by N Rumas - 02.08.08
This is amazingly cool. It’s also rather hard to describe in words, so I’ll let the masterminds behind the installation, Keith Lam and Joseph Chan, try their best to do that:
“Moving Mario is putting out the whole game scene (World 1-1) background. It is not extending the virtual space but just putting the whole original scene physically. By wiring the game controller with the TV, player need to walk physically in order to play the game.
By phsyicalize the virtual game, Moving Mario is transfering the movement of virtual character (Mario) to the real world player.”
If you’re anything like me, you’ll still be scratching your head right about now. In short, the installation plays with the idea that the scrolling backdrops in 2D side-scrollers created the illusion of movement, while the character was essentially running in place. I’d sure love to experience this one in person. Check out the video after the break.
source: Kotaku
yea i took a class on flash last semester and this kid and i recreated the first mario level and thats exactly how we did it, mario gives the illusion that hes moving left and right but its really the backgrough that is scrolling and coming onto the screen. pretty cool stuff
ricky - 02.08.08 1:46 pm
If the bacground tape can go one way only, then it’s why you can’t go back in SMB!
Mother 1+2 for 29.90$ - 02.08.08 2:07 pm
Shweet idea! Now I think I’ll put a few cheap LCDs side-by-side and code up some multiplayer goodness! (Hasn’t been done before, has it?)
Bug - 02.08.08 2:11 pm
I like the idea, but I think the execution is lacking in that there’s nothing stopping the player from just holding the Right button to get to the end. That doesn’t simulate Mario at all, and in this sense it might as well have been any video game. A more accurate construction would to have obstacles like bricks and goombas be placed closer to the player - on the same plane as Mario - so the player would have to maneuver or jump over them.
Otherwise, the point of the project kind of falls flat, doesn’t it?
Scypher - 02.08.08 3:19 pm
Hmmm. I do believe I saw a L293 dual motor driver chip. Hooray for Breadboarding/Electronic Engineering!
While I didn’t find the overall execution terribly thrilling, I would like to give props for the large amount of work that had to go into this. Well done, sirs.
Howard Roark - 02.08.08 4:11 pm
…What was the point of all that?
RageTreb - 02.08.08 4:52 pm
So I get that this forces the player to follow the direction they’re pushing Mario into… but I don’t really understand what exactly that does or does not prove (particularly when the entire level is just flat bricks). Is there some engineering component of this I’m just not understanding?
I certainly couldn’t make this as it is, but that’s another story
Tony - 02.08.08 5:32 pm
@ Tony
I suppose it is just proving that the level moves, not Mario.
You know the video “Virtual Insanity” by Jamieroquai? Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmX1z1NY2c
In the video, it appears that the furniture and Jamieroquai are moving about the room. In actuality, the room itself is moving with the camera attached to it. That perspective is what makes the illusion work.
OMFG - 02.08.08 9:09 pm
That’s crazy. And I love it.
Wolfmaster - 02.09.08 1:04 am
I guess to me, in the confines of a completely 2D space it really doesn’t matter terribly much which of the two is moving.
Even in this demo, if they attached a little Mario to the screen you could easily assume that both Mario and the world move… so I guess I’m still reasonably confused by it lol.
Oh well, I’ll live.
Tony - 02.09.08 3:24 am
Wolfmaster has said all I could ever post about this thing.
Jim - 02.09.08 8:01 am
Scypher- He’s not making something perfectly playable, this isn’t a game. It’s a piece of conceptual art meant to explain how the game really works because a lot of people probably wouldn’t bother figuring it out otherwise. I think it’s pretty neat as a demonstration of the concept.
JDW - 02.11.08 2:21 am