Exploring Minus Worlds in Super Mario Games!

[@fluxie31_old]

7:05 fun fact! Piranha plants are in every pipe (if they can spawn, which isn't always possible cuz of the 5 enemy limit in the game), but they are designed to not spawn if the world is 1-1. It may be a clone of 1-1 but since the world # in memory isn't 1-1, piranha plants spawn in all the pipes in the stage.

[@MrNotSuprized]

oh yea! i’ve heard that before!

[@mario.pinducciu]

I can spawn piranha on 1-1 witout cheat codes! Beat the game, then on start screen press B to switch on world 2,3,4...(not world 1): and wait: on demo mode, mario will play on 1-1 whit piranha plants!!!!

[@fluxie31_old]

@@mario.pinducciu I was skeptical cuz I hadn't heard of this but I was so shocked when I was able to reproduce this! Thanks for the knowledge!

[@mario.pinducciu]

@@fluxie31_old I know, it's so easy but nobody knows

[@limabravo0001]

@fluxie31, you've truly out-nerded yourself.

[@istrasci]

gruz, your calm and heartfelt "Goodbye" at the end of each video is one of the most wholesome things on the internet.

[@COOL_DAD]

I just heard it... It's very calming

[@Icelink256]

The timer does actually load in that last minus world, but that particular configuration is used for the game's cutscenes. (there's no timer when Mario goes into the underground pipe, because the time is 0.) There's 4 different settings for the timer, in the level header: %00 = 0 seconds %01 = 400 seconds %10 = 300 seconds %11 = 200 seconds

[@AlbertTheGamer-gk7sn]

Well, in that case, Marionaire dubbed entering a level with 0 seconds on the clock and dying upon arrival as "getting T'd up".

[@garrynewman6211]

I don’t know how you guys figure out stuff like this but cool!

[@Icelink256]

@garrynewman6211 Well, in my particular case, I had reverse engineered Super Mario Bros. back in 2016, to help with a game I was developing. So, I have a lot of my notes kicking around, still. I had expanded on the original level format, and added a "relative" block placement mode, to allow for more detailed levels, that use less data. (A relative block uses 1 byte, instead of 2, but has a limited placement range.)

[@mcsapaofunkcapixaba1]

Tu

[@dylanobrien3785]

I've never heard a better impression of the Angry Video Game Nerd than 6:40 . You sound just like him!

[@burp2019]

could easily pass it as a part of the game glitches episode

[@Darkoli3939]

There's also the minus world in Super Paper Mario for Nintendo Wii. At least it's a reference to that and part of the story.

[@eternal221]

even mari0 has a minus world, but i imagine its just an easter egg there given the way the game's coded wouldnt allow for minus worlds to exist their typical way

[@Justin-ul7fh]

Ngl I wanna see what the Mari0 minus world is right. Haven't been able to play Mari0 cause for some reason it won't load on my computer (my computer sucks!!!!!) Then again I've gotten it to play other downloads it couldn't before like 6 months after each time I have a problem with it so I should probably try again

[@ItsDragonPlayer]

@@Justin-ul7fh its just the iconic normal minus world that loops, not like the japanese smb1 minus world or something original

[@nathansos8480]

@@ItsDragonPlayerawwww man

[@gamerestboi]

you can also suspend and go straight to 8-4

[@gattodev_real]

yeah the LOVE engine doesn't allow that, pretty cool they implemented that.

[@Ragesauce]

it's not a secret anymore

[@zarrg5611]

it's a secret to everybody

[@coalthunder]

My mom grew up with it but she doesn’t know 🤫

[@lolimlol-ps9sf]

Tell her ​@@coalthunder she will love it

[@palacioestrella]

fr

[@mojorainbow3524]

It was a secret

[@JouvaMoufette]

I actually got to play the Genesis port last month and also got to the minus world there! Was happy to see -1 was above ground cause I knew I could get to -2, but sad when it was a cloud level with no timer 😢

[@palacioestrella]

You could say the Genesis/Mega Drive port is 1:1 to the NES original after all.

