Paper Mario/Test Areas

This is a sub-page of Paper Mario.

To do: Apply the new code from the talk page then replace all the room IDs with the correct mapIDs and areaIDs

There are several test areas in the game which can be accessed with the following GameShark code (where "????" is the room's ID number):

Japan	US	Europe
D1074090 0000 81074090 ????	D10740B0 0000 810740B0 ????	D10713C0 0000 810713C0 ????

This works best when using the exit from Goomba Village to the area where Mario is found in the Prologue. Be aware that other exits are also affected by the code, and that your progress in the game can cause freezes depending on where you end up. The colored circles added to each of the renders here are to show scale. Each circle has the same size relative to the game models. None of these rooms have background music.

machi (town) - Room FFE0

This room uses the background from Toad Town and contains a collection of various objects and pathways. The paths lead to the chapter indicated by the number, with 0 leading to the Prologue. The number textures themselves are from Super Mario 64. Upon actually entering each numbered pathway, the player ends up as follows:

• 0: (kmr_09, Entry 1) The right entrance of the first path from Goomba Village to Toad Town.
• 1: (nok_10, Entry 0) Game crash since the map mentioned does not exist in the final release. However when using the code even if it's disabled, warps to the left entrance of the part in Dry Dry Desert with a Stopwatch item in it.
• 2: (iwa_00, Entry 0) The left entrance of the second room of Mt. Rugged. (Warps to a room in the Toad Town Tunnels with a Super Block if the code is still enabled.)
• 3: Nowhere.
• 4: Nowhere.
• 5: (jan_00, Entry 0) Entrance to Lavalava Island on the whale's back with Kolorado. (Warps to a water-based puzzle room in Bowser's Castle if the code is still enabled.)
• 6: Nowhere.
• 7: (tst_01, Entry 0) The left of tst_01. (Warps to the Crystal Palace if the code is still enabled.)

Given that its room ID falls in the middle of the Toad Town rooms and that it leads to the chapters of the game, it is likely that this room was used during much of the game's development. In the center of the room is "MARIO RPG" spelled out in separate polygons, likely a leftover from when the game was called "Super Mario RPG 2". Above the logo are Goompa and five Mushrooms. If there's a partner in your party, it detaches from Mario and flies in a certain path along the room. Beyond that are a few dummy switches for testing purposes.

The small treasure chest up in the corner is empty, while the bigger chest next to it contains the Super Hammer, but freezes before any sound is played or text is shown. By the large switch is Misstar, who flies away when Mario gets too close. Talking to the Koopa NPC sets Mario's max HP to 8 and gives him the Normal Hammer. Talking to Kolorado does the same, but sets the max HP to 11 instead. An NPC Star Rod sits in front of the Prologue exit, and it can even be talked to; however, as it has no associated dialogue, the game will immediately crash. In front of the NPC Star Rod is a hidden block.

tst_01 - Room 0175

A blocky room containing item blocks. The yellow block that requires the Ultra Boots and the red block both contain a Flower. The block on the floor is empty.

The path on the left leads to machi, right in front of the Chapter 7 exit, while the path on the right leads to tst_02. The room sports Super Mario 64 textures and has no background.

tst_02 - Room 0176

A room containing a staircase, already-hit blocks, and a couple of empty treasure chests. The path on the left leads to tst_01, while the path on the right leads to tst_03. Like the previous room, it has no background.

tst_03 - Room 0177

A large room containing a variety of objects. Mario is able to walk around in the "water" area, with only an invisible wall that blocks off the small lowered ledge from the water. The blocks in the second area all function properly, with the exception of the POW Block and Super Block: hitting both of them does nothing. The stacked boxes both contain a Mushroom, and the single box has nothing in it. Touching either the spikes or lava crashes the game after Mario rockets skyward.

The path on the left leads to tst_02, while the path on the right leads to tst_04. The ground has an otherwise-unused blocky texture.

tst_04 - Room 0178

To do: There are codes here and here that may stop this room from crashing on real hardware and newer emulators.

A room containing some rotating platforms and Goompa. Mario is also mirrored along the middle of the area, but not like the mirroring in Crystal Palace. The path on the left leads back to tst_03, while the path on the right leads nowhere. Entering this room will crash unexpectedly, except when entering from the machi Room then through all the tst Rooms until tst_03. Pressing Start will also crash.

tst_10 - Room 0179

A forest room with only a handful of features. Four colored arrows point around the path on the floor. The camera will move around with Mario when he moves near an area that is between paths, or moves onto a path. Next to the Heart Block in the center is a standard hidden Star Piece panel. All paths lead to the opposite end of the same room. It uses the background from Toad Town.

tst_11 - Room 017A

A room that looks like an early version of a hallway of Crystal Palace. The far wall mirrors Mario twice, with one reflection being locked to the plane of the mirror, the other following the depth of his movement. The mirror itself is not solid and can be passed through. Most of the textures are unused, including a reflection image of Mario stuck on the floor. The code that mirrored Mario used here is very buggy and causes texture mishaps like trying to do a hammer but is displayed corrupted on the mirrored end.

There are mirrored polygons under the room, but half of the floor is not transparent and thus they cannot be seen some of it.

Old	Final

tst_12 - Room 017B

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Accessing this room softlocks the game for some reason. It doesn't crash it, however, as the music continues playing and the crash handler isn't triggered. Add a GameShark code that prevents this softlock.

A room sporting a Flower Fields-like design. While it softlocks in-game, it can be viewed within a map editor. The cause of this softlock relates to spawning too much flowers which causes the effect stack to exhaust and causes in an infinite loop indefinitely.

tst_13 - Room 017C

A room containing a line of Koopas. Talking to them changes them into a partner character, with three copies of Lakilester. In the center is a ground panel that gives out a Heart each time, but it can only be flipped with a super stomp. A strange ripply distortion effect follows Mario around as he moves.

Compared to the sides of the ground, the camera is facing the wrong way. There are no boundaries on the sides of the room, leaving Mario to fall and respawn at the edge if the player walks off it. The room uses Toad Town's background.

tst_20 - Room 017D

A room containing a collection of pipes, none of which work. The floor sports an otherwise-unused texture similar to the one used for Shooting Star Summit.

Video.

mgm_03 - Room 0183

A mysterious room containing a variety of objects. It is extremely large compared to Mario and normal rooms, with Mario taking up less than a third of the width of a single square on the floor. It's actually part of the Toad Town Playground rooms, right after Smash Attack (mgm_02).

Interestingly, this is the only unused room where Goombario can tattle, although his tattle is the same as for the Jump Attack game.

(Source: Super Mario Wiki)