# smw: a Super Mario World engine reimplementation

> smw reimplements Super Mario World's game logic as a native program using levels and images extracted from the user's ROM. It also runs an emulated version in the background, compares RAM state every frame, and saves a snapshot when the states diverge.

- Type: Case study
- Targets: Game
- Category: Independent reconstruction cases
- Relationship: Independent reconstruction project
- Sources reviewed: 2026-11-06
- Added to the catalog: 2026-11-09
- Original resource: <https://github.com/snesrev/smw>
- Primary source: <https://github.com/snesrev/smw/blob/eae20c65c58930c8b62c76188d259579ad4130f1/README.md>
- Catalog page: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/smw-case/>
- Record JSON: <https://awesomerea.org/resources/smw-case/record.json>
- Chinese version: [简体中文](https://awesomerea.org/zh/resources/smw-case/index.md)

## Requirements & limits

- **Prerequisites:** A user-provided USA Super Mario World ROM named smw.sfc is required to extract resources.
- **Prerequisites:** The documented Windows build uses Python, TCC, and SDL2; other platform instructions are provided separately.
- **License:** MIT License.

## Primary sources

1. <https://github.com/snesrev/smw/blob/eae20c65c58930c8b62c76188d259579ad4130f1/README.md>
2. <https://github.com/snesrev/smw/blob/eae20c65c58930c8b62c76188d259579ad4130f1/LICENSE.txt>

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## About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.
Original editorial content: MIT. Linked projects, papers and assets retain their own rights and licenses.