SFX Test

SFX Test
Also known as: snd_test (filename) Developer: Nintendo Platform: SNES This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused graphics.

This page or section details content from the July 2020 Nintendo Leak. Check the July 2020 Nintendo Leak category for more pages also sourced from this material.

To do: A deeper dive into the ROM is required; there are surely things hidden below the surface that haven't been found yet. Is there anything else related to this in the Gigaleak? Probably not, but it's worth checking.

SFX Test is an SNES test program that was found among the files from the July 2020 Nintendo leak. It's notable for containing a primitive Mario game with elements from Super Mario World, as well as using sounds and music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In addition to using sounds from A Link to the Past, it was found in that game's source code and uses its sound data, suggesting that it had some role in that game's development.

This program is compatible with the sound data from the mid-1991 overdump, and would likely make a useful tool for researching and documenting said data. Use this patch to add it to the ROM:

Download SFX Test (Overdump Sound Patch) File: snd_test_full.zip (26 KB) (info)

(Source: taftq (original discovery), Dark Linkaël (patch creator))

General

• The ROM can be found in other\SFC.7z\SFC\ソースデータ\ゼルダの伝説神々のトライフォース\日本_Ver3\asm as snd_test, though the sound data is separate from the main ROM. Use the instructions found in snd.sdm to combine them into a complete ROM. You'll also have to add a filetype to the ROM before you can use it.
• Text present in the ROM dates this program to December 26, 1990, just over a month after Super Mario World was released in Japan and nearly a year before A Link to the Past would be. The sound data from the final game fits really well here though, so that date likely isn't correct.
• Starting the program presents you with a screen with different options that take you to various screens seemingly made to help with different parts of development. Options 8-10 and 15-19 are non-existent, while options 11-14 contain levels of a Mario game.
• The Mario game uses sound effects from A Link to the Past. Which sound effects are used changes in each level, indicating that the developers were experimenting with them.

Controls

Controller: Port 1

General

• D-Pad: Navigate
• Start: Select
• Select: Toggle
• X / Y: Increment
• A / B: Decrement
• L: Toggle frame advance
  • R: Advance by one frame
• L + R: Return to main menu

Mario Game

• Left / Right: Move Mario
• B: Jump
• Y: Run
• Start: Restart level
• Up / Down: Move cloud

Controller: Port 2

• Y: Play sounds/music

Options

1 SOUND TEST

A screen featuring a sound test. There are four sections, each with four groups of eight values that can be switched between 0 and 1, and themselves affect another set of two values, which can also be edited individually.

These groups of values can be toggled on and off by pressing Start, and pressing Select allows you to access the pairs of values at the center of the screen.

There's a graphic of a Super Famicom controller's buttons in the center, and what appears to be a dancing rhinoceros beetle on the right.

Controller 2 can be used to play sounds and music from A Link to the Past, assuming the required data is present. Be warned that leaving music on for too long can have glitchy effects.

The Japanese text seen here (サウンド) means sound.

2 COLOR TEST

A screen featuring a color test. It has two sections where you can combine two colors to make another one, as well as a strange, phallic-looking character with a sword at the bottom of the screen.

3 COLR TABLE

This screen features eight palette lines numbered 0-7, as well as a color mixer like the ones seen in COLOR TEST. There are also coordinates at the top-right of the screen.

Pressing Y turns the arrow at the top-right of the screen, allowing you to edit whatever it's pointing at. Using the color mixer will let you add different colors to the palettes.

Pressing Select resets the cursor to the top-right of the screen, as well as resetting the direction of the arrow.

The Japanese text seen here (ファイル), as well as in DOT EDITER below, means file.

4 DOT EDITER

This screen can be used to make sprites using palettes made with COLR TABLE.

At the top is a palette line that can be switched between the different palettes using the values on the right. At the bottom is a 64x64 grid with a 16x16 area visible at a time, with a to-scale version of the full grid at the bottom right.

Pressing one of the face buttons (A, B, X and Y) with a color selected will assign that color to that button as shown on the right, allowing you to use it on the grid below.

Pressing Select will move the cursor to the grid, allowing colors to be applied to it. Going past certain boundaries will scroll the grid, making the rest of it accessible.

This screen takes longer to load than the others, most likely due to it having to load the palettes from COLR TABLE.

5 FLASH OBJ

A screen featuring two sets of numbers ranging from 000-999, with the one on the left being labelled "ON" and the one on the right being labelled "OFF", as well as a group of three squares below them.

These squares have two states; in the first state, the left square is blue, the middle one has a black-and-white checkerboard pattern, and the right square is black with pink spots. In the second, the middle square disappears and the other two turn into 0s.

The ON value determines how long the squares stay in the first state, while the OFF value controls how long they stay in the second state.

6 FLASH COLR

A screen with a palette line and a color mixer like the ones from the above screens, as well as a square accompanied by a set of three numbers at the bottom.

Pressing Select moves the cursor to the color mixer. From there, the cursor can be returned to the meter to apply different colors to the squares in it, like in COLR TABLE.

Pressing Start moves the cursor to the square at the bottom of the screen. Changing the three numbers located down there causes the square to cycle through the colors from the palette at different speeds.

The Japanese text seen here (カラー) means color.

