Bowser
From SMWiki
Bowser, the King of the Koopas, father of the Koopalings, is the sworn enemy of Mario. He is a giant turtle with flaming red hair and many characteristics of a dragon. He has spikes protruding from his massive shell, a long spiky tail, fangs, red eyes, and the ability to breathe fire. He also wears a spiked collar and armbands.
In Super Mario World, Bowser takes over Dinosaur Land, kidnaps Princess Peach and imprisons all of the Yoshis in eggs. He gives each of his seven Koopalings power over a portion of Dinosaur Land and builds his own castle in the aptly-named Valley of Bowser. He uses Sprite Palette 1.
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Boss Strategy
In Bowser's first stage of attack, he will simply fly around in a wide U shape. To defeat him, the player must wait until he throws out two Mecha-Koopas. The player must then stomp them and throw them upwards at the right time so they will hit him in the head. Once Bowser has been hit twice, he will fly off into the distance, but that does not mean that the player has won. After he is gone, ten fireballs will fall out of the sky. After a bit, Bowser will come back, and Princess Peach will wiggle free for long enough to throw a Super Mushroom to the player before battle resumes.
In his second stage, Bowser will fly in an almost straight line at the top of the screen, staying as close to Mario as possible. Every once in a while Bowser will flip upside down and drop a giant ball that will roll toward Mario, which can be avoided by either spin jump or jumping over it. After two of those balls have dropped, Bowser will throw two Mecha-Koopas out again. Because Bowser is flying so high, the player must jump, then throw the Mecha-Koopa up to hit him in the head twice. Once this has been accomplished, he will fly off and drop ten more fireballs, and once again the Princess will wiggle free to throw a Super Mushroom.
Upon Bowser's final stage, he will bounce around wildly trying to crush Mario underneath. The player must wait for Bowser to stop to throw two Mecha-Koopas out. Once the player throws one at him (which he will most likely foolishly jump into), he may crush the second one. If this happens, the player must wait for him to throw two more Mecha-Koopas, and throw the last one at him.
Bowser will be defeated, and will drop the Princess, causing the game to play the ending sequence.
Hacking information
Bowser is sprite A0, which you can't normally access. You have to use the "Insert Manual" command in the Edit menu to add it.
The Bowser fight requires level mode 10 and the sprite memory to be set to 10. This will blank your level out and replace it with "CANNOT RENDER: This is a boss battle level!" There is nothing you can edit in this level aside from the graphics, unless you have very intricate knowledge of ASM. Any changes you make to palettes or music will have no effect.
Bowser is stored at Level 1C7, which is ironic when you realize that the title screen is at Level C7. He also occupies unused levels 9B and 19B.
The bowling ball is sprite A1 and also must be inserted manually. It can be used in a normal level, but few hackers have had success with this sprite. It uses Palette F and requires SP3 to point to GFX24, so vanilla hackers will have to switch to the Mechakoopa tileset. Bowser and his Clown Car are both stored at GFX21.
Related Addresses
| ROM Addresses | ||
|---|---|---|
| PC | SNES | Description |
| Tilemaps | ||
| 0x0E390 | $01:E190 | [2A 2C 2A 2C] Bowser's fireball tilemap |
| 0x1A5D9 | $03:A3D9 | [?] Clouds from Bowser's Clown Car |
| 0x1ABCE | $03:A9CE | [?] Sprite tilemap of Peach |
| 0x1AE95 | $03:AC95 | [6E 88] Blushing Mario tiles |
| 0x1B3ED | $03:B1ED | [45 47 45 65 66 65 45] Steel ball tilemap |
| 0x1B66E | $03:B46E | [43] Bowser Battle Item Box Frame: Tile to use for the frame (each corner uses the same 16x16 tile) |
| 0x1B6D5 | $03:B4D5 | [08] Tile of 2nd row of Bowser's castle roof |
| 0x1B6F3 | $03:B4F3 | [0F] How many tiles to load for 1st & 3rd row group, -1 |
| 0x1B70D | $03:B50D | [08] Tile of 3rd row of Bowser's castle roof |
| 0x1B70F | $03:B50F | [06] How many tiles will make up the address below |
| 0x1B713 | $03:B513 | [03] Tile of 1st row of castle roof |
| 0x1B747 | $03:B547 | [08] Tile of 3rd row of castle roof (Copy. It is called for when Peach comes from Bowser's Clown Car.) |
| 0x1B749 | $03:B549 | [06] How many tiles will use the address below |
| 0x1B74D | $03:B54D | [03] Tile of 1st row of castle roof (copy) |