[@JouvaMoufette]

@@palacioestrella Sorta, but that would be misleading in a few ways. First is that the way you generate sound/music is different, so it sounds way different. Second, while A maps to A and B maps to B for NES vs Genesis controllers, the physical placement of the button is not the same. NES has buttons ordered B, A. Genesis has buttons ordered A, B, C. So run is usually held down by a thumb tip and jump is pressed by the first knuckle. On Genesis port, run is held down by the first knuckle and jump is pressed by the thumb tip. Hard to deal with that muscle memory. Third is that the memory mapping is different, so you end up with a different Minus World on the Genesis port than the NES version. Same/similar code base, different results.

[@anthonyventura9298]

😊😊😊😊

[@Kawa-oneechan]

Though SMB on GBA is an emulation, SMB-DX on the other hand is a port, since the GBC and NES have quite different processors and SMB was written in 6502 assembly. All-Stars on the gripping hand could reuse vast swathes of 6502 code because the SNES' 65C816 is to the 6502 as a 386 is to a 286.

[@mwn3d_]

Thank you for pointing out that it's not world "minus one" but actually a misread undisplayable character

[@theloanranger2632]

Who cares what it is? It's an almost 40 year old game and 40 year old electronics. People are interested in this for fun, it's not life saving medicine, not every technical detail must matter to enjoy it.

[@IamASleepyLegend]

@@theloanranger2632dude who hurt you

[@theloanranger2632]

@@IamASleepyLegend Who hurt you where being a nerd-stickler for the details on a 40 year old game is some kind of empowering thing?

[@IamASleepyLegend]

@@theloanranger2632 how is thanking someone for getting information correct “empowering”

[@somerandomguy3895]

@@IamASleepyLegendI think he’s a almost 50 year old guy who is older than a almost 40 year old game and he’s mad because he’s getting old 😂

[@Seegtease]

I love that Japenese re-release one! Thanks for sharing this, love these kinds of videos. Feels so mysterious, like the secrets in Shadowgate or Uninvited. Even though it's just basically memory errors, the results are fascinating.

[@JJ_TheGreat]

Agreed!

[@spyhunt3r007]

Been loving your videos for some time now - they have such a high production feeling to them! Like they came from a big studio! Bravo man - keep it UP!

[@morganwolf]

Unsure if you’ve seen it, but someone (I think Kosmic) made a video on restoring the Minus levels to the Allstars release (because they didn’t do a great job patching the code)

[@ejsvirtualgarage]

Displaced Gamers did one as well.

[@bigbensworld2020]

9:12 you’re toast Me: eating toast *checks how long ago video was made* Time: 4 weeks ago Checks toast Me: four toast. Weird coincidence

[@AlBoulley]

I call this type of occurrence a “concept jinx” and they happen to me about once a month.

[@popixel]

The only minus worlds that I think you might have missed are utilizing the tennis pull out method. Granted, those cannot be accessed by using the Mario brothers game alone so I can see why you would skip passed it, but there are quite a few levels that you can access using this method.

[@erics8192]

I remember the days before nintendo power was around and you had to rely on word of mouth at the elementary school lunch table for NES game secrets. According to said sources, the only way to enter the minus world was to jump over the flag pole and go down the top pipe at the end of 1--1.

[@Lokigard]

YES!! I remember that rumor. There was also something about swimming out of the water at the end of one of the stages, but supposedly you had to use the Max controller. I never made the real minus world til someone had his old NES shipped to Iraq and I looked it up with the 30 min I got in the nasty PC room.

[@omerdama1713]

no we had gaming magazines explaining stuf aswell so we didnt always need to ask at school.

[@erics8192]

@@omerdama1713 there was no nintendo power in 1987

[@omerdama1713]

@erics8192 whos talking about nintendo power?

[@erics8192]

@@omerdama1713 that was the go to for the NES in the 80s.

[@winterburden]

I've been waiting for this video for decades.

[@Mariomayhem]

Super cool my bro! Loved it! You are crushing epic retro nes!

[@artsydoodler29]

Nice, a new video! I really like this, wish you either did long form content or more frequent videos, they're perfect for binging.

[@KaliTheCatgirl]

7:56 This is the difference between PAL and NTSC, and why US/Japan versions are different than European versions. PAL and NTSC are analogue TV standards. PAL runs at 50 FPS, while NTSC runs at 60. Consoles were synchronised to the frame rate of the display, which means that a PAL game running on an NTSC setup would run 1.2x faster than intended.

