List of Super Mario Bros. pre-release and unused content

This is a list of beta elements for the game Super Mario Bros..

Unused Music



 * Track 10: An alternate "Game Over" theme with different, plunkier sounding instruments.




 * Track 18: A "hurry up!" variation of the short clip that is played when Mario enters an underground or water level (such as World 1-2, 2-2, etc.). As the timer is reset between levels, this is never used.

Unused Objects


An object that Mario can climb up or down like a vine. It makes a "buzzing" sound as you climb, as though Mario is repeatedly hitting his head on something. It can still be placed in-game with a level editor. Although it appears as a brown flagpole ball, the actual 16&times;16 metatile that is used is unique to this object.

Unused Firebar Type
Enemy object is a short Firebar that rotates counterclockwise quickly. However, unlike its clockwise counterpart (used only in World 5-4), this type is never used in any valid levels.

Unlike most invalid enemies (such as glitch Firebars, , and ), this type has a valid entry in the setting table:

FirebarSpinSpdData: .db $28, $38, $28, $38, $28 FirebarSpinDirData: .db $00, $00, $10, $10, $00

The settings are stored in this order: Clockwise, Speedy Clockwise , Counterclockwise , Speedy Counterclockwise , and Long Firebar. Firebar has both the faster speed  and counterclockwise rotation  programmed in.

This firebar type also exists in the Game Boy Color remake.

Unused Spiny Egg Behavior
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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:

This patch is intended for the NTSC version of the game. The Notes page has more information on the nature of this bug.

Unused Timer Setting
The upper 2 bits of first level header setting byte determines the starting timer.

The timer starts at 200 if this setting is set to 3 (11xxxxxx), though no valid level actually uses it.

Likewise, the timer starts at 000 (causes instant death on normal levels) if this setting is set to 0 (00xxxxxx). While this setting is used by intros (such as the beginning of World 1-2), the game doesn't actually use the setting, since it completely disables the timer in these levels.

Duplicated Scroll Stop Object
There are two identical scroll stop objects: 46 and 47. Only 47 is used by the game's valid levels.

Unused Pointer
Map 01 (Worlds 2-2 and 7-2) has a third level pointer for World 3, which leads to the same place as the normal World 2 and 7 level pointers.

Unused Variable
RAM address keeps track of the number of blocks hit, though no routine ever reads the value stored here.

Unused Pipe Behavior
L-shaped pipes (used for the beginning of underground and underwater levels) are enterable from the top like a regular pipe. However, since Mario automatically enters the side of the pipe, this behavior goes unused.

However, in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2, an L-shaped pipe appears in World 9-3, and it is possible to enter this pipe from the top.

Removed Tiles


The bricks and Bowser's bridge may have each used four unique tiles at some point in development, judging by the arrangement of existing tiles in the CHR data. The second and fourth tiles in each highlighted group are pieces of the block behind the title logo.

Above-Ground Bloopers


Although Bloopers normally appear only in water levels, they can be placed in non-water levels just fine and will award a whopping 1,000 points when stomped. Most other "impossible" ways to kill enemies, like hitting a Podoboo or Bowser with a Starman, only award the default 200 points, though Podoboos also have the stomp code defined.

Given that Bloopers appear in non-water levels (such as World 1-3) in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 and award 1,000 points, this behavior was likely intended all along.

Early iteration
The development of Super Mario Bros. began with a 16x32 pixel square used as a placeholder, which couldn't jump at all and moved about a single screen. After taking notice of the sales figures for Mario Bros., Tezuka proposed the idea of using Mario for the game to Miyamoto, which was accepted. Visible checkpoints were considered in development.

The game was initially far more focused on shooting than platforming. Mario could carry weapons (with a rifle and a "beam gun" mentioned as being usable), and the control scheme was different; the up arrow of the was used to jump, while pressing  used whatever item Mario carried or kicked when empty-handed.

The game was initially divided between ground and sky segments, which had Mario riding a rocket (or a cloud in later stages of development) and shooting enemies. The sky-based bonus round of the final game are apparently a remnant of this idea.

The development sketches included in Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition show that the game initially had screen-by-screen scrolling (similar to the later-released Super Mario Bros. Special) rather than continous scrolling as in the final version.