Every Copy of Super Mario 64 is Personalized: A Deeper Look

[Music] the year is 1998. you're in elementary school sitting in class and the bell rings for recess you go out with your fellow students find your group of friends and while you're walking together to the playground you talk about your weekend and all the games you played one of your friends finally figured out where the one key they needed in the fire temple in ocarina of time was your other friend saying he finally completed a certain stage on double agent goldeneye your third friend then proceeds to speak of something that catches everyone's attention i found luigi in super mario 64. despite all your friends mostly having different games the one game you all had was super mario 64. everyone you knew who had nintendo 64 had it this was a big deal your friend then proceeds to explain that if you collect 999 coins on all three of the bowser fights upon getting the 999th coin on bowser in the sky luigi would jump into the stage beat bowser for you and the credits would play out but with luigi getting the wing cap when he collects the final star peach thinking luigi instead of mario and so on after the credits when you select your file go up on the roof where yoshi is and luigi will be there too talking to him will allow you to switch to luigi and mario will take his place talk to mario again to switch back after a particularly long day at school from constantly staring at the clock in excitement to try this method when you get home you finally get there and realize it's much more daunting than you realized not necessarily because it's difficult but because of how long it really takes to do it you only get an hour of video game time a day maybe two if you're lucky there's just not enough time to do it you go to school the next day tell your friends you tried and they all did too to no avail you then ask your friend who originally got luigi if you can all go to his house to see it finally when the day arrives all your friends gather at your friend's house for a sleepover he starts the game and none of his files have luigi he then proceeds to say he swears he had it and that maybe the data got erased or maybe luigi doesn't save and every time you want to play as him you must repeat the task as children do we just moved past it and continued playing super mario 64. our other friend then says did you beat the eel and get the star in the tunnel yet we all look at each other confused and say no we didn't even know it was possible he said he'd show us how he did it after many attempts at what he said was the way to kill the eel he claimed he swore he did it in his game and his frustration and not being able to do it now was at least to myself at that age quite real as time went on this would happen fairly often a new story about someone's adventure in super mario 64 leading them to something that no one else has ever seen or heard of before and like we experienced with luigi or killing unagi the eel we didn't know what to think we were young and without the internet to consult really we just had to believe what our friends say why would they lie fast forward to today it's been 25 years since super mario 64 came out the internet with its endless communities has many places to discuss video games both new and old and with that a new place for the stories of old to be told once again people who swore that they found a rainbow cap switch that turns them into invisible metal wing cat mario people who swore you can enter bowser's painting past the trap door people who swore that there was another secret aquarium and yourself who may have a unique experience with the game that so many people have played but no one shares with you this brings us to a certain phenomenon that shroud super mario 64 in a mystique that few games ever really have that being every copy of super mario 64 is personalized it is theorized by many that the explanation behind all of these strange things that no one can seem to replicate in their copy of super mario 64 comes down to every copy containing a personalization ai within changing the game based on the player's desires playstyle and skill the ai is capable of reinserting assets that are removed from the game such as the blarg and lethal lava land and much more while i don't think it'll be possible to mention absolutely every little instance of personalization i'll do my best to cover as much as i can and make this video as complete and definitive as possible at least to the date which i'm making it in order to keep things a bit organized i'll be breaking the segments up into stages followed by discussing all things in the castle itself in the courtyard and side areas the mirror room and so on and finally discussing miscellaneous points that i feel didn't really fit into a specific stage or area so grab a snack get comfy this is going to be a long video let's get started bob on battlefield bob-omb village bob-omb village as discussed in the iceberg video is a rumored sub-area that people have claimed to be able to access with the only known image of it being from the sombrero build i attempted to do some research on the history of this imager when it was first posted online but with no luck so as far as i can tell it's unknown whether or not this is a real image from nintendo or if it's someone's personal image that they made to show what baban village was supposed to look like you can also find some youtube videos with the sub area being played however its authenticity is questionable as many others who also had the sub area in their game report it looking nothing like the one shown on a final note some players have also reported that babon village isn't a sub-area and is actually a unique stage ways of entering this stage vary of course as the ai will do what it does but some have said you enter it from the second bubble on battlefield painting on the second floor of the castle and others have said that there is an even deeper basement level where you can access the stage as well as others which we'll be discussing more of later [Music] white eyed chain chomp the white eyed chain chomp isn't as much a threat itself as it is an indicator that your copy of super mario 64 is personalized on a level very few people will ever see and often to a dangerous degree it's also reported in some personalized instances that the chain chomp can become free in some cases only becoming free after the player ground pounds the wooden log that holds chain chomp's leash and in other instances the chain chomp will either break the chain itself or not be attached to a chain at all and will immediately chase down mario seeing this means that certain more drastic personalized happenings will exist in your cart and is present to serve as