Super Mario Bros. on the Commodore 64 Mini

RetroRalph·video·13m 48s·held·Apr 26, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.016

TL;DR

Fan-made Mario port showcases Commodore 64 nostalgia and retro computing passion.

Summary

RetroRalph demonstrates a fan-created Super Mario Bros... port for the Commodore 64, running it on a Commodore 64 Mini. He shares nostalgic personal stories about his early experiences with the Commodore 64, including learning to use the system independently and suffering hardware damage from an electrical surge. The video celebrates retro computing culture and the effort involved in porting classic games to vintage platforms.

Key Claims

A developer created a version of Super Mario Bros... that runs on Commodore 64 after spending seven years on the project
medium confidence · RetroRalph mentions 'this developer spent seven years...doing this' in reference to the Mario C64 port
Nintendo took down the files for the Super Mario Bros... C64 port from most servers
high confidence · RetroRalph states 'Nintendo went and took down the files on most of the servers out there' and calls it 'a big bummer'
The Commodore 64 Mini requires firmware updates to access USB file loading functionality
high confidence · RetroRalph explains 'if you're running on the stock firmware that came with it, you will not see this. So you'll have to go and update the firmware on your device first'
Super Mario Bros... C64 port has control issues, with jump mapped to the up direction by default
high confidence · RetroRalph notes 'the controls on this are kind of interesting' and 'jump is up' and 'it's really hard to control guys'

Notable Quotes

“It was the computer that got me in love with technology. It made me fall in love with tech, and it was very magical to me at the time.”
RetroRalph@ 0:06 — Establishes emotional connection to Commodore 64 as formative technology that shaped his career
“Nintendo went and took down the files on most of the servers out there. So the file does still exist out there, the ROM, but it's going to be pretty hard to find at this point.”
RetroRalph@ 1:52 — Documents Nintendo's enforcement action against the fan-made Mario port
“he said, RTFM. And then he hung up the phone”
RetroRalph (describing cousin's response) @ story section — Humorous anecdote about learning to be self-sufficient with technology
“I can't believe that this developer spent seven years...doing this like what a cool thing for him to provide the community even though Nintendo's kind of decided to ruin it”
RetroRalph@ 8:41 — Acknowledges developer effort and expresses frustration with Nintendo's takedown
“I mean, it's not perfect, obviously, but it's pretty damn cool that they recreated it this well.”
RetroRalph@ 12:01 — Overall positive assessment of the Mario port despite control issues

Entities

RetroRalphpersonCommodore 64productCommodore 64 MiniproductSuper Mario Bros.game NintendocompanyRetro-Bitcompany

Signals

?
product_concern: The Mario C64 port has unintuitive default controls with jump mapped to up direction, requiring virtual keyboard remapping to improve playability
high · RetroRalph struggles with controls throughout gameplay, noting 'it's really hard to control guys because jump is up' and mentioning alternative control schemes available via F3
?
regulatory_signal: Nintendo aggressively pursued takedowns of fan-created Super Mario Bros. Commodore 64 port files from distribution servers
high · 'Nintendo went and took down the files on most of the servers out there. So the file does still exist out there, the ROM, but it's going to be pretty hard to find at this point'
?
historical_signal: Discussion of Commodore 64 era computing culture including bulletin board systems, demo scene aesthetics (splash screens), and self-directed learning through minimal support
high · Extended narratives about using BBS systems, appreciation for developer splash screens with music and messages, and cousin's 'RTFM' approach to teaching
?
design_innovation: Fan developer invested seven years to port Super Mario Bros. to Commodore 64, a non-trivial technical achievement for a platform from 1982
medium · 'I can't believe that this developer spent seven years you know doing this like what a cool thing for him to provide the community'

