Desktop App Turns Your Screen into A 'Super Mario Bros.' Level

If you often look at your desktop screen and think "Needs more Mario," then software developer Aaron Randall's app, Screentendo, is here to help. Randall created it using Cocoa app and SpriteKit—simply put, it works by turning a portion of your screen into a level from Super Mario Bros. 

Launch the app and a window appears which can be dragged over other open windows. Once it's placed over your chosen content you then click inside it and it will convert it into a Mario level complete with the iconic brick blocks, mapping them over the forms beneath it. An 8-bit Mario will also appear, and white clouds will grow, so you can smash the blocks and get your game on.

Randall notes that, "There are two basic steps to Screentendo; image processing to determine the structure of the target region, and the level generation." You can find out much more about the app (there's lots of graphs and details) and download it over on Randall's blog, where he also explains the app's shortcomings and links to the source code.

Watch Randall demonstrate the app by turning the Google logo into his very own game level, in the video above.

GIF by author

Via AV Club

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