Prerelease:Super Mario Bros.

This page details prerelease information and/or media for Super Mario Bros..

To do: Add primary sources where they aren't already present (i.e. replace/append the gamingalexandria and retroscoring sources with primary sources). Some info here. Add info from the SMAS partial source code leak. A Japanese strategy guide for Super Mario All-Stars has interviews, including information on the infinite 1-Up trick. Early sprite designs for Toad & tree platforms.

Development Timeline

• 1984
  • Fall - Development started at the same time as The Legend of Zelda, after Devil World and Excitebike were finished.
  • December - Miyamoto requests programmers at SRD to form an experiment with a controllable rectangle.
• 1985
  • Unknown Date - Specifications for Mario riding around in a cloud and rocket are drawn up.
  • February 5th - An early control scheme is designed.
  • February 20th - Specification describing the mechanics of how becoming big would work is written.
  • February 28th - Planning sheet is drawn up containing various Donkey Kong Jr. assets such as the springboard and vines.
  • March 8th - Another planning sheet is created, possibly made for level planning.
  • June 27th - A draft of an early green title screen is drawn up.
  • July 19th - World 1-1 is finished around this time.
  • July - Although the initial release date was intended to be during summer break, development time was furthered by 3-4 weeks to finish the game.
  • August 12th - Game was likely finished around this time according to the SMAS partial source code leak.
  • September 13th - Game released for the Famicom.
  • October - Game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the USA. The exact date for the release is unknown.
• 1986
  • February 21st - Game released for the Famicom Disk System.
• 1987
  • May 15th - Game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in Europe.

Early Development

Initial Concepts

Originally, Super Mario Bros. started development as a prototype created by Miyamoto's desire to have a game where you can control large characters. a rectangle that measured 16 pixels wide and 32 pixels tall, which was obviously just a placeholder until the actual player character was designed. At this early stage of development, the game was on a dark single non-scrolling screen and the player wasn't even able to jump. Later on, the screen became side-scrolling and eventually gained its bright blue background. At this point the game had still been using the blank rectangle template as the character.

However, when Takashi Tezuka noticed how well Mario Bros. was performing in arcades, Tezuka pitched to project head Shigeru Miyamoto the idea of using Mario as the main character. Miyamoto agreed and Mario became the leading character. When Koji Kondo began composing the soundtrack, he first wrote the Underwater theme as it was the easiest to imagine. He was amazed by the early prototype's colors. The prototype consisted of Mario moving about with in front of a blue background and greenery. This rich scenery led to him creating an early theme which he describes as being lazier, laid-back, slow, and carefree. After later playing the game again, he realized this did not match Mario's movement and jumping. Designing a new theme with this in mind eventually lead to the iconic theme we all know and love today.

At various points in development:

• The game focused far more on shooting enemies than platforming tasks. Mario could carry weapons, with a rifle and a "beam gun" being usable.
• The original control scheme was very different from the one we're familiar with; Up on the D-Pad was used to jump, while A either used an item if Mario was carrying one or caused him to kick if he wasn't.
• The game had sky segments in addition to the ground segments which ended up being used. These levels consisted of Mario riding a rocket and shooting enemies amongst the clouds. The sky-based bonus rounds of the final game are apparently a remnant of this idea, though Super Mario Land used the original idea for its final stage.
• Instead of scrolling continuously, the game's environments scrolled screen-by-screen, similarly to Super Mario Bros. Special.
• Various elements from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and Mario Bros. were planned at one point with some objects making it into the final release.

Alternate Title

At one point, the title Mario's Adventure seems to have been considered for the game in place of Super Mario Bros., at least for the U.S. version. The evidence supporting this is an early sales brochure for the arcade VS. System version, which uses the title VS. Mario's Adventure instead of VS. Super Mario Bros. This version of the brochure features original artwork on the front side, with a description of the game and screenshots on the back. The screenshots appear to be from the original console version rather than VS. Super Mario Bros. as evident by the font not having a drop shadow and the alternate World 4-2 warp zone, which contain the two pipes leading to Worlds 7 and 8 (VS. removed them and only has the World 6 pipe). A later version of the sales brochure uses the finalized title of the game, with the packaging artwork used for the Famicom version on the front in place of the original art (which seems to suggest that the earlier flyer was made before the game was even released in Japan) and the tagline edited to reflect the title change. The backside of the revised brochure is pretty much identical, except every instance of Mario's Adventure has been replaced with Super Mario Bros.

This theory is further supported by the fact that the title Mario's Adventure is registered in the U.S. Copyrights Office with the same register number used for Super Mario Bros. (PA0000273028).

