Super Mario World: Super Mario World - Never Say Die

This modification is designed to prevent Mario from dying. No matter what occurs, it should not be possible to die. This includes being hit by enemies, falling off cliffs, swimming in lava, being crushed by moving levels or falling ceilings and pillars, letting the timer run out, etc.. There should be no instance in which Mario can die.

The usefulness of this modification is dependent the one who uses it. It was created so that those who want to just have a good time with a great platformer could do so without the threat of losing.


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/ \
# 'Super Mario World' #
# #
# ~~Never Say Die~~ #
\ /
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+-----------------+ +-------------+
|TABLE OF CONTENTS| |SUMMARY |
+-----------------+----------------------------------------+-------------+
|a01. PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS |PATCHING |
+----------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
|b02. RECOGNITION AND SALUTATIONS |THANKS |
+----------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
|c03. THE PURPOSE OF THIS HACK |PREAMBLE |
+----------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
|d04. HOW THIS HACK WAS ACCOMPLISHED |METHODOLOGY |
+----------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
|e05. USE AS YOU SEE FIT |DISCLAIMER |
+----------------------------------------------------------+-------------+
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+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|a01. PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS |
| |
|1. Acquire a clean unheadered American release of the Super Mario World |
| ROM for the SNES. |
| We used "Super Mario World (U) [!]" as a base; |
|2. Acquire an SNES emulator. |
| We tested this modification on both SNES 9x and Mesen; |
|3. Download an IPS patching program. |
| We used LunarIPS; |
|4. Run LunarIPS and apply the patch included with this file on the |
| Super Mario World ROM that you acquired in step 1. |
|5. Run the ROM with your favorite emulator or use real hardware. |
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|b02. RECOGNITION AND SALUTATIONS |
| |
|This modification was authored by FatRatKnight. |
|This readme was written by FatRatKnight and edited by Phaxuji. |
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|c03. THE PURPOSE OF THIS HACK |
| |
|This is FatRatKnight. Making this hack was a bit of a teaching |
|experience. I was helping someone else create this as a means for |
|folks who just wanted to play Super Mario World for fun without |
|worrying about failing. As a result, we now have a hack where mistakes |
|are much less jarring and fatal. |
| |
|More to the point, you can't die. As in, it's not possible. What's |
|that? Fell off a cliff? Not a problem! Just bounce right back into |
|the field and continue! |
| |
|For those who are brand new to games or kids or anyone who just doesn't |
|enjoy the punishing world of platformers, this hack is dedicated to |
|you. |
| |
|Here is a list of the following effects that have been changed from the |
|original game: |
| * Upon taking damage, Small Mario will simply be Small Mario again. |
| * Upon falling off a cliff, Mario will bounce back up instead. |
| * Upon being crushed, Mario has free left-right movement. |
| * Upon falling into lava, Mario doesn't die. |
| * The timer can go to zero, but nothing will happen as a result. |
| * The Start -> Select trick to leave cleared levels is usable even in |
| uncleared levels. |
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|d04. HOW THIS HACK WAS ACCOMPLISHED |
| |
|'Taking damage doesn't lose a life' |
| |
|It is as simple as telling the game that Mario isn't small when he |
|takes a hit. |
| |
|A branch at System Bus location $00F5D7 is asking whether Mario is |
|small when we take damage. Removing it (with NOP NOP) meant we never |
|jump to the death code, so it always looks like an ouch when we're hit. |
| |
|We'd like to at least have some way of going back to Small Mario, which |
|is why we didn't keep him invincible from damage. Just that we removed |
|the possibility of losing a life when we're hit. |
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
|'Falling off a cliff is bouncy' |
| |
|It's as simple as... well, we needed a whole new function, but at least |
|it's very short and allows for Mario to bounce back like it was |
|nothing. |
| |
|The game uses a JSL at System Bus location $00F5B2 to jump to the death |
|code. We didn't like the death, so we instead used the padding |
|starting at $00FF93 and injected our own code to set -128 to Mario's Y |
|velocity. If you need more height, remember that holding either jump |
|buttons reduces gravity acting on Mario, allowing a higher bounce. |
| |
|Also, that annoyance with swimming too low isn't fatal anymore! It's |
|so much easier to notice the missing terrain under the stage! Try |
|going under a bunch of walls... it'll be fun, I tell you! |
| |
|A few quirks were noted, however. Mario is far enough below everything |
|that he is effectively interacting with a world that never expected him |
|to exist there. For example, I recall hitting a few odd note blocks |
|during a Sumo Bros. attack. |
| |
|Also, hitting a goal post from underneath and bouncing up and down |
|during the ending walk tends to glitch the graphics in colorful ways. |
