Super Mario Bros. Out Now For The Commodore 64

It’s been quite a while since I first heard about this project, and yes — for years I honestly thought it was fake. Not because I believed it was impossible or anything like that, but simply because I expected it to turn out to be yet another reskin of The Great Giana Sisters.

Super Mario Bros. 64 has been in development for seven years — and it absolutely shows. It feels remarkably close to the real thing, so much so that I’m fairly certain most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between this version and the original 1985 NES/Famicom release.

The developer, ZeroPaige, has done a truly outstanding job here. What many would have considered an impossible task has once again been proven achievable, and the Commodore 64 — along with its incredible community — shows just how amazing and relevant it still is.

This is a monumental effort with an equally monumental result, and one that certainly won’t be forgotten.

That said, playing Mario with the horrible joystick that comes bundled with the Mini was completely out of the question. I strongly recommend using a USB pad or something similar instead.

I had to test this on my The C64 Mini, as I no longer own a real Commodore 64. And despite what some forum trolls claim, the .crt file works perfectly fine. So don’t be afraid to try the game on the Mini if you own one.

The emulation is generally quite good. With Super Mario Bros. 64 on the Mini, I did encounter some slowdowns, but nothing that had any real impact on gameplay.

I never actually got around to doing a full Mini review, but honestly, I struggle to find much to complain about. There are really only two negatives: the awful joystick, and the lack of composite/RF (or similar) output options.

Super Mario Bros. 64 is a project that will most likely go down badly with Nintendo and I suggest that you download the game right away as it is most likely going to be wiped off the internet soon thanks to the big N’s tactics towards keeping their IP’s secured.

Edit: News just came in that Nintendo have issued a DMCA takedown of the files on several sites around the globe, so make sure to grab it before it is too late. (23.04.2019)

I decided to include a video by Saberman (thanks, mate!), because if there’s one game out there that really doesn’t need much description, it’s SMB.

This port also includes some very cool extras. It supports all three versions of the game — EU, JAP, and US — which means you can finally play it in 60Hz if you want to.

On top of that, the game features several additional enhancements, such as dual SID chip support and multiple controller configurations, giving you plenty of ways to tailor the experience.

Oh, and one more thing, the game has already been trained and it is available on the net right now (you have to be “logged in” to download the actual file btw).