a warning of what's to come child of king babam short and simply put a child of king babam who is also known as principal mom is an anomaly found in heavily personalized copies of the game and is generally found part of the bomb bomb village area other reports state that he appears on the second floor of the castle after defeating king babam and will run from mario if you move towards him as you chase him he'll proceed to jump into the bomb on battlefield painting that's on the second floor after he does this the painting will become accessible to mario giving it another explanation on how to enter baban village tuis tuis are enemies that first appeared in super mario 3 on the nes and resemble piranha plants these enemies commonly found in pipes instead walk around on their vine legs and attack mario their means of attacking is spitting out a spiky ball or in some cases a big steely which is the name given to the giant balls that roll down the mountain on bab-on battlefield these enemies only occur in rare personalized instances [Music] chomp caverns similar to those who access bob-omb village as a sub-area within baba on battlefield the chomp caverns are a sub-area that's found behind the gate the chain chomp is guarding the cave is described as similar to hazy mu's cave this area is filled with smaller chain chomps as well as scuttle bugs after navigating this maze-like sub-area you'll reach a power star in the personalized copies that have this sub-area this star will replace the behind chain chomp's gate star womp's fortress [Music] womp's fortress 1 up as mentioned during the iceberg video the wall on the fortress that hides the one up seems to be different in certain personalized copies of the game many have said that there was an outline or a crack on the wall to make it obvious well to most the wall gave no indication of anything behind it with no indication of it being there it went unnoticed by many gamers for years as well as other secret one-ups around the castle inside womp's fortress in certain copies of the game players have reported being able to enter womp's fortress some have said that this is from a door at the base of the tower or from an opening at the very top some report the sub-area being a slide-like stage but reports very it's also believed that many are confusing entering this area from wamp's fortress with it actually being a unique stage called flying fortress which we'll get to later when we discuss personalization only stages bullseye bills bullet bills are enemies unique to the womp's fortress stage in some personalized cases some have reported a bullseye bill being fired from the cannon instead of a regular bullet bill bullseye bills are red in appearance and will lock on to mario following him for a period of time [Music] jolly roger bay unagi caves in jolly roger bay after you raise a sunken ship the illungi makes its home in a cave on the side of the wall while blocked in most instances some players after luring yanagi out of the cave have reportedly been able to enter bringing them to a sub-area the caves twist and turn and there are areas where you can submerge for air these areas are often barren and sometimes decorated with boxes upon reaching the end of this cavern mario will then find himself in a pool of black goop that is reportedly a unique asset that isn't found in any other stage in the game in the pool nunagi will relentlessly attack mario and in the center of this area is a cage with a star in it the player's goal is to lure unagi into the chain holding the cage in order to break it open and obtain the star blurps similarly to bubs the large red and yellow fish seen in dire dire docks blurps are a green fish that wear goggles and in personalized copies of the game are said to appear as enemies in jolly roger bay [Music] cool cool mountain [Music] cold cold crevice once again another sub area that can be accessed in personalized copies of the game the means of accessing the stage change based off personalization of course but it is rumored to be a linear stage with spindrift and snowman enemies along the path leading to a power star that counts as one of the castle's secret stars feeding tuxe taxi is the name of the baby penguin that mario is tasked with returning to its mother on the star will penguin lost players have reported tuxy's model contorting in strange ways sometimes with her head on backwards and other times with her head facing upwards towards the sky with her beak stretched open with the strange position model takes resembling a baby bird being fed many speculate there may have been a removed mission which the player was to find things to feed tuxey but even as far as heavy personalized versions of the game have been discussed online not much about this is known toad's tool 64 star toad's tool 64 is a special emulator hacking tool that to my understanding allows you to basically edit anything within super mario 64. it features many menus and options as well as showing the standard stage loading procedures and what is present within the stage from items to enemies within cool cool mountains penguin slide sub-area using toadstool 64. many strange items were found inside such as additional coins a three-star castle door a butterfly a jumping fireball an open cannon spindrift enemies another penguin npc and most interestingly a power star this discovery has been proof enough to many that at least to some extent super mario 64 personalization is in fact real in that many stars that people claim to have gotten do in fact exist and are simply hidden based off personalization from copy to copy given the way this star said avalanche run this refers to a mission that appears in certain personalized copies but descriptions are vague often involving large snowballs rolling down the mountain that mario has to avoid obtaining the star is where the difference comes in some say punching one or a certain number of the snowballs will reward the star while others say it appears from avoiding a certain number of them without getting hit due to personalization however really any method could be valid is another since it varies from copy to copy big boos haunt a ghoul medal outside the mansion there is a sign that reads you don't stand the ghost of a chance in this house if you walk out of here you deserve a google medal while oftenly considered a play on words some players report being able to actually obtain the ghoul metal varying from personalized copies it often involves defeating a giant boo which is twice the size of the big boo boss you fight in the stage locations vary on where this fight takes place but defeating him results in mario receiving a ghoul medal which is collected in an animation similar to when mario gets a key from bowser