VBGamer

Sweet!    

I found the game really difficult to play.   I'm so used to controlling mario with my left hand and jumping with my right.  Overall it looks really cool.  I'm glad you've made your own levels, it really makes it a refreshing game.

Thanks for the comment Eric.

Most of the people who play it the first time tell me it's a little difficult to control with the keyboard, but once they get used to it, it seems to flow.  The jumping is a little different than other Mario games but I find it suits the game style and levels well.  You can change the controls to WSAD for the arrows and some other keys for jump and run and shoot if you want to run around with your left hand.  The Setup Controls program included allows you to change the default keyboard keys and also set up a joystick or gamepad.  Also, this game gets hard fast because there are not many levels and I wanted it to be challenging to finish.  The final version will ease in to the difficult levels allowing time for getting used to controlling Mario.

There was no way I was going to use old levels for this game.  I was not going to make many levels at first but I got used to it and now I plan on the final version of the default mod to have 8 full worlds with an average of 10 levels each.  Keep your eye on the site for updates if you enjoyed it.

Peace

I bought a better game controller so I could play this game.  The game plays much better with an analog gamepad.  One minor issue is that you can't use the gamepad to pick a map/game and to start the game.  I know I'm being picky, but that's about the only major fault I can find. 

I've been playing the hell outa this, good job!
I am using the logitech pad thats shaped like a ps2 controller and it works perfectly, better than playing
on the nintendo systems!

This is all done in visual basic?
It seems very well structured, however alt-tabbing the program causes a runtime error.

Anyway good job, it is inspirational to see work like this.


Aztecgames

Nice job indeed! It's always great to see something so complete made in our beloved VB.

It seems to me that the game would look a little better with a more consistent art style, even if all the sprites were in low resolution. Also, big Mario's walk animation looks a bit weird.

Plus, it wouldn't hurt if you didn't have to start from the beginning of the level when you die.

But this are just tiny issues; overall - great work!

WOW! Very nice work. Hats off to a great job. Change the sprites and the levels and sell this puppy! Other than the game playing a little slow/choppy it ran at an acceptable pace. Again, very impressive work.

Thanks so much everyone I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it.  Thanks also for the criticisms, I want to make this game as enjoyable as possible for everyone. 

Aztecgames, the Logitech Dual Action gamepad is the pad I actually use while debugging the game, I love it.  Yes, this entire thing from the ground up was built using Visual Basic 6.0 with direct X 7 and a bit of 8 for the rotating objects.  I will eventually fix the problem with Alt-Tabbing, it's mainly just my lazy coding style.

Walrus, I was planning on changing all of the sprites to the same resolution as the Goombas and items.  They were all originally low-res but I started slowly retracing them in my spare time.  Now some of them are high-res and some are not.  This currently is not a priority as I am working on more levels, coding bosses and new enemies, and debugging small problems I run accross.  Since I am hearing this game is decently hard from most people, I will be adding a mid-point save feature to the levels.  Thanks for the idea!

dxgame, the reason I made this game was to give it away to everyone to enjoy and mod to it's fullest extent.  Despite the zillions of hours I put in to making it I honestly couldn't care less what people do with it short of slap their name on it and pass it off as there own.  I want as many people as possible to be able to play it therefor it will always be freeware and I will be posting mods on my site once people learn the ways of the editor.  I'm glad to hear it would be a moneymaker though .

The refining of the graphics is actually quite a large project considering the level ground tiles are also low-resolution.  If anyone feels like frittering away hours drawing meaningless graphics for someone elses project at no pay, please contact me.

There will be another update with a couple new levels and the layout for the actual first world by March 2nd.  Also I have decided to make NINE worlds because I always wanted to play a Mario game with nine worlds.  The worlds will be as follows in this order:

Grassy Grove
Fungi Forest
Deceptive Desert
Glistening Glacier
Muddled Mudlands
Soaring Clouds
Pipe Quandry
Voracious Volcano
Darkness

There will be 7 to 12 levels per world and always a castle or two.  Until the next update, enjoy yourselves.  By the way, make sure you try the 'Races' mod if you have skill and haven't already.  All of them are passable!

