Super Mario Bros. X2
| Super Mario Bros. X2 | |
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| Developer: | Codehaus |
| Platforms: | Windows 7 or over |
| Initial release: | 2nd of December, 2015, as version 2.0 Open Beta |
| Latest version: | 2.0.0.b5.3 (3rd of March, 2025) |
| Coded in: | Lua, C++ |
| Code model: | Partially Open Source releases only, in-development code is private |
| License: | (multiple licenses, All Rights Reserved to their original authors for Resources) |
| State: | Suspended, looking for the new leader[1] |
| Download: | Official site |
Super Mario Bros. X2 (also known as SMBX2, SMBX 2.0) is a collaborative, open-source project to improve and expand upon the original SMBX. SMBX2 was founded by Horikawa Otane and the first public build was released in December 2015.
History
Prerequisites for the subsequent foundation of SMBX2 became after introduction of the LunaDLL and the LunaLua in addition to alternative devkit based on the Moondust Project, and other helper tools, the SMBX community got many powerful development and modding tools that majorly changed the level and episode building scene. On the dark side, the chaos between of independently spreaded small pieces of components that users were required to download and combine together in order to get the desired toolset for episode development or playing existing content based on the LunaLua-SMBX (The modded SMBX 1.3 with addition of LunaLua library). Looking on this, Horikawa Otane the notable member of Talkhaus, decided to unify this into united set that everyone can use as one single standalone kit. She started the development and testing of the future kit in hide: she combined the LunaLua-SMBX, Moondust Devkit (that was called PGE Project on that moment), the large pile of lua-coded add-ons in aim to simplify further episode/level development and guarantee they will be playable on users end with the minimal effort. In addition, she developed the brand new custom launcher based on the Qt WebKit (later replaced with Qt WebEngine) which allows to show colourful and functional individual pages for showcasing of installed episodes, and adjust various settings of the SMBX Engine.
On 4th of December, 2015, the first version of the kit was ready and released at the first day as the "Open Beta". However, the kit was broken and almost unplayable. And therefore, the "Open Beta 2" was been releases as a hotfix over it with minimal changes. The released project gained popularity very quickly and replaced the still dominant SMBX 1.3.0.1 (cosmetic update of resources based on SMBX 1.3).
At the same time, the project also had opponents who criticized SMBX2 due to the abundance of various errors, for bloating, and for the high system requirements compared to other SMBX branches, including the original SMBX 1.3. The project was criticized by Wohlstand, the founder of the Moondust Project, who still wants to release a completely independent engine, rather than create one another mod over SMBX 1.3. He described SMBX2 as "The biggest workaround in the universe", however, Horikawa Otane agreed with him. At that time, the teams discussed that SMBX2 was meant to be a temporary solution, pending the release of a full-featured implementation of the Moondust Engine.
The initial team released in total three versions inclding a long-term kit of SMBX2 Beta 3 released on 20th of September, 2016, after which the development of the next version was delayed for a long time compared to previous update releases. Over time, circumstances changed, and a rift developed in the team, which caused some members to leave the team, including for personal reasons (first Horikawa Otane, then Kevsoft and then Wohlstand who kept the minor assitance on the SMBX2 support on his Moondust Project side and the MixerX maintenance), and Hoeloe de-facto took the leadership on the project. Under Hoeloe's leadership, Beta 4 (including intermediate versions of MX3 and PAL) and Beta 5 were released. Also, starting from some point, a fork of the Moondust Devkit was created by Emral (also known as Enjl), where specific changes were made to the needs of the SMBX2 project.
At the beginning of 2024, Hoeloe left the development of the project for personal reasons, and since then the SMBX2 project has been left without a leadership. The remaining team members began discussing the future of the project: either transfer the project to a new person, or make the working repository public so that anyone can then pick up the project.[2]
On 29th of March, 2025, Rixitic initiated the discussion about the future of the SMBX2 project and conclused that he became a temporary holder of the SMBX2 project until new potential leader will pick-up the project, or until a deadline on middle of April, 2025 will come, after which the development repository will be published and abandoned unmaintained. Rixitic explained that the development of X2 reaching its end under the current development team, with almost all of the core contributors having burned out, quit, moved on, and/or become too busy to contribute regularly. This includes Emral who left the team early last year; Proloe, the current team lead and owner of the engine's Gitlab repository; and Rednaxela, the primary LunaLua developer.[1]
On 10th of May, 2025, Rixitic announced the list of potential team members who will inherit the development of the X2 after the Beta5 Patch 4 will be released. There are MegaDood, MrDoubleA, and ds-sloth.[3]
Overview
SMBX2 is a set of multiple tools and components developed in different repositories. SMBX 1.3.0.2 is used as a base for SMBX2. Most of the new features are written in Lua.
