Difference between revisions of "Jario!"
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| + | * [http://www.aderack.com/journal/2011/11/the-history-of-a-j-games-part-seven/ The History of A-J Games, Part Seven] | ||
* '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/java/jario.php Play ''Jario!'' online]''' | * '''[http://www.aderack.com/game-maker/java/jario.php Play ''Jario!'' online]''' | ||
Revision as of 19:01, 24 November 2011
Release type: Incomplete
Release date: N/A (begun December 1994)
Levels: 1
Author: Don'Pan Software
Related games: Luigi's Heroic Debut!, Super Mario 5
There are a few constant bugbears with Game-Maker's feature set. After the flag-and-counter issue, one of the larger is the lack of arbitrary character logic. Pac can’t eat ghosts, and Mario can’t stomp enemies.
For kicks, one of my later projects involved transcribing the background tiles from Super Mario Bros. and the sprites from Super Mario 3, almost pixel for pixel out of a magazine, in attempt to find some way around the stomping issue. I tried making the character sprite invisible and syncing a Mario-shaped monster with the character movement. I tried various things with control schemes and power levels. It never happened.
Even more so than Link vs. Gannon, Jario! is barely a game. I didn’t bother to animate the sprites or design a real level; my whole concern was with trying to force an issue on which the engine wouldn’t bend. It was just as well; I never much liked Mario anyway.
- EJR Tairne
Contents
Instructions
On the numerical keypad:
4, 6: Walk left, right
7, 8, 9: Jump left, up, and right
Climb the platforms; avoid the enemies.
Credits
Design, graphics, sound: Aderack
Testing: M.O.S.H.
Game engine: Recreational Software Designs
Q&A
When does Jario appear in your G-M usage timeline?
Somewhere around 1995 or 1996. It was after Ricci's Cow Hunt, and mostly inspired by a bonus level I threw in there for a whim. I was already pretty much done with Game-Maker, but I continued to tinker half-heartedly with small projects. This was something without ego attachment that captured my attention momentarily. I soon realized it wasn't worth expanding.
The graphics of Jario looks very similar, if not undistinguishable from SMB, which is esp. impressive for a scanner-less era. How did you proceed?
Back in the early '90s, game magazines were full of huge, pixelly photographs of game screens. I just dug up some photographs and started transferring, dot-for-dot. Different tile sizes required a bit of adaptation, but it was fairly straightforward.
Jario shows clearly that most of SMB core mechanics can only be poorly emulated by G-M. Have you learnt interesting lessons in that attempt ?
I think I was beyond the point of huge lessons. It was more a waning bit of curiosity, to see how well I could bend the engine. As it turns out, not well at all. Didn't even bother to animate the character.
Why has Jario been discontinued ?
I guess at that point I just wasn't willing to put the effort in to adapt it into something that did work. If I'd hit on the idea a couple of years earlier I might have come up with something half-interesting. By 1996 I was basically burned out.
Links
