Last week a truly remarkable programming feat came to light with the release of Super Mario Bros. 64, a port of the original NES Super Mario Bros. for the Commodore 64. Seven years in the making, it came courtesy of programmer and fan ZeroPaige. It's a painstaking recreation that manages to look and sound incredibly similar to the original game - a impressive accomplishment considering the vast differences between the Commodore and NES. For those too young to remember, the Commodore 64 was an 8-bit computer that got the '64' in its name not from bits, but from the kilobytes of RAM it carried.

Of course, as reported by Eurogamer, it seems Nintendo caught wind of the port and Cease & Desist letters were winging their way to websites where it was hosted within four days. Despite being for a defunct platform, it's unsurprising to see Nintendo moving to get the port removed - indeed, in order to make sure it can fight more egregious cases in the future, the company must be seen (legally speaking) to actively protect its IP, regardless of the effect or sheer impressiveness of the infringement.

After watching just how accurately the port runs, it's a shame to see seven years of hard work removed in a matter of days. That said, although it's been removed as per Nintendo's request, it's obviously still out there to find in various corners of the internet.

Check out TorrentFreak for a more in-depth look at the making of Super Mario Bros. 64 and its subsequent removal.

Impressive, no? Can you think of any other incredible feats of programming involving Nintendo IP? Share your thoughts below.

[source eurogamer.net]