Super Mario Kart prototype

[van_halen]

I got this prototype of Super Mario Kart a couple of months ago from c4e's huge proto sale. It turned out to be a quite early version with many graphical and musical differences, for example a totally different Vanilla Lake soundtrack that Niels discovered the day before he would ship it out to me =). I've also noticed many gameplay differences which sometimes make it harder than the released version. Anyway, I thought I'd share some pics for those of you who might be interested.






Close to the Japanese title screen. From what I can see, Mario's mouth looks slightly different.




Mario and Luigi have additional parts on the back of their karts and Bowser looks a little different.




Cup Select screen is missing the orange border and the "cc" class chosen.




Lakitu makes a different noise when driving in the opposite direction and the yellow flag is missing the black cross.




Beta Cheep Cheep?




Sometimes it says "OUT" for some players in the bottom.




When getting in 2nd place, a Super Koopa makes a loop and starts spinning out of the screen when it gets hit by the champagne cork. Also, there are no cups given as reward.



There are lots of other differences I've seen as well and it's seriously buggy in some places. I haven't had time to fully play it through yet, but hopefully I'll be able to do it soon.

/Johan

[Superman]

Congratulations on your find, Johan!

If I was getting a prototype, I would want something like this. I like to see the differences in games between production and release.

[Evan_G]

Very cool stuff. I look forward to more of your findings.

[fpbrush]

I agree with Superman. I never get too excited about protos. But something like this I think would be fun to have...especially the changed part of the soundtrack! Seems like a true "beta".

I'm guessing with higher profile releases such as this they would go through more changes (so they can get it just right)--so maybe the protos are more interesting?

Either way, great find, thanks for giving us the rundown!

[mr obscure]

huge mario kart fan!!!!!! great to see this... congrats

would love to see the proto of mario kart 64 btw it had magic koopa

[NESaholic]

Nice snag man, alpha's and beta's just plainly rock.

[DreamTR]

van_halen, that one was definitely mine through nicola to niels,,,,

[NESaholic]

Originally Posted by DreamTR

van_halen, that one was definitely mine through nicola to niels,,,,

It's a small world after all.

[van_halen]

Originally Posted by DreamTR

van_halen, that one was definitely mine through nicola to niels,,,,

Yes it is for sure, but Niels told me he bought it directly from you, and Nicola said he was offered a "final version" but never bought it because of the assumption... (?)

[DreamTR]

Originally Posted by van_halen

Yes it is for sure, but Niels told me he bought it directly from you, and Nicola said he was offered a "final version" but never bought it because of the assumption... (?)

Actually, I remember what it was now, I told Nicola what the proto/cart said, but he chose not to buy it, and he was also offered the same deal with my Super Mario Bros I NES prototype (yes, I have one of those as well), but he never wanted it.

[mr obscure]

I don't care how many people had this proto,thanks again for sharing these pictures van halen.

super mario kart is 1 of my favorite games (in fact i think its the best mario kart and the serie goes down hill with every new release)

these pictures really cought my imagination.

[PACHUKA]

dump it please!

[DreamTR]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

dump it please!

Offer to donate some money to the guy at least.

[PACHUKA]

Originally Posted by DreamTR

Offer to donate some money to the guy at least.

Not everyone has a zillion dollars to waste. I also don't see any reason people should be begging for $$$ for a rom dump. To each their own. I've spent quite a bit of my own cash to dump my own proto garbage. However, if you need something van halen, I have an extra SNES copier I'd let go for retarded cheap. Send a msg.

[van_halen]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

Not everyone has a zillion dollars to waste. I also don't see any reason people should be begging for $$$ for a rom dump. To each their own. I've spent quite a bit of my own cash to dump my own proto garbage. However, if you need something van halen, I have an extra SNES copier I'd let go for retarded cheap. Send a msg.

Not everyone wants to buy a prototype for a zillion of dollars and then drastically devalue it by letting the ROM out to a bunch of idiots who won't appreciate it anyway...

