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Dad Hacks "Donkey Kong" - Now Pauline Rescues Mario

H_Fisher writes "What do you do when your daughter wants the girl to be the hero of your old video game? If you're Mike Mika, you hack the game ROM to reverse the roles. He even changed the 'M' at the top of the screen to a 'P.'"

21 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds like a great father by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I hope he also fixed the final level bug.

  2. Re:Out of the woodwork by CycleMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are other industries as bad, or is the gaming industry one of the worst?

    Everyone's this bad. Nobody RTFA's and understands that Dad took a request from his kid and decided to go all-out on it. They all think it's a political-social-economic-whatever sort of statement. Dad isn't out to make a statement. He's out to love his kid.

    My guess, with absolutely no statistics to back it up, is that many of the attackers are not parents themselves and simply do understand that such a selfless, political-message-free love exists.

  3. Re:Gender roles by kevin+lyda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not have those things? Maybe his daughter likes them? Just because they're traditionally female, doesn't mean they're inferior.

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  4. Re:Gender roles by Myria · · Score: 4, Informative

    If the daughter finds them OK, what's wrong with it? Maybe she likes "girly" things.

    --
    "Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
  5. Re:Gender roles by CycleMan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let the haters hate, and the lovers love. We know who's who by their comments.

    If your daughter wanted it all princessy, and you loved her, you'd do it too. Remember (if you RTFA), she asked to play as not-Mario; we don't know what more she said beyond that. If my son asked for an elephant in the game, I'd make peanuts for him to use. And a little feather because of Dumbo.

    Got my man-card, and my dad-card, and nobody's pulling either of them.

  6. Re:Out of the woodwork by Fjandr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I agree. Fuck the comments about sexism. This is 100% a dad doing something because he loves his daughter and was able to do something cool because she wanted something different.

  7. Should Have Gone All The Way by guttentag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He should have switched the big monkey at the top with the poor little oil drum at the bottom while he was at it, to reflect the full scope of societal changes that have occurred since the release of Donkey Kong.

    In this new version, the girl fights to stop Big Oil at the top from throwing barrels at the cute little monkey at the bottom, while the guy just stands there watching the game. When she gets to the top, she's not rescuing Mario, she's stopping Big Oil from harming cute animals. Mario just happens to come out of his comatose state when she enters the room and feels compelled to feign excitement for her quest.

    In college I had a roommate who felt very strongly that depressed people should not give in to pressure to take Prozac. So I "hacked" (I think I used ResEdit or something... nothing fancy) a Pong clone to replace the ball with a green/yellow Prozac capsule. That way he could "fight the good fight" by trying to deflect the Prozac in response to my repeated attempts to stuff it down his side of the screen. This made him a much more animated opponent in Pong, and I told him this only proved that Prozac does improve people's behavior. Which upped the ante as the game continued, in much the same way that Tetris starts throwing bricks at you with more attitude the further you get into the game.

  8. Re:Pie factory in the NES version? by dosius · · Score: 5, Informative

    There was a VC release bundled with certain editions of the Wii that had a ROM of the NES version with the pie factory level grafted in.

    -uso.

    --
    What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
  9. Re:Why is this necessary? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    GP: Let's count up all the female player characters that exist in video games that aren't sex objects

    You: Lara Croft (in 9 games)

    You seriously think Lara Croft isn't a sex object? .

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  10. Parenting by blind+biker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Parenting - you're doing it right!

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
    1. Re:Parenting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If he TAUGHT her how to hack the game and she did it, then I'd be like "Parenting - you're doing it right."

      She's fucking three years old, dipshit.

      At that age, I think it's okay to just show her it's possible to get what you want if you work for it. You don't have to make her do it herself!

  11. Re:Why is this necessary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nobody looks like that in real life.

    No? I do ... look a lot like Lara Croft. Sure, it's an odd look for a man, but I think I pull it off nicely.

  12. And? by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since I have no reason to hate you with a passion, I won't suggest you watch Twilight but aren't the males in that drivel just as much sex objects?

    What really is the difference between Lara Croft and Fabian? Don't know who he is? Google it and you will find he is a model who appears on countless romance novel covers and NOT because he is a novelist.

    Sex... wasn't really all that much a part of the original Tomb Raider. yes, she had big polygons, which most of the time you don't see since the camera is behind her. Meanwhile the women in Planescape: Torment had FAR bigger tits but nobody complained about that. Because part of the reason to have big tits in low-rez games was so the tits would be visible at all.

    In Israel right now there is a law banning thin models. To protect the feelings of the whales. Because the only thin women are freaks who don't eat of course, not just a normal percentage of women who just happen to not overeat and have a natural slender built. To protect one groups feelings, another group is excluded. For every a-cup girl supposedly offended by doubt D Lara, there is a double D girl offended by every small titted heroine. Can't girls with big busts be heroes or are they condemned like blondes to always be stupid whores?

    HERE IS THE SECRET

    Every personality you see in the media, is a role. Doesn't matter whether you like said role or not. It is a role. Every actor acts a role defined by the writer. Media can NEVER show reality (which is why people who take 1984 as a prophecy as such idiots) because the writer WROTE everything as if he/she was god. A personality is self-destructive or succesful because the writer made it to be like that. In Far Cry 3 and the new Tomb Raider the "hero" goes from a snivelling coward to lean mean well adjusted killing machine because that was what the writers put in the plot. A different writer could just as easily have written a plot showing how both lapse into insanity. When backdraft was made, fire departments around the world saw an increase in volunteers and Pretty Woman has been claimed to have caused an increase in girls thinking prostitution always has an happy ending... for the girl. Mind you, the postman always ring twice didn't see more people wanting to be postman. Because the writers made on proffesion seem heroic while the other... wasn't. And many movies have shown hookers in bad light. The role an actor plays is not real.

