Mario Reduced To 8x8 With Open Source and Arduino

adeelarshad82 writes "The open-source Arduino electronics platform has received a ton of attention from the hardware enthusiast community. And one more follower is joining the fray — Mario himself. The mustachioed plumber of console video game fame has been converted into an eight-by-eight LED matrix by Carnegie Mellon University student Chloe Fan. However, the game isn't quite the Mario you know from your legacy Nintendo Entertainment System. For starters, it's just lights. While one often sees the game's LED-backed grid used in devices like the open-source Monome, where it can function as a push-button toggle for music beats and effects, Fan's version of Mario uses the grid as a display only. Mario — or rather, a one-light representation of the game's hero — is controlled NES-style through the use of two buttons. One button makes Mario move forward; the other makes him leap into the air."

Comments

Live version

[suso]

I've always enjoyed this version of super mario

Re:Live version

[b4dc0d3r]

This one's better, but it has a bit of swearing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in6RZzdGki8

Re:Live version

[Anonymous Coward]

my favourite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBGRA6HHtY&feature=related

Re:Live version

[Hurricane78]

You say that as if the swearing was something bad. ^^

But hey, always remember what happened to Mario, after he got the princess:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpBGRA6HHtY
Poor Mario... ;)

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless you're capable of presenting your balls on an 8x8 LED matrix, I fail to see what exactly you're trying to contribute here.

Just lights

[Anonymous Coward]

For starters, it's just lights.

So.. just like Nintendo's Mario game then.

Two classic games combined

[suso]

This 8x8 version almost looks like a combination of Super Mario and Tetris.

Re:Two classic games combined

[Nefarious Wheel]

There's a company called HACEDuino that makes Arduino kits if you're interested. Cheap, they sell them on Ebay out of Australia. Neat little kits, I have one myself.

Disclosure: company belongs to a friend of mine, but I have no financial interest.

Re:Two classic games combined

[mrsteveman1]

You know you really don't have to disclose that sort of thing just to comment on slashdot ;)

Re:Two classic games combined

[CrazyJim1]

This 8x8 version almost looks like a combination of Super Mario and Tetris

Hmmm... I wonder what that would be like . o O http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/522276

Re:Two classic games combined

[Anonymous Coward]

This 8x8 version almost looks like a combination of Super Mario and Tetris.

You mean like this?

Re:Two classic games combined

[Nefarious Wheel]

Thanks for that ;) I only really require it of myself.

Re:Two classic games combined

[insufflate10mg]

Shhh, don't point that out. He's quite obviously/wooshviously trying to look cool by having a friend with a store.

Re:Two classic games combined

[suso]

COOL! That's actually a pretty interesting little mashup.

Re:Two classic games combined

[garignak]

In all fairness, there are plenty of other vendors worldwide that sell Arduinos and clones. This page lists many vendors of official Arduino and clone hardware.

Re:Two classic games combined

[harrkev]

This 8x8 version almost looks like a combination of Super Mario and Tetris.

Bah. Call me when he has a version of Myst on an 8x8 display. I would also be suitably impressed by a port of Duke Nukem Forever.

Re:Two classic games combined

[XxtraLarGe]

There's a company called HACEDuino that makes Arduino kits if you're interested. Cheap, they sell them on Ebay out of Australia. Neat little kits, I have one myself.

Apress just put out a new book called "Practical Arduino: Cool Projects for Open Source Hardware". I've been tempted to pick it up, since it looks like a pretty interesting, but wasn't too sure how expensive it would be to get into another hobby programming kit.

Great project!

[santax]

Give that girl a free Slashdot-Goldaccount! But really nicely done. I made a tetris with one-colored leds and a arduino but this is way cooler. Love the music on the video too (in the full article)

Mario reduced to 12x16 with toaster and bread

[Anonymous Coward]

Because not everyone can afford shiny electronics.

Wouldn't mind seeing a flash version of this.

[mbourgon]

That would be nice.

Re:wow

[Spyware23]

Word.

It's been done before.

[Anonymous Coward]

His main site is down, all I can find is an article from Hack A Day. http://hackaday.com/2009/12/08/ledboy-super-pixel-brothers/ The last version I saw even had working Goomba and Bullet Bill style enemies.

Re:It's been done before.

[ircmaxell]

Don't forget, the Arduino is significantly more powerful than the original NES.

Nes: 1.66 mhz, 2kb ram
Arduino (ATMega 328): 16mhz, 32kb ram

Not to mention that the Arduino contains a boot-loader...

Sure, the DIY part is cool, but to say that this was a difficult feat isn't very accurate...

Re:It's been done before.

[Anonymous Coward]

Did you read my comment? I'm not sure how your reply is relevant.