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.041

0:00

Hey guys, welcome back. On today's episode, we're going to talk about the Commodore 64. My favorite all-time computer. It was the computer that got me in love with technology. It made me fall in love with tech, and it was very magical to me at the time. But the reason why I'm bringing this up, and the reason why I sat there in my garage and dug this thing up, was because most recently a developer created a version of Super Mario Brothers, the first one that runs on, you know, on a Commodore 64. Now I'm not going to use the original Commodore 64. I honestly don't even know if this thing still works, but it's been in a box. It's been in the garage for a lot of years. But I'm going to use the Commodore 64 mini that I have. So this is going to be what we're going to play it on. But I want to test out that game because I think that's really cool. And I saw a lot of people have done it. But anyways, I want to check it out just because it's something, you know, this platform itself, such a unique platform and the games were awesome at the time. But in true Retro Ralph fashion, before we get started, I got to tell you a little funny story. So when I had my Commodore 64 back in the day, I did bulletin boards, you know, the old school internet with dial-up modem and everything like that. And I joined this group and I remember my sister, we're at dinner, it's my sister and my parents. And my sister goes, hey Ralph. And I'm all, yeah. Um, you know, this guy called me trying to validate that you're an adult to get on this BBS thing and I'm like well what do you mean and she's like yeah the adult section and I'm all All right, guys, we're going to check out Mario on the C64. So as of filming this, actually, Nintendo went and took down the files on most of the servers out there. So the file does still exist out there, the ROM, but it's going to be pretty hard to find at this point. So that's a big bummer. But one thing I wanted to mention is, so now that we're on the Commodore 64 Mini, you'll see this little USB icon on the bottom right here. Look, right here. So if you're running on the stock firmware that came with it, you will not see this. So you'll have to go and update the firmware on your device first. I recommend you do that because otherwise you kind of have to do this hokey way to load the ROM

2:31

So just it's not hokey actually it's the original commands But you have to do some weird things to the file to get it to launch so just my my Recommendation would be just go download the new firmware And then if you can't acquire the ROM you just put it on that drive Stick it in your USB and then what you'll do is what I'm gonna do right now So you just hit select you'll see the file loader there, and you'll see a very recognizable command which is the command to launch an original, you know, a diskette-based game or a floppy disk-based game. Okay, so we're on the splash screen for the game. This brings back such great memories for me. So I don't know if you guys remember, but there was like a huge, I don't know, there was just like this huge wonder around the Commodore 64. I mean, maybe because I was a kid. But one of the really cool things is a lot of the developers would put these like really kind of weird splash screens in and it often have kind of music like you hear right now So I just think it kind of cool I miss this kind of stuff and sometimes developers would even have like secret messages or just a message in general that they wanted to you know say to say to their community so it was just really cool I miss those times of this kind of I don't know it felt underground you know it felt like brand new and no one else was doing it because it kind of it kind of was brand new so So anyways, I don't know if kids today have this kind of experience with the game systems and the computers they have access to. I don't think they do, but this is just really cool. It brings back some interesting memories. So on this screen, there's a couple options. You know, start the game.