[@josh2838]

That was fun. Can't wait to try these out

[@dejongejohan]

Gruz i love your vids man, and i love how you keep coming back to the first Super Mario Bros. game and show some weird shit with your fun naration. Never stop.

[@Treevors30]

9:25 yeah I'm definitely leaving a like I never heard of a minus world then I never heard of a Sega Genesis Port so my mind is blown.

[@Architector_4]

You can also get to the minus world in Mari0 with the same method. If I remember correctly, it's just 7-1, with the exit intact, but the exit just takes you back to the start of the same level.

[@ZMAN_420]

Great Content, Super Mario Bros for NES was the first time I played an NES game. I was at my uncles house and he just bought an NES back in the late 80's. 👍🏻🇺🇲

[@retro_black421]

I just realised KZbin has been recommending your channel to me for years now and it wasn't until this video I decided to check it out then went yep subscribing right now (I didn't know until I scrolled down to your older videos and I remembered seeing the thumbnails and going nah to them I Hate myself for that)

[@lethalinjection145]

Am I the only one who thinks gruz’s voice is like, soothing. Or satisfying to listen to. I just like this guys voice

[@stardestroyer81]

"Random glitched-out headless Bowser encounters" is one of the sentences of all time

[@iwasmei1234gaming]

"You fall from the sky... and immediately die." why does that rhyme so well

[@klauskillski3881]

whats about Super Mario Bros. Special ?

[@yopachi]

I think Gruz was going for SMB ports only. I am curious about special and the special nes port now.

[@19Szabolcs91]

It doesn't even apply there because SMB Special doesn't even use scrolling. Or warp zones for that matter.

[@shlokwaghela9560]

It's an entirely different game, it uses literally entirely different source code and doesn't do a good job at emulating the original's mechanics

[@SpeedyNinja1152]

There's this SMB1 ROM Hack which turns SMB1 into the Definitive Version of SMB Special: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaXGfnaZmLNjsLMsi=oqZ1uC-A0xMn3a8H

[@TheVicarstownSentinel]

What about the new Intellivision port?

[@MARKD4WEE3]

In the final, genesis port, when you reach the level of clouds where the timer kills mario, could cheats be enabled to have a 999 clock or time hack; just to further that adventure. This was an excellent vid, had fun watching!

[@warlordtf9608]

7:12 looks like the wierd symbol is a coin icon as when you're playing the icon flashes in time with the coin icon, minus the colour,

[@MorreskiBear]

It most certainly is. It is a multicolor character being rendered as a (single-color) hi-res character instead. Every two pixels combine to reference one of four possible colors (albeit with wider pixels) which the coin uses. Most games on the C64 redefine some or all of the 256 built-in characters to create the game screens.

[@OComentaristadoYT]

cool video, love the ideia, now we can see the minus world completed

[@spooky1997]

great video!! also what a coincidence I found this, I just started researching stuff about the first smb game the other day, and it was only yesterday I learned about the minus worlds at all haha!

[@מאורפנטה-ז7ה]

These videos are a breath of fresh air. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@LeReubzRic]

Joke: The person who rounded up loads of animals on a boat? I hardly Noah!

[@mpf1947]

I remember part of the advertising for the GBA version being that the minus world glitch worked.

[@PAPPADASH]

I played this game so much as an 8 year old or so at my grandmas before I owned an NES my uncles had one at my grandparents, and I was there daily after school. Anyway by accident I found two secrets. First I found the minus worlds by accident on my own, and second I got hit and got a fire flower and was small with firepower. I told my uncles about it both these times and they thought I was making it up. these were obviously two seperate occasions, but it's kida nuts I stumbled onto both these things organically. This was back in like 1988 around then.

[@Xnoob545]

Nippon: Nippon Gruz: niPOWN

[@Xani13]

YAY! I've been waiting for my next dose of Gruz! :D

[@cathomie]

this video was so lovely! It's like the wholesome avgn, he even sounds like rolfe

[@xxmvpmanxx]

wow this is very good i love these glitchs they are very cool

[@LyricalMiracle9608]

I only started properly playing the Mario classics for the first time recently on the Switch through the NES app! I actually found the glitch by accident when I had Luigi glide through a wall in World 1-2 of Lost Levels. I was so stunned and when I told my girlfriend about it, she told me to look up the Minus World phenomena and well, here I am. I learned many a thing and I am mindblown. Amazing 😂

[@zzz12466]

mood: this is like people who want to know exactly what we can find at the end of a cave or multiple caves unaccessible ways!

