Super Mario All-Stars

Super Mario All-Stars
Also known as: Super Mario Collection (JP) Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Platform: SNES Released in JP: July 14, 1993 Released in US: August 1, 1993 Released in EU: December 16, 1993 This game has unused areas. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused items. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has anti-piracy features. This game has a notes page This game has a prerelease article

To do: Lots of unused graphics, see the talk page Upload the images for old colors Mario and Luigi Prerelease images and footage Stuff from the source code in the 2020-07-25 Nintendo leak Removed SMB enemy red Koopas once moved faster when they were hit Karugary (Calvary) Bros. being an early name for the Hammer Bros. Hammer Bros. also used to be fire enemies scrapped "Red" enemy type (which might have been just an earlier Red Koopa) Lakitu and Spiny's internal name being Ship and Bakudan (translates to Bomb) Bridge and "loop elevator" objects Pipes were also called chimneys

Super Mario All-Stars is a collection of the four main NES/Famicom Super Mario Bros. titles, upgraded to take advantage of the SNES' improved hardware. Unlike most SNES games, all of the graphics data is uncompressed. There's a lot of unused stuff here, some of which suggests that All-Stars may have originally been developed as a more straightforward port of the games.

In 2010, a completely-unchanged ROM image was packaged with an officially-coded Virtual Console emulator and slapped on a Wii disc to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of Super Mario Brothers. Furthermore, in 2020, to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Brothers, Super Mario All-Stars was added to the collection of Super NES games playable with a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

General

Content not specific to any particular game.

Unused Nintendo Logo

This alternate version of the Nintendo logo can be found among the sprite graphics for Super Mario Bros. Unlike the final version, the racetrack surrounding the text is less round, and the logo isn't paired with a giant Mario coin.

Unused Sounds

The majority of the game's sound effects were imported directly from Super Mario World. This includes a number of sounds that ultimately went unused, such as Yoshi's sounds. It's likely that these are just leftovers, and were not actually meant to be used in Super Mario All-Stars.

Debug Mode

To activate debugging features for all four games, either use the code 008C1E01 or set SRAM address 700007 to 01 in a debugger.

All Games

• L: freeze/unfreeze
• R: advance one frame (while frozen)

Super Mario Bros./The Lost Levels

• A: become Super Mario
• X: become Fire Mario
• Select: free-roaming mode/invincibility

Super Mario Bros. 2

• A: free-roaming mode
• X: invincibility

Super Mario Bros. 3

• A: free-roaming mode
• X: change powerup/suit
• Select: invincibility

(Note that this does not activate the debugging features left over from the NES version; the "new" method of changing suits is glitchy, does not apply the correct palette, and does not allow you to toggle Goomba's Shoe.)

Placeholder Text

Some image banks in the ROM have placeholder text that marks where graphics will be loaded in-game.

Before	After

The black text box is プレイヤー, translated as "Player", marking where the Player graphics are stored in VRAM. The three orange tiles are パワ床 (POW Block), スイショウ (Crystal), and フラスコ (Flask).

(Source: BMF54123, Tauwasser (additional translation support))

Before	After

Taken from the Battle Mode tile bank. Again, the black box is プレイヤー (Player), marking where Mario and Luigi's graphics are stored.

(Source: BMF54123, Tauwasser (additional translation support))

Before	After

From the Super Mario Bros. 3 tileset, this text translates as "Mario, Luigi" and denotes the location of the player graphics.

(Source: BMF54123, Tauwasser (additional translation support))

Before	After

This text block appears in both Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 2. ＢＧカキカエ　エリア　 translates as "BG Transfer Area", and is used to indicate the location of animated background tiles in VRAM.

(Source: BMF54123, Tauwasser (additional translation support))

Before	After

Hopefully this doesn't need translating. "PLAYER" marks the slot for player graphics in the Super Mario Bros. and Lost Levels ending sequence.

Unused Pause Screen Option

Found in all versions of Super Mario All-Stars, this text is located with the rest of the pause menu graphics. またもうやめ translates as "Take a Break". What this would actually do is unknown.

