Super Mario Clone World Beats New Titles With Atari Graphics

This week it appears that one developer fan of Nintendo's hero series Mario has taken his love for the original to a whole new level – backwards. Atari Age forum member Sprybug has taken data from the original Super Mario Bros. from the original Nintendo Entertainment System and has begun transferring it backward into a game that very well could have been played on the Atari 2600. This gaming system pre-dates most young gamers entire lives by several years at least, and boasts graphics with pixels so large you'll be in danger of cutting your finger on them – and now you can play Mario here, too!

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With the 8-bit graphic universe shown in the original Mario Bros. game now transferred down, down, and down some more into a much more basic environment, one thing shines through the brightest: Mario was a breakthrough game. Not just because it was fun, but because the gameplay and the environments in the game were so advanced that they look good even when you strip the whole thing down to its most basic components.

In the video above you'll see a gleefully old-school looking demonstration of the game with what should be some rather recognizable elements all around. The game has right around 16 levels re-created right this minute, and more are on the way. This game also currently exists entirely in a 32k file – amazing!

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If you want to try the game out for yourself, you'll need first to get yourself a Harmony Cartridge. This bit of hardware will plug in to your original Atari 2600 and allow you to play hundreds of pre-made games and classics without the hassle of actually going out and finding the games (which of course, are no longer produced today) themselves. And new games are being made here in 2012 as well – as evidenced by Mario!

The game is being shared right now by Sprybug so that you can tell him how awesome it is. Music and sound effects are included – and yes, you will be able to fire fireballs if you do become FireMario.

[via DVice]

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