    REAL people are often WAY more complex then can be put in a 1.5 hour movie. Lara Croft breasts are often the joke of back pains... and? This is well known among women and those who live in the same world as them. Breast reduction surgery does exist and STILL women with small breasts want to be sultry big bossomed and big breasted women want to be slender and cute. And men want big cocks despite most women not particularly liking to be stretched to wide or to deep while men with actual big penisses wish that girls wouldn't run out the door when they get naked. We all want what we can't have because SURELY the grass is greener on the other side, so we all climb the fence and never wonder why so many people are climbing the other way.

    BUT it is NOT the media's fault, it is our own.

    Take publicity shots for say Star Wars. You can probably find some of Carry Fisher in her metal bikini and say "fan service". That is because all the pictures of Harrison Ford strutting it, don't appeal to YOU. But they ARE fanservice to a LOT of women. You drooled over Leia, they drooled over Han. Or Luke. Or Obi-Wan... women are weird or Jabba... my gf picked me after all.

    You might think that a Lord of the Rings does not have much fanservice but just search the net. So... does that make the characters sex symbols? YES! Just not to you, but if SOMEONE drools over it, it is a sex symbol.

    Sex sells, it always has done and both genders lap it up.

    Sexism is only seeing it in one gender. Note the Israeli law on thin models ONLY applies to females. Because everyone knows bulemia

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

    1. Re:And? by Aglassis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As I said above, if women want more positive portrayals of women in video games, they can start their own game companies and make their own games (and some have done just that, I applaud them for their effort)

      This post is a good example of blame shifting. By shifting the blame of sexism onto women who haven't made the non-sexist games, you think you can claim your hands are clean, right? So what do you say: "let the market decide! If sexism is bad then it will be uneconomical. We don't have to worry about that annoying subject called ethics." Heck, let's apply it in general. If LGBT people don't like negative portrayals in the media, they can just form their own media companies. If African Americans don't like racism, they can make their own media.

      What a great idea...NOT!

      Here's an alternate idea: assume that women are complete human beings and that sexism is wrong. And even if you are a man, realize that you probably have a sister, daughter, or niece who will see this sexist crap and see it as a red flag to stay in her assigned gender role...or else!

      Sexism is a type of bigotry. I know our culture has made it seem less damaging than racism, but really it is just as damaging. Just because sexism is largely accepted does not make it right.

      Here is a list of bigoted statements:
      * If those n*****s want to play golf, they should just build their own golf club
      * If those f**s want equal rights, they should move to San Francisco
      * If those b*****s want to play our sexist games, they can start their own game companies

      Yeah, I know, sexist video games aren't the greatest form of bigotry that exists. But it is a type of bigotry. And it should be resisted.

      --
      Suddenly, the hairy finger of a familiar monkey tapped me on the shoulder. It was time.--G. T.
    2. Re:And? by Cederic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Hulk or Superman aren't FEMALE sex fantasies, they're MALE power fantasies.

      Oh, ok. That's not sexist at all then.

      Hang on - I'm a man, and I don't fantasise about being muscle-bound and powerful. Stop fucking stereotyping me you sexist cunt.

      (before we get to all the other feminist issues surrounding equality of pay, access to health services, work, etc., etc.)

      ..and life expectancy, retirement age on a state pension (in the UK), equality of childbirth time off work, custody and access to children following divorce, safety from assault, legalised workplace discrimination against me, etc., etc.

      Don't fucking pretend it's all one-way traffic.

      Trust me, I think equality's a fantastic ideal. I'd love to get some.

  13. Actually I suspect it was more a case of... by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... dad had a convenient excuse to spend some quality time hacking.

    Wife: Hey, why the fsck are you still sitting in front of that computer, its 1am! You love that thing more than me. I'm sick of it! Come to bed and treat me like a woman!

    Dad: I'm giving matriachal empowerment to the characterisation of this game for the sake of our daughters self esteem.

    Wife: Oh , well, ok then! Night!

    Dad: Heh , sucker. Now, lets see what this ISR does...

  14. Re:If you're going to defeat a 10 foot gorilla by auLucifer · · Score: 4, Funny

    Have you seen what women carry in their handbags? I'd rather be hit with a mallet than whatever they're hiding in there!

    --
    If I was witty I'd put something funny here but, as it stands, I am not and have just wasted seconds of your life
  15. Re: What do you do? by Eraesr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah sure, blah blah blah.
    He hasn't actually released the modified game and big gaming corporations don't give a fuck about a dad hacking a 30 year old game this way to make his daughter happy. To "squash" this, a corp needs to spend more money than it's worth, so they're not going to do a thing about it. Simple as that.

  16. Re:Out of the woodwork by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This dad did what feminists can't be arsed to do, he worked long hours past midnight to change a game so it was more of her daughter's liking, instead of bitching about it for years without doing anything.

    It would have been a better story if her daughter made the hack herself instead of having to manipulate a man to get her wish, but that can be excused by her little age.

  17. Re:Why is this necessary? by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They aren't buff like that to entice females or gay males to play, they're buff like that as a kind of ego fantasy for the males that buy those games. They aren't sex objects.

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  18. Re:Gender roles by alva_edison · · Score: 4, Informative

    I see gender roles are still alive and well, with Pauline using pink umbrella's and pink handbags in her quest to defeat Donkey Kong...

    Has no one actually played Donkey Kong? Those were from the original game as the icons for bonus points. They were Pauline's items that she tossed for Mario to pick up. If he were going to really flip that aspect, he should change the color/style on the umbrella, and maybe make the purse a lunch pail or something. But that's more sprite editing.

    --
    He effected a bored affect.