Hey! In case you have not noticed the fancy Geocities-inspired "Affiliates" section, we'd like to present that we have joined up with ROM Hack Plaza, the currently most active ROM Hacking site out there! Now run by Benjamin and kandowontu, they're all pretty lax in general and do consider joining the place in case you hack other games outside of Super Mario Bros. 1/2J and wish to publish them elsewhere. Of course, both sites are still actively a work-in-progress, but we will be implementing more in the time to come, both design and function-wise.
We now have an official YouTube channel to keep up with miscellaneous SMB-related clips! Some plans will be committed to it in the future. Check out this video about Jido Mario Bros / 自動マリオ, our first test upload featuring an automatic SMB Hack that was inspired from its SMW counterparts. Unfinished as a demo, but still worthwhile checking out.
...In case you wondered how this site came to be about? We won't be keeping this blogpost short anyways, so in comes a brief history of SMB Arena! (Excuse my third-person writing.)
Late 2014-throughout 2015: The beginning of Li'l Eden's scouring for as many sites as possible for hacks around, which includes bothering some Japanese authors for them. These would include SMB Archives and Tieba Baidu, etc. But this blogpost was the one that inspired him to even archive them in the first place.
September 1st, 2016: The server is created by Eden GT. (Ironically, the first message isn't even by him). Only one SMB-related channel, and too many off-topic channels beyond that.
August 12th, 2017: "One Hour Battle" casually held, preceding the SMB Jam events.
December 2nd, 2018: StudsX joins the server through a DM promotion by Eden through a certain Mario fangame for those in the know.
July 28th, 2020: StudsX becomes moderator and soon, co-admin of SMB Arena.
Early 2021: Mockup Neocities site was being made, but was scrapped soon after. Perhaps there are still remnants today?
August 18th-20th, 2021: Commemorating the nearly 5th year anniversary of the server, the first SMB Jam fest was held.
October 2022: Many extra channels added, those being #smb-level-facilities, #smb-music-madness, #smb-graphics-workshop and more.
August 15-21th, 2022: "SMB Jam 2022" was held. Second competition involving prize money.
July 22-31st, 2023: "SMB JAM '23" was held.
August 2024: Comes the official website you're seeing right now!
This has been somewhat condensed down, but personally I would like to thank SuperJustinBros and StudsX for especially sticking for so long that motivated me to keep going within this interest. Honourable mentions include SMB Archives & IPS Redistribution, Japanese sites that formerly redistributed hacks long ago for others to enjoy. Alongside all the people who were once active and left the server, a cycle that may repeat, we have appreciated your time in the server.
As for the aforementioned Studio-Base, StudsX and jroweboy are currently teaming up together (initially there were two separate bases) to hopefully form a format that would make implementing levels, music, graphics all into one easy-to-use format that saves the conversion pain of doing everything in ASM, thus making modifying the game much easier for beginners! Let's keep an eye on the brewing pot!
By the way, for the first month of this site being opened, e-mail verifications are currently not being processed for the time being due to server provider security reasons. Hopefully it will be automated after this period! I am also in the process of renaming files to remove the fancy brackets and slotting the authors down into the credits, another remnant from my formerly private archive.
-Eden GT
Thank you to the first people who donated to our Ko-Fi! AleFunky, Simplistic6502, Alp