(Source: BMF54123, Tauwasser (Additional translation support))

Unused Spiny Egg Behavior

In Super Mario Bros. and The Lost Levels, the Spiny eggs are thrown by Lakitu in a simple way, with no horizontal movement whatsoever. However, this is not the intended behavior; it's actually the result of a bug! The eggs are supposed to be thrown out relative to the player's speed, Lakitu's speed, the player's position, and a pseudo-random value, as well as bounce off of any blocks or walls that they hit on the way down. The following patch will fix the Spiny egg bug in the NTSC version:

Download Spiny Egg Speed Patch File: SMASSpinyFix.zip (861 B) (info)

(Source: ZeroShifts Spiny egg function patch)

Anti-Piracy

As a means of copy protection, all versions of Super Mario All-Stars perform a check to see how much SRAM is present: the game writes a value to $702000, then compares it with the value at $700000. If the values match (due to address mirroring), it means 8 KB of SRAM is present and the cart is likely genuine, but if the values are different, it means more than 8 KB of SRAM is present and the game is likely running on a copier. If the latter scenario occurs, the game stops and throws up a warning message.

The message text differs between versions, but the location of the routine is the same; to trigger it, use Pro Action Replay code 1180508F and choose Super Mario Bros. 2/Super Mario USA from the game menu.

• 

  Super Mario All-Stars (US)

• 

  Super Mario Collection (JP)

• 

  Super Mario All-Stars (EU)

• 

  Super Mario All-Stars + World (EU)

Super Mario Bros.

The game that started this whole mess.

Unused Graphics

Yes, even this port has unused graphics.

Ending text graphics which appear after the Princess Toadstool sprites. This is supposed to be for...well, The End. Given the different sizes, it was probably supposed to be animated.

This is what it would look like.

A "PAUSE" graphic which might have been used before the save menu was implemented.

This page appears to have been used as a "scratch pad" for testing multiple variations of some common Mario poses. None of these graphics are used by the game itself. The red and blue sections of the palette are swapped compared to the final version. These graphics were used in Nintendo Power video previews and can be seen in screenshots on the back of the North American box.

Early	Final

An early Mushroom Retainer, found in the main enemy graphics bank. This was likely used before the unique "castle clear" cutscenes were implemented. Only the top half of the second frame was cleaned up and reused in the final game.

An early Princess Toadstool. She's quite short here, much like her original Super Mario Bros. counterpart.

16-bit renditions of the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. tiles, and a unique ground tile not found in the original game.

Sea coral in front of brown rocks. The palette that is used by the normal coral blocks also hold duplicates of the colors from the background rocks, logically intended for this sprite. The only place where it would make sense to be used is in the "level preview screen" for water levels.

An alternate sea coral. What makes it more interesting is that it's animated, unlike the coral block used in the final!

This star shows up among the tiles for both the Mario and Luigi bonus room backgrounds.

An unused piece for the underground background. It's a little pipe sticking out from the rocks.

This ground tile was meant to go on the very bottom of the underground background, at the same height as the level's foreground solid floor. It even appears in pre-release images!

This graphic shows up among the tiles for the colored rocks background as seen in levels like World 2-1. It also appears in between the tiles for World 8-3's background. It can be assumed it would've appeared on the very bottom of the background, like the unused underground background tile above.

Unused Text

THANK YOU MARIO!

YOUR QUEST IS OVER.
WE PRESENT YOU A NEW QUEST.

PUSH BUTTON Y
TO START A URA-WORLD

The ending text of the original NES version is present, but not used. It had already been altered to take into account some changes in All-Stars: "BUTTON B" was changed to "BUTTON Y" in accordance with the All-Stars control scheme, and "SELECT A WORLD" was changed to "START A URA-WORLD" since you can no longer select the world from the title screen.

(Source: Mattrizzle)

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Also known as Super Mario Bros. 2. Super Mario All-Stars was the first time players outside Japan got to play this entry.

Unused Graphics

The Super Mario Bros. graphic set contains tiles for an early Super Mario Bros. 2 logo that is much closer to the original FDS style than the final All-Stars one: the letters are taller, the "FOR SUPER PLAYERS" subtitle is missing, and the star (indicating how many times you've beaten 8-4) is present.

A mockup of what the logo would look like with the above tiles.

(Source: Mattrizzle)

Unused Text

WE PRESENT FANTASY WORLD
LET'S TRY "9 WORLD"
WITH ONE GAME.

