Teaching a computer to play Mario… seemingly through voodoo

computer-learning-mario

Some people know [Tom Murphy] as [Dr. Tom Murphy VII Ph.D.] and this hack makes it obvious that he earned those accolades. He decided to see if he could teach a computer to win at Super Mario Bros. But he went about it in a way that we'd bet is different that 99.9% of readers would first think of. The game doesn't care about Mario, power-ups, or really even about enemies. It's simply looking at … [Read more...]

Booting a 1989 Mac with Mario

iici

As a new recruit to the 68k Macintosh Liberation Army, [dougg3] is really showing off his hardware hacking ability. He came up with a replacement ROM SIMM for his Mac IIci and made it play the Mario theme on boot instead of the normal chimes. Swapping out the ROM in these old macs isn't an uncommon procedure. On some 68k machines, there's a SIMM slot to either replace or expand the soldered … [Read more...]

No quarters required for this sidescrolling game in a box

teagduino_game_in_a_box

[Adam] from Teague Labs wrote in to share a new gadget they built to help demonstrate the capabilities of the Teagueduino. Their table top video game in a box was made with a bunch of electronic components they had sitting around, as well as soda straws, plenty of painter’s tape, and some popscicle sticks. When someone pulls the string on the front of the box, a servo opens it automatically, … [Read more...]

Super Mario coin block lamp is a Nintendo fanboy’s dream come true

super_mario_coin_block_lamp

[Laurence] was racking his brain coming up with potential birthday gifts for his friend when the idea of a Super Mario Bros. coin block lamp popped into his head. The block is constructed from drain pipe, a few pieces of plywood, some perspex, and a whole lot of awesome. He wanted the lamp to make sounds when it was turned on and off, so he put together an audio circuit based on [LadyAda’s] … [Read more...]

Retro video games sounds…for your toilet

super_mario_toilet

After reading about a Super Mario Brothers themed bathroom, [Jonathan] decided that it would be pretty cool to have his toilet play the “warp pipe” sound whenever anyone flushed. He grabbed a small sound drop key chain on eBay and disassembled it to see how things worked. Once he figured out which solder pads corresponded to the warp pipe sound he added a few wires that, when shorted, … [Read more...]

Real life Super Mario coin block

mario_coin_block

Instructables user [Bruno] recently constructed a fun little toy that brings a bit of the Mario nostalgia out of the video game universe and into ours. His Super Mario coin block is instantly recognizable from the first Mario game and performs just as you would expect it to. Punching or tapping the bottom of the block releases coins one at a time, complete with sounds straight from the … [Read more...]

Backwards Mario

backwards-mario

So you've long since mastered Super Mario Bros. and it no longer challenges you? Have you tried playing it from right to left? That's what Backwards Mario is all about. The first portion of the hack is getting the image to display backwards. He's working with an old CRT television, which uses a magnetic ring to aim the electron gun at the screen. By swapping the left and right wires from that ring … [Read more...]