So about these hidden mario bros "levels"

[skate323k137]

http://www.screwattack.com/video/Super- ... P-11561256

(Link above for those who haven't seen it)

So apparently if you change some values in the NES's RAM, you can end up in some hidden (and often quite glitchy) levels. This is done either using a tennis cart or a NES BASIC cart... Just watch the video. BASIC lets you set values of memory addresses, so it makes sense to do that. From what I gather, you're adjusting the stage value that's saved when you die, in case you start the game with the "continue" option (A+START).

My question/idea/whatever is this; isn't an emulation save-state basically a RAM dump of a running console? I would think it would contain a dump of the NES's RAM. Assuming that, shouldn't it be possible to play SMB, die, savestate, edit the savestate to "adjust" the level number, load it, and then be able to "continue" from the newly set level? Mind you, I'm not a genius when it comes to programming, but I'm certainly not a gaming or PC noob. I've been thinking about this for the last day or so, and I would think someone with decent knowledge of NES emulation could probably do this in a matter of minues. The BASIC code for the RAM "Adjustment" is posted on http://legendsoflocalization.com/super-mario-bros/misc/ (ctrl-f "Alternate method").

Ideas? I'd love to see an easy way for people to get to these levels without having to disable their lockout chip and swap carts on a running system.

[BurningDoom]

That is awesome! I'm sure someone will make some ROM version of this as it becomes common knowledge.

[AppleQueso]

All that's really going on is that some pointer values are being changed so that the game is generating levels from non-level data.

They still appear somewhat 'logical' because of the way SMB stores its levels.

[skate323k137]

All that's really going on is that some pointer values are being changed so that the game is generating levels from non-level data.

They still appear somewhat 'logical' because of the way SMB stores its levels.

I figured as much, I know they're not real levels, hence why the thread has "levels" in quotes. 256 being a standard base 2 number (and also 16x16) I figured it was just a co-incidence. Still would be fun to recreate the glitch in an emulated state though.

[Duke.Togo]

Interesting, but the video does get it a little wrong. It is completely possible to run Famicom Basic on an NES using an ENIO: http://enio.chykn.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

In fact here is my test doing just that:

Fun to see people still messing with SMB. I have to think that you should be able to do something like this with a Game Genie, but who knows.

[AppleQueso]

Fun to see people still messing with SMB. I have to think that you should be able to do something like this with a Game Genie, but who knows.

I'm thinking the same thing. Hm.