players report the gold medal appearing next to the player's save file but its purpose or use remain unknown big booze forest big booze forest is a sub-area within big boo's haunt that can be reached by either glitching with backwards long jumping or in some personalized copies with the crazy crate which will jump much higher in some copies of the game than others within the sub area there contains scuttlebugs boos and uniquely some dry bones upon entering the sub-area players are met with a trail with endless forested areas on both sides the trail leads to a cabin with a sign outside that reads congratulations for exploring this haunted forest mario enter the cabin to gain your reward if you dare the interior of the cabin is decorated with a bed some chairs a table bookshelves and a power star players often report a sense of fear within the stage that is unexplainable as they often say that the stage itself isn't always scary but still cannot bring themselves to venture off the trail into the forest areas and feel the need to leave the stage as quickly as possible thinking something bad will happen if they don't many believe the cabin looks quite similar to an unknown area shown in the spaceworld 95 beta gameplay footage in that this area was possibly cut early in development only for the ai to re-implement the sub-area secret laugh occasionally a lower pitched boo laugh is heard when exploring the stage not much is known about what triggers it or why it's present at all but it's certainly creepy and very strange i haven't personally experienced it myself while playing the game but you can find youtube videos of other players experiencing this phenomenon big booze castle reportedly when some players have entered big boo's hunt they'd instead wind up in a stage called big boo's castle this castle is said to resemble princess peach's castle in many ways but unfortunately descriptions and further information is very scarce including descriptions of the exterior and interior of the castle however it is reported that many booze are still roaming around within similar to big boo's haunt the only theory as to why the castle may exist as an area you're taking to instead of big boo's haunt would be that it was once a placeholder for the stage before it was created with the mansion and the castle was simply a mock-up for example and the ai is simply reinserting it back into the stage reportedly the only known star in the stage is hunt in the black void and was first mentioned on an unknown forum page with a forum user asking about how to obtain the star only for other members to assume he's trolling as their copies of super mario 64's ai had never shown them this area until another member comes in and mentions seeing something similar this is considered a very early example of people discussing unknown mysterious things occurring in their copies of super mario 64 before the theory of personalization was discovered big booze key players have reported that a certain big boo that you fight within the stage holds a key that is dropped when he's defeated varying from copy to copy some reports the key doing absolutely nothing to some reporting that it opens another floor of the mansion for further exploration or even the mysterious floor 2b of peach's castle which we'll be discussing later fishing boo quick and easy the fishing boo is an enemy that has appeared in other super mario bros titles but in most versions the super mario 64 is absent they are described as ghost versions of lakitu with a fishing rod that has a fireball at the end it is said that remnants of this enemy do indeed exist in the files of super mario 64 though were never implemented some personalized copies however have this enemy appear in big boo's haunt [Music] hazy maze cave the metal parasite in either hazy maze cave itself or in the cavern of the metal cap players have reported encountering what has been dubbed the metal parasite it is described as groups of metallic essence that can be small puddles to covering entire walls and larger areas of the course it's most commonly found in the toxic maze section of the stage the substance will slowly inch its way towards mario if the player is within a certain proximity of it if mario is touched he'll react with a similar animation as he does when being shocked and will turn mario into what is referred to as an enhanced metal mario state in this state mario's basically invincible even if mario falls in a pit he'll be spit out in an animation similar to the gusts of wind that can save mario on other stages such as tiny huge island furthermore when leaving the stage in some instances the metal parasite is said to be permanent as mario walks he leaves a trail of the metal fluid and all music tracks in the game will have their instruments changed to those used when in metal mario mode it's also said that when you're covered in the metal parasite mario also gains the abilities of the vanish cap allowing him to pass through the walls the vanish cap would allow you to as well as walk up vertical walls another theory is that it's an older version of how mario was to transform into metal mario in the first place many believing that once middle mario was unlocked upon hitting a green switch a pool of silverish liquid would fall on the floor and cover mario turning him metal i find the latter theory to be very plausible sewage conspiracy as mentioned in my previous video about the iceberg we talked about the whole hazy maze cave being a sewer or septic system thing and that's basically what this is once again that the stage is nothing more than the castle septic system sure why not i mean toxic gas and giant rolling balls of a questionable substance yes fact 100 it has been proven miyamoto has just called to confirm hazy maze cave is the castle septic system like comment and subscribe salty salty shore like big boo's castle salty salty shore isn't as much a sub area as it is an area that could possibly load in in place of hazy maze cave upon entering the stage it is described as a beach-like area with caverns mist and even our old friend dory the stage is described as a mix of hazy maze cave and wet dry world but personally i'd add dire dire dock to that mix as well as it is said that many of the beach areas of the stage with water have many fish as well as sushi which is the shark that appears in dire dire docks as well as other mario titles other enemy fish such as bubba also appear in the stage lastly of what is known about the stage is that it features a stage boss dory that's right the horrifying but gentle sea monster that's terrified so many kids back in the day is actually a boss so maybe that's why they're so afraid of her the fight seems to take place on a large circular platform and