[DreamTR]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

Not everyone has a zillion dollars to waste. I also don't see any reason people should be begging for $$$ for a rom dump. To each their own. I've spent quite a bit of my own cash to dump my own proto garbage. However, if you need something van halen, I have an extra SNES copier I'd let go for retarded cheap. Send a msg.

I don't have a zillion dollars to waste either, but it's responses like this that make people not want to devalue stuff they paid $$$$ for so you can play it out of the blue.

[PACHUKA]

K, gotcha. Greed = good, horde = good. Internet fame = good. Whatev. Just do yourself and everyone else a favor, at least dump it onto your own PC in case something should happen to the physical copy. I'll go back to my devalued world. Peace.

[van_halen]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

K, gotcha. Greed = good, horde = good. Internet fame = good. Whatev. Just do yourself and everyone else a favor, at least dump it onto your own PC in case something should happen to the physical copy. I'll go back to my devalued world. Peace.

There isn't much fame in having a thing like this, and I don't have any interest in hoarding away game information from people that are interested. I just see it as a very bad investment to release the ROM of a prototype onto the internet, since nobody will ever want to buy the physical copy for anywhere near the former value again. You know, I've changed hobbies before, and I doubt I will have a very large interest in collecting prototypes when I'm 35 and have kids.

That said, I might try your recommendation.

[PACHUKA]

Well, I'll admit something I should have from the get. I have -zero- interest in distributing or even playing it. I'm more interested in getting it disassembled. When games are in mid-production, that is prime time to get sloppy and leave all kinds of goodies in the game. If you can find someone you trust, dump it and have them disassemble it, or at very least export the sprite data/spc data.

[van_halen]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

Well, I'll admit something I should have from the get. I have -zero- interest in distributing or even playing it. I'm more interested in getting it disassembled. When games are in mid-production, that is prime time to get sloppy and leave all kinds of goodies in the game. If you can find someone you trust, dump it and have them disassemble it, or at very least export the sprite data/spc data.

I did with my SMB2 prototype. Look how that ended up...

[DreamTR]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

K, gotcha. Greed = good, horde = good. Internet fame = good. Whatev. Just do yourself and everyone else a favor, at least dump it onto your own PC in case something should happen to the physical copy. I'll go back to my devalued world. Peace.

You are just as misinformed as the next person. Where do you think some of the unreleased NES protos that have been floating around came from? I'm so sick of people like you with this thinking I am "hording" attitude. I've had a ton of my stuff dumped, so learn some facts before you come in here with this babble.

Internet Fame = good? Please tell me where I am bragging about all these protos and making threads about them and websites and stuff. You really need to get your facts straight.

[PACHUKA]

I did my research. Out of the 7 people I know on this forum, 7 say you're an elitist ass.

Sorry to crap on your topic VH. Any possiblity of producing video so we can get some of these sound differences?

[mr obscure]

wow just WOW what a reactions!

you can't blame van halen for not dumping it,it would destroy the value.

I have a unreleased prototype for the nes: escape from atlantis.
It got dumped by somebody how also has a proto and the value goes down alot.
But what people forget is that not all protos are the same, my copy has some graphic and control difference with the rom.
But most people forgett this.

I think its way cool that van halen showed the differencis with pics.

[van_halen]

Originally Posted by PACHUKA

Any possiblity of producing video so we can get some of these sound differences?

Yeah, I might be able to try that tomorrow or someday this coming week. I think a good thing would be to make an attempt at finishing the Special Cup first, though.

[Evan_G]

Oh god, here we go.

Seriously van_halen, having the screenshots and a list of changes is wonderful. For 99.9% of people, this is adequate to satisfy interest. The rom release only interests people who are jealous of not having something that someone else has. After the SMB2 debacle, I don't blame you for wanting to withold this. I say this as someone who has released many roms, including unreleased games, and will freely release any prototype roms I purchase.