Modder MrL314 has managed to restore an official track editor that was used by Nintendo developers for 1991’s Super Mario Kart. They came across references of a track editor in the code of the Super Mario Kart 1991 prototype which was made publi💞c as part of the Nintendo Gigaleak.
As pointed out by , Super Famicom DOS was the in-house operating system that Nintendo devs used for development on the SNES. It basically all🐬owed them to input data directly into the console, as well as use peripherals like a keyboard and extern⛦al floppy disk.
MrL314 reportedly restored the𓆉 SFX-DOS functionality and performed a custom repair job to fill in the features that weren’t released via the leak. The modder has documented aꦐ lot of the debugging mode data and published it on a .
“There are a few level editors in the game itself,” the modder told VGC. “The one I showed [on Twitter] was for laying down overlay tiles like item panels, speed boost arrows, walls, and in later instalments oil, coins, and jump bars. There are two other editors though: one of them is designed for the AI control checkpoint data, and the other is for placing down those “3D” objects like Pipes, Monty Moles, Cheep ♐Cheep, etc.”
The modder noted that the editor does come with some li🗹mitations. For instance, the track cannot be directly edited itself, the blocks and boosts th𒁏at can be placed would have to be those that fit into the designated level. These editing tools enabled the devs to directly make changes onto the console. They could then be tested out by saving the data to the cartridge’s SRAM chip.
However, accessing data from SRAM chips i🧸s not an easy task due to the fac꧋t that they’re battery powered. SFX-DOS makes that process more manageable. “It basically turned the SNES into a personal computer, and allowed it to interface with things like a keyboard, an RS232C port, a parallel port, a printer, and a Floppy Disk controller,” said the modder.
Mr𒀰L314 has also told the website that they will be releasing the 𒐪1991 prototype publicly once they’re done repairing it.