Download Communist Mario 3 now!

The object of this hack is to play through the original SMB3 but instead avoid all the coins, either free or in blocks. A number of other gameplay changes have been made to execute this main change, as well as a fully customized theme to compliment it! Please note that I do not claim any of the content in this hack to be accurate in any way possible. Some of it might be, but I didn’t put any effort into accuracy. If you have a problem with the content, grow some thicker skin or go play another hack.


Credits:
Most graphics are my own. Some have been sourced from other NES ROMs like Megaman 3-5, Castlevania, Faxanadu, and others.
Graphics from JaSp’s hack, “Mario in: Some Usual Day”, mostly global animated graphics.
Many people on IRC. The channel #rom-hacking on Espernet is full of people that were instrumental in helping me learn how to manipulate and edit my data. These people include Lenophis, DahrkDaiz, Disch, Vystrix Nexoth/Rainne, and more.
MetroidMst/ShyGuy for all the hype!!!
Lenophis for playtesting, suggestions, and streaming.
DahrkDaiz for his notes from way back in the day.
Emuz and DJBouche for support, ideas, and resources.
Finally, setz/skiffain for creating and releasing Communist Mario (SMB1), the idea for this hack.


Gameplay Changes:
Don’t get coins! Any kind of coin will hurt or kill you! You can still gather coins while invincible, and any coin gathering you do will still cause your coin counter to increase.
Mostly unchanged levels! Aside from functional and aesthetic changes, levels have been left as unchanged as possible. Yep, this is a feature.
One-ups have been removed! Any one-up that was in the game has been changed to a mushroom power-up. You will not gain a one-up for collecting coins.
Lives counter has been changed to a death counter! If you max the counter cap at 99, you are not a very good communist.
Level-end goal cards and slot-machine matching games have been removed. Since there’s no longer any point to having lives, they don’t serve a purpose.
Warp whistles, music boxes, and all but one anchor have been removed. Warp whistles are lazy, music boxes suck, and anchors are next to useless.
Use your items! Hammers, Tanooki Suits, Hammer Suits, and other items are more plentiful.


Theme Changes:
All worlds have their own unique graphics set. They will look different, but will have the same fundamental layout as the original.
Storyline has been changed, so the text also needed to match. All old princess letters were changed to quotes from Vladimir Lenin and all the chairmen (formerly kings) messages have been changed.
Bowser is no longer the antagonist. That has been changed to Uncle Sam and the United States.
Levels have slight changes that make them look a bit less plain, mostly fortresses.


Technical Details:
Increased the amount of frames the game uses to animate most game elements in-level. The original game had 4. This hack cycles 16 frames in the same amount of time as the original game cycled 4.
World 4 airship autoscroll speed was increased. It uses a different autoscroll pathway, so certain changes were made to accommodate it.
Coins have the “hurt Mario” routine attached to it.
Includes code for all worlds to be able to handle their own unique graphics page. In order for this to work, all graphic pages needed to be organized and arranged to fit the single TSA page referenced by the game.
Certain world map conditions were changed to allow for my execution of features and styles in this hack. No dark screen in the third part of World 8! Animation restored to World 5, but animation stopped in World 6.

Note: Yes, I realize some things are a bit "off", such as some of the palettes. Usually these things are a result of various programming limitations, or requires a bit more effort than I'm willing to put into it.

Posted by Luigi_Fan

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Heh, I saw this over at SMW Central and figured I would give it a try. World 1-5(or 1-6? Can't remember) is now super dickish, because right at the start of the level there's a platform with a red koopa on it, and it has coins right above it. You can't jump over it, so you have to take damage Then there's a similar part where you're on a moving platform and the coins get in the way of the line, forcing you to take damage again. I played until World 3-2, and I'd say this is a very... interesting mod.

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Hint: You can beat all of the levels without taking damage OR using cheap strats like P-Winging over the whole level. I've verified this with every level. Some levels are extremely difficult to do this and requires a bit of planning with regards to your route and what powerups you need. I don't believe that any of them require use of a powerup before entering the level. For 1-6, you can stomp on the red koopa as it sort of peeks over the side. As for the line guide section, you can avoid damage even if you're big by staying in the center and a bit to the left of the platform. You don't even have to duck.

I do plan on releasing a 1.01 version of this to fix a couple of bugs and make some minor tweaks. There are some things that are sort of out-of-whack with it that I'd like to fix before getting some cartridges made. I do have a few people interested. It depends on how many people want them. I'm still working out the pricing details, and getting a couple of prototypes made. The boards I'll use for these will be 100% new, so no sacrificing other games to make these.

