Proto:Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
This page details one or more prototype versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES).
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Download Super Mario Bros. 2 (US Proto)
File: Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA) (Prototype).nes (128 KB) (info)
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A prototype of the international version of Super Mario Bros. 2 was bought in cartridge form on eBay and afterwards dumped. The game at this point is partway through its conversion from Doki Doki Panic, and contains a few elements that aren't present in DDP or the final SMB2.
Contents
General Differences
- The cartridge contains an MMC1 mapper chip, 128KB of PRG ROM, and 8KB of both WRAM and CHR RAM, a configuration used for three earlier FDS-to-cartridge conversions: The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, and Metroid. The final game's hardware was upgraded to an MMC3, 128KB of both PRG ROM and CHR ROM, and 8KB of WRAM; this allowed for greater variety in the graphics, animations for objects that were previously static, and the animated ending sequence. Load times between levels were also shortened, as graphics no longer had to be copied to VRAM.
- You cannot run by holding B.
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- The height at which each character carries items was adjusted in the final to better match the new character sprites.
- Luigi's jump animation is the same speed as his running animation. It's much faster in the final game.
- The prototype allows you to choose a new character after dying, whereas the final game forces you to finish a level using whichever character you initially chose. This earlier behavior was actually restored in later ports of the game, starting with Super Mario All-Stars, likely to help reduce the game's difficulty.
- The "idle" Phanto sprite is not implemented yet. All Phantos seen in Key rooms are static background objects; the enemy sprite is not actually spawned until you leave the room. (The implementation of this sprite in the final version led to a somewhat amusing oversight: re-entering a Key room while still holding the Key will activate the idle sprite again, causing two Phantos to chase you.)
- The sound that plays when Birdo shoots eggs or fireballs starts immediately after they open their mouth, similarly to Doki Doki Panic. The final game waits until the egg or fireball actually appears.
- Wart takes 4 vegetables to defeat instead of 6.
Level Differences
World 4-1
Although an additional Mushroom object has been added to the level (to the left of the first Potion), collecting one will cause the other to disappear, as Nintendo mistakenly set both as the first Mushroom (object ID 2B). This was fixed in the final game by setting the newly-added Mushroom object as the second Mushroom (object ID 2D).
World 7-1
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In the third part of the level, there's an additional cloud platform to the left of the tall pillar and ladder, guarded by a grey Snifit. It's possible to leap from the Snifit's head and pass over the top of the pillar, thus bypassing a significant portion of the area. This was somewhat fixed in the final by removing the platform and moving the Snifit onto the short pillar to the left, though Luigi and Peach can still take the shortcut.
Debugging Features
There are some debugging features enabled in the prototype to make testing easier:
- You can select which world to start in by pressing A a certain amount of times on the title screen. If you don't press A, it defaults to World 1 (obviously), but by pressing A a number of times corresponding to a certain world, you can start on any world you want.
However, there's no limit on the number of times you can press A, leading to the ability to start on invalid worlds (much like the so-called "Minus World" in Super Mario Bros.). These worlds may crash the game or load another world with corrupted graphics. In addition, it may cause the graphics in the character select screen to become messed up. If one manages to complete the level, it will load the next level from whatever world was loaded. Also, pressing A while it displays the backstory does not increase the world, which limits the number of worlds you can easily access through this method.
- If you press Select during gameplay, you'll get 15 HP. The life counter will become a glitchy mess, but still works properly (though if you collect a Heart in this state, the life counter will overflow). Interestingly, this debug feature was shown in a commercial for the game!
- You can continue an infinite number of times. The final game limits you to two continues. This was, however, reverted in Super Mario All-Stars.
Graphics
Players
Eyes
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Mario, Luigi, and Peach got some white eyeballs for the final, which was done by placing a separate white sprite behind the head sprites in order to get around the NES' color limitations (though this actually causes some sprite priority conflicts in the final game due to somewhat careless programming). Note that the sprites used on the character select screen didn't receive these, as they would have exceeded the limit of eight sprites per scanline.
Interestingly, pink-eyed SMB2 Peach would later show up in NES Remix 2, in the Remix stages where you play as Peach in Super Mario Bros. 3 (although her forward-facing and crouching sprites match the final version rather than the prototype).
Luigi
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Small Luigi's front foot is less round in the final.
Toad
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Small Toad's feet were seemingly removed in the final.
Peach
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The hair on her player-facing sprite was altered slightly to be less in her face.
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Her face while crouching is almost unrecognizable in the prototype.
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Her arms in her carrying sprites were made thinner in the final game.
Misc.
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The item used to create doors to Subspace still has its Lamp design from Doki Doki Panic. The final changed it to a Potion.
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World 5's Mushroom Blocks are the same as those of World 1. The final added spots to the World 5 blocks to differentiate them.
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The tall, lean World 7 vegetable from Doki Doki Panic was changed to a short, squat design for the final.
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The conveyor belts in World 7 still use their graphics and smooth animation routine from Doki Doki Panic.
Music
The underground theme is a remix of the one from Super Mario Bros. with loud drum samples. In the final, it was replaced with a spruced-up version of the Doki Doki Panic underground theme.
This theme would later find its way into Super Mario Bros. 3 after getting touched up a bit and having its entire second section removed.
The invincibility theme uses noise-based drums (like Super Mario Bros.), rather than the drum samples of the final.
Intro
The title screen uses an old-timey sepia tone palette in the prototype, which was changed to a more Mario-appropriate red/blue palette in the final. Additionally, the story was slightly reworded in order to cleanly split it into two separate pages; most notably, the voice Mario hears is a faint one, a detail that was removed from the final version.
Super Mario USA brought back the sepia border, albeit over a black background instead of beige.
| Proto | Final | Super Mario USA |
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Character Select
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The Character Select screen has an ellipsis between "EXTRA LIFE" and the amount of lives, which was removed from the final but added back in Super Mario All-Stars. The prototype is also missing the inside edges of the curtains, though the graphics are present in the ROM. Finally, you start off with 19 lives, likely for testing purposes.
World Intro
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The "WORLD X-X" text was positioned slightly differently in the prototype, and World 7 has no scenery shown at all.
Bonus Chance
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The bonus screen is a rather bland green screen similar to that in Doki Doki Panic. The final uses the prototype's title screen palette with a black background, which itself got reused as the Super Mario USA title screen. The slots also use the original item graphics instead of edited ones.
Strangely, the ellipses between "EXTRA LIFE" and the amount of lives wasn't removed for this screen.
Ending
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After releasing the Subcons from the jar, a "Thank You" message appears, as was the case in Doki Doki Panic (though in that game the Subcons thanked the character by name). This message was removed in the final.
The Subcon release scene is a bit glitchy with Luigi (who jumps inside the jar and pulls out the plug) and hilariously glitchy with Toad (who jumps across the screen multiple times, pulls out the plug in mid-air despite being nowhere near it, then continues to fly across the screen).
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Instead of a contribution score, you get prize money based on how often you died - the less you died, the more money you got. The table goes as follows:
| Deaths | Prize Money |
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| 0-3 | $10,000,000 |
| 4 | $1,000,000 |
| 5-9 | $500,000 |
| 10-12 | $100,000 |
| 13-18 | $50,000 |
| 19+ | $10,000 |
The prize money tiles remain in the final, unused.
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The game ends on a simple "THE END" screen. The Mario scene and remixed Doki Doki Panic intro music are totally absent.
