Hack82.Show Off with Super Mario

Hack 82. Show Off with Super Mario

Find the Minus World, get 100 lives, and other tricks .

Anyone who grew up with the Nintendo Entertainment System remembers hearing the stories. There was some kid in your class at school whose brother, or cousin, or out-of-town friend had found out a way to get a hundred lives in Super Mario Bros. Or had jumped over the flagpole . Or, most unbelievable of all, had walked through a wall and discovered a secret Minus World.

Luckily, most of us could use our playground smarts to sniff out such obvious B.S. I certainly heard my share of Nintendo whoppers back in the day. But in the case of Super Mario Bros. most of the secrets turned out to be true. Little did we know as we traded gossip at recess that there was already a best-selling book in Japan that explained everything. Similarly successful books followed quickly in the United States.

Eventually, thanks to the proliferation of early NES tip books and magazines, the hundred-lives trick and the Minus World became common knowledge. But unlike the massive wealth of pre-programmed cheats and tricks that infest games today, the Super Mario Bros. tricks were inadvertent bugs and exploits that the programmers never imagined. They were also difficult to pull off, meaning that Mario mastery, even today, can be an impressive parlor trick to perform in front of your friends . And with retro games making a comeback, you never know when you will be called into service.

Here, then, are the secrets to Mario mastery; the tricks and tips that, with practice, will bring you up to the average gameplay level of an American nine-year-old circa 1986. (That's a lofty goal, mind you.)

9.3.1. Get 100 Extra Marios

Throughout the gamefirstly and most conveniently in World 3-1as Mario comes to the staircase of blocks that ends the level, you'll see two Koopa Troopa turtles marching down the steps. You might see this as just another obstacle in your path , but in reality these little turtles are the secret to your near-eternal life. Poor Mario begins his adventure with a mere three lives in reserve, but at the end of this crucial trick, you can amass upwards of 128 extra chancesmore than enough to beat the game a few times over!

1. First, make your way to the staircase at the end of World 3-1. As shown in Figure 9-6, there will be two Koopa Troopas tromping down the stepsjump over the first one and stand in place on one step, waiting for the second.

2. As the Koopa Troopa nears the step directly above the one you're standing on, jump straight up as shown in Figure 9-7. When you land on the Koopa, his shell should stay in place on one step. (If not, commit suicide by jumping into the pit at left, and try again.)

3. As you come down on the Koopa (see Figure 9-8), tap the A button continuously and you should begin to jump off the shell repeatedly as it bounces off the step.

4. If you can keep up the jumping, you'll start earning extra lives (designated by the 1UP symbol) for every time you stomp the Koopa, as Figure 9-9 shows.

This trick is not a "bug" so much as it is an exploit of a documented feature. If Mario can stomp many different enemies (or in this case, one enemy, over and over) without hitting the ground, he will earn successively more points and then extra lives for each enemy.

However, Mario was not supposed to have this many lives! After you leave World 3-1, you'll notice that the hex codes that display Mario's remaining lives have gone out of whack and now only display bizarre graphics. And if you get more than 128 lives, the program won't be able to count themand you'll get a Game Over the next time you die.

Figure 9-6. Here they come

Figure 9-7. Stomp him!

Figure 9-8. Start tapping

Figure 9-9. 1UP, and 1UP, and

9.3.2. Enter the Minus World

Here's an even tougher trick. Luckily it takes place early in the game. At the end of World 1-2, the first underground level, Mario is "supposed" to enter a horizontal green pipe that takes him above ground and to the end of the level. The not-really-a-secret about this place is that if Mario rides the orange lifts up to the ceiling, he can walk over the pipe and into the Warp Zone where he can immediately skip to the beginning of World 2, 3, or 4. But there's a totally different place to go as well, if you know how to find it.

1. First, get to the end of World 1-2. Instead of going through the pipe, stand on top of it, on the left side, as shown in Figure 9-10.

2. Jump straight up and smash the brick above your head. You can break any brick to the left of this as well, but do not break the brick adjacent to the pipe! (See Figure 9-11.)

3. Here's the tricky part. Stand on the left side of the pipe and make Mario crouch by pressing down. Now, in a crouched position, jump straight up into the gap. Gently ease Mario into the lower-right corner of the block you left by the pipe, as shown in Figure 9-12.

4. It may take more than a few tries for you to get the feel of it, but eventuallyI swear this is trueMario will be sucked backwards through the brick (see Figure 9-13), the pipe, and the wall. No image trickery here! See that pipe to the right? Enter it immediately after Mario comes out the other side. Don't walk too far to the right, or the pipe will become a standard warp to World 4.

5. Holy what the heck! As soon as you go down the pipe you'll see the screen in Figure 9-14. You'll enter World negative 1, or the Minus World. It's disappointing, thoughjust an underwater level that loops over and over. The only way out is to get a Game Over.

Figure 9-10. Stand here

Figure 9-11. Smashy smashy

Figure 9-12. Touch the lower left corner of the brick

To get sucked backwards through the bricks as shown in Figure 9-13, be sure to jump straight up, then ease Mario over to the right. You don't want to hit the bottom of the brick, or else you'll smash it and you won't be able to do the trick.

Figure 9-13. Whoosh!

Figure 9-14. Welcome to the Minus World

The Minus World is actually a bug, discovered soon after the game's Japanese release. But it became so popular that the designers, when porting the game to the Famicom Disk System [Hack #8] a year later, decided to make it into a feature. The method for entering is the same, but the Minus World is a series of three bizarre (but completable) levels. Finishing them will bring you back to the title screen, where by way of reward you will be able to press the B button to jump to any level in the game. This special Minus World was not put into any later edition of Super Mario Bros.

9.3.3. Jump Over the Flagpole

At the end of each level in Super Mario Bros. is a flagpole. Jump off the top of the staircase just right by getting a running start then leaping at the last second, and you can hit the very top of the pole for 5000 points. Rumors abounded that it was possible to jump over the pole in certain levelsthough nobody knew what could possibly await on the other side.

Eventually, it was found that by using the pulleys and platforms in World 33, Mario could get high enough to clear the pole. Make your way to the pulleys at the end of the level. Stand on the left platform, and the right one will begin to rise up as you fall. Right before the right platform touches the pulley (and both platforms fall off), jump from the left to the right, then bounce off the far right edge of the right platform. If your timing and accuracy are perfect, you'll clear the top of the flagpole!

Unfortunately there's nothing on the other side. The background scenery will repeat endlessly until time runs out. Oh wellthey can't all be winners.