Mario Kart DS/Unused Courses

To do: Add info for the restored test1_course model. It would be better to remake most of these videos, as almost none of them accurately represent the courses correctly. A few of the textures on some of these courses can also be restored using AR codes, and a comparison with and without the textures in a single video would also likely be the better choice for most of these.

There are a total of ten unused tracks in the game. The textures for them don't load in the final game because the way the game loads textures changed between builds: the textures of the unused courses are located in their model file, whereas the textures of the used tracks are in a separate archive.

These tracks can be loaded by using an Action Replay code to load texture data from a track that is used, although there may not be any textures shared between the two tracks, so it will appear as if they are fully untextured. All tracks from the Kiosk Demo version have the textures in their model files.

old_mario_gc (GCN Mario Circuit)

A remake of the Mario Kart: Double Dash!! course that didn't make the final cut, although it was later featured in Mario Kart Wii.

For the most part, this track is unfinished. Some of the textures are poor in quality and the vertex coloring on the castle isn't finished, plus not all details and features are there from the original, such as the door on the castle, or the stained glass window with Peach on it. Most surfaces that aren't a wall tend to use the collision type for normal road, and it's easy to go out of bounds since the collision data is unfinished. There aren't really any objects, either, aside from three item boxes right after the starting line.

nokonoko_course

An unused beach-looking track that, judging by the filename ("Nokonoko" being the Japanese name for Koopa Troopa), was going to be a Koopa Beach type of track.

There is a Goomba on the course. It appears to be glitched, and missing a frame of its animation due to the Kiosk Demo version of the Goomba object being used.

There are 10 respawn points on the course, but they aren't finished, so the game crashes if you go out of bounds. Driving onto the grass where the 3 trees are located after the first ramp either crashes the game, or you just fall through the ground, since the collision type is listed as "sound trigger" in the final.

The water still exists in the final, and the Kiosk Demo version, but since the position of the water object is hardcoded the Y axis of the course model is too high for the water to ever be able to reach the surface of the course.

dokan_course

A course with two pipes, which was scrapped very early in its proof-of-concept state. The green checkered plane does have collision data, but it's set to a "Fall" value and doesn't align with the model. It's likely that the course was also used to test falling off of certain tracks.

There are six respawn points on the course, but like nokonoko_course they haven't been finished, so the game crashes when you or anyone else falls off the track.

This is also one of the only unused tracks not to have the skybox as part of the main model (or one in the first place on that note).

test_circle

A very small circular test track with only one item box that can be completed in a single lap. It's likely this was a secondary test track used to quickly test settings such as the lap counter and game modes without the developers having to trawl through lots of object placement or other such data.

mini_block_course (GCN Block City)

A remake of the Block City battle course from Double Dash!! that was never finished. Only the main model is present, while some features of the original, such as the blocks, are missing. This course may have been used to test both the Balloon Battle and Shine Runners battle modes, as it contains an updated but still unused Shine Sprite model, as well as the sprite-ified MKDD balloon objects from the Kiosk Demo having been converted into a format suitable for the final (nsbmd/nsbtp as opposed to multiple nsbmd files)

The Big Bully boss mission file from the Kiosk Demo version is still present in the course data, although unused.

luigi_course

A very early version of Waluigi Pinball, seemingly in a proof-of-concept stage.

The course has no item boxes and the cannon is only a slope with boost pads. Near the end, where all the bounds and flippers are located, there's a passage where the player can go underneath the course. The flippers themselves look different and have less details, and cause the course to crash in the final game due to lacking the animation data the final flippers use for their electrical effect. The course has a single respawn point which like most other unused courses is unfinished, so it'll crash if you manage to fall off.

In the Kiosk Demo version, the bound uses a very early model, while the final uses the bound model found in the files of donkey_course (pinball_course in the Kiosk Demo).

The placements of the pin object are also still present in the .nkm file, although it doesn't load since its functions have been removed from the final version.

test1_course

A course that was used to test objects and collision. The objects that are used here are the bridge from Defino Square, one of the gears from Tick Tock Clock, and the blocks from Bowser Castle. The course also contains a lot of speed boosts, ramps, and the pipes that were only used in dokan_course. It also has a bunch of loops that aren't used anywhere else.

Originally, this course would crash the game because it contains the early version of Bowser Castle's block object with the filename test_brock.nsbmd. By adding the final model to the object folder, the course will load. It will also work if you rename said object to koopa_block.nsbmd, although it is a lot smaller than the final version's block, meaning that the object's collision won't match with this model.

The original course model was overwritten by an early version of Rainbow Road, making it very difficult to navigate unless you follow one of the AI to complete the race.

donkey_course (early Waluigi Pinball)

The earlier version of Waluigi Pinball from the Kiosk Demo, with a very different layout. It also doesn't contain any pinballs.

The original donkey_course was likely replaced with this course due to the collision type of the grass being changed to a "Fall" value for the final version, meaning the game would either crash when touching the grass, or you would just fall through it. The objects to original said course, however, still remain in the object folder.

The object behavior for the slots has also been changed. In the final version of Waluigi Pinball, the object file was made larger and flipped vertically, but the earlier version of the course still uses the Kiosk Demo model, which is why it appears to have been flipped horizontally. The collision data for them was also removed.

Like luigi_course, the pin object placements still exist in the .nkm file, but it doesn't load since it's functions have been removed from the final. The bounds and flippers also still use the Kiosk Demo version of their models as well, but again the flipper model causes the final game to crash, due to it lacking the animation data for the electrical effect of the final model.

MR_stage4 (Earlier Wiggler Race)

A duplicate of GCN Mushroom Bridge that was meant to be used for Mission 7-Boss, with Wiggler, but the game uses the normal course instead.

Notably, this course contains an earlier version of the mission, with the following differences:

• Unfinished intro
• Cars and Wiggler have no sound
• Different starting position
• Mario does not have any balloons, which makes it impossible to lose
• Wiggler doesn't move
• The route where Wiggler should go is only for one lap. The final uses 3 laps.
• The car uses an earlier model, which is from the Kiosk Demo version
• Item boxes are different
• The trucks do not contain item boxes
• The course uses the boss theme, while the final uses the original course's music
• When playing the course in Grand Prix or Versus, the AI will drive for only a few seconds

wario_course

An earlier (duplicate) version of Wario Stadium with slightly different textures, lacking any objects save for three item boxes at the start. The model is internally named 'stadium_course': it's unknown why this course even exists, however a proof-of-concept track may have existed in this spot earlier in development and was simply overwritten with the finalised design.

The course layout actually seems to slightly differ from that of both the Kiosk Demo and Final versions, which can be shown by racing a ghost Time Trial set on Wario Stadium and using the 'play on track' code to load this course - just after the first jump or so, the ghost will go out of sync due to the differing collision.