How to Continue on Super Mario Bros

• For information on humanitarian relief/support efforts for Ukraine, and how you can help, please visit this thread.

You can continue after a game over in the original Super Mario Bros. by holding the "A" button

• Thread starter Stopdoor
• Start date Aug 30, 2020

You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

• #1

Probably more people are aware of this than ages past, but this is probably a good intermittent PSA. You can restart on the world you died at just by holding the A button while pressing Start. It's not much of a secret code, but weirdly, it's not even mentioned in the manual.

Time to go beat Super Mario Bros. without warp zones!

• #2

I knew about this since i first played the game. Pretty sure the devs intended for it to be used.

• #4

It's a short game, so starting from the start was probably part of the design aspect.

If you wanted to learn CHEAT CODES like that, you had to dial a premium rate number.

• #6

It is a weird "cheat". It's simple enough that people could figure it out accidentally. Game's more fun without it imo, but hey do you.

For some reason I thought it was mentioned in the manual, but it looks like that's not the case for either the NES or Famicom releases?

• #7

I remember my Dad figuring this out when I was really young. This would have been in the 80s.

• #8

It's a short game, so starting from the start was probably part of the design aspect.

If you wanted to learn CHEAT CODES like that, you had to dial a premium rate number.

The Super Mario Bros. cheat code must be more famous than the Konami Code, crazy how many devs are using this "A" button trick. Inspiring!

• #9

I....somehow never knew this.

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.

• #10

..........

You mean this whole time I coulda BEEN done beat Super Mario Bros.?

• #11

This was extremely well known in my gaming circles in the '80s. I don't remember if I discovered it myself or someone told me about it.

I'm a bit surprised at the poll results. Next I will find out the majority of Master System owners don't know about Snail Maze.

• #13

Heh you learn something new every day.
First time I played Mario was in the late 80s!

But I've never really felt the need for a cheat code in the game either.

• #15

I....somehow never knew this.

Me neither. I suspect they intentionally withheld it from the manual so that when people paid to call their help hotline, they'd be blown away at what good advice they got for their cash. Had to be tip #1 for this game.

• #16

I've known this for over 30 years. It was constantly in the tips sections and the tips books that came with video games magazines back in the day, even years after the game came out.

Wasn't really necessary since smb is not an unfair game. Would be good for famicom SMB2 though.

• #17

I knew about this since i first played the game. Pretty sure the devs intended for it to be used.

I don't think so. No one I knew was aware of this. I just learned today, in fact.

• #18

I had no idea. What the eff

• #19

What? Wait... WHAT?!?!

Never knew this!!!

• #20

Yes I've been on the internet before

• #22

I can't remember where I learned learned this but I've known about it since 88ish. It was either in the Nintendo Fan Club newsletter or that tips sheet they sent me. Pre-Nintendo Power I once wrote Nintendo asking if the minus world was real and they sent me this 2 page tricks manual. Just from sharing tricks with other kids I already knew all of them (small Mario with fire flower, dying on the axe so the toad/princess is talking to themselves, 3-1 1-Up trick, partial invincibility on the water levels, etc.) but the 3 that I didn't know were wall-jumping, the continue trick and how to get to the minus world. Looking back that was pretty dope of them. I wish I would have held on to it.

• #23

I knew about this because it came as a Pro-Tip in a cereal box back in the 80s at the time. Blew my mind.

• #24

You can continue in Alex Kidd in Miracle World by holding up on the D-Pad and tapping the 2 button. It costs you some of your money but it's more efficient than buying individual extra lives from the shop.

Enable extra difficulties, stage select and start with more lives in Mega Drive Streets of Rage 2 by holding A and B on the second joypad then selecting options from the main menu.

For infinite shurikens in Revenge of Shinobi for the Mega Drive set the amount of shurikens to 0 on the options screen then leave it highlighted for roughly 20 seconds until the 0 turns into an infinity symbol.

Those are all burned into my memory.

• #25

I'm 37 years old and my first ever video game was Super Mario Bros and I didn't know this.

• #26

Yeah, and you get infinite continues in Ikari Warriors with ABBA. Probably most people around at the time know these.

• #27

Yeah news to me. Wow!
Don't think a kid in my neighborhood knew this.

• #28

I don't think I learned this until the GBA version of SMB. I probably would have beaten SMB on the NES if I knew this earlier.

• #29

No wayyyyy... How could I miss this.. is this for real??

• #30

Passing around tips like this one through word of mouth used to be very common. No idea how this was found, but when it was, it spread like wildfire. I heard about it back then, but I guess the information didn't reach everyone.

Me neither. I suspect they intentionally withheld it from the manual so that when people paid to call their help hotline, they'd be blown away at what good advice they got for their cash. Had to be tip #1 for this game.

This game predates that hotline, by a lot.

• #32

I played various NES Mario every single day at daycare when I was a kid. We figured out a ton of random hidden game through the group of us, but I never knew anything about this. Would have been an absolute game changer back in the day.

• #33

Passing around tips like this one through word of mouth used to be very common. No idea how this was found, but when it was, it spread like wildfire. I heard about it back then, but I guess the information didn't reach everyone.

This game predates that hotline, by a lot.

I wondered about that after I typed it. In my mind, though, all of the user manuals have that number in it.

• #34

Pretty sure i did it by mistake once and couldn't figure it out since. Thanks

• #36

Whaaaaa..... How have I never known this.

• #39

I didn't know this. Thanks for being 35 years late. I'll just carry on using my save states.

• #41

How did I not know about this

• #42

There are people who didn't know that you could continue ?
Your friends were evil ...

Yeah, and you get infinite continues in Ikari Warriors with ABBA. Probably most people around at the time know these.

Not on the last level though iirc

• #43

I knew this trick back in the NES days.

Did you know that if you push up up down down left right left right B A, you could get 30 lives in Contra? It also works in other Konami games, try it!

• #44

As a kid who started gaming on SNES, I never knew this and have never beaten the game lol

• #45

It was printed in the Official Nintendo Player's Guide. A bunch of us had subscriptions to Nintendo Power at the time, so it was pretty common knowledge among early NES players.

• #46

I....somehow never knew this.

Same

• #47

I had no idea, but I always did the 100 lives turtle / beetle trick.

• #49

No idea how I first learned it (we didn't have Nintendo Power in Europe), but I knew this when I played the game in the 80's.

• #50

I knew about that as a kid, I'm pretty sure it was in this book

rodriguezsiquineare.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/you-can-continue-after-a-game-over-in-the-original-super-mario-bros-by-holding-the-a-button.277349/

Share this post