WARNING: This game is unstable due to it was hacked and built with many components and tons of Lua-coded additions, and may cause BUGS!
Components
- An smbx.exe file with the MD5-Hash "efbb21dfdfcbfa445a80c604871a58f5" built by Redigit in October 2010 for the SMBX 1.3 release.
- LunaLua - An extension framework with Lua scripting support. Library licensed under GNU GPLv3.
- SMBX Launcher - A new launcher for SMBX2 built with Qt and QWebEngine. Developed in the same repository as LunaLua, licensed under GNU GPLv3.
- SDL2 library - A multimedia layer library used for several purposes (originally for audio output only, but later game controller support was added), licensed under ZLib.
- SDL Mixer X - A music and sound playing and management library, a fork of SDL Mixer library. It can be used to play many sound and music formats. Library itself is licensed under ZLib; there are other linked libraries that are licensed differently (BSD/LGPL/GPLv2+/etc.).
- Moondust Development kit - A development kit from the Moondust Project is used as a main Editor and helper tools for SMBX2. Licensed under GPLv3. Since the Beta 5, the alternative forked version of the Devkit started to be used instead of the official Moondust Devkit. The fork was maintained by Emral, but it's possibly unmaintained at later.
- WARNING: The Editor with DevKit included in SMBX2 of versions Beta 3 and Beta 4 are BUGGY and OUTDATED; It's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to update it before use! Follow [this manual] to perform that.
Note: After release of Beta 5 and some patch releases, the SMBX2 Editor is no longer receives further updates since Emral (maintainer of the forked Moondust Editor) left the development team.
- Resources (graphics, music, sounds, characters, and universe) - A set of resources are replicating originals from classic Nintendo and Sega games. The contents are copyrighted by various organizations (Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, Creatures, Inc. (Originally APE, Inc.) , HAL Laboratory, Namco, etc.), which doesn't sponsor, authorize, or endorse this project in any way. All Rights Reserved to their original authors. Therefore, this content can only be used for learning and communities. Other usages (example: Commercial, Professional, etc. of formal works) are not allowed under the law.
Version history
SMBX 2.0 Open Beta
The first announcement of the SMBX 2.0 project was published on 4th of December, 2015.[4] The first release was published some days later as "SMBX 2.0 Open Beta", however it was quickly replaced with Release 2 which fixed several critical bugs that had been found in it.
SMBX 2.0 Open Beta Release 2
On 14th of December, 2015, a second release was published as a hot-fix for the first release.[5]
SMBX 2.0 Beta 3
On 20th of September, 2016, a third release was published with a major set of additions including new blocks, new NPCs, and three new playable characters. [6] At this point the separate builds of LunaLua over SMBX 1.3 were discontinued and all updates to LunaLua were integrated solely into SMBX2.
SMBX2mx3
On 30th of March, 2019, the SMBX2mx3 version was released. It was a preview build of SMBX2b4, with a mostly complete feature-set. The build's primary purpose was to be used for the MAGLX3 Level Contest, hence mx3.
SMBX2 PAL Release
On 23th of June, 2019 the PAL version was released. It fixed several issues with the SMBX2mx3 version and added some additional functionality.[7][8]
SMBX2 Beta 4 (2.0.0.b4)
On 31th of January, 2020, the Beta 4 version was released. This update fixed several issues with the SMBX2 Beta 4 preview builds and added additional functionality. It included changes that may cause behavioral inconsistencies with levels made on preview builds or Beta 3 and is a stable release of SMBX2 sufficient for releasing episodes.[9]
With a time, there are next minor updates has been released:
- Patch 1 (2020-02-11)
- Patch 2 (2020-05-12)
- Patch 2 Hotfix (2020-05-14)
- Patch 3 (2020-08-31)
- Patch 3 Hotfix (2020-09-07)
- Patch 4 (2021-04-08)
- Patch 4 Hotfix (2021-04-30)
SMBX2 Beta 5 (2.0.0.b5)
On 4th of February, 2024, the Beta 5 version was released. This update adds a lot of new in-game objects (including some replacements for vanilla SMBX objects) and changes many features. This version also starts to use the forked version of the Devkit which isn't maintained by the Moondust Team (at the same time, the official Moondust Devkit stops to support the SMBX2 on its side, keeping the support for the SMBX2 Beta 4 and older versions only).[10]
With a time, there are next minor updates has been released:
- Patch 1 (2024-02-18)
- Patch 1 Hotfix (2024-02-18)
- Patch 1 Hotfix 2 (2024-02-19)
- Patch 2 (2024-02-25)
- Patch 3 (2025-03-03)
System requirements
- Operating system: Windows 7/8.1/10 or 11
- SMBX2 will work on Linux or on the macOS (Intel only, up to 10.14) with Wine. The Wine 9.0 is minimal recommended, however, it can work via the older Wine version if will manually install the Direct X 9 package, VisualBasic 6 Runtime (MSVBVM6) (Will be auto-installed by installer since Beta 5), and VC2015 redistributable. It is optionally recommended to use the PlayOnLinux or the PlayOnMac with the 64-bit Wine 9.0 or newer, or the 32-bit version of the Wine if older than 9.0. All important dependencies can be downloaded from here.