Possible Concept Art

This is possible concept art for the game with early designs for the characters and with the name Super Mario instead of Super Mario Bros. The date of when it was drawn is unknown. It is speculated that the artwork is for the anime film of the game as the old man in the drawing resembles the Mushroom Hermit as seen in the movie.

(Source: Rétroscoring)

Early Mario Sprites

Capital 1994 Broadcast

• 
• 
• 

These are from a segment of a 1994 episode of "Capital" on Métropole Television, in which they show some footage of Nintendo offices, and interview staff there. The third image above appears to depict sprite art of the cloud Mario would have ridden during the scrapped sky flying segments. The number "30", the NES's color value for white, is pointed at the cloud; the sprite is only colored yellow so it can be visible on the white paper it was drawn on. The second image, a close-up of Mario's death sprite, appears to be mirrored from the first image, yet the numbers are in the correct orientation, implying that the first image is the one that was flipped horizontally by Métropole Television.

(Source: Rétroscoring)

Cut Enemies

Cannon Koopa

A large Koopa holding a cannon. It is likely that this is a cut enemy or an early concept of the Hammer Brothers. Its description reads: "Aims for Mario."

(Source: Super Mario Bros. 30th Anniversary Interview)

"Naked" Koopa

Appears to be a Koopa Troopa without its shell while wielding a rake or broom. It resembles the Beached Koopas from Super Mario World. Its description reads: "Pacing around naked."

(Source: Super Mario Maker booklet)

Level Design Documents

Early Title Screen

Draft Design	Final

The Title Screen had major differences at one point during development.

• The logo was green at one point.
• The logo was slightly larger.
• The "S" in "Super" was different.
• The option cursor was a brick as opposed to being a mushroom.
• The background details are different, though this is more likely a result of the background generation routine used in the final game than a deliberate change.

(Source: Nintendo World Report - Nintendo NY 2015)

World 1-1

Draft Design	Final

The only known image of the level design document for 1-1 has one minor difference, being the first Goomba is on top of the blocks above. The team had developed the levels out of order, with 1-1 being the final level they worked on. Goombas had also been added late in development as it was thought Koopa Troopas would have been too difficult for a beginner. It is possible that the first Goomba was originally a Koopa Troopa.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)

World 1-2

Draft Design	Final

At the start of the level, the first two Goombas were originally situated on top of the row of Question Mark Blocks. After the first two Koopa Troopas, there is a small wall made of two bricks behind the pair. The lone coin next to the hidden power-up block was originally one block higher up. The row of coins seen after the first pit and underneath the hidden 1-UP block was lower than in the final design.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)

World 1-2 Warp Zone

Draft Design	Final

The Warp Zone pipes in the original level layout for 1-2 have the pipes arranged at different heights and moved over to the right slightly. This was presumably changed due to the pipe on the far right being too tall for Mario to jump over if he were to get stuck between the pipe and wall. "WARP ZONE" was erroneously misspelled as "WARP ZŌŌN" but later corrected at an unknown time.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

World 4-2

Draft Design	Final

The beginning of World 4-2 was much more easier in the early layout. The hole from which Mario falls from is much smaller. The gaps seen at the beginning were much smaller and farther to the left in the draft. The "tunnel" section was much longer. There were four coins in the original draft instead of the three coins seen in the final.

(Source: Super Mario History 1985-2010 booklet)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)

Draft Design	Final

Multiple Koopa Troopas were removed from the final level, with the early design showing one before the gap with the moving platform, and two after the platform. This gap was originally smaller by one block. The four hidden blocks leading to the Warp Zone vine were originally a row of three Question Mark Blocks. The brick block containing the vine was originally placed on the right side instead of on the left and had been planned to appear inside of a hidden block rather than a brick block. The Koopa Troopa seen stuck in between the pipes of the final game was not present in the early draft.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)

World 6-1

Draft Design	Final

The very minor and only difference from the draft design is a single additional block that was added underneath the beginning staircase.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)

Bonus Rooms

Draft Design
Final

The bonus rooms appear to have gone through many changes while being drafted as can be seen by the many scribbled and whited out parts. The bonus rooms were designed on July 15th and later revised at unknown date.

• In the room on the left, the hook-like shape holding the coins was closer to the ground than in the final layout. The multi-coin block next to the pipe was lower as well.
• The middle room is the same as the final layout, though some extra coins appear to have been whited out.
• The room on the right has the top row of coins being a block higher and the bottom row has two fewer coins. The brick blocks were originally one block closer to the right, but the many red arrows instructed the level programmers to have the bricks adjusted to the left by one block.

(Source: Gamingalexandria)

(Final map rips: themushroomkingdom.net)