Thanks for downloading this hack. I’m Kyle Packey,
otherwise known as KP9000 or just KP when online. I
spent quite a bit of time in the IRC community and have
been a part of Acmlm’s community (and remnants
thereof) since it started. Communist Mario 3 is the first
full ROM hack I have released. Since getting into the
ROM hacking scene, over the course of many years, I
slowly learned the ins and outs of the SMB3 ROM. The
idea for this hack came as a result of asking setz for his
recommendation on a game to play, to which he
responded with a link to his hack, “Communist Mario”,
which is a SMB1 hack. I then immediately started work
on this hack. And now, here we are!


The object of this hack is to play through the original
SMB3 but instead avoid all the coins, either free or in
blocks. A number of other gameplay changes have been
made to execute this main change, as well as a fully
customized theme to compliment it! Please note that I
do not claim any of the content in this hack to be
accurate in any way possible. Some of it might be, but I
didn’t put any effort into accuracy. If you have a
problem with the content, grow some thicker skin or go
play another hack.


Credits:

> Most graphics are my own. Some have been sourced from
  other NES ROMs like Megaman 3-5, Castlevania,
  Faxanadu, and others.

> Graphics from JaSp’s hack, “Mario in: Some Usual Day”,
  mostly global animated graphics.

> Many people on IRC. The channel #rom-hacking on
  Espernet is full of people that were instrumental in helping
  me learn how to manipulate and edit my data. These people
  include Lenophis, DahrkDaiz, Disch, Vystrix
  Nexoth/Rainne, and more.

> Snarfblam for the coin/desth counter cap increase to 999!

> MetroidMst/ShyGuy for all the hype!!!

> Lenophis for playtesting, suggestions, and streaming.

> DahrkDaiz for his notes from way back in the day.

> Emuz for support, ideas, and resources.

> maddievision/DJBouche for music additions.

> Finally, setz/skiffain for creating and releasing Communist
  Mario (SMB1), the idea for this hack.




Gameplay Changes:

> Don’t get coins! Any kind of coin will hurt or kill you! You can
  still gather coins while invincible, and any coin gathering you do
  will still cause your coin counter to increase.

> Mostly unchanged levels! Aside from functional and aesthetic
  changes, levels have been left as unchanged as possible. Yep, this
  is a feature.

> Most autoscrollers removed! All airship levels and 5-9 has
  autoscrollers left in. Airships autoscrollers have been sped up to
  the maximum speed possible. They have been re-routed to account
  for the extra speed. 

> One-ups have been removed! Any one-up that was in the
  game has been changed to a mushroom power-up. You will not
  gain a one-up for collecting coins.

> Lives counter has been changed to a death counter! If
  you max the counter cap at 999, you are not a very good
  communist.

> Level-end goal cards and slot-machine matching
  games have been removed. Since there’s no longer any
  point to having lives, they don’t serve a purpose.

> Warp whistles, music boxes, and all but one anchor
  have been removed. Warp whistles are lazy, music boxes
  suck, and anchors are next to useless.

> All pipe transitions have been reworked to automatically move
  Comrade Mario to the pipe's destination, like SMW.

> Quicker, snappier game flow! Adjusted certain in-game timers to 
  reduce or remove unnecessary wait times. Faster message text,
  shops, n-spade game, collecting items from chests, immediate
  ending of Boom-boom fights upon collecting the orb, and many
  other behind-the-scenes timers.

> Use your items! Hammers, Tanooki Suits, Hammer Suits,
  and other items are more plentiful.




Technical Details:

> Increased the amount of frames the game uses to animate
  most game elements in-level. The original game had 4. This
  hack cycles 16 frames in the same amount of time as the
  original game cycled 4.

> Coins have the “hurt Mario” routine attached to it.

> Includes code for all worlds to be able to handle their own
  unique graphics page. In order for this to work, all graphic
  pages needed to be organized and arranged to fit the single
  TSA page referenced by the game.

> Certain world map conditions were changed to allow for my
  execution of features and styles in this hack. No dark screen
  in the third part of World 8! Animation restored to World 5,
  but animation stopped in World 6.




Theme Changes:

> All worlds have their own unique graphics set. They will look
  different, but will have the same fundamental layout as the
  original.

> Storyline has been changed, so the text also needed to
  match. All old princess letters were changed to quotes from
  Vladimir Lenin and all the chairmen (formerly kings)
  messages have been changed.

> Bowser is no longer the antagonist. That has been changed
  to Uncle Sam and the United States.

> Levels have visual changes that make them look a bit less
  plain, mostly fortresses.



Note: Yes, I realize some things are a bit "off", such as some of
      the palettes. Usually these things are a result of various
      programming limitations, or requires a bit more effort than
      I'm willing to put into it.