Proto:Super Mario Kart/mkart/Early Tracks

This is a sub-page of Proto:Super Mario Kart/mkart.

To do: Document track object location differences, including Match Race Bananas and Green Shells.

Note that when playing in Grand Prix some tracks have their objects (like pipes, Thwomps, and Monty Moles) in a different position or lack them completely. When playing the tracks in Time Trial or Match Race, the objects will appear in their correct positions. It's unknown if this was either an early idea of reducing the number of sprites in a Grand Prix Race or just the result of a bug.

General

• Overlay objects for coin groups didn't exist yet, only the single coin does.

Donut Plains

General

• In Grand Prix mode, only one Monty Mole is visible at a time, but it jumps out of different holes.

Donut Plains 1

Proto	Final

• The bridge is slightly broken.
• The ? Blocks are before and after the bridge.
• The lake is much larger than the final.
• There are more bush tiles than the final.
• There is no walls that cover outside of the bridge. There's also an additional shortcut at the bottom of the track.
• The road at the bottom is straight and littered with Monty Moles, rather than the large bending road in the final. The final track replaces the Monty Moles with pipes.

This early track was featured in various prerelease screenshots from just before the game was released.

Donut Plains 2

Proto	Final

• Has a diverging road that passes through the lake, as well as a straight path at the bottom of the track.
• It contains a bridge that doesn't appear in the final.
• The lake is smaller.
• There are more bush tiles than the final.
• The Monty Moles have been moved.
• There is a shortcut at the bottom left of the track. In the final the hole was filled in.
• There is a misplaced Monty Mole in the (0,0) coordinate of the track.

Donut Plains 3

Proto	Final

• Top-right is a much narrower bending road than the final game's.
• The bridge is shorter. It also lacks the top bridge straightaway.
• After the bend following the bridge, the path is straight rather than bending like the final.
• The bottom-right turn is much wider, and then the road is a straight narrow path as opposed to bending like the final version.
• There are more bush tiles than the final.
• There are substantially more Monty Moles in the bottom part of the course.

Choco Island

General

• There are no choco puddles in the tileset yet.
• Piranha Plants are absent in Grand Prix.

Choco Island 1

Proto	Final

• There is no mud at the bottom of the track and no bumps on the top part.
• The top-right inner wall is not diagonal, but straight walls
• The ? Blocks are in a completely different position.
• There are a few more rough patches of dirt than in the final version
• The wall at the middle was shifted down where it is in the final

Choco Island 2

Proto	Final

• The big mud puddle is split up into smaller sections of offroad.
• There are unused oil slicks that do not appear in the final version
• The top-right and bottom-right inner walls are not diagonal, but straight walls
• There are a few more rough patches of dirt than in the final version
• The placement of the Piranha Plants differs a bit from the final version

Ghost Valley

General

• The falling animation for the frail blocks doesn't exist yet so the blocks simply disappear when touched.
• There are no darker wood planks in the tileset yet.
• The only items that are obtainable are feathers, mushrooms and rarely stars, possibly to test shortcuts.

Ghost Valley 1

Proto	Final

• The coins, ramps, and ? Blocks are in different positions, and there are fewer of them compared to the final version.
• The big jump bar after the fourth turn is missing.
• Some tiles on the edge of the track are missing.
• The shortcut is slightly longer, making the shortcut easier to use.
• The bottom left straightaway is shifted down from where it is in the final version.

Ghost Valley 2

Proto	Final

• Apart from a different number of objects and their positions being different, many tiles on the edge are not present.
• The ? block that's closer to the hole has been moved closer to the finish line. Also, an zipper and ramp were added before the ? block.
• The track is colored uniformly rather than having a dark-colored portion.
• The shortcut is missing.

Ghost Valley 3

Proto	Final

• Coins and ? Blocks are in different positions, and there are fewer of them compared to the final version.
• The track is colored uniformly rather than having a dark-colored portion.
• The shortcut is missing.

Bowser Castle

General

• The arrows graphics are on a flat surface instead of bricks.
• In Grand Prix Mode, no thwomps are visible.
• Thwomps always move during the 1st lap. In the final, they start moving in the second lap.

Bowser Castle 1

Proto	Final

• The arrows are slightly positioned differently.
• There are more zippers and less ? Blocks.
• The coin formation is wave-shaped instead of crown-shaped like in the final version, and there are no coin lines scattered through the course.
• The top straightaway is shifted down from where it is in the final version.
• There are many more lava bubble tiles than in the final version.

Bowser Castle 2

Proto	Final

• An additional STOP is placed halfway through the track.
• There are less coins and ? Blocks scattered around the track.
• There are many more lava bubble tiles than in the final version
• The zipper is in a different position.
• There are additional ramps with lava pools in the top and bottom section
• The diverging turns were shifted slightly.
• Arrow tiles have different graphics, and some arrows are missing

Bowser Castle 3

Proto	Final

• An additional platform is on the left side of the track, and as a result the platform following the previous platform's ramp is wider.
• The track also contains a STOP that is not present in the final version.
• The arrows are shorter, with a few arrows missing.
• There are many more lava bubble tiles than in the final version
• Top slim section is much shorter than in the final version
• There's no item boxes in the middle fork.
• Bottom right after the fork paths was made wider in the final version
• The first row of Thwomps were placed a little further to the right

Vanilla Lake

General

• The destroying animation for the ice blocks doesn't exist yet so the blocks simply disappear when touched.
• It was not possible yet to jump against the ice blocks to keep the speed, due to the lack of jumping controls.

