News on Cancelled Video Games & Lost Media

The formula setup by Super Mario Bros. 3 established the foundations for the SNES successor Super Mario World. Thanks to these uncovered beta photographs, the evolutionary connections from Super Mario Bros. 3 to Super Mario World are a bit more apparent. Interesting enough is that “World” once started out as simply Super Mario Bros. 4. Its “World” subtitle did not come development had actually progressed into planning and pre-production stages.

The images in this article represent a starting point as Nintendo journeyed from Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES to what would eventually become World. The structure of the geography, different icons, alternative floor on the castle entrance and castle texture, the flying fortresses and even mushroom houses show some serious evolutionary ties to its Mario Bros. 3 roots.

[Original description in italian by Sig. Bakke, english translation by MajorTom]

Would you like to play the Super Mario World beta? Check our Super Mario World Beta Remake Project!

Images:

Test map e Unused Characters from: www.themushroomkingdom.net

Thereʼs very little to say regarding the over world map. The beta version seems to have accommodated a much smaller adventure than what was produced in the ﬁnal version. In this article, there are two opening screens. One of which shows “Super Mario World” against a “beta” world map. This opening showed a very muted color scheme and a 1989 copyright date. This opening screen could have been one of the earliest known builds Nintendo made during its transition from the NES to SNES hardware. The second title screen does not show any copyright date but what is notably different from the ﬁnal version is that Nintendo excluded “Super Mario Bros” from the title in the ﬁnal build.

On screen elements during game play have changed. Notably, there used to be Yoshi sign that disallowed the usage of a Yoshi (or speciﬁc colored Yoshi) after the player walked past that sign. Signs similar to these would reappear in the semi-sequel Yoshiʼs Island (with signs limiting Yoshiʼs power-up as it walks past them). In the Donkey Kong Country 2 & 3 games (which share various similarities with SMW), silimar signs appear for animal buddies – a possible influence for Rare.

Other small differences to note are beta sprites. Mario and the Koopas look slightly different from how they turned out in the ﬁnal release. Mario tends to look more like his “Mario All-Stars” Super Mario Bros. 3 counterpart. The Koopa shells have a more rounded look to them. Some coins also had a look slightly larger and more oval (maybe they were a beta version of the Yoshi’s coin).

Raccoon Mario, who debuted in Super Mario Bros. 3, was either a place holder for the eventual cape/feather power-up or the concept of Cape Mario never came to fruition until much later in development. For a time, the leaf and resulting Raccoon Mario may have been the “de-facto” ﬂying power-up for Mario in “World”. There are many screenshots that show Raccoon Mario in various parts of the game. For readers that frequent Unseen 64, you might want to check out the “SNES Hardware Test” in the SNES section. One speciﬁc image from that section has a Mario sprite that appears to be from “World” but with what appears to be ears on top of his head that look VERY similar to the raccoon ears similar to those in Super Mario Bros. 3 and beta shots of “World”.

As Sammy has noticed, there was a Sears commercial that showed 3 Super Nintendo games; they were Super Mario World, F-Zero, and Pilotwings. On that commercial, it showed the title for SMW but with a little difference. Right next to the little beta “Super Mario Bros.” text of the beta title, there was a blue “4″ on the right of the text. You can check the video below thanks to Youssef!

Thanks to Jamie and Assjerk for the contributions!

Video:

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Zelda II [SNES – Tech Demo]

monokoma

14-04-2008

4 Comments

As we can read on Wikipedia, the Satellaview (also know as BS-X) was a satellite modem add-on for Nintendo’s Super Famicom system, released in Japan in 1995. The first game on the system was Zelda BS, a “remake” based on the original Zelda for the NES. The gameplay was identical to its predecessor, but a few differences exist which make the experience distinctly different. The overworld was altered from an 8 by 16 map to an 8 by 8. As in the The Legend of Zelda’s Second Quest, dungeons are again completely different.

Some years ago, a mysterious scan from an unknown Japanese magazine was found, and on it there was a screen that showed what it looked like a 16bit version of Zelda 2:

Images:

Thanks to Chris Covell on the Assembler Forum, we finally have some more informations about this assumed BS-X remake of Zelda 2: “Here’s my webpage which has pictures from the Famicom Tsushin special on the Super Famicom announcement in 1988 with that picture. That particular section in the Super Famicom article explains the graphical capabilities of the SFC, including a large number of on-screen colours, and large memory addressing, allowing for Kanji text display. That mock-up pic of a recoloured Zelda 2 with kanji text is all that was ever seen of a SFC ‘Zelda 2′. It’s just a single-screen mockup shown during the SFC’s tech demo showcase.”

“The text (in both magazine pictures) writes to the effect: The pixel-addressing capabilities of the SFC are so high that Kanji text can easily be displayed. This allows game like RPGs, for example, to display easy-to-read Kanji messages”

So, the presumed Zelda 2 BS-X was nothing more than a 1988 “tech demo” to show the SNES power to the press.. well, it was more fascinating to think about a SNES remake of Zelda 2, but we are happy to finally have an answer! Props to Chris Covell for these informations! You can read the original Assembler topic in here or take a look at Chris webpage in here. We can still wonder about the meanings of this image, as it could be seen as an early “concept” for the third Zelda game, but maybe it’s a bit too vague..

