Development:Super Mario World (SNES)/Background Graphics and Tilemaps/Background Tilesets

This is a sub-page of Development:Super Mario World (SNES)/Background Graphics and Tilemaps.

Wall

The "Kabe" tileset comprises a unique set of backgrounds that don't appear in the final game. VRAM data is located in v-ram-kabe.CGX, CGRAM data in kabe.COL, and tilemap data both in kabe.SCR and kabe-unit.SCR. v-ram-kabe-2.CGX is similar to the other VRAM file, though with lighter shading on the edges of the blocks used in the background that look worse.

kabe.SCR 13 October 1989 17:49	kabe-unit.SCR 02 October 1989 16:03

The background on the left is less detailed than the background on the right, but occupies the entire tilemap space, while the background on the right reserves some space for laying out possible 16x16 tiles.

Sky

sora-master.SCR is a tilemap of the background seen in Yoshi's Island 1, among other levels. There aren't any differences between this version and the final.
X-sora.SCR includes a shifted version compatible for importing into the game.

sora-master.SCR 26 October 1989 21:51	X-sora.SCR 27 November 1989 16:37

Background tilemaps in Super Mario World are only 432 pixels tall (missing 10 rows of 8x8 tiles from the bottom), as this is the maximum vertical scrolling range of the camera in a normal horizontal level.

Mountain

yama.SCR is a tilemap for a completely unused background.

16 March 1990 22:01

When given graphics by v-ram-yama.CGX, the mountains and other background structures have faces and even eyebrows! The clouds for this tilemap also appear to be much more aggressively shaded, while the vertical hills are clustered strangely.

Waterfall

taki-master.SCR contains an unused background featuring a waterfall and tall polygonal structures.

11 November 1989 19:26

Underground

chika-master.SCR and X-chika.SCR are tilemaps corresponding to the underground background in the final game with no changes from this version to the final.

chika-master.SCR 19 December 1989 11:49	X-chika.SCR 19 December 1989 11:51

Interestingly, this tilemap has its own "unit" background, chika-unit.SCR, but it's nothing like the actual underground background. With 16x16 tiles laid out in the top half, the bottom half has a background of a different palette, referring to a different set of animated tiles for the background, and a hint of takisaka-unit.SCR on the bottom.

07 August 1989 14:55

2bit-chika.SCR is a Layer 3 underground tilemap, very similar to the kinoko set of tilemaps. This one, which is much similar to the final game, is far less detailed than the mushroom set and doesn't have mushrooms.

04 July 1990 13:14

The right side compiles the layer 3 tiles into different size rock formations that could have been used to create a more detailed look to the background.

Ghost House

gost-house-yoko-master.SCR and X-gost-yoko.SCR are tilemap for the ghost house. It's again an identical tilemap to the final game.

gost-house-yoko-master.SCR 28 December 1989 10:16	X-gost-yoko.SCR 28 December 1989 10:20

gost-house-yoko-old.SCR shows an older background design similar to the one above, but is brighter and has different windows, though it doesn't appear to be properly viewable with the associated ghost house graphics file.

19 December 1989 11:11

X-gost-house.SCR shows a peculiar alternative configuration of the ghost house background, much different from the final!

19 December 1989 16:26

X-gost-house-old.SCR shows an even older background design, with peeling wallpaper and many beams. It doesn't use the typical background graphics for the ghost house, instead using those found in v-ram-kabe.CGX.

19 December 1989 11:08

X-gost-yoko-old.SCR is another old background design that uses v-ram-kabe.CGX. However, this version is shifted for import, and therefore doesn't look correct in the tilemap state.

19 December 1989 11:08

Forest

forest-unit.SCR tilemap includes a section of 16x16 tiles for laying out objects given the graphics. Below it is a section of the background, though the palettes cause some of the mushrooms to show up blue. Based on the graphics used to create this image, this background would have been intended for Layer 3 as opposed to Layer 2. forest.SCR lays out the full background from forest-unit in a slightly different order to make it easier to import into the game engine.

forest-unit.SCR 12 October 1989 22:02	forest.SCR 13 October 1989 09:37

forest-muster.SCR is another forest-type background, again identical to the version of this background in the final game. X-forest.SCR includes a shifted version compatible for importing into the game.

forest-muster.SCR 25 August 1990 22:22	X-forest.SCR 25 August 1990 23:40

Mushroom

kinoko-master.SCR and X-kinoko.SCR are tilemaps that is identical to the forest, except for its associated palette which makes the background tiles a dark gray color, perhaps making this an early version of the underground Layer 3 background. The final version lacks the mushrooms, and is generally far less detailed.