[@mresturk9336]

Rygar and the original Metroid also had minus world type areas. In the case of Rygar there are several. The easiest to reach is accessed by simply jumping off the screen to the left as soon as you enter the final floating island area. The Metroid minus world is a bit trickier to explain. Basically you clip through the ceiling on one of the screens of Ridley's Lair, placing yourself back in Norfair with the wrong map room data being loaded.

[@stevenwilson5556]

Holy cow you went to a lot of work to collect all these!!

[@Snouthunter]

Interesting. I played Mario for years, starting back when it first came out on NES. I played most every one of the Mario games across a lot a different consoles. I knew about the warp areas, but the clitches i never heard of before now.

[@Originally_catchy]

Why does this feels like the super mario bros. version of the myth of "every mario 64 copy is personalized"

[@flashcot007]

😎😎Super bro!! There's also a minus world in Super Paper Mario for Nintendo Wii. It's a reference to the minus world in Super Mario Bros., and it's part of the story in Super Paper Mario.

[@IAmCLG]

Perhaps finding a Genesis version of VZTLTN to shut off the timer to go through the stage, but it being a cloud level it’ll just… 1. Falling loops to the beginning 2. It never ends

[@allanmac9292]

The weird symbol you saw next to -1 was actually a black and white coin texture, but smushed.

[@JamesR624]

I wonder if minus world works on the TAS version of Super Mario Bros. coded INTO a stock Super Mario World game?

[@allegorysplatterpunk1829]

Great video man, thanks for the upload!

[@patrickbuswell]

Great video as always Gruz! Thanks

[@IrisGalaxis]

Oh, I was always curious about the VS version, so dissapointed to see it's just the same old samold

[@jamtheripper8230]

1:00 Finally! At least soneone told the real world number, not just "minus 1" crap.

[@Lookmanandhisfriends-qp3qo]

What did you saayyyyyyyy

[@Simlan12345]

This channel feels so goddamn much like old youtube, 2008-10 era.

[@teddysaurus97]

Best thing is, you can manipulate the code to enter even more minus stages (by placing a flag pole before the end pipe in -1 for example). You can see even crazier stuff until you enter a fully black room without ground where you instantly fall to death. Actually I wanted to mod this one too but never found the stage reference to this room.

[@GamingSpirit79]

Fun Fact: Due to the way 8-bit values work, there is a deeper Minus World that cannot be accessed without hacking, and it’s entirely consisted of placeholder levels not covered by the normal 32 levels in-game.

[@AlbertTheGamer-gk7sn]

NES: World -1: Welcome to the minus world!: World 7-2: 01/81 FDS: World -1: Minus World: 09/89: Underwater 5-3, World -2: Deja vu?: World 7-3: 27/A7, World -3: Blooper Castle: 44/C4: Underground 4-4 Genesis: World -1: Pipe Land strikes back: World 6-2: 23/A3, World -2: ???: 34/B4: Coin Heavens B that T's you up the moment you enter the level, you will get T'd up until you game over. SNES: Minus World varies based on the frame the Super Mario Bros. minigame spawns due to a TAS in the Super Mario World game. The most commonly used SNES port's Minus World is underwater 4-2 or 1A/9A, but Kosmic's SNES port's Minus World had a -1 world which is world 5-3 or 26/A6, and a -2 world that is similar to the -3 world on the FDS version, with the underground 4-4 and the bloopers. Also, doing the power cycle on your emulator in the SNES port of Super Mario Bros. will pick random tuning areas for the world (16-bit integers), and assign them to the 8-bit areas that normally crash, such as area 49/C9, 4C/CC, 4E/CE, 51/D1, 52/D2, 56/D6, 57/D7, 5A/DA, 5D/DD, 5E/DE, 7D/FD, and 7F/FF. C64: World -1: Minus World: 07/87: Underwater 3-1, World -2: Deja vu?: World 1-1: 25/A5, World -3: Underground Coin Room: 42/C2 VRC6: World -1: Minus World: 08/88: Underwater 1-1, World -2: Deja vu?: World 5-3: 26/A6, World -3: Blooper castle: 43/C3: Underground 1-4 Sunsoft: World -1: Minus World: 10/90: Underwater 6-3, World -2: Deja vu?: World 1-1: 25/A5, World -3: ???: 4F/CF ???: World -1: Minus World: 0A/8A: Underwater 7-3, World -2: Deja vu?: World 2-1: 28/A8, World -3: Blooper and firebar castle: 45/C5: Underground 2-4