- OpenGL support and all suitable drivers installed. The game will not work (or it might work, but extremely slow) if you have not installed drivers for your video card (The "Standard VGA Adapter" is show in the Devices Manager of the Windows OS).
- Modern Graphics Card.
Important note: If you run the game through Wine at the Monjaro or at any other ArchLinux-family operating system, you should install the lib32-libxcomposite package, otherwise, game won't render anything at all.
- Important note: On newer Ubuntu / Linux Mint that starts use the PipeWire instreface, you are required to install the pipewire-alsa:i386 package, otherwise, the sound won't work.
- Important note: Doesn't work in Windows XP or Vista.
- Important note: Shaders doesn't work with the older Graphics Card.
The Team
- Lead developers: Rednaxela (LunaLua backend maintenance), ds-sloth, MrDoubleA, MegaDood.
- Assistance / The official representative of the team: rixitic.
- Assistance - Anonymous contributor who assisted with the release of the Patch3 for the Beta 5 in March of 2025.
- Retired developers:
- Horikawa Otane - Founder of the project and initial lead developer.
- Kevsoft - Founder and developer of the LunaLua project.
- Wohlstand - Audio system maintenance and the Devkit maintenance up to the Beta 4. Since the December of 2019, very rare and minimal maintenance. Still owns and maintains the hosting where official SMBX2 website and downloads runs.
- Hoeloe - Lead developer since 2015 and up to 2024, she stopped to participate project maintenance after December of 2024.
- Emral - Maintainer of the forked Moondust Devkit version for needs of the X2 project since the Beta 5 release in addition to other works in the scope of the X2. Emral has quit from the team quickly after release of the A2XT, Episode 2: Digital Groove game.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 SMBX2 Repository Ownership Discussion Thread - posted at the SMBX forum on 29th of March, 2025. Archived on 29th of March, 2025
- ↑ Rixitic's clarification about the current state of the SMBX2 project and its possible future - posted at the SMBX forum on 3rd of March, 2025. Archived on 3rd of March, 2025
- ↑ Rixitic's announcement of potential list of new SMBX2 team members - posted at the SMBX forum on 10th of May, 2025. Archived on 10th of May, 2025.
- ↑ ANNOUNCING SMBX 2.0! (Playable Mega Man and Samus Announced) - The official introduction of the SMBX 2.0 Open Beta (and Beta 2 as a hotfix). Archived in 13'th of August, 2020 as the current version was seriously distorted and damaged.
- ↑ SMBX 2.0 Open Beta - The old discussion topic. Archived on 28'th of September, 2020
- ↑ SMBX2 (2.0 Beta 3) - The official Beta 3 release announcement and discussion topic. Archived in 4'th of August, 2020 as current version has the main post being deleted.
- ↑ The MaGLX3 Contest! - The official topic of the MaGLX3 contest at the SMBX Forums. Archived on 15'th of June, 2024.
- ↑ SMBX2 PAL Release - Feedback, Questions and Bugs here! The official topic for the SMBX2 PAL release. Archived at 6th on February, 2023.
- ↑ SMBX2 BETA 4 Release - Feedback and Suggestions here! - The official Beta4 announcement and discussion topic. Archived on 6th of February, 2023.
- ↑ SMBX2 Beta 5 RELEASE! ➡️ Discussion & bugs here! - The official Beta5 announcement and discussion topic. Archived on 5th of February, 2024.
Links
| Super Mario Bros. X |
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  Successors: Based on Original Code: Remakes: Further Reading: History of SMBX • Editors comparison • Branches of Super Mario Bros. X |
* - Cancelled Project
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