kinoko-unit.SCR 31 January 1990 16:39	kinoko-master.SCR 31 January 1990 16:38	X-kinoko.SCR 31 January 1990 16:38

Castle

shiro-unit.SCR, shiro-muster.SCR, and X-shiro.SCR are castle background tilemaps like the ones in Iggy's Castle, with the latter two laying out much of the graphics tileset.

shiro-unit.SCR 23 October 1989 20:44	shiro-muster.SCR 27 November 1989 18:31	X-shiro.SCR 27 November 1989 19:22

shiro-2-master.SCR and X-shiro-2.SCR are tilemaps identical to the final game in castles like room 1 of Morton's Castle.

shiro-2-master.SCR 16 February 1990 09:53	X-shiro-2.SCR 16 February 1990 10:05

2bit-shiro-tate.SCR is the layer 3 castle background, like in the vertical section of Morton's Castle. Compared to the final version, this one is slightly more detailed and more irregular than in the final version.

2bit-shiro-tate.SCR 18 June 1990 20:03	Final Version

This tilemap includes another early version of the status bar! The changes in that version are covered in its respective section.

shiro-unit-2.SCR and shiro-2.SCR are two background tilemaps that look broken when given castle graphics.

shiro-unit-2.SCR 14 July 1989 16:22	shiro-2.SCR 15 July 1989 22:22

Sea

sea-unit.SCR lays out all the tiles in the graphics set for the underwater background. sea-master.SCR and X-sea are identical background tilemaps to the water background.

sea-unit.SCR 23 October 1989 11:58	sea-master.SCR 27 March 1990 21:23	X-sea 27 March 1990 21:30

Rock

rock-unit.SCR lays out all the tiles to be used as part of the rock backgrounds.

24 October 1989 15:22

The following two rock backgrounds are identical in layout to those in the final game, both with their own "X-" versions.

rocK-master.SCR 28 March 1990 18:56	rock-mountain-master.SCR 01 June 1990 16:18

X-rock.SCR 01 June 1990 11:37	X-rock-mountain.SCR 01 June 1990 16:15

Sel3-

Four more rock/cloud type backgrounds exist in the tilemap with "sel3" in the title, each with their own "X-BG" version.

sel3-1-master.SCR 08 October 1990 19:21	sel3-2-master.SCR 26 August 1990 11:29	sel3-3-master.SCR 08 October 1990 19:35	sel3-4-master.SCR 27 March 1990 22:46

X-BG-sel3-1.SCR 28 March 1990 17:31	X-BG-sel3-2.SCR 28 March 1990 17:31	X-BG-sel3-3.SCR 09 May 1990 19:10	X-BG-sel3-4.SCR 28 March 1990 17:32

The first background is only used in Funky in the final game. Background three has a slightly different cloud layout when compared to the final game, while background four apparently still uses the old "donut clouds" instead of the clouds with eyes like in the final game, though the "X-" version has the correct clouds.

Vertical Mountain

X-yama-tate.SCR contains the mountain background similar to sel3-4-master.SCR but with the correct cloud configuration.

09 May 1990 19:14

Interestingly, this tilemap is actually the full 512 pixels tall, with extra clouds in the sky filling up the extra space.

Ghost Ship

These ghost ship tilemaps are identical in configuration to final game, but with shading that's a little brighter.

gost-ship.SCR 07 February 1990 17:38	X-gost-ship.SCR 05 February 1990 14:49

ghost-ship-2bit.SCR and 2bit-ghost-ship.SCR are two identical layer 3 tilemaps for fish scrolling across the screen, except for the fact this isn't used in the ghost ship level, and is only used in other water levels. The layout here is identical to the final game.

05 February 1990 15:54

Night

night-unit.SCR contains 16x16 tiles used in night-muster.SCR and X-night.SCR, again identical to the final game.

night-unit.SCR 25 September 1989 10:53	night-muster.SCR 24 October 1989 21:13	X-night.SCR 24 October 1989 21:13

Mode 7

mode-7-kaiten-boss-bg.SCR simply contains a layout of the graphics for the rotating background for the Reznor fight.

03 September 1990 14:36

mode7-kuppa.SCR contains a layout of the multi-screen background and foreground of the boss fight room in Morton's Castle.

22 September 1989 15:12

Because of Mode 7's limitation of one background layer, which is reserved for the boss himself, sprite objects are used to create the background. However, for the ceilings and floors and the area above and below those respectively, the mode is switched to regular mode 1, which allows for the platforms and ceiling to be regular foreground tiles.