As far as the suggestions that have been made:
1) Levels are not getting their coins moved or removed. Even if it is possible to beat the game without getting hit, you're still going to take a few hits. This game reeks of communism, so it isn't going to be fair. I've designed the game around this- you'll get plenty of items to use. If you can't handle the difficulty, then you should probably go play an easier game like Sesame Street ABC.

2) Levels are original for a reason. I feel that introducing a gimmick like deadly coins would lose a lot of its intrigue if you didn't get to experience it with a well-known environment like the vanilla SMB3 levels are. Besides, designing a level knowing that coins do damage would be difficult to do without making it Kaizo. The vanilla set of levels have a decent balance of coins already. Perhaps someday I will design a new set of levels AND give the player the choice of which set of levels they'd like to play. This was originally the plan, but with my life as busy as it is, I just ran out of time to make the levels and figure out how to make the game load two separate level sets. 2P mode was going to get nerfed.

3) If I had my own way, the intro to the N-Spade card matching game would be entirely removed. If I can figure out how to do so before the next release, it will be removed.

4) Other issues:
- The sprite that I used for Princess Peach's replacement will be brand new instead of a rip of an existing game's sprite.
- There is a bug where the P-Switch music is not preserved when going through a pointer (pipe/door).
- Another bug exists where all vertical lock blocks are replaced with horizontal road tiles when unlocked.
- I also need to fix the first fortress in World 7 so you can see the doors since they are black doors against a black background.
- Minor display glitch on the credits screen where the ground doubles up during curtain rise. I'm not sure what's causing it.

5) I really would like to increase the deaths and coins counter to three digits. I haven't been able to figure that out quite yet. If someone could help me out with that, I will give you a gold star.

Posted by Luigi_Fan

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You didn't need to post the same thing on both forums, but it was nice of you to do that in case if I didn't check either forum. I posted a response to your long post on SMW Central.

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My response was posted on both forums because I felt like addressing the point you brought up on both forums. These two places aren't the only places I posted it either.

Thanks for your input on this. I'll get back to a response to the other post soon.

Trel, That was originally the plan, but I just didn't know enough about 6502 to do anything useful. I'm thinking reuse of the timer code is going to be what ends up being used, if it happens. You said you might stream this and/or record an LP of it, but I'm curious as to when that'll be?

Posted by Trelior

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if the next patch is brewing, I'll hold off on it.

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Let's just say that the food is in the pot, but the burner is intermittent. I have no idea how long it's going to take to cook. If I have any idea when it'll be done, I'll post in here.

How does the red shell look? I could also go with a yellow one. My preference was to go with a transparent red one, but I can't find anyone who sells them right now.

Anyone wanting one should probably PM me. I've already got a few people who do, but only one has PMed me. I guess it helps keep track of who wants one.

So, the next update will have a few bugfixes as well as more goodies!

A tweak of the music handling code will allow me to specify using the Tetris GB Type-A music for levels. Although it works, some of the PCM samples used in the song are inside another bank that doesn't get loaded while levels are being played. It doesn't sound horrible, so I'll let it pass. The bank is loaded on world maps though, which is why it sounds fine there.

A big game-breaking bug existed where the World 3 airship retreated to a point you couldn't get to. I fixed that.

Another small bug got fixed where hammer bros sitting on top of a spade bonus pointer loaded up one of the unfinished bonus games instead of a hammer bro encounter.

The vertical lock block now turns into a vertical road. The map editor I use constantly reverts it back again, so it might show up again in the future. I'll just have to keep my eye on it.

A couple of minor graphical changes to spice up the game have been made.

Also, CM3 now has three digit coin/deaths counters. A big thanks to snarfblam for making that change. So if you really suck ass at CM3, the game will show you how bad you are.

I'll need to play through it a couple times again to make sure it plays fine before I release it. Stay tuned.

Posted by Trelior

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I played it again until I maxed the death counter at 99. Made it to the world 7 airship.

Question: On 6-Fort1, how are you expected to get onto the moving platform if you don't bring in outside powerup? I had to break my additional challenge of "No P-wings" to soak the hit and actually do the level.

Also it feels like you tweaked the rate of getting level three powerups to 11. I had at least six Tanookis and about eight hammer bros when I called it quits.

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I made the jump as Small Mario a few times. It's difficult, but it can be done. I also just use stars to get through. Also, here is Communist Mario 3 v1.1 in .nes format for you lazy people. I did tweak the items you get from various points in the game. I removed all but 1 anchor, all warp whistles and music boxes. I had to replace them with something.

If you do an LP of it, just be casual. Version 1.1 has a few more small features in it over 1.0 and fixes a few bugs.