This text is loaded on layer 1 of the preview screen shown before a level starts, but is never visible. This was used in the original FDS version when you successfully beat the first eight worlds without using warps, thus unlocking the secret World 9. This doesn't happen in All-Stars, where you're simply taken straight to 9-1. The text contains the apostrophe and quotation marks, but these characters aren't present in the font used in All-Stars, so they appear as garbage.

YOU'RE A SUPER PLAYER!
WE HOPE WE'LL
SEE YOU AGAIN.
MARIO AND STAFF.

This was used when dying in World 9 in the FDS version but, again, doesn't appear in All-Stars. For reasons unknown, besides the apostrophe, the N character in the word "AGAIN" appears broken as well.

THANK YOU MARIO!
PEACE IS PAVED

WITH KINGDOM SAVED

HURRAH TO  MARIO

OUR ONLY HERO

THIS ENDS YOUR TRIP

OF A LONG FRIENDSHIP

100000 PTS.ADDED
FOR EACH PLAYER LEFT.

The original ending text of the FDS version. As with the FDS game's message, the last two lines' palette settings are different than the rest, though in this case it's a pinkish color not used by anything else in the game. It should be noted that the All-Stars version does not have the 100,000-point bonus for each extra life remaining, likely because the game's save function includes your current life count (capped at 128, which can easily be accumulated at the structure just into World 1-1) and goes level-by-level, which would make it rather easy to get an absurdly-high score.

(Source: jdaster64: World 9 text, Mattrizzle: other text)

Super Mario Bros. 2

Also known as Super Mario USA and "Doki Doki Panic Romhack".

Unused Graphics

Full sprite sheets for the four playable characters in an earlier state exist in the game. The greatest difference in them is that they retain the original design when they're in the "small" state, with the big head from the NES Super Mario Bros. 2, alongside featuring a 2-frame walk cycle as opposed to a 3-frame one, again, just like the NES version.

The "big" Mario sprites are early identical to what you see in-game. One frame here has Mario's shoes colored in one shade of red.

Like Mario, Luigi looks very similar to his final design.

Princess Toadstool suffered the most changes from the bunch. Here she looks much closer to how she did in the original game, and curiously her "small" sprite also looks similar to the unused Princess sprite from Super Mario Bros. (see above).

Toad had some little changes here and there. His sprite for the "player select" screen has his pants colored red and his shoes blue for some reason.

These slot graphics are based on the NES version, but the 7 is brand new! These were discarded for the larger slot icons.

A tomato that should've appeared in Wart's boss chamber, as it does in the NES version. Instead, it's replaced by the cabbage-looking thing from World 2.

An unused fire sprite very similar to the original NES version. The final game has an animated spinning fireball instead.

Graphics ported directly from the NES version, unmodified.

The mountain/cavern tiles from the NES version, revamped for All-Stars, but left unused in favor of new and better terrain design.

This was the block that composed the icy terrain in ice levels in the NES version. It suffered the same treatment as the cavern tiles above.

The dark lines in this tile match the wood tiles from the "inside tree" sections of World 5 in the original game, which means this could be a revamp of said tiles, though it doesn't look anything like wood.

A somewhat crudely drawn block.

This could be an early version of the bricks pattern seen in tower sections, based more closely on the original design from the NES version.

A static whale tail.

The green rocks from regular overworld levels, but with no plantlife on top.

The bug with 8 frames long animations from the original Super Mario Bros. 2 still plagues the Albatoss in All-Stars, leaving his last frame unseen.

An alternate design of the shell, looking very close to the original sprite from the NES version.

A duplicate of the POW Block animation. However, one of the frames has the "O" positioned one pixel to the left, like it was in the NES version.

Via the Debug Mode, it's possible to see a wall of otherwise-unused colored bricks placed to the right of Wart's chamber. These are styled after the bricks used in the NES version, and were replaced with a completely different design in the remake...though evidently not completely replaced.

Unused Music

A fanfare not present in the NES version. Possibly an alternate win cue for the slot machine? This fanfare would later be used in Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 for when you win the picture slots minigame.

Suicide Cheat

Carried over from the NES version, just without the need for a second controller. In all versions, pause the game then hold L + R and press Select to cause the player to lose a life.

Super Mario Bros. 3

Since this was essentially a direct port of the NES game, this has the most unused content! For more information, see the Super Mario Bros. 3 article.

Sub-Pages

Unused Levels They're still in the game!

