cereal and choccy milk!?

Six months after its release, Super Mario Bros. is still going strong by a long shot. Every day, the editorial department receives an incredible number of Ultra-Techniques and strategies. So, as a continuation of the hit “Super Mario Bros. Complete Guidebook,” published last October, we present you Part II.

First, let’s start with the question, “Is there a World 9?”

After a magazine published a picture, the editorial department received many inquiries asking how to get to World 9. So, we interviewed Miyamoto Shigeru at Nintendo to find out.

Does World 9 really exist? To get straight to point, it may unexpectedly appear due to “noise,” but it’s not something you can purposefully get with some maneuver or manipulation. Please remember that even if you try, chances of success are slim.

Next up, what is this “noise” that causes all this?

Have you ever noticed a scratching sound come from your TV or radio, for example, when you turn on an old flashlight, or when there’s lightning? This is actually the “noise” from the flashlight or lightning interacting with the TV or radio, creating the audible noise.

TV and radios produce images and sound by receiving signals. Signals are electronic waves that flow through the air. So, because noise also makes a scratching sound, that means it’s from the same kind of electronic waves. Also, it can only make nonsense sounds, so you could call it “flow of erratic electronic waves.”

By the way, the Famicom you all know and love also shows the screen and music using electronic waves. What’s different [from TV or radio] is that Famicoms are run by a program.

A program serves the purpose of controlling the flow of signals inside the Famicom. Things like showing characters on the screen or making Mario jump when you press the A button are all achieved through the program.

Now, what if noise, just like it caused the radio to make random sounds, caused the program’s control to get jumbled? The answer to that is World 9.

Take a look at the photo on the upper left. This is the photo of what happened when Miyamoto-san tweaked the program to see what noise could cause. The text on the screen says “9-1,” but if you look closely, it is an strange version of World 6 Stage 2 with an additional underwater element. This shows that the noise caused abnormal signals to flow within the Famicom, and that showed up as abnormalities in the display and movement on the screen.

However, a lot of noise needed to create an abnormal screen like World 9. The Famicom is designed to not be affected by the noise created from just things like flashlights or lightning.

What we’ve found out from the explanations so far is that the World 9 that all of you expressed their interest in is, in fact, not a new stage, but an anomaly, which is impossible to play as a proper level. Of course, it’s possible to get to it through tweaking the program, but it’s not something you can ever get to by trying.

To all you daily Ultra-Technique-ers, I bet you guys really want to see such an interesting stage. However, Miyamoto-san says that he wants no one to search for World 9.

That’s because, as was discussed so far, such a strong abnormal signal is sent to the Famicom that the program is affected. If things go wrong, the Famicom can break.

Things like inserting a cartridge diagonally, short-circuiting the front pins of the Famicom, or rapidly flipping switches are things you should never do. These can cause bad connection or shorts that cause strong noise and break the Famicom.

Searching for World 9 was actually the same thing as the forbidden technique, diagonal insertion! If you use this forbidden technique, even if you were able to reach World 9, you wouldn’t be able to play properly, and there would be no meaning to it. Let’s use Famicoms the right way.

And so, the authentic strategies and Ultra-Techniques begin now!