ETH Game Technology Centre has figured out how to turn the likes of Super Mario Bros and Castlevania into 360-degree multiplayer games.

According to Ars Technica, Disney Research's Bob Sumner founded the ETH Game Technology Centre earlier this year, and was tasked with coming up with a "cool concept" for the Eurographics 2015 conference.


Using an actual NES console with real game cartridges, they connected eight controllers using an "Arduino-based multiplexer." The video feed was upscaled and fed into a PC which ran custom software "that takes incoming video frames and copies them into a new, much wider output buffer."

Essentially it takes the background of each frame of video and stitches them together into a 360-degree panorama. The new video output was sent to eight projectors which sent out the video to the walls of the room.

The eight players each took a section of wall, and when Mario moved onto their section, the multiplexer gave them control of the character.

This 360-degree Mario also worked in Oculus Rift. "It was a bit janky," writes Sebastian Anthony, "and lacked the eight-player cooperative mode, but it did kind of work... It got a bit tiring, but was still rather fun."

While we may not be seeing a full release of Super Mario Bros on Oculus Rift any time soon, we do know that the likes of Minecraft and Rock Band are entering virtual reality next year.