Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Platform: GameCube Released in JP: November 7, 2003 Released in US: November 14, 2003 Released in EU: November 17, 2003 Released in AU: November 19, 2003 Released in KR: December 20, 2003 This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

To do: Apparently there's a fire bar and fire ring disabled in Wario Colosseum? Also document the debug build.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (note the two exclamation points, representing how Nintendo played pun perfectly) is essentially Mario Kart 64, except you can have two drivers at once, there's tons of new tracks and items, it's on the GameCube, and it's nothing like Mario Kart 64 at all. It also introduced Toadette, who would go on to become a Mario series mainstay, and a few baby characters, who would go on to multiply and take up future Mario Kart rosters. All positive additions, except for that last one. Maybe.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

July 5th, 2004 Debug Build A post-release build with debugging features.

Course Dedications

Internal file names for the courses, which give the theme or character the track is dedicated to, indicate that some of the otherwise-neutral tracks were actually dedicated to certain characters.

• Mushroom Bridge: Koopa Troopa (Nokonoko)
• Mushroom City: Paratroopa (Patapata)
• Dino Dino Jungle: Diddy Kong
• Baby Park: while the course shows it is dedicated to both Baby characters, the file name is for Baby Luigi.

Missing Stages

The internal course folders for the battle stages are marked as MiniX, where X is the battle stage number. These numbers range from 1 to 8, meaning that there was originally going to be 8 stages, but in the final game there were only 6. The 2 stage ids that are not used in the final are Mini4 and Mini6. The music track ids further help this theory, where the id of Mini3 (Block City) is 0x36, the id of Mini5 (Tilt-A-Kart) is 0x38, and the id of Mini7 is 0x3A: thus, rendering 0x37 and 0x39 unused.

Internally referenced in the game's code is something named TestMap. According to the list, there were a total of 27 test maps, from Test1 to Test27.

Lap 9

The unused lap 9 sign. This was achieved by setting VS lap counter to 10 via cheating.

While the Vs. Mode settings allow up to 9 laps, what would be lap 9 instead uses the Final Lap sign, so the lap 9 sign is unused.

Debug Content

Debug Camera

To do: Codes for other versions.

The debug camera can be controlled with a second controller plugged into port 2. Pressing the D-Pad Up/Down will enable the debug camera on the first controller.

Debug Camera Controls:

• B/A: Zoom In/Out
• Y/X: Move Up/Down
• L/R: Rotate Left/Right
• Stick Up/Down: Look Up/Down
• D-Pad Up/Down: Move Forward/Backward
• D-Pad Left/Right: Strafe Left/Right

USA	Europe
T4Z0-BZCR-RDNNJ C86V-J3JB-4GYCA ZA4F-1RFF-JX5E9 5H6V-5HV6-RMR9X 7UV9-8QH5-KWH3N	ZN50-V07A-MNJ18 9WUJ-89HT-5WTJJ C4HD-WXY9-7VB45 KPB3-GKFZ-0BEC6 CAWU-PCQW-WPZU6

Draw Debug Process Bar

Shows some bars at the bottom.

USA	Europe
NJT3-9QB8-4CRQG 2UDU-XFM4-CZZQK 2YTE-VKKX-T878P	B9X1-FERX-KA911 TU00-BHX6-J5HTA G11V-1CWM-P53HF

(Source: Ralf@GC-Forever)

Leftover debugInfoS.MAP File

The debugInfoS.MAP contains some original sources for Mario Kart: Double Dash.

Download debugInfoS.MAP Linker Address Map File: MarioKartDD-DebugInfoS.7z (656kb) (info)

Unused Models

Hot Air Balloon

A pre-release screenshot of the hot air balloon.

A hot air balloon. It has two different textures. It can be seen in an early screenshot of Dry Dry Desert.

Green Skating Shy Guy

While red and blue skating Shy Guys appear in Sherbet Land, a green Shy Guy is never used. They do, however, appear in the crowd of Waluigi Stadium as 2D sprites.