Unused Graphics Some new, some updated, some unchanged.

Old Debug Mode

While a new debug mode was put into the game, the old NES debug mode can still be accessed with the code 7E016080...although this unfortunately doesn't seem to activate the level select. Press Select to cycle through Mario's forms, or Select + A/B/X/Y to toggle Goomba's Shoe.

Due to a programming oversight, the old debug mode has a tendency to randomly enable itself on real SNES consoles. See the Notes page for the technical details.

(Source: BMF54123)

Unused Spade Game Behavior

Just like in the original game, the Spade game has an unused counter variable which controls how many times you get to play. Setting the value at address 0x7E1019 to any value besides 00 during the game will allow you to keep trying until either you win, or the counter reaches zero (whichever comes first). Simply press A, B, or Start to spin the reels again.

Unused Enemies

Like in the original Super Mario Bros. 3, two enemies remain unused in the remake.

A yellow version of the Cheep-Cheep enemy. These only appear in the seventh unused level, and always come in groups of three. They swim faster than normal Cheep-Cheeps, in a wave-like motion.

A faster green version of the Para-Beetle enemy. These enemies only appear in the ninth and tenth unused levels, and can only be generated by the also-unused Green Para-Beetle spawner.

Unused Text

Present near the Super Mario Bros. 3 graphics. Probably development text that was left in the ROM.

NAK1989 S-CG-CADVer1.23 9b0 26

Regional Differences

To do: European version info. And other stuff.

Title Screen

Japanese	International

In Japanese, Super Mario All-Stars is called Super Mario Collection, and the title screens reflect the regional releases. In Collection, the logo characters offer a broad flashing palette, whereas in the international versions the title logo is rather bland, still flashing albeit less frequently.

Pressing Start before the lights turn on causes the game to go to the menu straight away, rather than the lights turning on first (as is the case in the international versions). A glitch can be performed in the international versions where the title music still plays by timing the Start button just right before the light switch transition.

The "in the dark" chatter is also different between the Japanese and international versions. This was changed because the line, "One more beer please" can be heard in the background in the Japanese version, and Nintendo of America did not allow mention of alcoholic drinks at the time.

Japanese	International

(Source: Japanese Nintendo Official Strategy Guidebook)

Main Menu

Japanese	American	European

The Japanese version uses the original box art for each game on the main menu, whereas the international versions use the American box art. For whatever reason, Nintendo opted not to rescan the boxes for the European version, and instead edited the American versions to add a few Europe-specific details, such as the round Nintendo seals and the changed dates.

The international versions also received a few other minor touchups, including larger shadows, a white arrow border, and brighter colors.

Japanese	American	European

For the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, which was unreleased elsewhere, Nintendo simply took the Famicom Disk System box and edited it to say Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (with part of the original black text being moved down below the logo) while removing Diskun, the FDS mascot. The European version doesn't list a year.

Japanese	International

The Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 is referred to as Super Mario Bros. 2: For Super Players on its title screen, a subtitle that would later be used for the Super Mario Bros. 2 mode of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. The international versions also added a trademark icon.

Japanese	American

Japanese	International

The American/European Super Mario Bros. 2 is referred to as Super Mario USA in the Japanese version, with both the original 1988 and later 1992 release dates; its title screen uses both of these and the 1993 release date which was appended to all four games. Also, the logo for Super Mario USA uses a brighter shade of blue than the Super Mario Bros. 2 one.

Japanese	International

The level cards were also changed, although interestingly the international logo looks far more like the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 logo.

Japanese	American

The Super Mario Bros. 3 date was also changed (1988 for Japan, 1990 for America).

Japanese	American	European

The "FILE" text in the file select menus is pink in the Japanese version, and red everywhere else. The controller button colors in the American version were changed to purple and lavender, and the Y and X buttons were made concave. The European version retains the original button colors, but removes the glossy look for some reason.

(Source: The Mushroom Kingdom)

Revisional Differences

To do: There is bound to be additional differences between the Japanese 1.0 and 1.1 releases. If so, find and document them.

In December 1994 (1995 for Europe), Super Mario All-Stars was reissued as Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World, and was released solely as a pack-in title in America. As this edition was not released in Japan, Super Mario World is based on its American release featuring slight changes.