5:28

I couldn't get games to load, I didn't know how to do it, so, you know, I got it all hooked up, but I couldn't get games to load, which is a big bummer. So, uh, I kind of got, I kind of voiced that frustration to my mom. And, uh, anyway, she's like, just call your cousin up and, and, you know, maybe he'll tell you what's going on. Right. So, so I call him and, uh, I'm like, Hey, cuz, uh, I probably didn't call him cuz, but whatever. Hey cousin, uh, I can't, I can't load games. Like, how do you load games? And he just, all he did was he said, he said, RTFM. And then he hung up the phone now I'm like 12 maybe so I don't know what the heck that means right so so now I'm even more frustrated because I'm like I don't know mom he told me rtfm and got me off the phone I was like what does that mean and she goes I don't know what it means right and so I was frustrated though because I was all excited to play with this and she knew I was frustrated so let me see I don't know how to make them run fast oh man I don't know I'm all right whatever I can't get to run oh that i think that's it so anyway so oh man this is so hard with this like way you have to do things all right i better get this yeah all right so i he says rtfm right and so i go to my mom like what does this mean she goes and i was frustrated and she like oh call your aunt and ask her right so she calls my aunt and my mom goes hey you know ralph wondering you know joey tried to give him that was his name i gonna pause it for a second i tried to give him some guidance on on how to load games and uh you know he just said rtfm and so my aunt's like i don't know what rtfm means so she's all joey joey hey hey ralphie wants to know what rtfm means and he goes now keep in mind my mom's on the line with my aunt i'm not hearing this conversation it's like a corded phone in the kitchen it's like the stretched out old school corded phone so my cousin's like it means read the manual and so so my mom looks kind of like distraught a little bit i'm like what did he say what did he say and she goes he he told you to read the manual honey And keep in mind, I'm 12. So anyways, so the funny part of this story is that I didn't know for years what RTFM meant because my mom never told me. So when I was a little bit older, it like came to mind again. I'm all, you know, what was that mom? And she's like, oh, it was, you know, read the effing manual. So anyways, it's kind of a funny story. but uh you know why i bring that up is that i did figure it out myself but you know that tough love that he gave me was was great because um even though at the time i was like what the heck why won't he show me but he really wanted me to learn and discover for myself and i kind of feel like that's what it was all about at that time with computing like now kids turn on computers and they just work right um there's they don't think about it really and uh and you have to get the thing you have to do a lot to get a computer to work back then you know that led to me doing basic programming and all sorts of neat things and i spent hours and hours in my basement that's where i put the computer i spent hours in the basement playing it so i'm going to tell you one more story before we wrap up here and i'll give you some final thoughts on this mario version which is very fun by the way uh and and it's like honestly i can't believe that this developer spent seven years you know doing this like what a cool thing for him to provide the community even though Nintendo's kind of decided to ruin it, but, um, but anyways, this is really cool, I mean, I mean, yeah, granted, it's not exactly like the original, but it's pretty freaking fun, so, um, so as I was saying, oops, um, you know, I was, I was in the basement a lot, you know, doing a lot of fun things with my Commodore, and, um, the reason why I bring that up is back then, um, people didn't really use, know enough to use things like surge protectors. And I remember I used to have so much fun with that thing. And the reason why I put the Commodore in the basement was because I grew up back east and it would get really hot and humid in the summertime. So when I wanted to use it in the summer, it was just brutal to have it upstairs in my room. So I brought it downstairs. Well, and our parents didn't have air conditioning. So one year my parents decided they wanted to get central AC and that put installed in the house. now I don't have the you know I don't have the um computer on a power you know a surge protector or anything like that so long story short I'm downstairs super fun having a great time with my Commodore you know I don't know I was probably playing like some goofy game um I'm trying to think of a game I used to play a lot on there um I used to play this Ghostbusters game quite a bit it was pretty fun um anyway so I was playing some game and uh the guy electrician was there putting in the air conditioning and he turns it on to test it and it caused a surge and it blew out my power strip or blew out the power supply of my Commodore And I remember we brought it to the one store in town that was like a computer repair shop and it wasn cheap to get that fixed at the time And I remember my mom wasn't kind of upset because not only did we have to buy the fix, right? So we had to repair it, but we had to buy a power strip. And at the time, the one that we needed to protect it wasn't very cheap. Like now that now that technology is. Oh, shoot. That's a little glitchy.

11:39

It's just a fun experience, right? And if you have a Commodore 64 Mini, it's really cool. I do have the full system. You saw that in the intro. I decided not to try to figure that all out just because I'm sure I could get it to work. But, you know, it's been in the garage for such a long time. I just figured the Mini would be a great way to do it. So anyways, I hope this was an interesting video for you guys. Mario on the C64. It's a pretty awesome. I mean, it's not perfect, obviously, but it's pretty damn cool that they recreated it this well. I mean, it's pretty good, man. The controls are kind of hokey, and I'm using a Retro-Bit controller, and it's okay. But the thing that's hard about this game is jump is up. But you can go to the virtual keyboard and go to F3, and it gives you a couple different controller modes you can go into. So you can find one that you find is easier to control, but I just did this for use of the video. I did play with it myself, and some of the modes are a little bit easier to control. You can make the button be jump and stuff like that. So anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this. I hope it kind of piqued your interest as far as thinking about maybe your past and your experiences with computers, whatever it might have been after the Commodore 64 for me was like 386s and Intel-based systems and things like that, and those were super fun too. So anyways, hopefully this brought back some memories. It surely did for me. If you liked the video, please like it. Please subscribe to the channel. We're doing so great on the channel as far as subscriptions goes. And the channel wouldn't exist without you guys subscribing and enjoying the content. So I really appreciate that. And put your comments below. I want to hear stories about your first computer. And did you have a Commodore? And what do you think of this version of Mario? So I want to hear that. So please leave your feedback. anyways guys that's it for now thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next one