Super Mario Wip

[Master484]

I just tested the game, nice work so far.

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About copyrights and "fan games", it seems that some companies "allow" fan games to be made, and some do not. And quite often it seems that legal action is taken only if the game is big and good enough, while smaller fan projects are usually ignored: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fangame

There are two main reasons why fan games are taken down: 1. Protecting the copyright / brand and 2. Eliminating freeware games that threaten the sales of the official, commercial games.

Characters like Mario and Sonic are super popular, and the internet is already full of "fan game" projects that use them, and more are made all the time. A small fan game / demo can be quite safely made, but if your game becomes big and good, so that it approaches the level of commercial games, then the risk of it being taken down might get real.

So a small demo game like this Mario here should be safe. But if this would become a complete Amiga conversion of Super Mario, then the risk would be higher. And Nintendo is known for taking down several fan games in the past, which increases the risk.

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Also some brands are "well guarded" and extremely poisonous, so that even small fan games are instantly taken down. Smurfs seems to be one of these brands. The Smurfs company probably has bots scanning the internet for everything Smurf related, and when a copyright infringement is noticed, a cease and desist letter is sent. There is no other way how they could have noticed an Amiga Smurfs game.

Also I would avoid brands like Tintin, Moomin, Hello Kitty, Disney characters and movie licenses. And also smaller not-so-well known game brands might contain nasty surprises, if the owners of the game copyrights aren't so excited about fan games.

But, a simple cease and desist letter isn't so bad; if it happens, just simply take down the game. You still have the code, and can probably use at least parts of it in other game projects. When using characters owned by some company, you just have to accept the "risk of the letter", and not be surprised if you get it.

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Capcom is probably the safest company to "fan game"; they seem to understand the phenomenon and in fact have encouraged fan game making in the past.

And thankfully so, it would totally suck if a game like Megaman X Corrupted would be taken down on release day, after 10 years of development:

[ Show youtube player ]

There are lots of good games on the Capcom catalogue, so if you're afraid of Nintendo or Smurfs, then maybe "fan" Capcom instead. Or alternatively make your own graphics and sound.

[Tigerskunk]

Or alternatively make your own graphics and sound.

Which is the best idea, anyway... Or get someone talented from this board or elsewhere, who can do it.

[Amiga1992]

Sega has proved to be very lenient (and actually welcoming) of fan made games. Their new Sonic game, Sonic Mania, is made by a team of devs who were making their own Sonic fan games.
Proof: http://www.polygon.com/2016/4/28/115...mega-drive-hub

Nintendo, on the other hand, are assholes regarding their IP being used on anything. I wouldn't get near them with a ten foot pole.
Proof:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ninte...e-games-2016-9

[Gzegzolka]

You can always change game name from Mario to Bario, or something like that, just change one letter and You have brand new game Also try to avoid original red Mario and green Luigi color palette. Your hero can wear yellow, gray, orange or blue suit and it should be okay.

[s2325]

Super Motorola Bros

[idrougge]

It's not as though anything has happened to MSX Mario thus far.

[Retro1234]

My favourite is Super plumber brothers and the really early mario games say he was a carpenter.

[Coagulus]

Originally Posted by Akira

Sega has proved to be very lenient (and actually welcoming) of fan made games. Their new Sonic game, Sonic Mania, is made by a team of devs who were making their own Sonic fan games.
Proof: http://www.polygon.com/2016/4/28/115...mega-drive-hub

Nintendo, on the other hand, are assholes regarding their IP being used on anything. I wouldn't get near them with a ten foot pole.
Proof:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ninte...e-games-2016-9

Didn't sega kill the streets of rage remake?

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Coagulus

Didn't sega kill the streets of rage remake?

I don't remember what exactly happened there, I think you are right, but this is newer happenings and I guess they might have changed their mind since.

[andyhants]

Is anyone else having problems getting the screen to centre under WINUAE?

See attached the game always runs in the far left of my Windowed WINUAE.

As ever any advice appreciated

[Retro1234]

Yeah its not centered properly - left over from some testing - also I see some horrible! dithering on some of the clouds that I didnt see on my monitor, I must have the brightness up to high - really the clounds need re doing.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by andyhants

Is anyone else having problems getting the screen to centre under WINUAE?

See attached the game always runs in the far left of my Windowed WINUAE.

As ever any advice appreciated

With my WinUAE configuration the game looks like this when playing:



To achieve do the following:

a) Set a "Fullscreen" display of "640x480". No horizontal centering. Vertical centering can be "on" or "off" (only makes a small difference really; screenshot above is with "on").
b) Under "Filters", set "No scaling" and "Horiz. position" = "400".

[amiman99]

Originally Posted by Gzegzolka

You can always change game name from Mario to Bario, or something like that, just change one letter and You have brand new game Also try to avoid original red Mario and green Luigi color palette. Your hero can wear yellow, gray, orange or blue suit and it should be okay.

+1 for this idea!
Avoid problems in the future.

[Amigajay]

Or change the R to a B for quickness, Super Mabio!

or Super Romeo...

[Predseda]

Sober?

[saimon69]

[ Show youtube player ]
This video exhaustively explains the mindset of Nintendo: is the toymaker/collectible items maker mindset that thrive in scarcity so no wonder they are going after fan games: they mess up their greed

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by andyhants

Is anyone else having problems getting the screen to centre under WINUAE?

See attached the game always runs in the far left of my Windowed WINUAE.

As ever any advice appreciated

I usually have WinUAE auto centre the screen - I think the options to auto-centre it horizontally and vertically are on the display tab.
However, there are a handful of games and demo's where this doesn't work - not sure if it is my setup, or the game/demo using some weird display settings that WinUAE doesn't recognise when trying to auto-centre.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Lonewolf10

I usually have WinUAE auto centre the screen - I think the options to auto-centre it horizontally and vertically are on the display tab.
However, there are a handful of games and demo's where this doesn't work - not sure if it is my setup, or the game/demo using some weird display settings that WinUAE doesn't recognise when trying to auto-centre.

No, it's not your setup Lonewolf10.

There are a handful of games where centering both horizontal and vertical in WinUAE doesn't work as expected; this game is one of them... Guess it's how the games have been programmed.

Anyway, see my post above for how to achieve this for Super Mario

[SaphirJD]

Nice idea

[s2325]

[ Show youtube player ]