Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!motcsd!dms!albaugh
From: albaugh@dms.UUCP (Mike Albaugh)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Mario Bothers
Message-ID: <1114@dms.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jul 90 17:49:59 GMT
References: <2794@awdprime.UUCP>
Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA
Lines: 37

From article <2794@awdprime.UUCP>, by tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain):
[Heavily nested snide comments about video-game code deleted]
> 
> I was more interesed in, and the discussion (IMHO) was more in reference
> to, real game machines.  Arcades, Nintendo, etc.  From my observation, there
> are certainly more Mario Brothers Nintendo cartridges than ANY PC game,
> maybe even all PC games combined.  But Mario Brothers has been very faith-
> fully reproduced on real arcade hardware (which came first?) and some other

	I believe the original Mario Brothers was arcade first, while the
later ones may have come out first on the NES.

> dedicated game machines.  But, and this is my point, the arcade hardware
> seems to be incredibly more sophisticated.  Thus, a good modular

	Arcade machines _typically_ have greater video bandwidth, hence nicer
pictures. They also may have better sounds, perhaps including a dedicated
CPU for sounds. In the case of Mario Brothers, I wouldn't call the arcade
hardware "incredibly more sophisticated". As I recall it was done well before
the NES.

> implementation would have been a near-necessity for the port.

	As I said in my first posting on this subject, the highest level
_design_ may well be pretty modular and disciplined. The _implementation_
may get pretty arcane. This is a natural consequence of the manufacturer
having to pay for the CPU and the memory containing the program, not just
the distribution media. If e.g. Lotus had to include the RAM and co-processor
to run 1-2-3 in the price of the software, you might see a few more "lean
and mean" programs in the PC world too :-)

						Mike

| Mike Albaugh (albaugh@dms.UUCP || {...decwrl!pyramid!}weitek!dms!albaugh)
| Atari Games Corp (Arcade Games, no relation to the makers of the ST)
| 675 Sycamore Dr. Milpitas, CA 95035		voice: (408)434-1709
| The opinions expressed are my own (Boy, are they ever)