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Zelda: A Link To The Past [SNES – Beta]

monokoma

14-04-2008

2 Comments

The images on this page are taken from the Beta of The Legend Of Zelda 3: A Link to the Past, during the second half of 1991, a few months before its official release. The differences from the final version are in fact very small, but very interesting. Nintendo first changed the HEAD-UP DISPLAY of the game: the bar of the magic had a different shape, more similar to a test tube, the icons of object in your inventory were situated on the left of your stock (while in the complete game they are placed on top of your stock), the life meter went from being written as “+ LIFE +” to – “LIFE -“. Nintendo may have changed the symbol to avoid the presence of a symbol similar to a cross (In the 90’s Nintendo often removed religious symbols from games, in order to avoid controversy).

Beta Version:

Final Version:

In the second beta image, the main difference is the presence of 4 enemies, in place of the 2 single ones inserted in the complete game. This greatly lowered the difficulty of the stage.

In the third image, the bridge is pretty much the same, but on the right of the river we notice the lack of the trees. Instead of trees, some stones in a strange formation is found. The strange design perhaps indicated the location of the secret cove, which was removed from the final version of the game. The main difference in the beta is in minor graphic changes. We’re currently still looking through old screenshots and sprites to find more changes.

Beta Version:

Final Version:

[Original intro in italian by monokoma, translation by Sba sb3002]

You can find more info about Zelda: A Link To The Past in the Zelda Wiki!

Videos:

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Super Mario RPG [SNES – Beta / Unused Characters]

U64 Staff & Contributors

14-04-2008

No Comments

Looking into the coding of Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars reveals several unused enemies (most of which seem to be unused sub-species), including a notorious one known as the Drill Bit. In fact, Drill Bit appears in the game, but does not fight in any battle like a normal enemy.

Material from an early Nintendo Power shows that the Chancellor was once designed differently, being a more elderly-looking, gray-spotted Toad with a beard. It also showed that at least one Buzzer would be in Mushroom Way, and that Frogfucius’s island at Tadpole Pond would be closer and therefore accessed differently. A fishin’ variety of Lakitu would be a helper in Booster’s Tower, which possessed Magikoopa door guards. (It is notable that no fightable Magikoopas other than the red one thought to be Kamek would appear in the final game.) Mario would also encounter Bowser at an unknown time in Bowser’s Keep, and would be pitted against two Shy Aways during this scene. Other material shows that Booster’s Tower would also feature Boos, Dry Bones, and less organized pictures.Nimbus Castle would have a longer walkway and more plants.

Images:

A beta version of Super Mario RPG was also seen at a 1995 V-Jump Festival, which also focused on the game’s programming and therefore showed off several features and various other things not meant to be accessible by normal players even by the game’s release.

The presentation of this beta showed that Nimbus Land (which was seen in entirety, even including the Nintendo Power beta Nimbus Castle, at the presentation’s opening) would have differently styled doorways, being simple open holes labeled with a word seeming to be “HOLLOW” or “HOLLOH” rather than the curtains seen in the final version. The V-Jump presentation also featured an animation of a normal, blue-colored Magikoopa attacking and showed Mario running through Mushroom Way (or perhaps Bandit’s Way, as a K-9 was visible) and being chased by several Buzzers, indicating that they would indeed be found en masse in that area in the beta Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.

The presentation also briefly showed a beta Yo’ster Isle, which was much larger and oddly seemed to feature no racetrack. The beta version seen in the presentation also gave Moleville a cloud-filled foreground and removed the blue static seen in the Factory’s foreground. The majority of Nimbus Castle’s interior seen in this beta would appear to simply be more green than that of the final version, although the room where Dodo cleaned Valentina’s statues was depicted as different shades of pink (or perhaps red with pink walls), looking nothing like it did in the final version. This room was also completely flipped horizontally for the final version.

Melody Bay’s composition area also seemed to be longer, and Mario’s Pad was depicted as much larger, and Mario’s house itself even changed in appearance– Much like it was in the final version of Super Mario RPG’s intro, the V-Jump beta depicted Mario’s in-game house as being labeled “Pipe House”. A Treasure Box was also seen in the beta Mario’s Pad; upon being hit by Mario, this box produced a green, 1-Up Mushroom-like mushroom that in itself was not present in the final game. A pair of Terrapins were also seen guarding an exit from Mario’s Pad in this beta.

Lastly, the beta even featured three unused battlegrounds, one of which was a dark, musty castle similar in appearance to Belome Temple, A underwater Battle Stage (which appeared to be from in the Sea Area), the other being a star-labeled circle that may have been a simple testing area.Source

Two unused cutscenes regarding a distressed Princess Peach on the balcony of Booster’s Tower were left in the game’s coding, but did not make the final cut. Interestingly, both were very similar to (but longer than) scenes in the final game.

A translation of the original V-Jump 1995 presentation of Super Mario RPG can be found at Glitter Berri’s website!

Finally, Luigi was believed to be in, as he appeared in a screenshot.

Info from Mariowiki & www.smrpgsecrets.tripod.com

Videos:

Nintendo, SNES + Super Famicom

Dragonfly (Pilot Wings) [Beta – SNES]

U64 Staff & Contributors

14-04-2008

3 Comments

From 1989 to 1990, the Super Famicom (SNES) was showcased with a series of game prototypes. One of these was a flight simulator known as Dragonfly. Dragonfly’s purpose was to showcase the capabilities of the console’s Mode-7 technology. Eventually Dragonfly became the fully released game known as Pilotwings, developed by Nintendo EAD.

Initially, Dragonfly was a 3-dimensional shooter in which the player controlled a dragonfly capable of shooting various objects. This version was visually different from Pilotwings, but utilized the same basis of being a Mode-7 flying game.

In later presentations to showcase the Super Famicom, Dragonfly made appearances, but its theme was changed from a 3-dimensional shooter to a flight simulator. Still called “Dragonfly” at the time, this beta demo was much closer to what eventually became Pilotwings.

Description by Bryan

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