Summary of "It took 34 years for the Commodore 64 to get Super Mario Bros."

It Took 34 Years for the Commodore 64 to Get Super Mario Bros.

Storyline / context

In 1987, Super Mario Bros. on the NES defined the platformer, but the NES had little presence in many European markets (Germany, France, UK). The Commodore 64 (C64) was dominant there.
German publisher Rainbow Arts commissioned a Mario‑style horizontal scroller for home computers. The result was The Great Giana Sisters (released 1987). It was explicitly modeled on Super Mario Bros. but given different art, a female protagonist (Giana), and a new name in an attempt to avoid legal trouble.
Design notes:
- Giana’s transformation is represented by spiky‑hair artwork rather than a scaled‑up sprite.
- Enemies were redesigned (owls, disembodied eyes, wasps, giant ants).
- The game shipped with 33 levels; the early stages are near‑copies of Mario’s stages before diverging into original content.
The Giana Sisters sold well in Europe and became a cult/collector item after Nintendo intervened and had the game pulled from shelves. Piracy spread the title widely across the C64 scene.
Decades later, in 2019, a developer/group called Zero Page produced an actual 1:1 port of the original NES Super Mario Bros. to the C64. Nintendo issued a DMCA takedown and the download links were removed.

Gameplay highlights and technical achievements

The Great Giana Sisters

Delivered smooth, fluid horizontal scrolling and momentum that were rare on the C64 at the time; most C64 platformers were single‑screen.
Technical achievement: optimized assembly code to approximate Mario‑style smoothness on the VIC‑II’s limited fine‑scroll capability.
Praised for technical execution and Chris Hülsbeck’s iconic SID soundtrack (widely remixed and performed).

Zero Page’s Super Mario Bros. C64 port (2019)

A 1:1 adaptation of the NES code: the team disassembled the NES ROM and adapted it so original NES logic, bugs and quirks are preserved (not a clean‑room reimplementation).
Graphics and sound I/O were rewritten to target the C64’s VIC‑II and SID chips.
Scrolling technique: uses a timing‑sensitive method called VSP/VSSP (variable screen positioning) to achieve full‑screen smooth scrolling on the VIC‑II without copying screen memory. This depends on precise raster timing and may be unstable on some C64 motherboard revisions.
Audio mapping: NES channels (two pulse, triangle, noise, DMC) are time‑shared across the SID’s three voices; dual‑SID setups are supported for better separation.
Turbo detection: the port detects faster hardware (C128 in 2 MHz mode, C64DTV, Turbo Chameleon, Super CPU/accelerators) and reduces slowdowns accordingly. On a stock C64 there can be occasional slowdowns (the port signals this with a pixel in the time display), but the game remains playable.
Because core NES logic is reused, expect original NES glitches/behaviour to appear in the port.

Practical tips / technical notes

If Zero Page’s port crashes or behaves poorly, try a different C64 motherboard revision — some boards handle VSSP better than others.
Devices like the Commodore 64 Ultimate are designed to be VSSP‑safe.
Enabling turbo/accelerator mode (if available) makes the port behave almost identically to the NES original.
The port intentionally preserves original NES timing and bugs; oddities are not necessarily bugs in the C64 implementation but come from the reused NES logic.

Legal / distribution history

Rainbow Arts asked Nintendo for an official PC port; Nintendo refused. Rainbow Arts then commissioned an in‑house Mario‑like title (The Great Giana Sisters).
Nintendo pressured Rainbow Arts; while there appears to have been no widely publicized formal lawsuit, Nintendo’s intervention led to the game being pulled from shelves and planned ports cancelled.
Giana circulated widely via piracy and later became highly collectible.
Zero Page’s 2019 direct port was quickly subject to a DMCA takedown by Nintendo and removed from distribution.

Notable names, people and sources

Publishers / developers:
- Rainbow Arts (publisher)
- Time Warp (developer team credited for The Great Giana Sisters)
- Zero Page / Zeropage / “Zero Pages” (developer of the 2019 C64 port; subtitles and credits vary)
Individuals (subtitle spellings vary):
- Chris Hülsbeck / Chris Hullsbeck (composer)
- Mark Olrich (Rainbow Arts CEO in subtitles)
- Armen Gassay (subtitle spelling)
- Manfred Tren (subtitle spelling)
Press and distributors:
- US Gold (UK distributor / box tagline reference)
- Zap 64 (UK magazine that reviewed the C64 original)
Hardware / technical references:
- Commodore 64, VIC‑II, SID, MOS 6502 family (6502/2A03/6510)
- Commodore 128 (2 MHz mode), C64DTV, Turbo Chameleon, Super C64 Accelerator, Commodore 64 Ultimate
Platforms mentioned: Amiga, Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC

Summary

The Great Giana Sisters was a technically impressive, regionally significant Mario‑style platformer for the C64 that earned cult status after being pulled from shelves. Thirty‑two years after its release, Zero Page’s 2019 effort finally produced a faithful NES Super Mario Bros. experience on the C64, demonstrating advanced raster tricks and careful hardware mapping — but distribution was shut down following Nintendo’s DMCA action.