Here is my hack of Worlds 1 and 2
of Super Mario World!
It took 13 days to make, and so I plan to do much
more later. It is so EASY to use the editor!

However, I lost most of my work when my levels
started to overlap. To go against that, I decided
to actually follow the advice of the editor's author
and save the new levels as seperate files and apply
them to a copy of Super Mario World after I had confirmed
the levels worked. Anyways, do that and you won't lose
your work like I did (even though I replaced the missing
levels in a day's time)!

Some of the levels are quite hard, while others are a
breeze. I thought it might be nice to give you a break
every now and then. However, some levels just have to be
seen to be believed. The editor lets you do things to the
levels that Nintendo themselves never did, and so I took
advantage of all the abilities that were there! You have to
see the 2nd World castle and what I did to it. Also, you
should check out the new Top Secret Area. It's harder to
get to now, but it can be done. You will hate me when you
find out just HOW, though.

I can beat all of these levels without saving and loading or
slowing down the emulator. See if you can. It takes practice.

Some people may have a hard time getting started
using the level editor, however. One person e-mailed me
the day I released my first hack and asked me how to use
the editor. Since I told him, I might as well tell all of
you.

Here is a transcript of the mail I sent him:

Get the editor (called "Lunar Magic") from Zophar's Domain, and then...

Make a copy of Super Mario World, maybe call it "smw-copy" or
something like that. That way, if you mess up (which will likely
happen the first time or so), you can try again.

Anyways, using the editor is easy, though it takes a little exploration
to do so. I am self-taught on it. Here's pretty much what you do.

There are two modes, "sprite" and "object" mode. "Sprite" mode deals with
enemies and some items, while "object" mode deals with the chunks of ground,
coins that float in the air, and power-ups. Pushing <esc> will switch
between them.

To copy a sprite or object, left-click on it and it will be highlighted. Right-
click where you want to put the copy. That's how I put lots of enemies in my
levels. I would enter "sprite" mode (by pushing <esc>) and I would left-click on
an enemy, say, a koopa troopa in this case. I would right-click where I wanted to
put another one, and do that a bunch of times for each one I wanted to place.

You can move an object or sprite by switching to the appropriate mode (with <esc>)
and left-clicking on it. Hold the mouse button and move it to where you want to put
it. Erase it by hitting <del>.

Now, for putting sprites and objects in the level that aren't already there, go to
the menu and choose "Editors", then "Add Objects Window". Then do the same for the
sprites window. You can choose sprites and objects from those windows, and click
on them to highlight them. Then left-click on the level editor window (make sure
not to left-click on an already existing sprite or object), switch to the appropriate
mode if you have to (by pushing <esc>), and then right-click where you want to put
your object or sprite.

BTW, in the "Add Objects Window" and the "Add Sprites Window", you will notice a
pulldown menu for "Tileset Specific Sprites", "Tileset Specific Objects", and
"Extended Objects". Those are even more objects and sprites to put in the levels,
but they are categorized differently because they ARE different. "Tileset Specific"
objects and sprites are such things that were designed only for certain types of
levels, and will have glitched up graphics if put in levels in which they do not
belong. Fortunately, you will know ahead of time because the editor will display
them incorrectly if the game will also display them incorrectly. And as for the
choices "Direct 16 Access" and "Custom Collections of Objects", DON'T TOUCH THOSE!
I haven't, and they don't seem to be helpful anyway!

Now, for saving your levels, be sure to save the original level to a seperate file
(like level 105 could be saved to "105.mwl"), before you edit! Then you can go back
and fix what you did wrong! I learned that the unpleasant way (by having my levels
wiped out)!!!! Save your new levels to filenames that indicate that they are new
(ie, an edited level 105 could be saved to "105edit.mwl").

When you want to try your levels, choose "Save Level to ROM" from the menu. It will
save to the file you are CURRENTLY editing, so don't save to your original copy of
Super Mario World!

When you want to put all your edited levels into one complete game, make yet another
copy of Super Mario World, load that with the editor, go to the appropriate levels
in the editor, and load them from the files! That way they are less likely to glitch
up and affect other levels. For example, when editing, I made a copy of Mario World
titled "mario4ed.smc" and edited that. I played that to test the levels. Because I
was constantly saving to it, eventually the levels began to partially overwrite and
wipe out other levels! But since I save the levels to separate files, I later made
another copy of Mario World titled "mario4jz.smc", and simply loaded all my levels
from files. Hard to explain why this is necessary, but trust me, IT IS!

Some other details:

PgUp and PgDn switch levels. If you didn't save your changes to that particular level,
it will be back the way it was before when you switch back.

When you save a level, DO NOT check the box that says "write over original". Or else
you will have huge problems!

The level numbers have nothing to do with where they are in the game for real. For example,
105 is actually World 1-1. 104 is World 1-Yoshi's House. 103 is World 1-3. Level 15 is
World 2-1! So you have to search around for what you are looking for!

Also, to extend the size of things such as coin groups and chunks
of ground, left-click on them to highlight them, and then hold
<shift> and use the arrow keys. Very important!
________
