PrinceWatercress plays Super Boy I - Part 1 of 4

Of all the Master System games to start out with...

Super Boy I is a pretty bad Mario clone from 1989 that was originally "programmed" by South Korean "developer" Zemina. It was later ported over to the Sega Master System.

The MSX was an attempt at an operating system standard by Microsoft to create a single industry standard in Japan, so that numerous computers in that country would have the same OS and therefore be interchangeable with one another. If a software program worked on the MSX unit of one manufacturer, it would work on an MSX unit of any other manufacturer - all one had to do was look for the MSX logo on the unit. MSX computers were manufactured by numerous companies throughout the world such as Philips, Spectravision, Yamaha, Goldstar and many more.

Until July of 1987, there were no copyright laws in South Korea for computer programs. As a result, it was easy to get away with bootlegging games and programs. Even when some were put in place, they only applied to the program code and not the intellectual property as a whole. In other words, you could make your own Super Mario Bros. clone with your own programming and it would have been perfectly legal because there was nothing protecting the IP. As a result, numerous games were recreated to go through the loophole in computer code copyright law at the time, and Super Boy is just one of those games.

The game was very easy to port from MSX to Sega Master System, as well.

World 1

The game is much like Super Mario Bros. You have your Goombas and your Koopas, but some things are different. You only need to press the run button (Button 2) once while moving in order to keep running, and jumps are pretty floaty - you'll get plenty of hangtime. Also, you never know when you will get a power-up, as they are placed in random ? Blocks all the time.

Also, the whole game is basically "run to the right and get to the goal as fast as you can," and there is no way to gain any extra lives. There are no continue points in any of the levels, and if you lose all your lives, you're going back to World 1-1. There is a Fire Flower, but good luck finding it as well as using it, as the fireballs explode when they hit the ground.

World 1-1 looks much like the same level from the Nintendo original, and so does World 1-2 (though there is no warp zone). Koopas do not stay in their shells after being stomped; instead, they die after one hit.

The coins act like solid objects that only Mario can go through. Weird.

Also, the Podaboos simply move up and down even if they are not in lava. I have to do World 1-4 twice because as soon as I hit one and wait, I strangely manage to glitch the Podaboo locations.

Go slow at the beginning, make it past the first pit, then you will want to time your movements carefully and keep your jumps low so that you don't get hit. After that, make one big 

As for Bowser, you have to jump over him. Shooting fireballs at him with Fire Mario - assuming you can even get Fire Mario - will not work.