Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

Super Mario Land 2 introduces the concept of space exploration to the Mario series. Also, Wario.

Early Graphics
Graphics from earlier versions of the game still survive in the ROM.

Mario
While largely identical to the final Mario tileset, there are some differences, mostly relating to poses of Mario from the front. The fireball is also much darker.

These graphics are only present in the Japanese version; they were replaced with duplicate title screen tiles in the American and European versions.

Font
The early font is not shaded at all, and most of the digits have different graphics. The final version frees up some of the letter tiles for other graphics, like the money bag. The B isn't used in either version.

Time


Found in an early version of the font, this would have been used to indicate time instead of the "T". It was probably shortened to make the HUD less cramped, and an early screenshot indicates that this was changed before the GOAL did. The last two 8&times;8 tiles were replaced with the money bag graphics.

Pipe
The horizontal pipes were made a bit thicker in the final version, probably to hide Mario when he travels through.

Platform
A thicker version of the floating platforms found throughout the game.



An even earlier version of the platform that barely resembles the final one.

Space Mario


Animations of Mario swimming in space. It's possible these were meant for the last Space Zone stage, where you have free vertical movement.



These animations aren't used either. There are no vertical pipes in Space Zone, and you can't spin jump.

Trampoline


The trampoline from Super Mario World! This appears in an early version of the standard block tileset. In the final block tileset, it was replaced by the fire block graphics.

Goal


Graphics from an older version of the GOAL, which include a sign above a mushroom house. While all of the graphics exist (left), only the rooftop has metatiles defined (right).



This version of the GOAL appeared in an early screenshot, which also shows the final timer graphic. Interestingly, the ripped tiles differ somewhat from this shot: look at the lower part of the roof by the right side of the doorway, and the area where the pole meets the roof. This may suggest that the old GOAL underwent a tiny bit of alteration before being scrapped.

Ceiling Spike


An unused ceiling spike, intended for Space Zone.

Mario's Castle


These tiles are found with the rest of the castle overworld graphics, but aren't used. The black cloud above the castle takes the place where most of these graphics would be.



An unused tilemap at shows the full castle, using these tiles. Interestingly, this tilemap has some other differences:
 * A tree to the right of the Pumpkin Zone entrance is in a different location, and is also missing a tile.
 * For reasons unknown, some water tiles next to Macro Zone's right chimney were switched around.
 * The small end of the tunnel to the right of Macro Zone has a blank tile above it. At one point, this probably had a different tile, as it reuses a tile from elsewhere (the left side of the small column things with eyes) in the final version.
 * Since the flowers(?) northeast of the castle are replaced by the dark cloud in the final version, a single set of flowers was added to the right of the tunnel mentioned above.
 * A piece of the fence(?) southwest of the castle is missing. This might suggest that the fence posts once formed a vertical line instead of a bracket shape.

Pumpkin Zone Entrance


The last 8&times;8 tile of the Pumpkin Zone graphic is unused, cut off by tree tiles.

Small Cloud


Right above Pumpkin Zone is a floating cloud, fully coded but disabled, located at. Location ID:

Macro Zone


Along with whatever those other four tiles are supposed to be, an unused H can be found. This suggests that Macro Zone's name originally began with an H (Home? House? Huge?) but was changed sometime in development.

Alternate Flower


A static version of the flower tiles. In the final version, the flowers in the background (that appear when the Tree Zone secret level is cleared) are animated.



How this would have looked in-game.

Eyes


These strange eyes appear with the rest of the Tree Zone object graphics. In an early version of the game, the second level of Tree Zone was actually located inside the tree stump: when Mario stood on it, only these eyes, blinking in the darkness, were visible.

Cave Entrance Map Location
To access this location, change memory address to  while on the overworld.



While you go through this cave to get to Wario's Castle, there's no way to actually stop here. Nevertheless, this map location exists, suggesting that there may have been a level here at one point.

Unused Room


An inaccessible part of the first Tree Zone stage, containing pipes, blocks, and water.

To access this room, change memory address to  and  to, but only above this unused room.

Happy Space!


"HAPPY" is spelled out in stars in the first Space Zone level. Sadly, there is no way to see this through normal gameplay, although you can reach the Y if you jump up and to the left of the second money bag.

Demo Message


This message screen can be found at, a leftover from an earlier version of the game. The font used for this message only exists in the Japanese version, at. GameShark code or Game Genie code  will display the screen responsible for the message in all versions; unfortunately, the game does not load the associated font data, causing the message to appear glitched using the currently-loaded screen setting's CHR.

As such, note that this is a mock-up screen.

Regional Differences
The title screen was completely redesigned for the international release. The sign pointing to the pipe and the pipe itself are no longer there, and the grass was also shortened.

Level Demos
A possible debug remnant in Version 1.0 (both Japanese and US/Europe): if you hold certain button combinations on the title screen, you can play the level demos.
 * Up + Select - Intro level
 * Up + A + Select - Hippo level
 * Up + B + Select - Turtle Zone level
 * Up + A + B + Select - Macro Zone level

The game stores input sequences in memory addresses. This part of memory stores 127 input slots, each consisting of two addresses, that keep track of what button was pressed and for how long it was pressed. Pressing one direction and then letting go of it will use up two slots and 256 frames of no input will also use up one slot.

The input sequences for the built-in demos are read from this part of memory, but using one of the above codes will let you write new input sequences. However, the game will freeze once all 127 input slots are used.

Pipe Glitch
Also present only in Version 1.0: while going down a pipe, pause and exit by pressing Select. The next time you enter a level, you will go through the ground and can reach areas that are out of bounds.

Checkpoint Bell Glitch
Pause the game at the same time you touch a checkpoint bell in a previously beaten level, then leave the level by pressing Select. If done correctly, next time you enter a level you will hear the bell sound effect and the bell counts as touched so you start at the level's middle when entering it again.

If you enter a level that doesn't have a bell (excluding Wario's Castle), upon re-entering, you will start at the level's top-left corner. This was fixed in Version 1.2, which starts you at the beginning of the level as if nothing happened.

Oddities
The game uses two different sets of sprites for Mario, depending on what type of level you're in. The alternate sprites are used in dark levels, while the normal ones are used everywhere else except Space Zone. Some minor fixes were made to the normal sprites before release, mostly to the hat and overalls of Mario's back-facing sprite, which were not carried over to the alternate tileset.

Unfortunately, whoever fixed up the back-facing sprite mistakenly used the transparent palette entry instead of the white one, creating "holes" in the sprite. These are much more visible on a Super Game Boy or Game Boy Color, which can assign separate palettes to sprites and backgrounds. Several other sprites in the game have similar problems (note the blue dots in the Goomba's eyes at the bottom of the screen).