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drmario: MAME ROM Information.


History:

Vs. Dr. Mario (c) 1990 Nintendo.


A playable and addictive Tetris-inspired puzzle in which players must match and rotate coloured pills (thrown in the play - shown as a bottle - by Nintendo's legendary plumber, 'Mario') with the aim of killing all of the germs that litter the play area.


Each germ is either yellow, red, or blue in colour and each of the pill capsules Mario throws are made up of one or two of these colours. Players must manipulate the coloured pills to a germ of the same colour and try to form a chain. One or more squares of the same colour will remove both the pills and any adjacent like-coloured germ.


Four like-coloured pill sections stacked on the same color germ will rid your bottle of that germ. The number of germs and speed of Mario increases with each level.


- TECHNICAL -


Main CPU : N2A03 (@ 1.789772 Mhz)

Sound Chips : N2A03 (@ 1.789772 Mhz), DAC (@ 1.789772 Mhz)


Screen orientation : Horizontal

Video resolution : 256 x 240 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz

Palette colors : 64


Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 2


- TRIVIA -


Released in October 1990. Dr. Mario was the last game released on the Vs. hardware.


Dr. Mario was the first non-action 'Mario game' in which the Mario character was neither controllable nor playable. Today the game is widely remembered by many people for the 'Fever' music. Initially some fans called the game 'Mario 4', as it was the first Mario game to be released after "Super Mario Bros. 3". The resulting debate over 'what counts as a Mario game' may have resulted in the decision to name the next Mario action game simply "Super Mario World".


U.S. Patent 5,265,888 covers Dr. Mario, here is the abstract of this Patent : A player initially sets the degree of difficulty of a display type game, and if desired, more than one player may participate with each player selecting an associated level of difficulty. First and second objects having different shapes, e.g. capsules and viruses, and different characteristics, e.g. different colors or shadings, are displayed in a predefined display area. First objects are generated based on random number data stored in a ROM and displayed as 'falling' in a vertical direction across the predefined display area. Coordinate positions of the first objects on the display are changed by a player operating a controller. Second objects are displayed at arbitrary positions in the display area based on random number data. If a prescribed number of at least a portion of first objects and/or second objects having the same type characteristics are detected as being continuously aligned in a vertical or lateral direction, those continuously aligned objects are erased. Remaining portions of first objects (or remaining first objects) previously supported by erased objects are displayed as falling in the vertical direction to the lower region of the prescribed displayed area. When all second objects are erased, the game is successfully completed.


Dr. Mario (as in Mario himself, not the game mind you) appears as an unlockable character in the Nintendo GameCube sequel to "Super Smash Bros." called "Super Smash Bros. Melee".


Stephen Krogman holds the official record for this game with 899,400 points on January 1, 1992.


- SCORING -


At normal speed :

One bug knocked out with pill : 200 points

Second bug knocked out with pill : 400 points (600 total)

Third bug knocked out with pill : 600 points (1200 total)

Fourth bug knocked out with pill : 800 points (2000 total)

Fifth bug knocked out with pill : 1000 points (3000 total)

and so on...


At high speed :

One bug knocked out with pill : 300 points

Second bug knocked out with pill : 600 points (900 total)

Third bug knocked out with pill : 900 points (1800 total)

Fourth bug knocked out with pill : 1200 points (3000 total)

Fifth bug knocked out with pill : 1500 points (4500 total)

and so on...


- TIPS AND TRICKS -


When you finish the 20th rack, you get an intermission. With 'Normal' speed, you get the three bugs watching a lizard still in his egg going against the wind (as shown by the clouds). With 'High' speed, the screen goes dark and a spaceship beams up the three bugs before disappearing.


- SERIES -


1. Dr. Mario / Vs. Dr. Mario (1990)

2. Tetris & Dr. Mario (1994, Nintendo SNES)

3. Dr. Mario 64 (2001, Nintendo 64)

4. Nintendo Puzzle Collection (2003, Nintendo Gamecube)

5. Dr. Mario Online RX (2008, Nintendo Wii - WiiWare)


- STAFF -


Created by : Gunpei Yokoi

Music by : Hirokazu Tanaka


- SOURCES -


Game's rom.

