NES Hack Lets The Mario Bros. Play Together

Super Mario Bros 2 Player Rom Hack

Being relegated to player two used to be a mark of disgrace in the 8-bit era of videogames. Between never being to select a level and having to wait your turn to play, the second player experience was decidedly third rate. Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System was no different in this regard as it offered no character selection option and also required players to alternate taking control upon failing stages. It made the two player mode more like playing in parallel than actually together. However, there is a new ROM Hack for the original Super Mario Bros. from [Corpse Grinder] that allows players to play as the Brothers Mario simultaneously. Finally, a true co-op experience.

It’s important to note that the level power-ups have not been doubled-up in the patch, so this will no doubt be some friendly competition. Also it would be in both players interest to play with someone around their same skill level as any player dying in a level will cause both to start back at the last checkpoint. Not to worry, [Corpse Grinder] appears to have yet another Super Mario Bros. co-op patch in the works with this video from their YouTube channel below.

Whether you dump your own NES cartridge or extract the ROM image of Super Mario from a Virtual Console download, the patch itself comes in the form of a XDelta file. In order to apply the patch to a ROM image of Super Mario Bros. you’ll need a program like xdelta UI. Make sure to backup a copy of the ROM image before applying the patch, because this process is a one-way street.

via Retro Gaming Mag

And if you’re still in a NES kind-of-mood, then there’s also this Mike Tyson’s Punchout Lag Patch.

21 thoughts on “NES Hack Lets The Mario Bros. Play Together

  1. Interesting history:
    While *super* mario bros. was turn-based, the original mario bros. (no ‘super’) was a co-op and a competitive one at that.
    This one was originally an arcade release in the US, but was out shortly after for the Atari 2600 and quite a few 8-bit home computers (the c64 and apple// included)
    It was just 3-4 months ago this year that someone beat the previous mario bros high score from back in 2015.

    Bringing co-op to super mario bros sounds like the continuation of a very long tradition of being a jerk to the other player ;)

  2. I hope what comes next is a competitive running type mode mod. While I’m at it wishing, give us 4-8 players at the same time, extend the visible are to double width and first to the flagpole wins the race. Oh, and big mario/luigi should be able to stomp-kill competitor marios/luigis.

    1. Extend the visible area to the full level using an array of projectors along a long wall. Give the participants wireless controllers. They have to run along the room to keep up with their character.

  3. Now this needs to come to SMW. Someone was working on a patch but if I remember it was full of bugs and the dev never bothered to keep going with it. It’s a shame, if someone could combine that with the “separate Luigi graphics” patch you could get real creative.

  4. It’s NOT the NES Version. You repeat it 4 time. Just look at the graphics and read the youtube comments.
    It’s the Game Boy Advanced Version. Super Mario Bros DX.
    It’s a cool hack nonetheless.

      1. would you mind sharing the patched game/seeding it or something? I’m trying to patch it on my computer, but I can’t figure it out. I think I might be using the wrong rom, or maybe the programs I’m trying to use aren’t working?

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