dory will scoot around the floor chasing mario and lower her head to bite him to defeat dory mario must ground pound her back three times rewarding him with a star upon defeating her [Music] mother dory mother dory is a creature that in rare instances can replace dory in hazy may's cave while resembling dory she's much larger and has long sharp teeth upon the player entering the lair she'll act very aggressively towards mario and relentlessly attack him if mother dory eats the player they'll be given an instant game over regardless of how many lives they had this horrific depiction of dory is often the explanation as to why so many people report being scared of her despite so many others finding her cute and unthreatening thwmps simply put the wimps are small version of thwomps and have appeared in various super mario games in personalized copies of the game they are said to appear at hazy maze cave and jump around attacking mario not much more to it than that [Music] lethal lava land [Music] blarg mentioned on the iceberg many personalized copies feature the blog reinserted back into the game in stages lethal lava land bowser in the fire sea and in rare instances wing mario over the rainbow just another case of the ai taking a removed asset and implementing it back as it pleases [Music] dancing flowers while unrelated to lethal offland as a whole since why would anything flower related be anywhere in this fiery wasteland of lava the dancing flower's environmental effects files strangely are found in lethal lava land while conducting research on both the iceberg video as well as this one i haven't been able to come up with how exactly this flower effect works whether it be they appear as mario walks along grass or they're falling from the sky which would be strange i have no idea but either way some personalized copies are said to contain this effect so if anyone has a personalized copy with these flowers please leave a comment telling me how they work or what they do i am very interested volcano blocks another familiar iceberg topic even in personalized copies however this point remains completely unknown and a mystery for some strange reason this one fascinates me a lot even though i'm sure they're just there for decoration blue lava in rare personalized instances lethal loveland could appear with a dark sky and blue lava apparently the phenomenon of lava appearing blue is in fact a real thing on earth in the game it serves no purpose outside being a visual ai personalization oddly enough the platforms in the stage that sit in the lava have a red orange decorative texture used where the platform meets the lava and this stays this color even if the lava appears blue as do certain fireballs on the stage fire snakes another common super mario bros enemy the fire snakes are said to appear in personalized copies within the stage not much more info than that shifting sand land unused camera from what i was able to make sense of the game stores cut scenes in something that is called the camera cut scene table where the selected scene is played out there apparently is an unused cut scene that focuses on the top of the pyramid it's unknown what this could have been made for or why it still exists within the game files angry suns yet another unused enemy finding its way into the game via the ai we have the angry sun enemies that appeared most notably in super mario bros 3. in personalized instances this enemy can appear on the stage and relentlessly chase mario just as it did back in mario 3. ufo on the iceberg we discussed the e.t hieroglyphics found within the pyramid the personalization ai takes us one step further players have reported very rarely seeing a ufo in the sky of shifting sandland upon the ufo entering the player's gaze it is reported to fly off quickly if the player looks away from it quickly enough it is said that the ufo will make its way to the top of the pyramid and hover above it if the player slowly sneaks towards the ufo mario can jump on it atop the ufo is a small window and it is possible to see aliens inside the ship some have reported even being able to kick this window breaking it causing the ufo to crash dire dire docks [Music] drip drip cave yet another secret course hidden away or created by the ai the course is described as a cave filled with water with few pockets of air for mario to recover health while exploring as mario ventures deeper into the cave it is said to get darker and darker until mario eventually comes across a sunken ghost ship as you make your way through the cave players say that there are many unoggy eels that will attack mario along the way as well as boos a metal cap is at the entrance to the water cave allowing mario to descend faster to the ghost ship once you reach the ghost ship you may enter it similarly to the one in jolly roger bay inside are many boosts to fight off as well as a power star this stage is considered to be very complete compared to many other stages that are implemented by the ai leading to the theory that this stage is removed very late in development the known stars within the stage are inside the ghost ship red coins at the top ghost hunt in the cave and metal mario in the depths the remaining two stars are unknown and it's assumed that there must be a 100 coin star as well wario apparition i'm going to save this special one for later on the video so if i may say cheap cheaps and yet again another instance of a popular super mario bros enemy that isn't in standard copies of super mario 64 being inserted into personalized copies by the ai not much more to say about it than that snowman's land [Music] moneybags domain another secret area this one said to have been removed within weeks of the game's retail release how to access the area varies though many have success with a certain enemy knocking mario through a wall that holds a hidden warp the area is described as a large flat room similar to the one in princess peach's secret slide before you start sliding more interestingly however the room is said to be loaded with coins loaded to the point the game has a hard time handling it and it's theorized that this is why it was removed to avoid crashes occurring the number of coins is said to be hundreds possibly well over a thousand getting the 100 coin star in this area doesn't count for snowman's land and is counted as the castle's secret star instead another theory to this area's existence is that it was used to test how many coins can be present at any given time before the game can no longer handle it [Music] small chill bullies similarly to the small bullies found in lethal lava land there were supposed to be small chill bullies in snowman's land as there is a large chill bully as a boss though they aren't present