XDCB9 to xDCF4: Specific tile instructions (such as clearing unused tiles for far-away drivers and mirroring tiles) My notes, some newly discovered as far as I'm aware, are below: HNGNGHGH I'M SO CLOSE after three straight days on this, but I've got a busy week and can't be on this for a few days. The scrapped flag got overwritten with the animated coin graphics, while the needless numbers were replaced with the small numbers for the lives counter in the final.Does anyone have any interest in discovering how to remove the forced mirroring of the front and back driver sprites? There is also an extra graphic of a scrapped flag that is diagonally divided black-and-white (which means 'driving unsportsmanlike' in real races). There is also a strange futuristic core object of some sorts which was directly ported from early Pilotwings source files.Įarly flags and every number for the lap counter. Many early drawings of the balloon from Battle Mode. This could mean that the coins were originally supposed to be standing on the track rather than laying flat. While the coin is used in the final game, it does not have graphics for different distances. Or it was for an animation where it moved its paws. Maybe they originally waited on the ground for some driver to jump on. Some early drawings of Chain Chomp (the ball enemy from Match Race) with many different faces. It seems that early in development, the drivers had two frames for steering instead of one. While they mostly differs from some small pixel adjustments, they also contain some early designs. Many sketchpads with lots of early frames of the drivers can be found. Toad's mouth is closed and the spots on his head are placed differently.īelow these graphics are a slightly earlier Mario and an even earlier Koopa sprite with a different face.Īs a side note, Koopa's shoe fits better with Mario's palette, suggesting that Koopa might have been drawn with Mario's palette in mind.Donkey Kong Jr.'s hands are on the wheel and his mouth is closed.Some look quite similar to their final sprites, while others look pretty different. His skin is darker.Ī sketch of rear and front views of the drivers. Toad's head is slightly less round and the red spots are unevenly placed.Bowser's hair is orange instead of red.Koopa Troopa's head is much rounder, and his eyes have disappeared behind his head.Mario and Luigi are wearing pants instead of overalls.Most likely created as a proof of concept for experimenting with the idea with using the Mario series characters as opposed to a generic racer. It appears to be borrowed from Pilotwings and was possibly used in a very early prototype.Īt the very end of this file we can find these very early sprites of the game's main cast sitting in karts. Possibly the earliest graphics that were created for Super Mario Kart.ĭirectly below these graphics is the same guy sitting in some sort of hovercraft.

Mario super mario kart sprite