Mario's Super Picross

Mario's Super Picross
Also known as: Mario no Super Picross (JP) Developers: Ape, Jupiter Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: September 14, 1995 Released in US: September 23, 2020 (Nintendo Switch Online) Released in EU: September 14, 2007 (Wii Virtual Console) Released in AU: September 14, 2007 (Wii Virtual Console) Released in KR: September 23, 2020 (Nintendo Switch Online) Released in HK: February 17, 2021 (Nintendo Switch Online) This game has hidden developer credits. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features.

Mario's least popular game by logic. People protested penalties for making mistakes.

Unused Music

There are two unused songs, but their purpose here is not clear. All songs can be heard at the Select-A-Data Screen using Pro Action Replay code C02B79?? (where "??" is one of the below). All songs have looped/non-looping versions, and subtracting or adding 40 from the current song's value will play them. Earlier versions of both of these songs are found unused in Tamori no Picross.

ID	Song
47
4B

(Source: nensondubois)

Sound Test

Use Pro Action Replay code 7E119C0E or ROM address C021B20E at the title screen. Songs 07 and 0B are unused. Pressing Up or Down will toggle between BGM/SF. Left or Right will select the song/sfx number, A plays music and B or X will play the currently selected sound effect. Y will restart the song.

Song number 19 is the last song before silence or crashing the APU.

(Source: nensondubois)

Data Clear

Use Pro Action Replay code 7E119C0F or ROM address C021B20F at the title screen. All progress will be lost if you choose to erase. Not used, however; individual save files can be erased in-game by pressing A + B + Select on the highlighted file.

(Source: nensondubois)

Hidden Messages

DBOOT VER1.03 .MSPIC 95/07/21 

Build information is present at 0xE0003.

(Source: nensondubois)

Address	String	Description
0x26D5C	CopyCopyCopyCopy	Addresses non-zero
0x26D6C	It is Hot Start.	Addresses zero

At boot, the game will zero out 0x7efd70 through 0x7efd73. It will verify these addresses are empty four times at 0x26d24. Depending on whether or not the addresses are empty, a section of one of the above strings will be printed to 0x8 in RAM. Under normal circumstances, the second message will appear. This is likely a boot sequence verification method.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Leftover Save Screen

Text	Translation
現在の状態が セープされました。 この次は,つづきから プレイすることが できます。	The game has been saved. You will continue from where you left off.

There's a leftover save screen from a version of Tamori no Picross. This message pops up after saving in the middle of a picross puzzle. In this version, a message from either Mario or Wario is displayed instead. Changing 0xB577 to 4C 08 34 will replace the tutorial with this screen instead.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

(Translation: kumori)

Anti-Piracy

While Mario no Super Picross wasn't released outside of Japan, Nintendo really didn't want anyone else to play the game, slapping PAL would-be players with various error messages.

Anti-Piracy

Copiers were obviously not intended to play the game, the above screen just shows.

Region Lockout

Attempting to play the game with a PAL-territory SNES throws up this error screen upon booting, complete with frizzle-in effects. Nintendo planned to release Super Picross internationally, but scrapped them due to poor reception from Mario's Picross, making this screen appear a bit awkward.

Save File Sanity Check Oddities

When the game boots up, it creates two save files with the maker code, game code, and game title from the internal header. If there's a mismatch between the first save file and the rom, the save file is wiped. The string "Noriaki Teramoto", the name of the main programmer, is also stored in each save file. Strangely, the game does not perform the aforementioned validation on this string.

This type of sanity checking would prevent another game's save file from being loaded. However, it seems a bit superfluous considering the game already performs checksum checking. Also, game codes are adjusted per region, so this would also prevent different save files from different regions from being loaded, had they been developed.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Version Differences

Three puzzles were changed for the Virtual Console (PAL) and Nintendo Switch Online releases, probably due to legal reasons.

Mario 6-J

Super Famicom	Virtual Console (PAL)/Nintendo Switch Online

	Japanese	Translation
Original	マリリン・モンロー	Marilyn Monroe
Virtual Console (PAL)/Switch Online	ゾウガメ	Giant Tortoise

Mario EX-M

Super Famicom	Virtual Console (PAL)/Nintendo Switch Online

For some reason, a single pixel was changed between Wario's eye and his nose.

Wario 2-B

Super Famicom	Virtual Console (PAL)/Nintendo Switch Online

	Japanese	Translation
Original	テトリス	Tetris
Virtual Console (PAL)/Switch Online	ヤドカリ	Hermit Crab

Wario 5-L

Super Famicom	Virtual Console (PAL)/Nintendo Switch Online

	Japanese	Translation
Super Famicom	さけび	The Scream
Virtual Console (PAL)/Nintendo Switch Online	カメレオン	Chameleon

(Source: shirokirby, pio_000)