regularly and personalized copies they are said to roam the many different areas of snowman's land wet dry world negative emotional aura as i mentioned while discussing the iceberg this is a common one among many people personalization or not myself included the cause of this is still completely unknown and is widely speculated many believing it has something to do with the stages music and appearance i really do wish there is more i could say about this considering how many people agree with this point regardless of personalization or icebergs but really there just isn't a whole lot of information it's just a shared feeling that so many people can relate to and unfortunately for now we just have to leave it at that [Music] human brain diagram mentioned on the iceberg i can go a bit more into it here so the whole brain diagram thing all centers around the ai more precisely it's the theory that wet dry world itself is a stage manifestation of the ai's brain itself allegedly there is an image of a human brain hidden within the assets of wet dry world that many believe was used as a reference when creating the artificial brain for the ai the image is considered still lost however an image that is rumored to be from the game has been circulated but it's undetermined as to whether or not this was the brain image found within the game burning town in some personalized instances players have entered the town area of the stage and found it on fire raising the water in an attempt to douse the fires have no effect and the fire remains even underwater city world in some personalized instances players can be teleported to the city that is in the skybox once again another secret course it's described as being a lot like delfino plaza from super mario sunshine players also report a giant brain-like monster in the skybox players also have reported that the negative emotional aura when in this area is heavily amplified as i mentioned the iceberg i always assumed the town area to be somewhere in the sky box but that's really just my own personal theory anyway tall tall mountain super secret slide as we all know telltale mountain has a secret slide in one of its walls which is my personal favorite slide however in some personalized copies of the game players have reported a second secret slide by using the canon found within the stage and aiming in mario at a particular wall of the mountain you can break away the area revealing a hidden path to another secret slide reportedly this slide is very difficult and features very sharp turns as well as flamethrowers on the course with the end of the slide having a room with a star i personally love the slide levels and would love a difficult slide like this hell i'd love an entire mario game that's nothing but slides of varying difficulties that would be awesome varying mountain heights players have reported that similarly to wet dry world depending on how high or low you jump into tall tall mountains painting the size of the mountain will adjust accordingly with the mountain ranging from even smaller than it appears in non-personalized copies to the mountain taking as long as multiple hours to reach the top i find this entry particularly strange because the painting is so tiny you really can't influence how high or low you enter it it's basically the same height as mario himself but there you go race to the top i was going to leave this off because it seems like an incomplete entry but because i'd like to be as comprehensive as possible i'll include it in some copies of the game the mission race to the top can instead be a time in the mission to reach the top of the mountain to get a star not much more to it than that though dk mountain in certain copies tall tall mountain is replaced with dk mount said to be similar to the final course in many ways it also features many donkey kong country aspects to the stage as well as a boss fight against donkey kong himself [Music] tiny huge island [Music] mid-sized island in the room where you enter tiny huge island there are three paintings to the left when you enter is the entrance to the tiny part of the stage and to the right is the giant part of the stage there is however one more painting in this room straight ahead that cannot be entered in personalized copies however it is said this version can indeed be entered and it brings you to a regular sized version of the island where the goombas and other enemies are normal sized it has also been reported that this normal size stage can be accessed by entering the warp pipe in the tiny part of the stage or by a complete random chance by constantly entering the warp pipe over and over again tick tock clock womp king rematch reported by some players is the ability to rematch king womp within tick tock clock it's evident that this area was intended to be removed from the game as even in personalized copies it's still only accessible by glitching with backwards long jumping or other methods when you reach the secret area with wompking which is a large circular room with a clock on the floor he'll say ha you thought you saw the last of me pipsqueak think again there's no way out of this place it's just you and me let's see you try to stomp on me again the fight is said to be much more difficult than the previous encounter with king womp walking much faster and getting up much faster after pounding the ground during your first fight it also takes six ground pounds to beat him during this encounter after the first three hits his speed will increase yet again with faster movement and getting up faster after pounding the ground upon defeat he will say oh no how can this be how could such a small pip squeak like you defeat me again you haven't seen the last of me still now take the star and scram negative emotional aura in a way similar to the fact that wet dry world gives off a negative aura the same can be said of tick-tock clock but with different emotions while wet dry world's negative emotions are generally those of discomfort and dread tick-tock clock gives feelings of anger and rage often contributed to the stage's frustrating nature and music whether or not this is actually the ai or just frustration in level design is debated getting a hundred coins at tick-tock clock was the last star i needed to 100 the game as a kid so my frustrations with it are certainly valid i remember that star being a real pain to get so uh yeah and it's still annoying to this day rainbow ride rainbow village returning from the iceberg is rainbow village but as i had expected to be it's not a sub area or a secret stage i mean i guess that's not far off from what those with personalized copies have said but there isn't really any true information about it in the context of super mario 64. all that's