Re:It's been done before.

[Anonymous Coward]

The version you linked to puts the one shown in the article to shame.

Re:It's been done before.

[ircmaxell]

Now that I re-read it, it was not relevant... I guess I was sleeping at the time...

Re:It's been done before.

[bitrex]

The ATMega328 only has 2KB of RAM - the 32KB is its Flash storage which holds program data since the microcontroller is Harvard architecture. The NES had 2KB plus 2KB of video RAM, plus RAM for the sprites. Even with the ATMega's higher clock rate I think replicating the performance of the 6502 in a video game system with it would be a challenge.

Re:It's been done before.

[Yvan256]

http://belogic.com/uzebox/

Re:It's been done before.

[ircmaxell]

Crap, good point. I did a quick read of the spec sheet when I posted, albeit too quick... http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/8271S.pdf

Re:It's been done before.

[bitrex]

It's replicating the performance of the NES, but it's using an ATMega644 with twice the memory of the 328 and overclocked to nearly 30 MHz.

Re:It's been done before.

[Yvan256]

To be fair, the NES doesn't have to compute its audio nor its video signals in real-time. And the ATmega644 only has 4KB of RAM, the 64KB of flash memory is for code only.

Incoming

[matt_martin]

Nintendo lawyers in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Re:Incoming

[Anonymous Coward]

Nintendo isn't very trigger happy with their lawyers, unlike some companies. But even if they were, there would be a million other projects out there that would be a much better candidate.

Chloe Fan

[GodfatherofSoul]

I love you. If you had Princess Leia hair buns in your profile pic, you'd be the perfect woman.

Re:Chloe Fan

[Anonymous Coward]

hwelp me odi wan keonbi u awww my onweeee hope!

Re:Chloe Fan

[biryokumaru]

One might think you were a Chloe fan.

Not Super Mario Bros.

[esaulgd]

Other than the music, there's nothing on the game to make it "Super Mario Bros.". The player character runs and jumps over generic obstacles without making any use of SMB physics or any other distinctive elements. If anything it's closer to Pitfall.
Then again, "8x8 platformer created with Arduino" wouldn't attract as much publicity.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[moteyalpha]

The electronics and programming may be fairly rudimentary for an EECS major , but the the fact that she is a cyborg and can do this is what surprises me.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently level design doesn't count as a distinctive element.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[RMS Eats Toejam]

Change the character to a blue light, make the display scroll really fast and call it "Sonic the Hedgehog".

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[Kingrames]

If I had created a game that was a(n?) homage to some game I liked back in the day, I'd call it that, and not something I hadn't intended it as.

I see it as appropriate here.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[cmonkey_1973]

But, for a lot of the younger generation a platformer means Super Mario Bros just as a hoover means a vacuum cleaner. While not anywhere near the legal definition of a generic trademark, there really are no other 2d platformers that they will have been exposed to.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[daveime]

There's no need for the (n?).

The word starts with a consonant, and just because Americans seemingly can't pronounce the letter H, doesn't mean you have to lower yourself also.

A Homage, not Anomage. Your children will thank you.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[pinkushun]

From a coder's POV this is a great example of input/output processing on Arduino!

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[Anonymous Coward]

"a" or "an" depends on pronunciation, not spelling. And both "HOM-age" and "OM-age" are valid pronunciations. And silent h is a British thing, so I don't know what you're talking about.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[Mr. Slippery]

There's no need for the (n?). The word starts with a consonant, and just because Americans seemingly can't pronounce the letter H, doesn't mean you have to lower yourself also.

The "h" in "homage" is silent in the preferred pronunciation. So if you're using the preferred pronunciation it's "an homage", just like "an hour"; but if you're using some dialect where the h is pronounced, "a homage" would be correct.

So either could be ok here, but I have a strong urge to punch people who say "an historic occasion" or "an hallucination". These are just wrong, unless you are a Cockney aitch-dropper. Such bad grammar does not leave me an happy camper.

It's a simple rule: "an" before vowel sounds, "a" before consonants. The "n" in "an" is exactly there to hold vowels apart; if you don't have adjacent vowels (sounds, not symbols) in your phrase, it's redundant.

Re:Not Super Mario Bros.

[Anonymous Coward]

Both "a homage" and "an homage" are acceptable. "An homage" is antiquated but still proper English.

Don't forget...

[Anonymous Coward]

...all the drool. HUGE bonus, no risk of sandpaper-tongue.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Boston accent + lisp (likely a retainer or braces?). Get over it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Eh...

[walkeraj]

It's cute, but not terribly impressive. There's only rudimentary scrolling of a map that is entirely hard-coded, no movement other than the blocks representing the world and the player itself (which is locked to a specific column that can only decrease). It might be a bit more of a technological achievement if the music was coming from the same board, but it's a totally separate, single purpose board.