Peace, Jeremy

PS If anyone has boss ideas for the worlds or for the final bowser, please post them, I'm dry.  Also if anyone wants to contribute a world map for one of the worlds please do   I am no artist as you can tell by my tracing of a corner of the Commander Keen Dreams map screen with Flash.

Update March 1st

I fixed the Alt-Tab crashing problem.  I also fixed some minor glitches involving the koopa troopas.  I started making Grassy Grove and it contains 2 levels from the pre-relelease 11-level-world and 2 new ones so far.  The fourth level of the world is not done but it is in there anyways with an exit at the beginning because the fifth level is done.  The map screens, especially the Mushroom Kingdom map screen, are by no means the final versions.  I just sketched them up to have something to build levels around.

The site can now also be accessed here: http://www.smb3k.ssr.be/

The provided link on your page:
http://www.freewebtown.com/SCPSite/Mario3000-Mar01-06.zip

Is not working.

Fixed it.  The file was called Mario3K-Mar01.06.zip.  I should really check these things before posting an update here  Thanks.

By far one of the best games ever written in VB. Really excellent work here Jeremy, a simply outstanding achievement and all round fun game.

I would love the ability to change the res/depth and also run the game windowed.

I'll keep visiting your site for updates, but this is one fine game!

Best Regards,
Dave

Update March 10th - Entire first world of main mod completed including fully functional boss, although there he has no sound and the graphics are definently temporary.  Main menu changed to a window and skin capability included.  Mushroom Kingdom map screen finished also.  Grassy grove map will be done next update.

Here is a screenshot of the main window on my computer.  This might be caused by mixing scale modes for the different controls.  The best solution is to make sure everything's scale mode is twips.

However, the game is looking really good.  I actually made some progress.  I can't figure out how to kill the giant gooba in the first castle.   Other than that, it plays really well.  The time limit kind of sucks.  I'm  used to Super Mario World, which didn't have a time limit.

 

I'm likely reverting to a full screen menu soon but ill fix the window for the next update, thanks for pointing that out.  If you want to figure out how to kill the boss on your own then don't read the rest of this post.  Every once and a while he spits a black thing that slides around.  It actually acts like a shell, you have to stomp on it then throw it up at the boss.  To throw up, just hold up when you release the run/carry button.  You have to hit him four times and each time, the rate of him spitting goombas increases a little.  When he dies, you can then reach the exit door.  I will add code to disable the time limit in any area which contains a boss for the next update.  Since I own the boss every time having designed him , it never really occured to me that time running out would get annoying.  Thanks for the heads up Eric!

I thought that might be the way to kill him, but by the time he spits one out I get killed because there are a million goombas on the screen comming at me.  Anyone else have problems killing this first boss?

I updated the game today and totally redid the site.  Not alot new in the game besides new graphics and sounds for the boss.  I also made the boss quite a bit easier by slowing down the crazy guy you hit him with and lowering his goomba-spitting frequency.  I won't be updating the game for a few weeks because I'm tired of making levels and it's spring break

Looking at the screenshots, and that is really sick (good), every person who played Super Mario Bros 3's dream, so many different power ups and abilities and what not.
 
Translucent particle effects would be nice, you could also implement a 2xSai filter like Snes9x does ^_^ (look in the Snes9x source code for the code and logic of it).
 
I can give you FTP access to a folder on my domain for you to mirror the download on my domain if you would like, and a free phpBB forum/message board.
 
Ever need help porting any of it to C++/SDL for multiplatform let me know, or if you'd like C++ built DLLs for use in Visual Basic for special graphical effects etc like those I mentioned too ^_^.
 
Oh, with some UI prettying up, and of course, a new set of sprites so you dont infringe on copyright issues, I'd say this would definately be a seller ;)

 
hi there im new here i downloaded the game and loved it, i just dont know how to kill the giant  in Gambos Lair, can you please be more specific on how to do it? i´ve tried and tried for dozens of times and nothing happens, i cant release the shell. ill appretiate your help.