Development:Super Mario Kart

This page details development materials of Super Mario Kart.

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do: Be sure to check any .OBJ files for any possible early stuff. There exist .scrs and .baks reminiscent of early versions of tracks that can be found in the CAR directory. Early Donut Plains tileset in G1.CGX, that is arranged similary to Mario Circuit's tileset. A sound.bin dating 1/21/92 containing SimCity soundtrack with Super Mario Kart's sample set exist in risc.lzh\bin. It also contains a couple test songs, some early samples as well as an early Race Start sound. Add transparency to images (images with white borders should not, because it makes them difficult to see.)

On July 24, 2020, a vast amount of source code from Nintendo's early consoles surfaced as well as prototypes and assets from games such as Yoshi's Island, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and more.

The leak included Super Mario Kart's source code with previously unseen assets, tools and probably everything the development team used back then in the early 90s.

Various sprites, tilesets, maps, etc. can be found in the following directories:

• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\CAR
• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_05\NEWS_05.tar\home\kimura\kart\data.lzh
• other\NEWS\テープリストア\NEWS_04\NEWS_04.tar\home\sugiyama\mori

Note that the .lzh files contain both compressed (lowercase) and decompressed (uppercase) versions of the files, so be sure to make separate directories for them when extracting.

Uncompiled Builds

Subpages

1991 Alpha A very early driving test including hovercrafts!

November 29, 1991 Proto A rapid-fire gun battle, a Coin Runners mode, and a top-down view à la Mario Kart DS? It's all here.

February 13, 1992 Proto This build contains extra title menu options like viewing records and items/no items race modes. It's also notable for the temporary removal of Battle Mode.

File Info

Filename	Path	Date	Sha1sum
"1991 Alpha"	other.7z/NEWS.7z/テープリストア/NEWS_05/NEWS_05.tar/home/kimura/exp	18 Apr 1991 - 25 Jul 1991	Uncompiled
game.hex	other.7z/NEWS.7z/テープリストア/NEWS_05/NEWS_05.tar/home/kimura/games/temp	29 Nov 1991	Uncompiled
mario-kart.hex	other.7z/NEWS.7z/テープリストア/NEWS_05/NEWS_05.tar/home/kimura/kart/mak	13 Feb 1992	Uncompiled

Debug Controls

Some of the debug commands found in the final game also work in the uncompiled prototype builds and are accesible by default. These can be activated by pressing a certain button combination. The RAM viewer that crashes the final game at race start (Pro Action Replay code 7E1F0608) does not crash in the November and February builds and can be accessed without action replay codes too.

Early Sprites

CAR.CGX

1 May 1991 03:02, 3 Jul 1991 10:32

Possibly the earliest graphics that were created for Super Mario Kart.

An unnamed guy who mildly resembles Mach Rider in a "car" with a helmet. As mentioned in several interviews, there was originally 8 identical racers sporting a helmet and overalls, and used their own unique color palette to differentiate between each one. The car's design is already very similar to those of Super Mario Kart's. No palette can be found, but it fits pretty well with the driver palettes from the final game (A modified version of Mario/Toad's palette with restored colors used here) unmodified with the exception of some colors. The car itself has much more detail compared to the final game.

He has animations for driving to the horizon and for steering. A sideview of the driver and a rear view with an outline can be found as well.

Directly below these graphics is the same guy sitting in some sort of hovercraft. It has two designs of its sideview.

Then there is this font. It appears to be borrowed from Pilotwings and was possibly used in a very early prototype.

At the very end of this file we can find these very early sprites of the game's main cast sitting in karts. Most likely created as a proof of concept for experimenting with the idea with using the Mario series characters as opposed to a generic racer.

• Mario and Luigi are wearing pants instead of overalls. They are wearing the opposite colors.
• Donkey Kong Jr. is skinner.
• Koopa Troopa's head is much rounder, and his eyes have disappeared behind his head. His shell is way smaller.
• Bowser's hair is orange instead of red. His shell is slightly smaller.
• Peach's hair is longer.
• Toad's head is slightly less round and the red spots are unevenly placed.
• Yoshi's eyeballs are shown. His skin is darker.