Re:A few problems

[santax]

I don't know if she has implemented it, but you could easily by applying different colors to different objects.

Re:A few problems

[Anonymous Coward]

RTFA or WTFV, you'll get the point that it's not exactly a faithful reproduction.

*puts on woosh hat for the inevitable*

Re:Who cares?

[Yvan256]

Most of the 8x8 LED Matrices use round LEDs, so I don't see any problem with your request.

Uzebox

[Yvan256]

Based on an overclocked and more powerful Atmel, but a lot more impressive given the hardware. http://belogic.com/uzebox/

Re:Uzebox

[Anonymous Coward]

This. The Arduino is nothing but a toy for geek-poseurs. Has anyone *ever* used and Arduino for *anything* other than making some LEDs flash?

slashdotted -- new links

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's her Vimeo demonstration.
http://vimeo.com/9928343 ...and another guy's demonstartion of the same thing, Sept 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB6vSHDDdhI

Meh, I prefer Dodgy Kong

[MyFirstNameIsPaul]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZzfhQuW2eE

meh.

[Anonymous Coward]

Annoys me that i've seen this story 3 times in the past 2 weeks with no mention of the better, earlier version by some guy in his spare time.
LEDBoy
http://hackaday.com/2010/02/19/update-most-interesting-game-in-64-pixels/
http://www.bradsprojects.com/

his site is down atm.

Doesn't everyone getting a BSEE do this?

[gront]

Seriously, in a microcontrollers class, whether its a stamp, HC12, 8051, whatever, isn't the final project at this level of neato? Not sure why this story is noteworthy, especially because it's not really identifiable as SMB other than the first few blocky shapes might be identifiable as the terrain of level 1-1. Most iPhone apps are more impressive.

About the only thing that is slashdotty is that the electronics platform is open source electronics, but I'd rather see an article about an open source rapid prototyper like http://fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page than someone's EE311 project.

Re:Doesn't everyone getting a BSEE do this?

[paul248]

It was deemed newsworthy because:

1. There's a video.
2. A girl made it.

Re:Doesn't everyone getting a BSEE do this?

[TerranFury]

Yeah, this is on the level of an ENGS62/31 project, and I'd hope that most EEs would be able to do this by the time they graduated. Still, as such projects go it's pretty good; if I were teaching a course at that level and a student handed this in as a final project she'd get an A on it.

Re:Doesn't everyone getting a BSEE do this?

[dimeglio]

I don't understand the pertinence or relevance of open source hardware. When you purchase electronic components, you pay for the licensing costs of these components as part of the purchase price (in this case Atmel). What you do with these components, especially if you wish to market your product, is still subject to existing or prior patents - for example the plant hydrometer from TFA. I must be missing something so thank you for enlightening me.

Re:Doesn't everyone getting a BSEE do this?

[TerranFury]

I guess that the availability of schematics and hardware specs makes it easier for people who want to write drivers; I can't see much broader (say, legal) significance than this. Of course, I'm not a lawyer.

DHS response:

[Tablizer]

It's a bomb! Lock her up and probe her anus immediately!

Fail Repeat

[Anonymous Coward]

Hack-a-Day ran this thing many times in various stages over the last few years. Far from original or difficult especially with one of those effin' arduinos.

Misleading title, not just 8x8

[Anonymous Coward]

Display resolution is actually 8x8x3 because it has 3 states. Off, low brightnes, high brightnes.

Some other plays on video games

[RAMMS EIN]

Super Mario:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbs9N7x_3w

Err...crossover between Pong and the Matrix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dcmDscwEcI

Tetris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bekQU9l8hk

Wicked cool.

[ArundelCastle]

Awesome job. Now, finally, can there never be another "girl gamers don't exist" joke? Can we please turn that corner in 2010?

Re:Wicked cool.

[insufflate10mg]

No.

Girl gamers don't exist.

There's no computer or video game console in the laundry room nor the kitchen.

Re:Who cares?

[Philip_the_physicist]

And his are probably small enough to be represented life-size.

What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[RichiH]

From my pov, it went from "did not know it existed" to "why is everyone so excited" pretty much over night. I don't get it and would appreciate it if anyone told me why this particular bit of hardware hit home so hardly.

Re:What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[kobaz]

From my pov, it went from "did not know it existed" to "why is everyone so excited" pretty much over night. I don't get it and would appreciate it if anyone told me why this particular bit of hardware hit home so hardly.

Because when I was in EE classes in college it took weeks (probably faster for someone who knows what they were doing) to build up projects using ICs and little microcontrollers. The microcontrollers also had to be programmed with a UV eraser and reprogrammer, which required having a printout of the machine code in hex, and typing it all by hand into an eeprom programmer.