Unused Graphics

Early Course Map

The file packs for Mushroom City contain an extra version of the mini-map from earlier in development. The file, named patapata_course_map is twice the size of the final mini-maps, and reads "patapata course map". The name of the used mini-map is patapata_map.

Award Course

Being as the awards ceremony takes place on a copy of Peach Beach, the files for it also contain a mini-map of the course. However, like the unused course map above, this one is twice the size of the final mini-maps, and is rotated 180º compared to the final Peach Beach mini-map. Strangely, it follows the mini-map naming convention, with the name award_map.

The most interesting thing in the pack, however, is this early version of the course's logo. Note that Peach's hair is down, as opposed to tied up in a ponytail as it is in the final game. This is also notable for being the only course logo image to be included within the files for the course it belongs to.

Placeholder Trophies

Placeholder Trophies found at courseselect.arc/timg.

Graphic	File Name
	trophy1.bti
	trophy2.bti
	trophy3.bti

Thank you for playing

The game uses a bfn font file to give out a "Thank you" message in the ending, making this graphic version unused. The message is also in English across all releases.

GameCube Controller Texture

An unused texture that would have been used for the controller in the Nintendo GameCube Stage.

DK Jumbo's Tire Texture

This texture has a blue question mark written in Impact, for some reason.

Contest Code

A contest code can be seen in all versions of the game in Time Trials. You can see it by pressing L, R, L, R, X, Y, X, Y, Z once it gives you options after the race. Once the code is entered, a contest code will appear at the bottom of the screen.

A fan-made online decoder can be used to decode the 16 character long code. Each code contains the track played on, which kart was used, which two characters were selected, total time for the trial, and the best lap time.

Club Nintendo Japan Contest

The game can generate codes for every track but a Club Nintendo Japan contest, the only known instance of a contest that ever used them, only accepted codes for Luigi Circuit, Baby Park, Mario Circuit and Yoshi Circuit.

Contest rules say that contestants had to send race details over Internet through these codes with also their names and, if selected as winners, they had to physically send their GameCube memory card to Nintendo with a saved ghost in it to prove that.

The contest was open from January 15th, 2004 to February 1st, 2004 and 高木伸夫 (Takagi Nobuo) won the contest for all the four tracks.

(Source: Source Gaming)

Misplaced Heart

Model	Texture

There is a misplaced heart outside the sky box of Rainbow Road. It has the texture for the heart on the front, and a yellow texture on the back.

Screenshot Feature

A symbol map from a very early version of the game exists, and it contains a lot of symbols for unused features that were planned for the final game. However, there is code that doesn't exist in the final game, and it is a screenshot feature. The following functions are present in the old symbol map:

ScrnShot::createScrnShot(int, int, _GXTexFmt)
ScrnShot::ScrnShot(int, int, _GXTexFmt)
ScrnShot::capture()
ScrnShot::saveFile()
ScrnShot::convTextureToBitmap()
ScrnShot::genMessage(JORMContext *)
ScrnShot::listenPropertyEvent(JORPropertyEvent const *)
ScrnShot::sScrnShot()

Due to none of this being in the final game, it is unknown on what these functions would have returned.

Bowser's Castle Disabled Thwomp

This page or section needs more images. There's a whole lotta words here, but not enough pictures. Please fix this.

In between the 2 Thwomps at the first left turn of the track, there is an extra Thwomp that is never visible in-game. This Thwomp appears to have the same settings as the far end Thwomp, minus the visibility.

Oddities

In MRAM.arc, the spiny shell's file name is oddly item_koura_yellow, referring to a Yellow Shell. Either the Spiny Shell was going to be yellow instead of blue, or at some point it was a normal Yellow Shell.

Regional Differences

Game Logo

Japan	International

• The MARIO KART logo in the Japanese version was a bit more saturated than in the international releases.
• The Double Dash!! logo had a thinner font in the Japanese release and three streak lines rather than two.
• The Japanese version had a registered sign that was changed to a trademark in the international releases.

Gameplay

• The speedometer measures kilometers per hour in the Japanese version and miles per hour in the US release. For the European/Australian game it depends on the language used.