This patch was made by myself, a big fan of the Super Mario games whose childhood dream was to one day make his own Super Mario game. I am in no way connected with Nintendo or any other companies. I will not be held responsible in any way for any damage to your computer or any other damage which results from use or misuse of this patch. You are also responsible for making sure that you do not violate any laws.
I have made this patch to the best of my abilities and there is no obvious reason why it should cause any problems, but the bottom line is—use it at your own risk.
It’s a patch for Super Mario Bros 3 (NES version). It will overwrite the levels in your ROM, and replace them with some new levels which I have made. I have completely redone the first two worlds, and the game features 18 regular levels, 5 Hammer Bros levels and a coin ship. This is accompanied by many other secrets and bonus areas.
The zip archive should contain the following files:
If it doesn’t contain these files, then the archive you have downloaded is not original—please visit the Super Mario Bros. Mario 2k3 page to obtain an original copy. You can also find checksums for the archive there too.
To use the patch, you will need:
* If you use the win32 executable, you won’t need a patching tool.
The most important point to note, is that the patch will permanently overwrite the levels in the original game. For this reason, you should apply the patch to a copy of the original file. I would give the copied version of the file a meaningful name, such as “Super Mario Bros. 2k3.nes”.
To patch the game, you will either need to use either the executable file, “Super Mario Bros. 2k3 <version>.exe”, or the IPS patch, “Super Mario Bros. 2k3 <version>.ips”—not both. I recommend using the executable file, but I have included the IPS patch in case you are unable to or do not wish to run Windows applications.
To use the executable version of the patch, simply run the “Super Mario Bros. 2k3 <version>.exe” file. Use the “browse” button to find the ROM you wish to patch, and then click “patch”. Your file is now patched and read to use!
There are no hints really, but note that there are many bonus areas and I have included a Warp Whistle in each of the worlds. Warp Whistles are of limited use at the moment, seeing as only two worlds are currently complete, but it’s a challenge to find them nonetheless!
I can’t advise on where to get a Super Mario Bros 3 ROM or a NES emulator, but if you have any questions, comments, bug reports, or just want to say “hi”, then please visit The Warp Zone’s contact page. I’d be more than happy to hear from anyone who is using this patch.
Firstly, many thanks to Abe at Lincolnsoft for making Mario Improvement 3. Without this handy level editing program, this patch wouldn’t even exist!
The IPS patch was made using Lunar IPS (LIPS). This was then converted into an exe file using IPSEXE.
I haven’t had time to work on the game recently, but if you’d like to stay up to date with what’s happening with the game, you can subscribe to The Warp Zone’s Atom feed.
The first release of this patch. World 1 is complete and has 8 completely new levels. World 1–1 isn’t strictly original, as the hardcore Mario fans may realise, but it is not a level which appeared in the original Mario 3 ROM. The World 1 map is completely new too. The Doom Ship and Coin Ships remain the same as in the original game, and I don’t plan to work on them just at the moment, but they will be done. There are no levels after the first Doom Ship, so the map of World 2 has had its start square cut off to avoid problems.
Just a minor update here. The music in World 1–6 bonus has been switched because there was too much “note stealing” when Mario jumped. The World 2 map has been completely updated too but there are no new levels yet.
Two levels have been added to World 2. The Hammer Brother has been temporarily moved as the Hammer Bros level in World 2 has not been made yet. There is also a spade house in world 2 which can now be accessed.
This is a medium sized update. The music in World 1–6 bonus has been changed yet again. The first castle has had a complete makeover in one of it’s rooms. Some other levels have been very slightly modified, including the Hammer Bros level, the first mushroom house (the objects in the chests), World 1–7, and the world 2 map. Two new levels have been added—World 2–3, and the first castle. The next update will probably be a major one.
All levels in World 2 are finished & Some editing has been done on the World 2 map—a few levels including the quicksand level have been moved and a second pyramid level replaces world 2–5. A few of the roads have also been changed slightly.
I worked out how to use white mushroom houses so I have included some in worlds 1 & 2. Which levels exactly? Well that would be telling! You’ll just have to collect every single coin in each level until you find them!
The time limits have been taken out of the Hammer Bros levels as there didn’t really seem to be any point in time limiting such a short level.
The Doom Ships in worlds 1 & 2 and the coin ship have been made. I did a small bit of editing in the fortress in world 1 too. The text hasn’t been edited yet because I am lacking inspiration.
The documentation for the patch has been updated, because the original had some quite poorly written HTML! The new version has been rewritten in places, and now validates as HTML 4.01.
The documentation has been updated again, as some of the links have changed since the last release.
Updated documentation.