Vanilla Lake 1

Proto	Final

• The middle is an inverted T-shape rather than the final's large box. This results in a wider road near the starting line and on the right side of the track.
• There are three barriers located on the right side of the track. The final version only has one.
• Exposed water was added in the final version.
• Center area contains patches of snow not present in final version, addition to the ramp as well. This means that the center area was originally drivable.
• The ice block patch in the bottom contains a much denser packing of ice
• There are three extra colored walls on the right
• Ice barriers on the right are fully blocking the path, as opposed to spaced out in the final version
• There is an additional barrier on the bottom left side of the track.
• The Top-right quadrant is changed drastically

Vanilla Lake 2

Proto	Final

• The ice blocks on the left are together, forming one giant block. The final version split them into three groups.
• Ice block patch on the bottom-right is much denser than in the final version
• The ? Blocks are in different positions.

Koopa Beach

General

• The water palettes are slightly different

Koopa Beach 1

Proto	Final

• A zipper, not present in the final version, is present.
• A lonely coin can be found on the top-right part of the map, probably left there by mistake.
• The patch of plants at the bottom is thicker.
• The ramps are positioned differently.
• There are additional deep water holes on the right side of the track.
• The ? Block on the small island on the right of the track is not added yet.

Koopa Beach 2

Proto	Final

• The barrier on the bottom-left is horizontal, rather than diagonal like in the final version.
• The ? Block near the center of the track was removed in the final version.
• The wall edges on the top part of the track are sharp instead of smooth in the final.
• The patch of plants throughout the track is much thicker.
• The small island on the left of the track with the ? Block is slightly bigger.

Mario Circuit

General

• In Grand Prix mode, only one Pipe is visible at a time, but it's misplaced where it shouldn't be.
• The grass tile doesn't have an "Out of Bounds" attribute yet, so you can simply drive on it, which can lead to the player getting stuck with no way to exit.

Mario Circuit 1

Proto	Final

• Contains an oil slick that was removed in the final version.
• Coins were bunched together.
•  ? Blocks have been moved slightly.

Mario Circuit 2

Proto	Final

• The objects are arranged differently, with fewer coins than in the final version.
• Only one ramp is present after the zippers.
• The visibility areas for the pipes are messed up. One is placed in the zippers.

Mario Circuit 3

Proto	Final

• The coins and ? Blocks have been moved.
• There are no oil slicks.
• A row of 4 pipes are placed on the road before the sharp curve.
• The pipes after the sharp curve were placed closer together.

Mario Circuit 4

Proto	Final

• The oil slick and coins were moved.
• The wall after the second turn is thinner.
• The wall after the eighth turn is farther.
• The extra wall with the shortcut has been removed in the final.
• A misplaced coin can be found in the top-center part of the track.

Battle Courses

General

The starting points were placed on the down-left and down-right side of the track with both looking straight ahead, while in the final its usually the upper and lower middle of the track with both players looking at each other.

Battle Course 1

Proto (Battle Course 1)	Final (Battle Course 4)

Equivalent to the final's Battle Course 4. Prototype has a Donut Plains theme rather than Mario Circuit. This early revision can be seen in a screenshot on the side and back the packaging for the Australian SNES Super Mario Kart Grand Prix Pack console bundle.

Battle Course 2

Proto (Battle Course 2)	Final (Battle Course 3)

Equivalent to the final's Battle Course 3. The smaller ice enclosure was later split into four walls in the final and the larger ice enclosure was removed and replaced with spaced diagonal ice blocks. The starting points for both players are placed in the outer yellow and green wall blocks respectively, with player 2 being pushed through the yellow wall. The starting points seem to correspond well with the B1 maze map from the source files, suggesting that this build's Battle Course 2 replaced the maze map at one point.

Battle Course 3

Proto

Unique Choco Island themed battle track with no direct equivalent in the final. It contains eight center barriers with jump bars connected to them. This map is known as battle04 or B4 in the source files.

Battle Course 4

Equivalent to the final's Battle Course 2. The water surrounding the track, and inside the blockages isn't animated.

Cut Track

Choco Island 3
A unique course layout not seen in the final. It has a few similarities with Choco Island 2, notably the similar routing with almost the same starting position and the idea of the curve with the shortcut through the mud after the starting line (although the curve is longer, which makes it faster to use the shortcut without an item instead of driving the curve along).

This track is known as dart01 and D1 in the source files, so this may have been the first Choco Island track to be created.

Proto

Perhaps the most notable thing about this track is that it was scrapped in favor of Rainbow Road. Mostly likely the developers wanted a new track.