run. I have a couple copies of this and also the files. I can't recall offhand how many disks it is, but it's at least 3.

[80sFREAK]

Well, I'm talking about bare non-compressed filesize, but if there was an SMB3 FDS port, someone might be able to cram it into 3 disks.

fixed

[P]

64 x 6 = 384 so that's exactly 3 disks, assuming 64 kB per side (QDs actually have a bit more space than 64 kB per side, the .fds format only allows 64 kB per side including headers though I think).
But like 80sFREAK said the game might had been made smaller if the developers used better compression and optimizations. It's a question of time and cost during production. And 256 kB PRG ROM doesn't necessarily mean they used up all the space in the mask ROM chip. Who knows, by using "modern" methods, compression and optimizations it might actually even be possible to cram it on 2 disks.

[80sFREAK]

There is a LOT of empty space in the ROM.

[boye]

Huh. Also, I wonder why Sharp changed the BIOS screen for the FDS part of the Twin Fami.

[L___E___T]

 



It was part of the license deal that they could brand the machines and the boot up screens Sharp.  My FamicomStation also has a Sharp boot up.