spoken about is firing mario from a cannon aiming at a very precise location and firing him off into the distance to access rainbow village but apart from that no description of any sort is given so that's really all there is to say about that for now until we get to the super smash bros iceberg inside the airship if the last one isn't going to be the stage's entry in the nearly ubiquitous appearance of sub areas and stages and personalized copies of super mario 64 than this one certainly is in certain copies you can apparently enter the large airship that's floating in the sky towards the end of the stage the airship is filled with rooms and features enemies from goombas bombs and hammer bros also speculated inside this area is an eight red coin star which would most likely count as a castle secret star para goombas another common enemy throughout the franchise the pair of goombas are winged variants of standard goombas and are said to appear in certain personalized copies of the game as with the other instances of random enemies being inserted into the personalized copies there isn't a whole lot to say about it princesses secret slide sliding for eight red coins personalized copies of the game will feature eight red coins along the slide that can be collected for a third star within this stage not much more to it than that secret aquarium aquarium limbo in rare instances of personalized copies mario upon entering the aquarium can find himself in the usual aquarium however the outside skybox is that of big boo's haunt much darker and lacks any coins to collect leaving the player to force mario to drown in the stage when mario dies the game is said to crash due to the textureless mario anomaly which we'll be discussing later so um more on that later alternate entrance simply put in certain copies the aquarium can instead be accessed by jumping into one of the aquariums inside the room where you enter jolly roger bay nothing more to it than that wing mario over the rainbow walking on rainbows in some personalized copies it is reported that there is a rainbow path that leads to a cloud with a star this would be another castle secret star there isn't a whole lot to this description here but the entry on the wiki is incredibly short so i had to include it to maintain comprehensiveness tower of the wing cap inside the tower in certain copies players have reported being able to enter the large tower that the red cap switch sits on top of the usual means of entry is by flying around the tower and locating a window that you can enter once you enter the sub-area mario appears at the bottom of the tower and must platform his way up to the top to retrieve a star sometimes opposite occurs and you'll have to start at the top and make your way down either way this counts as a castle secret star this also links to another rumor about a certain stage that we'll be discussing further down the iceberg so if i may more on that later cavern of the metal cap [Music] break the crystals reported by some players this is a secret star that can be obtained by smashing the metal crystals found within the stage as metal mario these players were able to smash the crystals by punching and jump kicking and upon doing so were rewarded another castle secret star buzzy beetles and yet another super mario franchise enemy that isn't in the game being reinserted by the ai these enemies found famously in super mario world have been reported appearing in personalized copies of the game within this stage vanish cap under the moat behind the wall another simple instance of the ai implementing something so small that many gamers may have experienced this behind the wall simply states that during this stage you had to pass through a wall to obtain the star whether it be referring to the red coin star or some castle secret star isn't known but either wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility because why wouldn't you use the power you just unlocked to earn the star within that very stage [Music] bowser in the dark world [Music] big goomba in personalized copies it is reported that on a certain platform in the stage there's a giant goomba who takes three hits to defeat not much is explained about this mysterious enemy so it's unclear as to whether or not this platform is hidden or if he's a commonly found enemy in personalized copies bowser in the fire sea podoboos along with the blog appearing in this stage in personalized copies another enemy that appears via the ai are the potaboos which are cute little fireball monsters with eyes not much more to say about this one bowser in the sky impossible goomba honestly this isn't even an ai point but there's nothing involving personalization for this stage and there's been at least one thing for every other stage so i just felt really weird leaving the final stage of the game off so it's the impossible goomba again as seen on the iceberg how about we make our own ai speculation the ai specifically really hates this goomba in particular his name's james and he really upset the ai one day so the ai decided to spawn him to his death whenever someone enters the stage as punishment that is fact miyamoto just called i just got off one of them confirmed like comment and subscribe removed or other stages starry night skies a rumored removed course that appears in some personalized copies of the game this stage would be entered via the painting on the second floor of the castle that has a starry night sky footage of this level seems to be non-existent however we do know of most of the stage names those being stork of the starry night abandoned ship in the sea of stars the wishing star well red coin among the stars and the eternal night star the sixth star is unknown and there's presumably a 100 coin star as with most other stages as this stage is apparently very rare even in the most personalized copies almost nothing is known of this stage it is however said to be for the most part incomplete and features almost entirely unique assets not featured in any other world of the game [Music] blasting bullet factory another removed level said to be replaced by tick-tock clock as it shares many elements with that stage has been said to appear in certain copies of the game players who have witnessed the stage say that it replaced tick-tock clock's location no footage of the stage seems to exist but it is said to be basically completely finished according to those who have come across it the stage features a boss called a motos which is a robot looking enemy that was discovered in the 2020 iq leak five of the six stage names are known and they are metal with the motos break into the manager's office run on the sulfur conveyor bullet bills power star and eight minted red coins with of course