i wonder if it would have used MMC1 or MMC3. MMC1 was really inexpensive at that point. I doubt Nintendo would have created a 2C33 for the FDS FM wavepattern channel just for this game.
This is probably my proudest unused game content discovery, or one of them, at least.
Too bad it never came to fruition, though I did discovered that it was also unironically unused the Japanese re-release of Animal Crossing for Gamecube Doboutsu no Mori+.
I'm very fortunate to own an official working blue Famicom Disk of Super Mario Bros. 2 with the sticker in perfect condition, and a yellow disk with all Night Nippon Mario Bros with Mario 2 written the other side with the official sticker in also perfect condition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4XyaQ8aXDo - There are other unused NES, Famicom and FDS Famicom Disk Systems games I found fully working and save to the memory card; these two FDS games (Mario 2) share the same file address range so they conflict and overwrite each other's save data.
I wonder though, if Nintendo actually did produce stripped-down versions of the Famicom Disk systems' 2C33 chip to remove the motor drive control and BIOS RAM (E000-EFFF range); only including the 32-BIT FM wavepattern sound capabilities and memory mapper for planned FDS-to-cartridge conversions.
@nensondubois Aside from the other reasons, I feel like price was a big factor. By shipping SMB2J on cheap FDS disks, Nintendo was able to sell it for almost half the price of the original SMB1 cart. (2500¥ vs. 4900¥) The cheaper price made sense for what would be considered DLC today.
@vl_tone What specifically? Considering how Nintendo did plan a later cartridge release for the game because they knew selling SMB2J in cartridge form would have been outweighed their losses.
They did convert a late Zelda 1 to cartridge and not other games, so I suspect a downgraded variation of the 2C33 chip was never produced.
I guess they ultimately felt it wasn't worth the effort, time and money to release the other games as cartridge versions.
@nensondubois My theory was that SMB2J would've been a tough sell at full price in NA and EU because it was too much like the first game.
And with lower margins on cartridge releases Nintendo couldn't sell it at near half price like they did with the lower cost FDS disks in Japan.
But maybe SMB was such a big thing outside of Japan anyway that SMB2J would've sold well even at full price. It was a relatively popular pirate cart around Montreal in '89-90, despite being relatively pricey.
@vl_tone I believe this as the de facto reason coupled with the difficulty and Nintendo didn't want to risk their popularity and loyalty with the west at the time.
But, if it were a Nintendo Power promotion then it would have been seen as a bonus and people would be more accepting. Nintendo should have done this in all honesty.
@nensondubois Oh, I went and reread the article and realized that I somehow skipped over the part where it mentioned that it was planned to be a Nintendo Power promotion.
This is why my initial reply may have been a little confusing, as I was talking about a theoretical full release of SMB2J outside of Japan.
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