This week is less of a mechanics thing and more of a history lesson. I'm gonna talk about four different Super Mario Bros. releases and how they shared levels.
We're all familiar with the original Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. It featured 32 levels; 8 worlds consisting of 4 levels each.
There's so much going on in this original box art for the Famicom release.
Except it really only had 27 levels. Five of those levels were repeated, just with more enemies the second time around. Here's a chart that shows off all of the levels and which ones are repeats.
| SM-1-1 | SM-1-2 | SM-1-3 | SM-1-4 |
| SM-2-1 | SM-2-2 | SM-2-3 | SM-2-4 |
| SM-3-1 | SM-3-2 | SM-3-3 | SM-3-4 |
| SM-4-1 | SM-4-2 | SM-4-3 | SM-4-4 |
| SM-5-1 | SM-5-2 | SM-1-3 | SM-2-4 |
| SM-6-1 | SM-6-2 | SM-6-3 | SM-1-4 |
| SM-7-1 | SM-2-2 | SM-2-3 | SM-7-4 |
| SM-8-1 | SM-8-2 | SM-8-3 | SM-8-4 |
So for example, level 5-3 is just level 1-3 but harder. I think this is a well known fact that some levels show up more than once. The reason why is presumably because there was not enough space in the game's ROM to hold any more level data. The game did not use any sort of ROM mapper, so 32 kilobytes is all they got for the entire game.
Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985, and the following year, Nintendo released VS. Super Mario Bros. for its Nintendo VS. System arcade machines in North America. It was basically a version of Super Mario Bros. meant to be played in an arcade machine, so it was a bit more difficult, had some warp zones removed, and extra lives were more precious.
The artwork here is much more accurate to the game, but I'm curious why the ground is bricks instead of dirt.
Being an arcade game instead of a game limited to a portable cartridge to be played on a console, more ROM could be utilized. All of the level data from the original Super Mario Bros. code was copied into a separate ROM chip which was mapped to a different section of memory. This means more space for level data. Finally they could replace those repeated levels with new levels.
| SM-1-1 | SM-1-2 | SM-1-3 | VS-1-4 |
| SM-2-1 | SM-2-2 | SM-2-3 | SM-1-4 |
| SM-3-1 | VS-3-2 | SM-3-3 | SM-3-4 |
| SM-4-1 | SM-4-2 | SM-4-3 | SM-2-4 |
| SM-5-1 | SM-5-2 | SM-6-3 | SM-4-4 |
| SM-6-1 | SM-6-2 | VS-6-3 | VS-6-4 |
| SM-7-1 | VS-7-2 | VS-7-3 | SM-7-4 |
| SM-8-1 | SM-8-2 | SM-8-3 | SM-8-4 |
Here we see that the 5 duplicate levels were replaced with brand new levels, along with a little bit of shuffling around. Interestingly, level 3-2 was also replaced with a new level. Actually, there were lots of level changes throughout the game to make them a tad more difficult, but 3-2 was reworked so much that it basically became a completely different level. The original 3-2 was probably the most boring level in the game, made up of mostly flat ground and a bunch of enemies walking forwards.
There are literally a couple screens where there is nothing but flat ground.
Later that year, Super Mario Bros. 2 released in Japan for the Famicom Disk System. The Disk System also allowed for more room for level data, so it sports 52 unique levels! Though because of the disk, there were some loading times at various points between levels.
Non-Japanese players will recognize this box art from Super Mario All-Stars for the Super NES.
Super Mario Bros. 2 may have had 52 levels, but only 46 of them were brand new. The other 6 were the 6 levels made for VS. Super Mario Bros. in North America. Disregarding any imports of the North American release coming to Japan, this was the first time Japanese players would see these levels anyway. Here's how they fit into the level order.
| LL-1-1 | LL-1-2 | LL-1-3 | VS-1-4 |
| LL-2-1 | VS-3-2 | LL-2-3 | LL-2-4 |
| LL-3-1 | LL-3-2 | LL-3-3 | LL-3-4 |
| LL-4-1 | LL-4-2 | VS-6-3 | LL-4-4 |
| LL-5-1 | LL-5-2 | LL-5-3 | VS-6-4 |
| LL-6-1 | VS-7-2 | VS-7-3 | LL-6-4 |
| LL-7-1 | LL-7-2 | LL-7-3 | LL-7-4 |
| LL-8-1 | LL-8-2 | LL-8-3 | LL-8-4 |
| LL-9-1 | LL-9-2 | LL-9-3 | LL-9-4 |
| LL-A-1 | LL-A-2 | LL-A-3 | LL-A-4 |
| LL-B-1 | LL-B-2 | LL-B-3 | LL-B-4 |
| LL-C-1 | LL-C-2 | LL-C-3 | LL-C-4 |
| LL-D-1 | LL-D-2 | LL-D-3 | LL-D-4 |
Being a sequel to Super Mario Bros., it makes sense that it doesn't share any of its levels with the original release.
Late 1986, one more variant of Super Mario Bros. was release on the Disk System: All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. What exactly this version is and why it exists will have to be its own history lesson, but essentially it is a variation of Super Mario Bros. 2, but with the levels from Super Mario Bros., with some of the graphics changed to include faces of some of the hosts of All Night Nippon, a radio program.
This box art is based off of the cover art of the Mario no Daibouken VHS tape--the video that gave us lyrics to the overworld theme song. (You can watch it here.)
