Repairing and Jailbreaking a
Super Mario World cartridge
About the Super Mario World Jailbreak
Did you know that Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo (SNES) can be Jailbroken to load a memory hexadecimal editor and a mod loader for code hacking? SethBling on YouTube wrote a guide on how to do so. Essentially this Jailbreak works by corrupting data in a save file (save file C) within the cartridge's SRAM and tricking the game to execute custom code within SRAM. That jailbreak code contains a memory hexadecimal editor and mod loader support to write your own custom game code (as hexadecimal SNES 65C816 opcodes) on the last memory page/bank combination within the editor. All of this hacking can be done on stock SNES hardware without custom hardware.
Once installed, the jailbreak is persistent due to being saved in SRAM. In order to load the jailbreak into memory, the player just needs to load Save File C, which will load the hexadecimal editor and mod loader for hacking.
Super Mario World Jailbreak
There are several methods to install the jailbreak:
- Use a single SNES controller to perform complicated ACE (arbitrary code execution) hacks to input data
- Use multiple SNES controllers (x2 SNES multi-taps and x3 SNES controllers) to perform less complicated ACE (arbitrary code execution) hacks to input data
- Upload the exploit into SRAM (SMW cartridge-to-cartridge copy)
- Use a SNES Game Genie to load a jailbreak bootloader, than upload the jailbreak into SRAM
Out of these four methods, the SNES Game Genie method is the most accessible and easiest way to jailbreak the game with a fresh install. The SMW cartridge copy method will only work if you already have a jailbroken copy of the game.
I was intrigued about the ability to jailbreak SMW for experimentation, and decided to try it out for myself!
tutorial video (Game Genie)
SMW Jailbreak tutorial (Game Genie)
Getting the hardware
At Pittsburgh Gaming Expo 2024, I found a cheap copy both of Super Mario World and a SNES Game Genie. Unfortunately this copy of SMW was a later SNS-MW-USA-1 revision of the game. Due to this later revision of the game containing bugfixes and minor code edits (thus shifting code addresses around), the Game Genie codes to load the bootloader do not work. (The USA-1 revision of the game goes haywire and freezes with the codes). SethBling didn't mention that the Game Genie codes only work on the original NTSC revision of the game (SNS-MW-USA no -1). This Video Game Sage thread details how to identify the different variants of the cartridge.
Original release of SMW (Good)
