Mario Forever

Mario Forever
Also known as: Super Mario Bros. 3: Mario Forever Developers: Buziol Games, Softendo Publishers: Buziol Games, Softendo Platform: Windows Released internationally: September 8, 2003 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prerelease article

This article is about a fan-made game project. Articles about fan games require explicit permission from administrators. This page was given permission by CounterDiving.

If you were a Mario fan in the early days of the internet, you've most certainly played Mario Forever, one of the first Mario fangames that truly managed to somewhat capture the feel of the official games. It features wacky new powerups like the Beetroot and Green Lui, its own dedicated level editor called Mario Worker, and lots and lots of bangin' demoscene music.

Sub-page

Prerelease Info

Revisional Differences

To do: There are a lot more differences to cover between versions 1.16.1 to 7.02 and newer. This section should have its own sub-page once it gets more stuff.

Instruction Manual

Mario Forever had an instruction manual EXE in versions 1.16.1 to 3.5. In later versions, this manual was completely removed.

Version 1.16.1	Version 2.16

The manual in version 1.16.1 had terrible English translations, which was drastically improved in 2.16.

Intro Story Text

Version 1.16.1

Version 2.16

LONG, LONG TIME AGO. THAT'S WILL BE A FEW OF TIME. IN WONDERFUL AND GREAT LAND OF MUSHROOM PEOPLE. NAMED TOADSTOOL LAND. NOW EVIL DRACO KUPPA MAKES THEY HIM SLAVEVES BY DESTROYING THEY LAND. SOMEBODY MUST HELP. THIS HELP IS A MARIO HERO. NOW ADVENTURE'S BEGIN!

A VERY, VERY LONG TIME AGO, IN THE VAST, BEAUTIFUL LAND OF TOADSTOOL, WHERE THE TOADSTOOL-PEOPLE MADE THEIR TOADSTOOL HOMES, THEY LIVED PROSPEROUS, PEACEFUL LIVES... ...UNTIL SOMETHING DISASTEROUS HAPPENED! AN EVIL REPTILE BY THE NAME OF KOOPA, WHOSE DARK DESIRE WAS TO HAVE THIS LAND FOR HIMSELF, DECIDED IT WAS RIPE FOR THE TAKING AND INVADED, LEAVING DESTRUCTION IN HIS WAKE AND ENSLAVING ITS PEACEFUL INHABITANTS! BUT... OUR HERO, THE INTREPID AND DETERMINED PLUMBER MARIO, WITNESSED THE CALAMITY, HE COULDN'T JUST SIT BACK AND WATCH, HE HAD TO DO SOMETHING... ...TO STOP IT!

Similar to the revisions of the old instruction manual, the English translation of the story text seen in the opening after entering a new save pipe was once a grammatical mess, and was improved in version 2.16.

Music Changes

Level Clear Fanfare

Version 1.16.1	Version 2.16

The music that plays when completing a level had different samples in version 1.16.1, and was changed in 2.16 for some unknown reason. The newer track is still used in later versions of the game as well as its level-editing counterpart, Mario Worker.

Hardcore World Death Theme

Version 3.5	Version 4.4

The version that introduced Hardcore Worlds (3.5) had a unique theme for dying in said worlds, however in the next version (4.0) it was removed, causing the game to softlock after dying there. It was replaced with a generic death theme used in other levels in version 4.4.

Hardcore World 1-4 Music

Version 3.5	Version 5.0

The versions from 3.5 to 4.4 had a... unique "Fart Castle" music theme used for the Hardcore World 1-4 level, which was replaced with a generic castle theme from normal World 1-4 in version 5.0.

Hidden Developer Text

A hidden text, which is written in Polish, can be found in the loading frame of the game.

Original	Translated
PLIKI POTRZEBNE PRZY INSTALATORZE : mafosav.INI forevermopt.INI	FILES NEEDED FOR THE INSTALLER : mafosav.INI forevermopt.INI

mafosav.ini is used for saving the game's progress and forevermopt.ini is used for saving options after changing them.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Debug Keys

Holding down both Q and O will jump through frames in a predefined order as long as you keep holding these keys in Version 7.02. An early version of 6.0 has this too, assigned to a Space key.