Being based off of Super Mario Bros. 2, it has four extra worlds, A through D at the end (though it lacks a world 9). The first 8 worlds are copies of the 8 worlds of the original Super Mario Bros., and the last 4 worlds are copies of the last 4 worlds of Super Mario Bros. 2, with a handful of exceptions.
| SM-1-1 | SM-1-2 | SM-1-3 | SM-1-4 |
| SM-2-1 | SM-2-2 | SM-2-3 | SM-2-4 |
| SM-3-1 | SM-3-2 | SM-3-3 | SM-3-4 |
| SM-4-1 | SM-4-2 | SM-4-3 | SM-4-4 |
| SM-5-1 | SM-5-2 | VS-6-3 | LL-2-4 |
| SM-6-1 | SM-6-2 | SM-6-3 | LL-4-4 |
| SM-7-1 | VS-7-2 | VS-7-3 | SM-7-4 |
| SM-8-1 | SM-8-2 | SM-8-3 | LL-8-4 |
| LL-A-1 | LL-A-2 | LL-A-3 | LL-A-4 |
| LL-5-1 | LL-B-2 | LL-3-3 | LL-B-4 |
| LL-C-1 | LL-C-2 | LL-7-3 | LL-7-4 |
| LL-8-1 | LL-D-2 | LL-D-3 | LL-D-4 |
The 5 duplicate levels in the original game are replaced with a mix of the new levels created for VS. Super Mario Bros. and the new levels created for Super Mario Bros. 2. Level 8-4 is also replaced with Super Mario Bros. 2's 8-4 as well for whatever reason.
As for the letter worlds, some of them were replaced with earlier levels from Super Mario Bros. 2 for some reason. All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. did not have the wind functionality, so any levels that featured it were replaced (specifically C-3 being replaced with 7-3). The others are a mystery though, perhaps due to high difficulty.
Okay I can't help it, there are a few things I noticed while playing around in Super Mario Bros. for the past several months, and I figured I'll show them here.
The first of which has nothing to do with different versions of the game, just a small quirk in the original release. Go into one of the pipes to get to the water sublevel, and when you come out of the pipe, you'll be greeted with this screen.
Notice the single brick block on the left side of the screen, with a clear gap between it and the left edge of the screen.
But if you don't take the underwater room and just stay on the surface, here's what that area looks like.
The brick block from before now has a square block neighboring it to the left, with a pipe on top.
The pipe in the air seems to disappear if you take the underwater path! This is because the pipe and the blocks under it are actually located on the last column of the previous screen. When entering a level via a pipe, only the screen the pipe is on and onward is processed for objects. So any tile objects that bridge over from one screen to the next will not show up at all. This probably happens in other places too, but this is the one I noticed.
These blocks and pipe straddles the screen boundary, so they will only load if screen 06 is loaded, despite also appearing on screen 07.
Second thing: let's visit Level D-1 in All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros. This is a slightly modified copy of level 8-1 from Super Mario Bros. 2. The main differences being that the pipe that goes to the castle block infested underwater room I talked about previously has been sealed off, and instead a different pipe leads to an underground bonus room. There is also an additional vine block that has been added that goes to a cloud bonus room.
This is a tough vine to get to too, the block under it is an invisible 1up mushroom.
A level transition sprite object was also added in the level data to make sure this vine went to the correct room. However! We have a problem. Level D-2 also has a vine block in it that goes to a cloud bonus room.
This one's not so tough though.
The cloud bonus room requires a level transition object in order to get back to the original level, right? And if you recall from one of my videos, the level transition object includes a world number to check for, so that the same bonus room can be used in multiple levels. But, it's just that--it only includes a world number and not a level number. For these two levels, we are in world D (treated as world 4), and the level transition object cannot differentiate between level D-1 and level D-2. Therefore, entering this cloud bonus room from D-1 or D-2 must lead to the same place.
And it does, no matter which level you enter this sublevel in, you will be spit back out into level D-2. This means that level D-1 contains the latter half of D-2 if you take this vine.
This is level D-2, but still level D-1. In fact, it is *before* the vine in D-2, so you can snag both bonuses in one go.
I'm not sure why they added this vine block if they knew that level D-2 already had a vine block. Generally there is only one vine block per world because of this restriction.
Last thing, let's visit level 7-4 in VS. Super Mario Bros. This was a slightly edited version of 7-4 from Super Mario Bros. The biggest thing being that the maze solutions are different.
Super Mario Bros. on the top, VS. Super Mario Bros. on the bottom.
If you notice, the second maze requires you to go down first instead of up. That's no big deal. However, if you mess up and have to do it over again, here's what the bottom path looks like when the level loops:
Pretty sure jumping down there from up here is impossible.
The only way I can find to reliably get down there without a wall jump is to actually go up to the firebar, and jump down through the small gap, specifically facing left so that you gain enough momentum to make it onto the ground (Mario accelerates faster facing backwards!).
Take that! The checkpoint for the loop command isn't until the end of these tunnels thankfully, so this still counts as taking the lower path.
The reason this happens is quite silly--the floor pattern objects that change the general layout of the level come into effect one column later than where they are in the level data. This means that if a floor pattern object is placed right at the last column of a screen, it will not be processed if you appear on the screen after it (either via a level loop like this, or hey, like the pipe transition we saw earlier!). In this case, this wider lava pit comes from the additional lava pits that were added later on in the level.
So scary! The troublesome area is highlighted in red.
The new lava pit starts on the first column of the screen after the looping point, but because of this, the floor pattern object has to be on the screen before. This means when the level loops, it still gets processed, causing the looped section of the level to start with a lava pit instead of solid ground. The original game had the same "problem" too, but the pits at the end actually had the same floor as the earlier part of the level, so it just happened to work out.
Just don't mess up this part of the level and you won't have to deal with this ridiculous jump!
