No emulator seems to be able to run this. In fact, they all behave in much the same way: title screen, barely visible map, crashes on any selected level. VBA-M isn't any different. Apparently it uses its own unique mapper.

Super Mario 3 Special (aka Super Mario Special 3)
Compile used: 503
Windows XP SP1
RTC: it's a pirate, I seriously doubt it.

Considering this game still hasn't appeared in GoodGBx, I really can't say what the proper ROM name is.

It's a pretty obscure game indeed. Since it's an unlicenced game, could be sloppy coding that's causing it to fail to run properly... It uses a nonstandards mapper (mapper bankswitching could be tried, but the benefit of such an effort expense would be expected to be trivial at best)

Do all emus youve tried just return nothing? Tried No$GMB ?

In addition to VBA-M, I've tried the original VBA, BGB and KiGB. I've also got a (pirate-of-a-pirate) hack of it- called Pokémon Diamond Special Pikachu Edition- on an actual cartridge that works just fine on my GBC and GBA.
Just tested No$GMB, and it does the same thing.

There is a website that has a "patch" that's supposed to switch the mapper to 1, but as far as I can tell, this "patch" is completely nonfunctional.

Since when do we support piracy? ^^"

Yah, though the NES, has much more rampant piracy. Pirate carts are all the rage with it.

Though since we don't endorse warez, I'm closing this, for the time being....

I better tighten the rules a little bit.

1st offence is a warning
second is a week-month ban depending on severity.
third is batters out.

VBA-M | NGOHQ | Post Impact Productions | TNHW | XBCD 0.2.7