Title Screen

All-Stars (North America)	All-Stars + World (North America)	All-Stars + World (Europe)

Aside from the addition of "+ Super Mario World", the title screen's background was changed to orange, "All-Stars" to blue, the floor to pink, and the copyright info to white with a dark red outline. Birdo was moved to a sitting position in the front, pushing the Spiny towards the center, and Yoshi was put in Birdo's former place. Bowser's snout was shifted slightly to the right, and the shading on Peach's crown was fixed. The European version added a 1991 copyright (despite Super Mario World not being released in Europe until 1992).

Main Menu

All-Stars (North America)	All-Stars + World (North America)	All-Stars + World (Europe)

The menu was of course updated to add the Super Mario World box and info. As a result, the other four games were positioned closer together, and the shadows underneath the boxes were reverted to their smaller Super Mario Collection versions.

Interestingly, the Super Mario World box used in the European version does not match any known PAL release of the game (three variations of which can be seen here, here, and here), but appears to have been created from scratch.

All-Stars (North America)	All-Stars + World (North America)
All-Stars (Europe)	All-Stars + World (Europe)

The NES boxes were rescanned and resized. Once again, Nintendo scanned only one set of these boxes for the US and European versions. Previously, the North American "REV-A" boxes were used and, in the PAL release, edited accordingly. This time, however, they opted to use the European "NES Version" boxes as the source, editing them in the US version to replace the European-style round seal with a US-style oval one, albeit neglecting to remove the telltale extra "NES Version" text as well as to re-add the barely-readable "REV-A" text.

All-Stars (North America)	All-Stars + World (North America)	All-Stars + World (Europe)

Oddly, the Lost Levels box replaced the black text below the logo with a much larger "stamp" graphic, which clarified that it had not been released in America (Europe in the European version). The "1986" graphic was also removed. A small error where a black space can be seen between the H and E in the word 'THE' was also fixed, changing that black space to match the color of the greater portion of the drop shadow.

All-Stars (North America)	All-Stars + World (North America)
All-Stars (Europe)	All-Stars + World (Europe)

On the screen where the player selects the file he/she wishes to load when starting a particular game, the "FILE" text changed from scarlet(ish) to pink (although not the same pink as the Japanese version, Super Mario Collection). The icon that identifies which action is applied to the B button also gets a contrast boost in both regions.

All-Stars (On The Lost Levels)	All-Stars + World (On World)

When selecting Super Mario World in the All-Stars + World releases, the controller settings at the lower-left corner is replaced by a picture of Yoshi with "YOSHI!" below it, as World uses its own distinct control system. Pressing Select to change controls plays the same error sound heard when trying to change worlds in a new file. Selecting a file causes Yoshi to wink, while deleting one causes him to lick his lips.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Pausing and exiting the in-game menu has a short delay that, for some reason, slowly diminishes the longer the game remains paused to the point that pressing the Start button after long enough will unpause the game instantly. This interesting behavior only occurs in the Japanese Super Mario Collection 1.1 and the American Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World. In both European versions, on the other hand, the delay when unpausing the game is always one second with the sound effect playing as soon as the Start button is pressed to unpause the game.

Super Mario World

Super Mario World (Original)	Super Mario World (All-Stars)

Super Mario World itself was altered a bit, most notably to give Luigi a set of unique sprites based on his distinct Super Mario Bros. 2 appearance (although certain sprites, such as ducking on Yoshi or climbing a vine, weren't altered). In addition, a fourth save file was added and the unique "96 exits" completion marking was redone to match the font used on the game selection menu.

Super Mario World (Original)	Super Mario World (All-Stars)
In the original versions of Super Mario World, nothing happens upon pressing Select while on the overworld map. Because of this, no image can be provided within this square in the table.

Unlike the other All-Stars games, there is no uniform pause menu and 1-Player/2-Player modes are not "locked" into the save files. Additionally, the pause menu can be brought up (only) on the map by pressing the Select button, something that was not present originally. This pause menu allows the player to either continue without saving or quit and return to the All-Stars title screen without saving.

Nintendo Switch Online Differences

In Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario USA in Japan) and Super Mario Bros. 3, any events that cause the background to flash in various colors, such as bombs exploding and Mario collecting a dropped ? orb, have the flashing lights toned down in the Nintendo Switch Online version to minimize the risk of epileptic seizures.