7 OBJ MOVE

A screen featuring a pair of numbers labelled "SPEED" and the rhinoceros beetle from SOUND TEST. Changing these numbers causes the beetle to move left or right at different speeds.

The beetle's sprite will sometimes become glitched as it wraps around the screen. This will usually fix itself once its speed is changed.

Mario Game (Options 11-14)

The four blank options at the top-right part of the main menu contain levels of a simple Mario game.

These levels are made up of simple grass and stone platforms, along with clouds that can be stood on and coins that can be collected. Each level loops across four screens, with Mario starting on the leftmost screen. Interestingly, the rightmost screen has better collision, especially in the fourth level.

Besides Mario, the game features two enemies: a strange Goomba-like enemy with glasses and a poorly drawn creature resembling a Super Koopa. The former simply walks back and forth, while the latter flies across the screen, moving up and down in a wavy pattern. The enemies can wrap around to the other side of the level, but Mario's restricted to the range mentioned above.

Each level has its own individual quirks, which have been documented below.

This level has a simple HUD that displays how many hit points Mario has left. He starts with 16 hit points, and will die if he runs out. He also has an proper death sequence here, complete with a game over screen; the other levels just restart upon him dying.

Mario's physics are different here compared to the other levels; he moves slower and can't jump as high, and strangely moves to the left faster than to the right.

There are three hidden blocks under the coin that's in the air, but they're difficult to hit due to the wonky physics. There's also a moving cloud that can be controlled by pressing Up or Down, and can be ridden if Mario jumps onto it. This is the only object besides Mario and the enemies present in any of the levels.

There's a sequence before the level starts where "READY!" appears in the middle of the screen for a few seconds. Mario can't move until after it ends.

Collecting all the coins will cause the enemies to despawn. A few seconds later, "GOUKAKU!!" ("Success!!") will appear, with the text "HIT START" below it like on the game over screen.

Mario is unable to die in this level. He also changes color for a few seconds after getting hit, and for some reason falls faster compared to the other levels.

The game will sometimes crash while playing this level for an unknown reason.

This level is a non-functional duplicate of the first, the only difference being that Mario and the enemies are absent, resulting in a softlock.

The Goomba-like enemy is absent from this level. The Super Koopa-like enemy flies up and down faster and in a smaller wave compared to the other levels, and will charge at Mario if he's on the same horizontal plane as it. There's also an invisible wall at the level's loop point that can be interacted with.

Mario can die here like in the first level. He can usually only take three hits before dying, but it sometimes varies for reasons unknown.

The background in this level is noticeably unpolished: it doesn't loop properly, and there's visible cutoff where the clouds and mountains meet.

20 CHAR DISP

Displays the CHR data for the program. That's it. Strangely, most of the graphics for the Mario game are missing.

Unused Graphics

A sprite of a Warp Pipe. It's identical to the final pipe sprite from Super Mario World, just with a different palette. Most likely intended for the Mario game.

A sprite of a ? Block. Unlike the Warp Pipe, this seems to be a unique sprite. Shown here with the ground palette, which appears to be its intended palette.

Sprites of a unknown character who bears some resemblance to Alice from Balloon Kid, a game developed around this time. She seems to have been the original player character for the platform game included in the program, since her sprites match Mario's.

Interestingly, even though her sprites aren't used, her palette is; it's used in the second level whenever Mario gets hit.

Out of the game's main alphabet, the letters Q, W, and Z are unused. Other unused characters from the game's font include a question mark, a horizontal line (likely a dash), a multiplication symbol, and a duplicate of the minus symbol (which is used).

Four small pink arrows, each one facing a different direction.

Red numbers and letters in brackets. Only 0 and 1 are used.

Miscellaneous tiles, purpose unknown. Located directly above the unnamed girl's graphics.

More miscellaneous graphics: a box made of dotted lines, a grey line and a dot, and a duplicate of the pink cursor with a black background.

Even more miscellaneous graphics. These generally seem to be border-related.

Two sets of colored squares. These are nearly identical to each other, the only differences being that the second set is slightly smaller and that the rightmost squares are different.

There are several black squares like this one scattered throughout the graphics. Some are different colors, but they all appear black in-game. Some are used, some aren't.

Duplicates of the tiles for the Mario game, including the unused ? Block. Contrary to what you'd expect, it's the ones next to the unnamed girl that are used rather than the ones that are next to Mario, with the exception of the cloud.

This frame of the Goomba-like enemy walking is unused, with the game simply flipping the first frame instead. This frame is just that frame flipped horizontally though, so there's no real difference.

Oddities

Header Oddity

For some reason, this program uses the header from Super Mario World. It shares this trait with Super Donkey and Black Out, implying that this is the default header used for SNES games.

Palette Oddities

Normal	Alternate

The Super Koopa-like enemy uses a different palette in the fourth level of the Mario game, causing its skin to appear darker than in the other levels. This would most likely affect the Goomba-like enemy as well if it were present, since they share a palette.

Normal	Fixed

Mario's palette is incorrect; the shades of red his sprites use are swapped compared to how they should be.

Obscured Details

Some of the letters and numbers used in the program have shadows, but they usually aren't visible due to being the same color as the background.

Some other tiles have details that are rendered invisible by this as well, with some being completely invisible because of it.