World 7-2

In versions 4.15 and below, there are some debug keys that can be accessed in World 7-2.

• Pressing numeric keys from 1 to 5 will transform the player to Super Mario, Small Mario, Fire Mario, Lui Mario, and Beetroot Mario respectively.
• Holding Q will teleport the player to the right by 32 pixels relative to their position every frame.

Save Game Room Warp

Pressing Q in Save Game Room in versions from 4.0 to 4.15 inclusively will teleport the player right to the Lost Map warp pipe.

World 0 & Great Journey

In World 0 and Great Journey, there are two debug keys left in the release build:

• Q + W + U will teleport Mario above a checkpoint. Some levels have a ceiling above the checkpoint though, so Mario may be stuck there upon teleporting.
• Q + W + I will teleport Mario above a goal gate, if the level has one.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Mario Minix

During the game play, pressing A will spawn a moving Koopa shell that will fly across the screen. This debug key is available in Version 6.0 and below.

Unused Frames

Levels

Nine Great Journey World levels exist in Version 7.02-31, four of which are unused due to a glitched ending cutscene that softlocks the game.

Level	Image	mafosav.ini code
Great Journey - 6		ata1save1=110542 ata2save1=60806 ata3save1=85607 ata4save1=38467 ata5save1=77079 ata6save1=64197 stringlev1=176 chlebent1=7777 vv1=3087526
Great Journey - 7		ata1save1=111077 ata2save1=60976 ata3save1=85946 ata4save1=38636 ata5save1=77325 ata6save1=64461 stringlev1=177 chlebent1=7777 vv1=3345976
Great Journey - 8		ata1save1=111612 ata2save1=61146 ata3save1=86285 ata4save1=38805 ata5save1=77571 ata6save1=64725 stringlev1=178 chlebent1=7777 vv1=3349422
Great Journey - 9		ata1save1=112147 ata2save1=61316 ata3save1=86624 ata4save1=38974 ata5save1=77817 ata6save1=64989 stringlev1=179 chlebent1=7777 vv1=3087526

(Source: Original TCRF research)

"Graphics" Frame

An empty frame that has a background color of RGB 23,23,55 and is named "Graphics".

mafosav.ini code of the frame (Version 7.02-31):

ata1save1=72022
ata2save1=48566
ata3save1=61199
ata4save1=26299
ata5save1=59367
ata6save1=45189
stringlev1=104
chlebent1=7777
vv1=3087526

Duplicated World 8 Map

An unused World 8 map frame that doesn't include the map's graphic. In the frames list it's located before all of the Hardcore World 1 and Hardcore World 2 levels, suggesting that this frame could have been used as a world map for Hardcore Worlds. The contents of the frame were removed in Version 5.9, leaving only a blank white background.

mafosav.ini code of the frame (version 5.01):

ata1save1=70952
ata2save1=48226
ata3save1=60521
ata4save1=25961
ata5save1=58875
ata6save1=44661
stringlev1=102
chlebent1=7777
vv1=3087526

Duplicated Koopa Troopa Liberation Level

An unused copy of Koopa Troopa Liberation can be found in the frames list. Oddly, it's named "starman run". This is basically the same level, but its width has been expanded by 4192 pixels.

mafosav.ini code of the frame (Version 7.02-31):

ata1save1=93422
ata2save1=55366
ata3save1=74759
ata4save1=33059
ata5save1=69207
ata6save1=55749
stringlev1=144
chlebent1=7777
vv1=3087526

Notes

Modified World 1-3

In version 7.02, there is an unused copy of World 1-3 that has completely different level design. The level itself is quite short and ends abruptly with a pipe that warps you to the Goomba Party level.

It was confirmed by the developer Michał Gdaniec to be the supposed "Frustration World", although it never got finished. Oddly enough, it's named "Mirror Castle" internally.

This level is technically accessible: beating the third level of World of Stupidity warps you straight to this level, but since there is a game breaking bug in the World of Stupidity levels that prevents you from progressing at the third level on version 7.02, this level becomes inaccessible.

