Uploaded January 2017 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Warning: This is very difficult to do, it took me a couple attempts to pull this off. This is likely possible on a real arcade cabinet, but I'd only do it at your own risk.
I'm not sure if I'm the first person who figured this out, but when Nintendo made this arcade version of Super Mario Bros., they removed all of the known infinite 1up tricks from the game, yet overlooked that the one Koopa Paratroopa on the staircase in World 5-2, potentially allowing an infinite 1up exploit. However, the game's code was changed so that you can only earn a maximum of three lives from defeating enemies consecutively, and this was likely done to prevent any other 1up exploits they may have been overlooked, so you have to stop jumping (which I struggle to do here) by pressing A a few times, then start jumping again to roll the point bonus multiplier back to 100, allowing you to get three more lives and so forth. My best strategy for this would be to mash the A button repeatedly to start bouncing off the Koopa shell to build points, then after you get the three extra lives, press up on the control stick repeatedly to stop jumping to reset the point bonuses and then start jumping again.
BTW, if you're wondering why the some of the background sprites are from SMB2J, I hacked those in. The game itself does not have those. I also apologize for the poor video quality, I didn't have a good codec installed, so I just used whatever I had. I wanted to get this video out as soon as possible.
Warning: This is very difficult to do, it took me a couple attempts to pull this off. This is likely possible on a real arcade cabinet, but I'd only do it at your own risk.
I'm not sure if I'm the first person who figured this out, but when Nintendo made this arcade version of Super Mario Bros., they removed all of the known infinite 1up tricks from the game, yet overlooked that the one Koopa Paratroopa on the staircase in World 5-2, potentially allowing an infinite 1up exploit. However, the game's code was changed so that you can only earn a maximum of three lives from defeating enemies consecutively, and this was likely done to prevent any other 1up exploits they may have been overlooked, so you have to stop jumping (which I struggle to do here) by pressing A a few times, then start jumping again to roll the point bonus multiplier back to 100, allowing you to get three more lives and so forth. My best strategy for this would be to mash the A button repeatedly to start bouncing off the Koopa shell to build points, then after you get the three extra lives, press up on the control stick repeatedly to stop jumping to reset the point bonuses and then start jumping again.
BTW, if you're wondering why the some of the background sprites are from SMB2J, I hacked those in. The game itself does not have those. I also apologize for the poor video quality, I didn't have a good codec installed, so I just used whatever I had. I wanted to get this video out as soon as possible.