a 100 coin star presumably also available furthermore in regards to the whole 2020 iq leak there is a stage found called motos factory which many believe may be what blasting bullet factory actually is however moto's factory did have its six mission names that were found as well and none of them seemed to relate to the missions and blasting bullet factory the missions are as follows star-powered contraption bridges above with eight red coins inside the machine climb high get star five secrets in the bay and modos get to work back to blasting bullet factory though it's also said that this is a stage that led mario to a sub stage for the yellow cap switch called mario riding through the slippery slide which sounds like another slide level which as you all know i'd absolutely love of course we all know the yellow switch would have activated yellow boxes that contained the koopa shells but this was never used and koopa shells became non-unlockable power-ups shaky stable stacks an unused stage reinserted by the ai and personalized copies of the game this stage is reportedly entered via the middle painting in tiny huge island which would mean that it conflicts with the rumor of a normal-sized tiny huge island version but that could just be due to the ai reacting differently the stage is said to be similar to tiny huge island as well as tall tall mountain in regards to style and theme the stage features two mountains with ski lifts between them to traverse back and forth one mountain is shaky and the other mountain is stable a common theme with these mysterious personalized stages we once again have five mission names available with one unknown and they are as follows a shaky climb a stable climb the golden stem vanishing through the grates break away the unstable wall and a mystery mission the red coin star has reportedly been activated on the stage but has been said to spawn outside the map boundaries oh and of course a 100 coin star the sun similarly to the starry night skies painting that's on the second floor of the castle there's also a painting of what looks like the sun with white clouds around it this stage is considered to be quite rare and personalized copies of the game and with that there isn't a whole lot known about it reportedly only three stars have been found in the stage and the fourth mission has yet to be completed the missions are flight of the streaming stars deep within the shining stone red coins in the fire and etching the solar sigil no footage of the stage exists leaving us with a simple explanation that it's very similar to lethal lava land but with more orangish lava than red so i suppose on this stage you're quite literally on the sun but unfortunately there's so little known about the stage that's all i really have to say about it delicious cake a very strange stage with very little known about it it seems as if this was potentially going to be the very first place you go in the castle given the message you receive upon entering but was presumably removed early in development the stage consists of nothing more than a wooden platform most likely meant to represent a table with a giant cake on top that mario can climb atop the cake is a circle of coins around what's either supposed to be a cherry or a strawberry as well as a power star upon entering the stage mario is greeted with the following message oh mario i'm so glad to see you i baked this cake for us to eat there's a problem i'm stuck inside the walls mario you have to save us from the skoopa king i'm channeling all of my star energy just to talk to you mario please take the star atop the cake hopefully it will help you on your journey good luck mario and no i'm not going to pitch shift that because i tried and i'm not going to subject you guys to to that so so you just have to deal with my regular voice for that one but anyway given the way the dialogue's spoken i personally think this was intended to be at the very beginning of the game and this star was meant to be the very first one that mario gets eternal fort in extremely rare and mysterious course even by personalization standards this elusive stage is rumored to be the removed 16th course of the game which would have stood as the final challenge to super mario 64 players even beyond bowser in the sky is the final stage as a true test of skill of the player's abilities it's also rumored that this stage possibly was meant to replace bowser in the sky but that of course is unknown accessing the stage also seems to be vague as well as the location of the stage entrance itself once it's unlocked a strange method of unlocking the stage is said to occur if the player and i quote finds out everything there is to know about super mario 64. this is a bit vague as with the involvement of ai does that mean literal knowledge of the game or does it mean the player having done everything there is to do within the game such as find every secret one up or collect every coin and so on more interestingly it's also rumored that the stage will only appear to those ai views as experienced players who are worthy enough to access this assumably difficult stage another theory for the eternal fort being the final level is that bowser in all mario games before this one has his own castle so it's theorized that this stage which has also been referred to as bowser in the eternal fort was meant to be his true final stage whether or not bowser in the sky would still remain in the game alongside it however is still a mystery of course i personally love the idea of the final stage being a difficult tower to climb and for the player to fight bowser atop this tower at the very end furthermore some players speculate that the tower or towers in tower of the wing cap are meant to represent the eternal fort but this is of course unknown if that was ever the intention the bowser room the bowser room is a stage generally consisting of a single large room made up of gray and white bricks a large picture of bowser and in some instances may have some furniture or even a door entrance to this room varies as some have said to enter the stage from where you'd enter the secret aquarium and some have said you enter it from the waterfall outside of peach's castle another method has a player entering from a basement area that we'll be discussing later this bowser room actually has bowser in it as opposed to just a picture of bowser as well as the bombs you'd throw a bowser into and a couple work pipes peach's castle in this section we're going to be covering a lot of the strange occurrences that may occur within peach's castle itself not relating to any stages or anything like that alternative castle a rare occurrence even as far as the ai goes reports indicate that some players who have entered