Thread: Super Mario Bros voted greatest computer game ever

The classic platform game was first released in 1985 and has since become one of the biggest selling ever with more than 40 million copies flying off the shelves worldwide.

In the game brothers Mario and Luigi - now recognised the world over - try to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom in a bid to save Princess Peach.

Super Mario Bros 2 was released in 1988, and Super Mario Bros 3 in 1990. The third version was considered by many as the best, and has sold 18 million to date.

The poll of 2,000 gamers, conducted by Onepoll :: Homepage, revealed 'old skool' games are still firm favourites with Britain's army of gamers.

Pac-Man, which was released in 1980, was voted into second place.

The tiny yellow character is as recognisable as Mario and is credited with changing the face of gaming by making it more accessible to everyone.

Pac-Man has since appeared on Game Boy, Commodore 64, Playstation, PSP, and Xbox 360, amongst others.

Super Mario Bros voted greatest computer game ever

It's still fun when you're bored and feel like playing a classic even though it'd be cooler if in the NES version 2-player more both people could play at the same time instead of waiting for the other to die

Pac-Man has since appeared on Game Boy, Commodore 64, Playstation, PSP, and Xbox 360, amongst others.

And as a mobile phone game! Mario also has his own J2ME version too, but it's a bit bugged and you control Luigi instead, even though everybody addresses you as "Mario" in-game! Also some floors are invisible and other weird stuff... Which didn't prevent me from finishing the game like 30000 times anyway

Pacman = a true test of agility

Never got to this level, btw?

It's the so called "split-screen" or "final" level:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacman#Split-screen_level

This game technically has no end: the player will be given new boards to clear as long as he or she retains at least one life. However, because of a programming bug in the subroutine that draws the fruit, the right side of the 256th board becomes a garbled mess of text and symbols, rendering the level unplayable. Normally, no more than seven fruits are displayed at any one time, but when the internal level counter (stored in a single byte) reaches 255, the subroutine erroneously rolls over this value to zero while drawing the fruit, causing it to attempt to draw 256 fruits. This corrupts the bottom of the screen and the whole right half of the maze with seemingly random symbols.

Through tinkering, the details of the Split-Screen Level can be revealed. As playable through arcade game emulator MAME some ROMs of the game are equipped with a rack test within the DIP switches that will automatically clear a level of all dots as soon as it begins. This method not only makes reaching the 256th board easier (thus making detailed analysis possible), but also allows for a demonstration of what happens after the board has been cleared. If the board is cleared, the game loops back to the first level. The fruits and intermissions display as before, but the ghosts retain their higher speed and immunity to power pellets from the later stages.

However, because of the corruption on this board, there are insufficient dots available for Pac-Man to eat in order to progress. A few edible dots are scattered in the corrupted area, and these dots reset when the player loses a life (unlike in the uncorrupted areas). Pac-Man and the ghosts can move freely throughout the right half of the screen, barring some fractured pieces of the maze. While there are claims that someone with enough knowledge of the maze pattern could play through the level, it is generally considered impossible to clear via legitimate means. As a result, enthusiasts usually refer to this board as the Final Level, the Blind-Side, or simply the ending, and it is known more generally as a kill screen.

I wonder what's harder: getting to that level or finishing it?

Originally Posted by Reppy

LOL in this case,no I did not reach any level like this !!

Well, you have to finish 255 levels previously and that takes "some" time, few people have managed to do it

wonder how can a player understand where is he going tho

Mirror the left half of the maze in your head

Originally Posted by Reppy

lots of thinking & thinking & wasting of time IMO

You forgot the FUN