4 completely empty frames follow up this level in the frame list, which suggests that they may have been used as placeholders for future levels.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

"Game Over Transition"

Added in Version 7.02, it's an empty frame with a black background and fade-in transition. Judging by the fact that it's located below the World 0 and Great Journey levels, it might have been used there after getting a game over, but these levels move you straight to the save room instead.

The "jump to frame" event wasn't corrected in this frame, so it moves you to the World 2 Completed frame after the fade-in finishes.

Unused Enemies

Koopa Troopa Liberation extra level has some unfinished enemies that have been planned, but were cut early on and are not in the final game. Shame, since the final design of this level leaves much to be desired.

Lakitu Paratroopa

The Lakitu enemy in Koopa Troopa Liberation has only two differences from the Hardcore World version of Lakitu: all the animation sprites have been replaced by Green Koopa Paratroopa, and throwing delay has been increased, but it's still lower than World 4-1.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

"Silver Hammer" Koopa Bro.

A variant of Koopa Bro. seems to have been planned. This can be proven by the fact that the Fire type of Koopa Bro. did not receive any sprite changes.

Animations of the Silver Hammer type of Koopa Bro. are the same as a regular Koopa Bro., and its projectile also has a Koopa Shell sprite, but it rotates faster. Everything else has been left intact.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Objects

To do: There's more.

Heart

An unused heart object is located in the Mario Minix game mode. When placed, it behaves similarly to the Mario life HUD object, but starts its wave at the bottom, rather than at the top.

Lava Run Objects

• 

  Bowser

• 

  Toad sitting

• 

  Toad's message

These three unused objects are located in a Lava Run sequence from versions 5.9 and newer. Since Lava Run is essentially a port of the Mario Forever Dark Dungeon flash game, these objects were left unused.

When Bowser is placed in the level, he will do nothing but can still hurt Mario. Oddly enough, Bowser's graphic has a part of a platform that obstructs his feet. There's still some code left over from Dark Dungeon, which can be fixed to make Bowser appear from the right side of the screen every 10 seconds, laugh, throw 2 hammers, and go back outside the screen. The laughing sound effect is the only thing from this sequence that's still working in the final game, although it only plays once.

Toad and his message are coded to move along with the scroll if placed in the frame, but other than that, they have no functionality.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Gray Block

An unused solid backdrop object is located in Hardcore World 2-4 outside of the level boundaries.

Unused Bonus Mini-game Objects

There are quite a bunch of unused objects located outside the frame boundaries in Bonus Mini-games from Versions 5.9 and newer. Most of them are remnants of the Super Mario Starshine flash game (do not confuse with Super Mario Sunshine), since this Mini-game is also a port of it with some modifications.

Unlike all other objects in the mini-game including the UI, all of the objects below except for the object with website sprite do not have any fade transitions.

Developer's Website

A text graphic of the developer's website. Changes transparency on mouse hover; does nothing when clicked other than consuming your remaining tries.

Handles the code responsible for preventing the player from holding their mouse button and collecting everything that way.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Speaker

An object with speaker icon. Initially invisible, but changes its transparency on mouse hover like the object above.

Does nothing when clicked, but does not consume your remaining tries. The "On Click" code checks if a specific missing sound is playing (which has been replaced during development), although in both situations it sets a variable, which isn't used anywhere.

In Super Mario Starshine, the missing sound is actually game soundtrack, and the object is used to mute and unmute it.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Pause Remnants

Judging by the remaining unused code, the following objects are connected to a removed Pause function. It's unknown if the objects above were related to that function. The game always used Multimedia Fusion's built-in pause option, so implementing a custom pause option only in this mini-game seems redundant.

Super Mario Starshine used these to advertise games made by the same developer, and although pausing still seems useless for that game, some other flash games (Super Mario Coins) had a time limit, and since they are supposed to be exported as SWF, built-in pause was not an option.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Toggler

Another initially invisible object with the name "buziolinekikonek" and sprite that was taken from Real-DRAW Pro. If set to visible, it changes its transparency on hover like the objects above.