MARIO-CAR.CGX.BAK

10 Jul 1991 4:00

A sketch of rear and front views of the drivers. Some look quite similar to their final sprites, while others look pretty different.

• Donkey Kong Jr.'s hands are on the wheel and his mouth is closed.
• Yoshi appears bigger and thicker.
• Toad's mouth is closed.
• Bowser's mouth is less open.
• Some minor adjustments.

Below these graphics are a slightly earlier Mario and an even earlier Koopa sprite with a different face. As a side note, Koopa's shoe fits better with Mario's palette, suggesting that Koopa might have been drawn with Mario's palette in mind.

More Early Drivers

Many sketchpads with lots of early frames of the drivers can be found. While they mostly differs from some small pixel adjustments, they also contain some early designs. It seems that early in development, the drivers had two frames for steering instead of one.

MARIO.CGX

17 Jul 1991 8:15 (Left) 18 Oct 1991 9:35 (Right)	Final

For some odd reason, the earliest sketchpad of Mario contains a steering animation for him while further away in the distance but none for the ordinary close-view, possibly a mistake. There is also a slightly later sketchpad which uses the final color for his seat, with his steering sprite differing slightly. Oddly, the Oct. 18 spritsheet doesn't have a defined filename or extention, but can still be previewed in a tile editor.

LUIGI.CGX

17 Jul 1991 8:18	Final

17 Jul 1991 8:18	Final

YOSSY.CGX, mark.CGX

17 Nov 1991 8:08	6 May 1992 6:58	Final (USA)

17 Nov 1991 8:08	Final (USA)

JR.CGX

17 Jul 1991 8:17	Final

His fists were different.

NOKONOKO.CGX

17 Nov 1991 8:08	Final

17 Nov 1991 8:08	Final

His head received minor tweaks.

perapera.CGX

22 Jul 1992 12:57

Early
Final

Early squashed sprites for the drivers.

Top-Down driver sprites, possibly used for a scrapped bird's eye view option, or used as reference to create the squished sprites from the main perspective.

Some neat animation tests for flying away while being squashed. Funnily enough, the placeholder driver mildly resembles Kirby, who was originally designed as a placeholder himself.

TIRE.CGX

17 Jul 1991 8:19

Some stacked tires, possibly a hazard that was later replaced by the pipe. This obstacle would later show up in future Mario Kart installments.

DOKAN.CGX

Early	Final

The iconic pipe hazard received some minor tweaks, mostly in shading.

It can be seen in the game's manual.

BUBBLE.CGX

25 Mar 1992 1:22

The fire bubble, possibly planned for the Bowser Castle tracks. It most likely jumped out of the lava similar to the Monty Moles jumping out of holes.

item.CGX

13 May 1992 9:34

Early	Final

The fireball thrown by Bowser originally had eyes, more resembling the Sparkies from Super Mario World.

Early	Final

Some early drawings of Chain Chomp (the ball enemy from Match Race) with many different faces.

Monty Mole Standing

Maybe they originally waited on the ground for some driver to jump on. Or it was for an animation where it moved its paws.

Coin

While the coin is used in the final game, it does not have graphics for different distances. This could mean that the coins were originally supposed to be standing on the track rather than laying flat.

ball.CGX

16 May 1992 13:57

Many early drawings of the balloon from Battle Mode. There is also a strange futuristic core object of some sorts which was directly ported from early Pilotwings source files.

Early Lakitu Graphics

Early flags and every number for the lap counter. There is also an extra graphic of a scrapped flag that is diagonally divided black-and-white (which means "driving unsportsmanlike" in real races). The scrapped flag got overwritten with the animated coin graphics, while the needless numbers were replaced with the small numbers for the lives counter in the final.

Early	Final

The yellow reverse flag was missing the X and some pixels were moved.