[@JumboJosh-lv3mo]

There’s actually more minus worlds too! They’re called glitched worlds and are accessed by setting the world value to something beyond 8. This gives you even crazier levels than the PC port. T-1 is my favorite as it is a glitchy cloud level.

[@LegoPlayz29]

Does it work on the Atari?

[@SelfAwareness100percent]

Idk

[@EthanPenalver]

Yes

[@HummaKavula-DontVoteForStupid]

Wow!! In -3 you can kill the Bloopers with a stomp! Never knew that

[@PixusPanic]

The GSXCC mix at the beginning really brings me back.

[@zachtwilightwindwaker596]

And Mario rescues no-one. No one lives in the Minus World.

[@UltiMaker2]

I remember playing Speed Mario Bros. which is a part of Ultimate NES Remix (3DS). I performed the minus world glitch there and it worked. Exactly the same as the original NES version, but Mario is faster just like in the actual levels.

[@feliciavale4279]

I did enjoy the video. thanks man

[@TheMr.L01]

I do wonder if the All Night Nippon version actually fixed it... or just internally confused the warp zone pipe with the exit pipe. (Essentially replacing a glitch with another glitch.) I know speedruns use this kind of glitch in 4-2 and 8-4... would be interesting to check for sure.

[@totally-not-lazybones]

There's also a SNES port of SMB with Super Mario All-Stars music and sound effects. I have tried going into the minus world there, it worked, and it was a different level than the other versions of the game. It is still a water level, however.

[@m8rs558]

Entering the middle pipe before its finished loading would take you to world 5. I wonder if they fixed that in All Night Nippon too?

[@budzpuds]

this answers my questions about minus world. i heard about back then but i never found it and i was told wild incorrect stories about what the mario minus worlds were. mystery solved this many decades later. 😳

[@joegillian314]

I had a PC Engine when I was a kid. It was the only ROM module based console I ever personally possessed as a kid.

[@markjamison6286]

Love seeing videos of glitches that were found just hours into playing the original release. You just had to know the kids that knew them at the time.

[@T26OG.]

I've been playing this game since 1988. SMB was my first video game ever. All this time and the little quirks and bugs never ceaae to amaze me. Shit, this game really stood the test of time. Its come a long way since us first kids were saving Princess Toadstool from King koopa than eating our Nintendo power cereal for breakfast than Swapping game and watches during lunch.

[@Red-Red-Red-Red]

1:26 - I remember being able to play this version on the original Nintendo release (PAL) back in the 1990s. 3 minus worlds and took me back to the start screen. How was i able to do that without access to Famicon version? Is there a possibility i may have used a Game Genie code?

[@leroyvisiongames2294]

1:37 looks like Mario ate the wrong kind of mushrooms ;)

[@thakyou5005]

I have a suggestion for this idea! What about exploring possible minus worlds on mario romhacks? They have rearranged memory, so each result should be different.

[@soundspark]

Minus world is a glitch. When you go down the pipe the game reads the tile above the pipe, which has the blank 36 before the numbers appear. Since it reads past the end of the level table the world is glitched out.

[@JacobKokesch]

I love these videos. I gotta try all these Glitches out

[@Nickean-ox6ls]

When he said $-2 all pipes have Piranha Plants in them, that’s actually how it’s supposed to be

[@xstar1456]