|Along the way, we did note one -- and ONLY one -- instance of a crash |
|that we were unable to replicate. However, as a result, save states |
|are advised if possible. Nevertheless, the game has been tested and |
|completed from start to finish several times without crashing. |
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
|'Falling into lava is merely warm' |
| |
|It's as simple as finding the multiple spots in the code where Mario |
|dies from falling into lava. Seriously, there were three different |
|lavas the game handles! Huh, I guess it wasn't too simple, then. |
| |
|Lava #1 - Normal lava. We adjusted a branch at System Bus $00EDDD and |
|decided we don't like running the death code. Interesting, this lava |
|is treated like water when it doesn't roast us toasty. |
| |
|Lava #2 - Bubbly lava. That spot at System Bus $00ED64 looked ugly. |
|With a fixed branch, we fall straight through! This lava blocks upward |
|momentum, so once below the screen, you're relying on the bouncy cliffs |
|code to survive. How convenient that we also included that in this |
|hack! You'll probably need to go underneath some other terrain and |
|bounce back up that way. |
| |
|Lava #3 - Boss lava. Like the one seen in the boss fight of Castle #1. |
|Tastes like just normal air once we messed with that branch at System |
|Bus $00F9A0. Shockingly, with no solid ground below, we call the |
|bouncy cliffs code when Mario reaches the fated death line below. |
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
|'Timer only ever speeds up music these days' |
| |
|It's as simple as changing a single branch again! In the timer code |
|this time, however. |
| |
|It's at System Bus $008E69. Actually, the whole function starts sooner |
|and ends later, but the one branch we adjusted just asks if the timer |
|used to be more than none a moment ago. So by tweaking that, the game |
|always thinks when it hits zero, that there was never a timer to kill |
|Mario with. |
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
|'Start + Select always works in stages.' |
| |
|It's as simple as telling the game we've totally cleared that stage, |
|even though we never did. |
| |
|System Bus $00A267 makes the check. Disabling it seems to let us |
|escape many a place, even the big Bowser fight at the end. |
| |
|Because we got rid of every method we can think of on how Mario dies, |
|this opens up possibilities where we can trap Mario into a spot |
|inescapable to the highest jump he can make. There's probably some |
|corner of a castle somewhere they never intended for you to reach |
|thanks to the bouncy cliffs code. Letting Start + Select always work |
|means you can at least escape from the trap, allowing Mario to continue |
|his adventure. |
| |
|Oh, and if you're wondering how to do Start + Select, first you press |
|Start to pause the game, then Select to leave the stage. Surely this |
|was impossible to guess from the name we've given it. |
| |
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -|
|'Being crushed. More like a hug, really.' |
| |
|It's as simple as... you know what? No, not simple, it was |
|complicated. |
| |
|We're guarding against terrain crush, where we let Mario move as |
|desired, and screen edge crush, where we shove Mario back in instead. |
| |
|First off, what do we want for crushy behavior? Free movement would at |
|least let us get us somewhere we like. Always going left kind of |
|works, but we didn't like the game's default behavior and went with |
|checking the controller to see where to go. |
| |
|For that, we needed a new function. For that function, we needed room. |
|The padding zone at System Bus $00FF93 wasn't enough. We chose a spot |
|in another bank, at $03FDE0. This, being in another bank -- and the |
|fact all the cool kid stuff was using JSR and not JSL -- meant we had |
|to attach a little more to our $00FF93 to allow a JSR to go there, then |
|a JSL from there to get to our 03 bank. I wasn't in the mood to add 2 |
|bytes to an existing function, then track down and relink every |
|possible function call to stuff after $00E9FB. |
| |
|As for the function itself, we studied where the directional inputs |
|were and used them to change Mario's position. We have coded an |
|attempt at going up and down, but apparently we're in conflict with |
|some other game function and that snaps us onto the grid despite our |
|attempts. But left/right is working fine and that's enough for us. |
| |
|Finally, we could also be crushed by the left and right screen edges. |
|While we did track down the two checks for crushing Mario, we simply |
|used the same function (the one we made to shove Mario around during |
|a crush) and added an additional check. Any position outside of the |
|screen edges would just nudge Mario 16 pixels back into the field. |
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|e05. USE AS YOU SEE FIT |
| |
|Use this modification as you see fit. This modification can be |
|included and used with any other modifications. No guarantees are |
|implied as to its effectiveness. This modification has not been tested |
|with any other. Authors of their own modifications may feel free to |
|use this one as they see fit. No credit is necessary. |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Database match: Super Mario World (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (v. 20210222-050638)
File/ROM SHA-1: 6B47BB75D16514B6A476AA0C73A683A2A4C18765
File/ROM CRC32: B19ED489