2 August 2020

Cartridges Overview #3: Super Mario & Sonik 2 [Famicom]

As I was able to purchase the actual "Super Mario & Sonik 2" copy, being the hack of Chip to Dale no Daisakusen 2 (aka. Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers), I got a request from one of my good friends to take adapt the cartridge and show the PCB of it. 

This hack features Mario and Sonik (as written on the title screen upon booting up) as playable characters, but you are also offered to play as Chip or Dale, because the screen at the beginning allows you to choose either characters presented exclusively in this hack, or the ones that were in original game. 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 Front

Here's how my cartridge looks like. The background looks familiar, as I've actually seen it on other game. But I'll show you that cartridge later. 
In both cases, the background is taken from OutRun boxart. 

OutRun (SMD/GEN) Artwork #1

OutRun (SMD/GEN) Artwork #2


Now, if we look at Mario, he has rabbit ears, which already suggests us one title where he could be ripped from. 
And the game is actually Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for Gameboy 
Oddly enough, you can see his only left hand here on pirate cartridge, as pirates cut it off for some reason. 


Next, we have Sonic and Tails, which were ripped off from Sonic 2 boxart for Japanese Sega MegaDrive. Tails never appears in the game, but Sonic does... And the sprite work for Sonic, done in the game... Seriously, it's so bad, yet awesome at the same time. 


Finally, Chip marks the appearance on the cover, and he is taken directly from the original source, which this game is a hack of. 


Now, we go back to the actual cartridge and see it from other sides and the circuit board inside!

Super Mario & Sonik 2 Back

The back side of my cartridge. Nothing too fancy here to look at. Just the regular caution stuff as seen on many other pirate carts. 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 Front w/ PCB

And here are the requested photos of my cartridge inside. The circuit board is half the size of the cartridge case, one little chip, and two globs. Let's take a closer look at the marks here, because this is somewhat interesting. 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 PCB closer look #1

Upon zooming on the left corner, we see two little marks : YY840639C and YYA043

As one great resource, related to these bootleg games, named Bootleg Games Wikia, suggests us:
The PCB of the original cartridge has JY830953C on it. That code translates to September '94.
This game operates on mapper 91 which is a cut-down version of mapper 90 by J.Y.Company
This hack was re-released in 1996 which has been repaired and it no longer crashes after the first boss.

Looking back at my cartridge's PCB, we notice the difference in marking. I am not really an expert in tech stuff, but looking at the first and third points from aforementioned link, it looks like that this is a later re-release of Super Mario & Sonik 2, which fixes an annoying bug that prevent you from playing any other levels after Stage 1 boss. 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 PCB full-shot

If we zoom out and check that little chip on the left, we can see that it's marked as GS9449 GD74LS02
If you know anything about that chip mark, write in the comments below! :) 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 PCB back

The back side doesn't have too much of an interest, so we turn it back to its original side. 

Super Mario & Sonik 2 PCB closer look #3

Finally, I made a video on this hack, where I played both as Mario, and then later on as Sonik. 


Also, as a little bonus, I will also throw in an earlier video that I made from emulator, which isn't quite as interesting, to be honest with you, as it's not the recording from the console :P


As you would expect, the Mario sprite is taken from Super Mario Bros. 3, specifically when he gets fire flower. But obviously you can't throw fire at the enemies. 
And Sonik (no, I am not misspelling, I refer to him as he's started in title screen) seems to have the sprites drawn by the pirates themselves. And the work isn't quite good, in my opinion, especially, the sprite looks kind of ugly when jumping, which pirates tried to draw from original Sonic games.
But honestly, if Sonic sprite was used from Somari hack, where pirates reverted Sonic back, it would look much better here.

Also, I said earlier, that I've also seen this background on other cartridge.
And here it is:

Krion Conquest Cartridge
The game on the cartridge is exactly what you would expect. It's Krion Conquest, also known as Magical Doropie.
Same background was used here as on Super Mario & Sonik 2.

And here you have it for that game today! :)
Stay tuned for (hopefully) more posts in the future!

(C) AlexSRMD Productions (2020)