For those who didn't know yet, there's a game named "Mario Forever Remake (Latest Version: 4.0)" that is a complete remake of the original game "Super Mario Bros 3: Mario Forever". This game includes many levels that you should spend a lot of time finishing all of them, including the minus worlds, as the topic of the video discussed today. Here are the lists of the worlds that you need to finish once you play the game: From the original game, 1. Worlds 1 to 8 2. Hardcore World 1 and 2 3. Human Laboratory World 4. Mario Forever: The Lost Map 5. Funny Tanks? 6. Koopa Troopa Liberation 7. Starman Running 8. Minigame: Mario Minix 9. Secret Levels: Goomba Party and Koopa the Devastator Level New levels added, 1. The Minus Worlds: Worlds -1 to -12 - can be played after finding its secret passages each world. (It will give you a signal that a minus world passage is near.) 2. Worlds 9 to 13 3. The Letter Worlds: Worlds A to Z (sadly it's removed because the developer wants to make this series in a standalone game named Mario Worker: The Letter Worlds Series) 4. World of Tanks 5. Mario Forever: The Lost Map 2 (two versions) 6. The Underground Zone, levels include: a. World U b. The Underland c. The Underworld d. The Underearth e. The Underhell f. The Undermine g. The Underzone 7. The Power-up Laboratory Zone, power-ups include: a. Ice Flower b. Cloud Flower c. Boo Mushroom d. Hammer Suit e. Super Flower f. Propeller Mushroom g. Red Lui h. Goomba's Shoe 8. Remake of SMB World 1 9. More Secret Levels, it includes: a. World 9 (MF 6.0 Version) b. Lakitu Party c. World -7-A d. Human Lab Tower 10. Hardcore World 3 11. The Forest Level

[@PaperBanjo64]

Gruz videos on Super Mario Bros never disappoint!

[@kingocowata]

I remember playing that TurboGrafx version in like 95/96. Good times ha. You should try this on South Park Mario!

[@Brandon-qp7gq]

8 bit archaeology. I love it

[@edickens8170]

My dad did the minus world trick first try on my Gameboy advance without ever using the Gameboy himself before. He is just that goated.

[@toddburgess5056]

My next door neighbor showed me how to enter the negative world in 1988, been doing it since. Just did it on Nintendo Switchs SMB online game. I also accidentally figured out how to get fireballs when small decades before i saw it in any magazine or online site.

[@EmersonN-e1b]

the idea of minus world being the p-2 of mario is a good idea.

[@SweetPappyJones]

A Commodore 64 port of Mario done in 2019??? I don't even know how to feel... Some of my earliest memories are playing Frogger on the C64.

[@devilotx]

Gruz. I absolutely love your videos

[@bobicpfan2]

1:54 DO NOT hit the flagpole with the timer on 1 3 or 6, or you will be stuck and have to reset the game.

[@Plazix999]

3:14 actually, smb speed runners have divided a glitch that is humanly possible where you can clip inside of the pipe and run through the wall reaching the minus world without the need of cheats. So that could be used on this game to find out what lies in the minus world but that doesn't really matter because you just went and used cheats anyways.

[@STG24]

0:56 When I was younger I saw a video that said that it is world 0 Idk if is that the level is in world 36 but shows 0, which can't be shown like that

[@Mchenrygames]

another great video my man.

[@dimitrijemitojovicic965]

Cool Video!

[@ioan-lv3oq]

I know a crazier bug . In 2-player mode, if a player dies at the world 5-2 while climbing on the vine, the other one will start his round with a vine top raising from the ground (original version of Super Mario Bros.) If the second player is underwater ,the entities may change (like a mooushroom instead of a fish). The most interestring levels for these are world -1 and world 7-2 after the check point. Please note that this bug is very hard to do.

[@soundspark]

7:05 isn't that because the game is hard-coded to only have no Piranha Plants on 1-1?

[@JJ_TheGreat]

And as much as that level LOOKS like World 1-1, in memory - which is where the game looks during its check if the World is World 1-1, it is NOT World 1-1 - hence the piranha plants spawn!

[@soundspark]

@JJ_TheGreat Of course when that level is loaded, it reads past the end of the level pointer table into other data which just so happens to have at that address a pointer to the data for 1-1.

[@Android_RK80]

I like youtubers like this they explore hidden content🔥📈❗️

[@Haris.66]

I got a headache watching you playing Super Luigi Bros. Walking left is just.. wrong 😂😂

[@ShadowCubeGT]

true

[@insectduel]

My romhack SMB Extended removed the minus world completely despite extended worlds and non-duplicate levels such as World 5-3.

[@Lexi_Sharp]

okay.

[@LeReubzRic]

Gyatt rizzler sigma fanum tax ohio skibidi

[@chejoam7217]

9:07 could a unlimited time mod help this level?