When clicked, it plays one of Lakitu's sounds, does not consume your remaining tries, and toggles a flag, which always enables an already enabled mini-game code and disables an already disabled unpause code. It's easy to guess that the pausing behavior of the flag was removed during development.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Return To Game

The "Return To Game" object named "Znikaczprzyciskowy", which translates to "Button disappearance", has some disabled code: if you click on it, it should toggle the flag and set the background object transparency to fully opaque, despite the initial value being the same. No other code remains that would be connected to this huge background object.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unknown Objects

These two initially invisible objects seem to inherit the collectibles code for clicking behavior, although they still consume your remaining tries.

It's unknown what the first object was supposed to be used for. The second one is a remnant of another flash game named Super Mario Peach Party (somehow), specifically from the last level, and is used as a detector for mouse cursor.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Sprites

Broken Flamethrower

This graphic is located in the first ending frame inside the flamethrower objects that fly off the screen. It's loaded in memory but the flamethrowers never change to this graphic, rendering it unused.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Roto-Disc

This unused sprite is found in every Roto-Disc object in the game, labelled "Animation 12".

(Source: Original TCRF research)

3-4 Platform

A dark variant of the platform is supposed to be used in World 3-4. Since its animation's loop point wasn't correctly set, it would always appear for the first frame before reverting back to a regular platform.

"Disconnected" Text

An unused graphic with the text "DISCONNECTED TRY NEXT TIME" can be found in the loading frame from Version 5.9. It was supposed to be used when the game detects a connection break while loading the website, but went unused after the code for loading the website was removed from the game.

"Enter To Start"

The object with this graphic can be found outside of the frame boundaries in every frame of The Lost Map's world map. It's not set to move with the scroller, unlike the "Jump Button To Start" graphic regularly seen in the main worlds' maps.

Dark Red Clouds

Clouds were supposed to appear in tank levels with different sprites, but this idea was omitted possibly because they were always displayed above tiles. They are set to scroll along with the autoscroller, i.e. not visually moving in-game, just like the ground.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Empty Sign

An unused empty sign is located in the Save Game Room outside of the frame boundaries, likely used as a template for other signs.

Jumping Map Mario

This sprite of Mario jumping is loaded in every world map but goes unused as there is no code related to it.

Hidden Sprites

Hidden Water Animation

A more boring and static-looking water animation can be found in secret worlds such as Hardcore Worlds and The Lost Map. The object using this graphic is available and even used in The Lost Map's second and fourth levels, but it cannot be seen since it's outside of the frame boundaries.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Audio

Mario's 3rd Checkpoint Voice Line

Mario saying "Yipee!". The file name is Mario_Check_Point_Speech_3, which means this is meant for when the player reaches a checkpoint, though it never gets used due to an oversight in Random function.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Alternate Starman Theme

A different Starman theme can be found in Versions 6.0 and newer. This can be heard by getting a star in World 9, but since there are no stars in that world this theme ends up being unused.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Unused Fart Castle Music

This goofy variant of the Yoshi's Island castle music theme with added voices and one of the samples being replaced with a "fart" noise could be found in Versions 2.16 - 3.0 masked under the file "ktkm39.dll". There are multiple voice lines recorded by Michał Gdaniec and randomly placed throughout the music track. Version 3.5 replaced it with the then used Hardcore World 1-4 music track.

Oddities

Invisible Blocks in Human Laboratory-1

Two invisible coin blocks in Level 1 of Human Laboratory World (Portal O2 in older, pre-3.0 versions) are placed next to each other two blocks above the pit with a falling platform. One of the blocks can be triggered while standing at the left side of the platform. An odd place to put invisible coin blocks.

Inaccessible Coins in World 3-2

In World 3-2, there are a bunch of coins placed on a ceiling. They can't be reached even with the Green Lui power-up, which makes them inaccessible through normal gameplay means.

Corrupted Spike Ball Cannon in World 9-4

World 9-4, for some mysterious reason, contains several instances of an object without any graphic, which is not normal for a Clickteam Fusion project. This causes the runtime to go absolutely wild and load garbage animation data for this object, which most of the time will make the object to flicker between random graphics, even ones that aren't supposed to be seen in-game. Oddly enough, the graphic flickering doesn't seem to happen in Version 6.0, which uses an older build of Clickteam Fusion.

This object seems to be an early Spike Ball Cannon, as it contains code for launching Spike Balls.