Early	Final

The edge of the flag was changed slightly.

checker.CGX

3 Feb 1992 4:00

Early	Final

Early version of the goal flag seen in the results screen. It was later given an outline.

In real races a white flag signals a driver that there is a slow vehicle on the route. It might also be just a shading template to draw the checkerboard pattern on it.

A sad Mario in a front view can be found towards the bottom of the sheet, which partially overwritten an early spritesheet for Mario. Most likely was meant for post Battle or Match Race when the player loses.

final-obj-e.cgx

Early	Final

Early graphics for the award sequence shows a different type of award. In the place of the champagne bottle was originally an early trophy which palette was modified so that the outline color doesn't fit anymore. The final bottle palette fits however.

DEMO-MOJI.cgx

Early	Final

An early Mario trophy can be found in the graphics for the cup selection.

SPIN.CGX

A unique swirl effect, presumably used for when the player spins out.

HUD

Early Item Icons

Sketches with different designs for the item storage and items. Interestingly, one item is the Pegasus Boots from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

1UP and 2UP

Found within the final HUD graphics is this extra graphic of 1UP and 2UP.

SROT-DRAM.SCR

A tilemap showing some items listed. Maybe you could see which and how many items you got/used after a race or a battle?

MARK.CGX

From the CAR folder

17 Oct 1991 3:14

Early graphics for the small icons which are displayed after a race. They didn't have two frames for the winning animation. Some even originally cried in their loser icon.

MARK.CGX

From the obj/others folder

6 May 1992 6:58

Early	Final

Her face was a bit narrower.

Early Numbers

Various sketches for the time counter graphics.

Early Fonts

Early	Final

Early Choose

Early	Final

Early Congratulations Text

Sketchpads of the Japanese and the English "Congratulations" text from the award sequence.

Early	Final

TITLE-ENG2.SCR

Early	Final

An early version of the international title screen logo, with a slightly bigger "O" and similar letter spacing to the Japanese version. Additionally, Mario's mouth is closed and the border surrounding the logo is thinner in width by a single tile. This version was last modified Jun 17, 1992.

TITLE-ENG2.SCR.BAK

Early	Final

Another early version of the international title screen logo, also modified Jun 17, 1992. It looks closer to the Japanese logo than the final English logo, with the only exceptions being that the "O" is bigger, and Mario's mouth is closed.

OBJ files

OBJ-MOJI-ENG.OBJ

Contains early versions of the menu options and related screens for the international version. Most of the frames have the same lettering as the final, but some are different. The file was last modified on April 13, 1992, the same date as mkart.rom.

Frame 3

The set of options that appear when quitting or finishing in Time Trials or quitting or losing in Match Race or Battle Mode. There is a "CONTINUE" option instead of "RETRY", and it says "CHANGE MAP" and CHANGE KART" instead of "CHANGE COURSE" and "CHANGE DRIVER". The options have also been rearranged.

Frame 6

The "1P GAME" options menu. The option for Time Trials says "TIME ATTACK" instead of "TIME TRIAL".

Frame 7

The "2P GAME" options menu. The option for Battle Mode says "BATTLE GAME" instead of "BATTLE MODE".

Frame 8

The Match Race and Battle Mode game over screen. It's spelled "WIN" instead of "WON", and it says "VS" inbetween the number of wins and losses instead of a dash. The "W" and "L" above the numbers are also absent.

Frame 13

Part of the course selection options in Time Trials. "BOWSER'S CASTLE" is mispelled as "BOWSEW'S CASTLE".

Early Backgrounds

Mario Circuit Trees

Early	Final

The trees were more round.

Donut Plains Background

Early
Final

The clouds were originally part of the foreground layer. Some mountains used a lost fourth color palette which got overritten with the cloud color.

Note that the color palette used by the foreground cloud still exist in the final, albeit unused.

Choco Island Background

Early
Final

The choco mountains looked pretty different.

Bowser's Castle Background

Early
Final

The mountains had some different shapes. The tile for the 45% angle slope for the mountains is still left in the final tileset, unused.