| Music | ||
| 0x01937 | $00:9737 | [16] Bowser scene 1 music |
| 0x1A902 | $03:A702 | [17] Music when Bowser flies away |
| 0x1A9C2 | $03:A7C2 | [18] Bowser scene 3 music/music when Bowser comes back |
| 0x1AA49 | $03:A849 | [?] Music for other parts of the battle |
| Sound Effects | ||
| 0x1A804 | $03:A604 | [09] Sound effect from Bowser's steel ball |
| 0x1A9A8 | $03:A7A8 | [1D] Sound effect for Bowser's fireball |
| 0x1A9F7 | $03:A7F7 | [17] Bowser's primary flame sound |
| 0x1AA41 | $03:A841 | [?] Other battle fireball sounds |
| 0x1AAB3 | $03:A8B3 | [2A] Peach crying for help sound |
| 0x1AAE4 | $03:A8E4 | [10] Peach throwing sound |
| 0x1AD8D | $03:AB8D | [09] Bowser's Clown Car stomping sound |
| 0x1ADF4 | $03:ABF4 | [1B] Bowser defeated sound |
| 0x1AE53 | $03:AC53 | [1C] Peach after battle sound |
| 0x1B2B9 | $03:B0B9 | [01] Mario bumping into Clown Car sound |
| 0x1B32A | $03:B12A | [28] Bowser hurt sound |
| 0x1B3A4 | $03:B1A4 | [25] Steel ball hitting ground sound |
| 0x1B3B2 | $03:B1B2 | [01] Steel ball bouncing sound |
| Physics | ||
| 0x1A30B | $03:A10B | [02] Bowser's health for the first stage |
| 0x1A823 | $03:A623 | [A1] The sprite that Bowser drops (the steel ball) |
| 0x1A883 | $03:A683 | [02] Bowser's HP for the final two phases |
| 0x1A9FC | $03:A7FC | [08] Status of Bowser's fireball |
| 0x1AA01 | $03:A801 | [33] Bowser's fireball sprite |
| 0x1AAE9 | $03:A8E9 | [08] Status of sprite thrown by Peach |
| 0x1AAEE | $03:A8EE | [74] Sprite Peach throws |
| 0x1B231 | $03:B031 | [A2] Sprite Bowser throws |
| 0x1B64B | $03:B44B | [37 77 B7 F7] Bowser Battle Item Box Frame: Attributes for each corner of the frame (same order as above) |
| Palettes | ||
| 0x035BE | $00:B3BE | [FF 7F 00 00 FB 63 0C] Bowser ending colors |
| 0x0389E | $00:B69E | (for the next 112 bytes) Bowser palettes (8 palettes, 7 colors each) |
| 0x1B6DA | $03:B4DA | [0D] Palette of 2nd row of Bowser's castle roof |
| 0x1B718 | $03:B518 | [0D] Palette of 1st and 3rd rows of Bowser's castle roof |
| 0x1B752 | $03:B552 | [0D] Palette of 1st and 3rd rows of castle roof (copy) |
| Positions | ||
| 0x1A2F9 | $03:A0F9 | [?] Bowser's initial Y Pos |
| 0x1A2FD | $03:A0FD | [?] Bowser's initial Y Pos high byte |
| 0x1A302 | $03:A102 | [?] Bowser's initial X Pos |
| 0x1A306 | $03:A106 | [?] Bowser's initial X Pos high byte |
| 0x1AE7F | 03:AC7F | [47] Starting Y-position of Peach |
| 0x1AE93 | $03:AC93 | [01 11] Y-position of blushing Mario face |
| 0x1B643 | $03:B443 | [70 80 70 80] Bowser Battle Item Box Frame: X position of each corner of the frame (in the order upper-left, upper-right, lower-left, lower-right) |
| 0x1B647 | $03:B447 | [07 07 17 17] Bowser Battle Item Box Frame: Y position of each corner of the frame (same order as above) |
| 0x1B68C | $03:B48C | [00 30 60 90 C0 F0 00 30 40 50 60 90] X-coordinates of 1st and 3rd rows of Bowser's castle roof |
| 0x1B69C | $03:B49C | [B0 B0 B0 B0 B0 B0 D0 D0 D0 D0 D0 D0] Y-coordinates of 1st and 3rd rows of castle roof |
| 0x1B6B9 | $03:B4B9 | [?] How many tiles to load for 2nd row group, -1 |
| 0x1B6C0 | $03:B4C0 | [C0] Y-coordinate of 2nd row of castle roof |
| 0x1B6D1 | $03:B4D1 | [10] Difference in X-coordinate for tiles in 2nd row |
| Timers | ||
| 0x1A7B8 | $03:A5B8 | [54] Amount of time between when Bowser throws his Mecha-Koopas. |
| 0x1A800 | $03:A600 | [80] Time between when Bowser throws his steel ball. |
| 0x1A80F | $03:A60F | [60] Amount of time between when Bowser throws his Mecha-Koopas after the second steel ball |
| 0x1A818 | $03:A618 | [20] The amount of time it takes for Bowser to drop his second steel ball |
| 0x1A9E0 | $03:A7E0 | [60] Time to start the fireball attack |
| 0x1AA65 | $03:A865 | [20] Timing of Bowser stopping Clown Car in foreground |
| 0x1AA6F | $03:A86F | [A0] Timing of Peach to throw Super Mushroom |
| 0x1AA7C | $03:A87C | [01] Timing of Bowser to start moving |
| 0x1AA80 | $03:A880 | [40] Timing of Bowser coming out of his Clown Car |
| 0x1AA84 | $03:A884 | [3F] Timing of music for next attack phase |
| 0x1AAAF | $03:A8AF | [E8] Timing of Peach crying for help sound |
Related Glitches
- If a ball is popped with Cape Mario, if looked close enough, a part of the Princess's face can be seen, as proved by a YouTube video, which can be seen here.
- If the player presses and holds up until the ending music starts, Mario's tilemap will switch between running, walking, and looking up, as demonstrated in this YouTube video showing the glitch. The glitch remains in the GBA version of the game.