Now with the Adruino, you get a USB interface to a very cool little chip that you can upload C code on to. There's also bunches of modules (shields) that you can link together to create your project. Ethernet modules, wireless modules, input device modules, output device modules (led/lcd screens). All these boards can work together in harmony... versus building all this stuff from scratch with the basic components. They are also quite cheap compared to what it would cost to build from scratch.

Re:What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[dissy]

I share the GPs opinion, just for different reasons.

The Arduino is a good decade behind the times as far as all the features you list.
It's hard to get excited about a product that does what a lot of us in the micro controller field have been doing back in the early 90s using PIC and basic stamps and SX chips and the like.

Full micro controller hardware on one chip (CPU, ram, flash, timers and clocks, interrupts, and external hardware modules made just for the chips packaging)

While the PIC is a poor example (Many shortcomings that are addressed by devices like the basic stamp, SX, and arduino products), all can be programmed in a high level compiled language (typically more than one language to choose from), or even directly in assembly, depending on your project needs.

To me it isn't a big deal, but not because of lack of interest or dislike of the concepts it brings, just that we've been doing all this for over 10 years already and there are almost no improvements that Arduino brings to the table right at the moment, although it seems cost will be a major selling point soon, as they are already price competitive and still dropping.

Re:What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[introspekt.i]

It's a platform for hobbyists and kids, not for those in industry, clearly. The learning curve is incredibly shallow for people who have no experience with this stuff. For many, it's a great starting point.

Re:What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[cecom]

The rest of your post notwithstanding, the beginning is seriously misleading. Surely if you had a printout of the machine code, you also had another way of transfering it to the eprom programmer, like a serial cable. I have developed a few projects like that back in the day - no debuggers, you had to pipeline eprom erasing and programming to save time, etc, but it wasn't nearly as hard as you make it to be.

Re:What's it with Arduino, anyway?

[KenSeymour]

It may be no big deal to someone who has been working in embedded systems for a while, but it lowers
the barrier of entry for the rest of us.

I am just starting to get into micro controllers. At work, I have worked on PIC18 and PIC24.
For either of those two, you need an ICD 2 or ICD3 to get your code into them. That will set you
back a good $200. Alternatively, you can find a board with a serial boot loader. Then there
is the C compiler. The unrestricted one will set you back another $500.

By contrast, the Arduino board costs about $35. It can be programmed with a USB cable. The IDE
environment can be downloaded free. Your grand total to play around with micro controllers, about $45.

Another difference is the Arduino programming environment hides lots of details like fuses and clock
speeds and such. I found it quite difficult to get a PIC18 serial port working without getting out
an oscilloscope to actually measure the baud rate coming out of the UART because careful reading
of the data sheets and reviewing the CPU clock configuration didn't get me to 9600 baud.

After fighting the PIC all day for pay, when I get home and I just want to get my robot project working,
it is nice to have the simple Arduino environment to interact with instead. Apart from kits for hobbyists,
I am unaware of commercial applications for Arduinos. But there is more to life than work.

To get an idea of how much fun people have with Arduinos, do a youtube search for Arduino.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that was his point.

Impressed? I Should Be Impressed?

[Toad-san]

Hardly.

Now "Kamikaze Ducks" impressed me. BASIC source (in some old old computer hobbyist magazine back around 1982 or so), which I ported to every computer (from DEC mainframe to Commodore 64) I had access to.

But a single pixel "jumping" up and down, a static "terrain" (e.g., blocks) that can move left to right?

And this girl's in college?

If she were 9, I'd be impressed.

Braille Mario

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always thought this game (and space invaders!) would translate pretty well to an 8-dot refreshable braille display (like this one.) Yes, there would be some awkward gameplay questions, like how does the user keep track of the whole board, but come on -- it's not like there's a lot of other game options for this platform.

Still waiting for 8x8 Modern Warefare 2

[SlappyBastard]

Because let's be honest: with a game you can win my just repeatedly jamming the buttons for hours on end, it's not like screen resolution matters.

Re:Still waiting for 8x8 Modern Warefare 2

[introspekt.i]

I get the same thing from Tekken or Street Fighter. Granted, the buttons have to stand up to me palming all 6 of them repeatedly with a lot of intensity.

FFS

[Anonymous Coward]

Hook up a real Nintendo controller to it

Been done before

[Anonymous Coward]

anyone ever heard of super pixel bros from December? http://hackaday.com/2009/12/08/ledboy-super-pixel-brothers/

Re:Who cares?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

What's up with her voice? She's obviously intelligent, but she talks like she has down syndrome.

Thank you for helping maintain American stereotypes, jerk.