Hitodama

Early	Final

Found in Ghost Valley and Rainbow Road's background graphics are some hitodama which loosely resemble Fireballs from Donkey Kong and Freezies from Mario Bros. They have the same placement as the Boo graphics and were most likely used in their place before being scrapped in favor of something that would fit the Mario universe better.

Early Boo

Early	Final

An early backup of Ghost Valley's background graphic contains, besides the flame shown above, an earlier boo graphic. It was a bit larger and brighter, more closely resembling the boos from Super Mario World.

Early Track Graphics

Item Fields

Early	Final

The item fields were originally more round, like the ones from Super Mario World. It can be found in various track tilesets.

Coins

Early	Final

A larger coin that fills up the entire tile as well as a normal-sized coin, both with different shading. A slightly different coin can be found in the final game in Rainbow Road's graphics.

Flower Decoration

Some flowers for Mario Circuit's lawn can be found together with duplicate Mario Circuit tiles in Donut Plains' tileset.

Mushroom Field

Possibly an early idea for the acceleration fields. It can be found next to the flower graphics.

Early Chocolate Puddles

What appears to be an unfinished piece of a chocolate puddle. It can be found next to the final oil slick graphics.

Early	Final

The chocolate puddles from Choco Island were originally dark chocolate.

Early Chocolate Offroad

An early sketch of Choco Island's border that was possibly intended to be layered on top of the road surface graphic.

It looks darker in comparison to the final borders, when layered on:

Early	Final

Early Koopa Beach Bushes

Towards the bottom of Koopa Beach's tileset are several early designs for the bushes, including one that looks nothing like what was used in-game.

Early Donut Plains Bushes

Early	Final

More early bushes from Donut Plains. It can also be found towards the bottom of its tileset.

Early Vanilla Lake Ice Block

Early	Final

The breakable ice hazard looked more like the multicolored blocks early on. A frame of its destroying animation was different.

Early Ghost Valley Palette

Early	Final

It was brighter.

Bowser's Castle Horizontal STOP

Found in the tileset for Bowser's Castle are graphics for the horizontal STOP that was used in the April 13, 1992 prototype, in Bowser's Castles 2 and 3. It also features different tiles for the arrows as well.

ZE2.CGX

A very early track tileset. It also contains graphics from Pilotwings, namely the ship and helipad. Notably there are also unique water tiles along with a starting line and water buoys.

It has two different palette files, C.COL (shown left) and C1.COL (shown right).

C1.COL contains the palettes for all Super Mario Kart drivers.

The early track ZE2-X.scr uses this tileset.

Tracks

ZE2-X.scr

Early	Final

Possibly the very first track created for Super Mario Kart, dated July 11, 1991. It is an early version of Mario Circuit 3 and uses the early track tileset shown above. Some of the Pilotwings graphics need to be replaced with some of the track tiles in order to fix some of the curve tiles.

GRASS.MAP

Contains very early versions of the Donut Plains tracks. Dated October 7, 1991. The tracks don't have walls in the inside, and the outer wall uses a single tile that was overwritten with the grass tile. The track layouts themselves are reminiscent of that to their April 13 build versions.

Donut Plains 1

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• The holes for the Monty Moles on the bottom portion of the track are in separate groups of two in the 1991 map, positioned on the outer edges of the road. The April proto scatters all the hole out.
• The bridge is intact in the 1991 map. A small bit of it is broken in the April proto.

Donut Plains 2

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• The bridge on the diverging path is intact in the 1991 map. A large bit of it is broken in the April proto.

Donut Plains 3

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• There is a branching path on the final turn that was removed in the April proto. The size of the lake was made larger as a result.
• The bridge is intact in the 1991 map. A large portion of it is broken in the April proto.
• A few more holes for the Monty Moles were added later.

CASTLE.MAP

Contains early versions of the Bowser's Castle tracks. Dated October 7, 1991. There are no arrows present in these earlier versions.

Bowser's Castle 1

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• There are no arrows present.