Machine's picture.




MAME Info:

0.37b11 [Howie Cohen]


Artwork available


WIP:

- 0.60: Changed description to 'Vs. Dr. Mario'. Removed 3rd button.

- 0.37b12: Changed description to 'Dr. Mario'. Added dipswitches 'Drop Rate Increases After' and 'Drop Speed Up'.

- 0.37b11: Howie Cohen added Dr Mario (Nintendo 1990).

- 6th January 2001: Howie Cohen fixed several bugs in the VSNES driver and added RBI Baseball, VS Baseball and VS Mahjong.

- 1st January 2001: Howie Cohen finally submitted the long awaited VSNES driver, with most of the games having correct colors and sound.


LEVELS: 20


Recommended Games:

Mario Bros.

Mario Bros. (PlayChoice-10)

Vs. Super Mario Bros

Super Mario Bros. (PlayChoice-10)

Super Mario Bros. 2 (PlayChoice-10)

Super Mario Bros. 3 (PlayChoice-10)

Vs. Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario (PlayChoice-10)

Mario's Open Golf (PlayChoice-10)

Super Mario World


Romset: 97 kb / 3 files / 33.2 zip




MAME XML Output:

       <game name="drmario" sourcefile="vsnes.c">
              <description>Vs. Dr. Mario</description>
              <year>1990</year>
              <manufacturer>Nintendo</manufacturer>
              <rom name="dm-uiprg" size="65536" crc="d5d7eac4" sha1="cd74c3a7a2fc7c25420037ae5f4a25307aff6587" region="maincpu" offset="10000"/>
              <rom name="dm-u3chr" size="32768" crc="91871aa5" sha1="32a4299ead7b37f49877dc9597653b07a73ddbf3" region="gfx1" offset="0"/>
              <rom name="rp2c04-0003.pal" size="192" crc="fd6c578b" sha1="653182ce0cbaff66a8fc5788e32cc088b6735f2e" region="palette" offset="0"/>
              <chip type="cpu" tag="maincpu" name="N2A03" clock="1789772"/>
              <chip type="audio" tag="mono" name="Speaker"/>
              <chip type="audio" tag="nes1" name="N2A03" clock="1789772"/>
              <chip type="audio" tag="dac1" name="DAC"/>
              <display tag="screen1" type="raster" rotate="0" width="256" height="240" refresh="60.000000" pixclock="4024320" htotal="256" hbend="0" hbstart="256" vtotal="262" vbend="0" vbstart="240" />
              <sound channels="1"/>
              <input players="2" buttons="2" coins="2">
                     <control type="joy" ways="8"/>
              </input>
              <dipswitch name="Drop Rate Increases After" tag="DSW0" mask="3">
                     <dipvalue name="7 Pills" value="0"/>
                     <dipvalue name="8 Pills" value="1"/>
                     <dipvalue name="9 Pills" value="2"/>
                     <dipvalue name="10 Pills" value="3" default="yes"/>
              </dipswitch>
              <dipswitch name="Virus Level" tag="DSW0" mask="12">
                     <dipvalue name="1" value="0"/>
                     <dipvalue name="3" value="4" default="yes"/>
                     <dipvalue name="5" value="8"/>
                     <dipvalue name="7" value="12"/>
              </dipswitch>
              <dipswitch name="Drop Speed Up" tag="DSW0" mask="48">
                     <dipvalue name="Slow" value="0" default="yes"/>
                     <dipvalue name="Medium" value="16"/>
                     <dipvalue name="Fast" value="32"/>
                     <dipvalue name="Fastest" value="48"/>
              </dipswitch>
              <dipswitch name="Free Play" tag="DSW0" mask="64">
                     <dipvalue name="Off" value="0" default="yes"/>
                     <dipvalue name="On" value="64"/>
              </dipswitch>
              <dipswitch name="Demo Sounds" tag="DSW0" mask="128">
                     <dipvalue name="Off" value="0"/>
                     <dipvalue name="On" value="128" default="yes"/>
              </dipswitch>
              <driver status="good" emulation="good" color="good" sound="good" graphic="good" savestate="unsupported" palettesize="512"/>
       </game>
 
 


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