Bowser's Castle 2

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• A couple lava pits at the top were removed.
• The diverging turns were shifted slightly.
• The vertical STOP was extended slightly later on

Bowser's Castle 3

October 1991	April 13 Proto

• Many platforms after the first turn were removed and the small straight away before them was extended later on.
• An extra STOP before the three paths was removed.

XX.scr

Seems to be a test with highway-like roads and some crossings. Unlike any other Super Mario Kart track, this one was possibly supposed to loop itself. It uses a slightly earlier Mario Circuit tileset with more lines and a yellow-colored line.

Strangely, it has a timestamp of March 18, 1994, long after the release of Super Mario Kart.

B1-X.SCR

Mario Circuit	Donut Plains

A very early battle track that is more reminiscent of a labyrinth, dated February 26, 1992. It fits pretty well with Mario Circuit's and Donut Plains' tilesets.

B1-X.SCR.BAK

An early backup of the track shown above contains another early battle track, dated October 23, 1991. Interestingly, there aren't that many walls, instead there are some small blockages filled with grass. A checkered line goes across the middle of the track and two small streaks of dirt can be seen on the top and bottom, acting as goals. Its layout suggests that a possible Rocket League-style mode was planned.

B4-X.SCR

B4-X	Earlier Version

Early Choco Island-themed battle track containing various jumps. Dated June 8, 1992. This appears to be a later revision of Choco Island battle course seen in the April and May prototype builds, which contained four walls with jump bars that were removed in this revision.

B4-X.SCR.BAK

Another version of the Choco Island battle map. This time, it contains some big chocolate puddles and extra jumps. Also dated June 8, 1992.

B5-X.SCR.BAK

Early	Final

An early version of the final game's Battle Course 2. Dated March 30, 1992. The pools of water were originally deep so the player couldn't stay in it for too long.

battle5battle5-0.SCR

Mario Circuit	Donut Plains

A piece of an early battle track containing square blockages. Dated Feb 13, 1992. The other 3 pieces of the track are sadly missing in the leak. It seems to fit well with both Mario Circuit and Donut Plains tilesets. Below is a mockup of what the track may have looked like with the other three pieces.

Mario Circuit	Donut Plains

B6-X.SCR.BAK

Early	Final

An early version of Battle Course 1 with a grass pit in the center rather than wet dirt like in the retail map. The small blockage at the bottom was also changed slightly.

W1-2.SCR.BAK

Early (W1-2.SCR.BAK)	Final (W1-2.SCR)

The bottom-left corner of Vanilla Lake 2. There are two split groups of ice instead of three. This backup was last modified June 17, 1992.

W1-3.SCR.BAK

Early (W1-3.SCR.BAK)	Final (W1-3.SCR)

The bottom-right corner of Vanilla Lake 2. A few extra ice blocks are present. This backup was last modified June 17, 1992.

W2-3.SCR.BAK

Early (W2-3.SCR.BAK)	Final (W2-3.SCR)

The bottom-right corner of Vanilla Lake 1. The pack of ice blocks after the small lake is slightly more denser, which seems to match the amount seen in an earlier revision of the map from the unreleased prototype. This backup was last modified June 17, 1992.

TITLE3.SCR

A strange piece of an early Choco Island track, dated November 20, 1991. The drive-data file from Feb 13, 1992 reveals that this piece is from the scrapped Choco Island 3 track, as the placement of the zones match the shape of the twist.

Interestingly, it uses only one single tile for the walls. This is possibly what the unused multicolored block was used for.

Sounds

To do: There's more! Two more sound files can be found in kimura/kart/mak called sound1.bin and sound2.bin with sound2.bin having some samples from Pilotwings.

Found in sound.bin from the risc.lzh\bin folder are sound and instrument samples, inlcuding some of the final instruments but with a slightly longer length, plus some samples not used in the final.

Songs from SimCity using these instrument samples can also be found in this file:

An opera-like sound somewhat reminiscent of the "Bah"s from New Super Mario Bros.

The xylophone sample from SimCity.

A basic organ melody that sounds similar to the final game's menu theme. May be a very early rendition.