the castle claim to enter a castle layout that is drastically different with music that is said to be slightly off from the usual music heard within while this part of the ai is still under investigation i'll cover as much as known at the moment at least as i do find it quite interesting it's reported that the castle in this form consists of four areas those being the hub the upper area the garden and the dungeon the hub would be where mario would find himself upon entering the castle it is said to have multiple branching hallways leading to paintings as well as a staircase leading to both the basement and upper area whether upper area refers to the second floor of the castle or just the upper area of the main floor like in the standard game where you'd access bowser in the dark world or the princess's secret slide is unknown this area is said to have the wall textures of the third floor of the traditional castle with the starry sky theme also with all the stages in this area being simply down long corridors and hallways it seems as if there are no doors and therefore no stars are required to enter any of the stages the only other documented area is the upper area which is said to consist of many bookshelves and booze this upper area also holds the entrance to bowser in the sky as well as eight red coins to collect that grant a castle secret star as of right now this is all that's known about the area the fourth floor the fourth floor of the castle seems to be entirely of the ai's design by that i mean that it appears to have no set appearance and is always unique even to players who have accessed it multiple times in personalized copies with this descriptions are varied and vague some describing it as endless branching hallways with red carpet and brick walls others saying it has the starry night walls as the third floor of the castle does and there are also reports that booze roam the halls of this mysterious floor of the castle an area referred to as the toad shrine also reportedly exists here and is simply a large statue of a toad and despite the varying reports of different layouts of the fourth floor the toad shrine appears to be one of the few common sightings despite so much else being unique from person to person there doesn't seem to be much significance to the toad statue itself but i find it important to at least mention given the fact that as i had said despite the fourth floor appearing unique this feature seems almost always to be present another fourth floor anomaly is the internal garden it is reportedly found in one of the many branching hallways of the fourth floor and as you approach the door the game's music becomes more and more quiet until becoming completely silent upon standing right outside the door similarly to the fourth floor itself the garden as well changes appearance from copy to copy however the general props are the same just laid out differently examples include a pond always being present the walls being of an azir color and floors having a grass-like texture and giving the sound effect of running on grass as mario moves around in it and most interestingly the unused dancing flowers can be found here as well the room itself is said to cause strange effects in players while many have gone on to say it's like an opposite of what dry world that being a positive emotional aura i guess and inducing very calming effects some players have reported feeling irrationally afraid of leaving the room for unknown reasons castle floor 2b i was unsure how to discuss this area initially as it features many stages itself but i figured i'd just discuss it as a unique area so first i'll be discussing the floor itself followed by the stages found within castle floor 2b is reportedly an unfinished floor in peach's castle while most copies of the game depict the castle with three floors the ai in some instances can incorporate a second basement level to the castle copies with castle 42b will have big boos forest within their copies as well as the key obtained in this area is the only known way to access floor 2b the paintings featured on this floor vary from copies of previous stage paintings as well as some paintings featuring the skybox art from certain worlds the only unique painting if you can call it that is a purple version of the lethal lava land painting as is usual with the ai the floor 2b is said to vary drastically between those who encounter it within the 2b floor there are two rooms you may enter outside the main area one of which is referred to as the flooded hallway kind of like the flooded hallway found in the main basement of the castle swimming through the hallway brings you to two unique stages located in this area which we'll get to shortly the second room in this area is called the block room and is filled with larger versions of the red blue green and yellow blocks if any of the cap switches aren't pressed the switches will remain transparent until they are unlocked there's also a painting located in this room that is unlocked once all the caps are unlocked this painting being a question mark block with each corner of the painting representing a different cap switch color switch dungeon the switch dungeon is the stage unlocked after mario has activated all three cap switches or four switches and some personalized copies the stage is said to put the player to the test with using variations of all the caps and even making mention of a rainbow cap appearing as well it seems as if it's similar to the cap switch stages found in the standard game but made more difficult the stage starts with mario in a square room and four doors each of the doors leading to mario to a trial featuring one of the three caps and the fourth presumably featuring the rainbow cat details on the rainbow cap aren't explained but my guess is that it's a cap that gives mario the power of all three caps when i was a kid i always wanted to see flying metal invisible mario but unfortunately this can't be done in the standard game boiling hot basalt reportedly this stage is a clone of lethal lava land but with some changes such as the volcano being entirely removed as well as an upper area that contains a lot of the bully enemies also this stage features blogs only unlike the unfinished ones found in lethal lava land these are said to be fully textured complete versions along with that there's also a blog boss that shoots fireballs and in rare instances the stage can also have the motos as a boss instead not much more is known about this stage dry bones desert a clone stage of shifting sand land this stage however removes a pyramid centerpiece instead replacing it with an outdoor temple also implemented into this stage is the dry bones enemy found in big boos forest further linking this 2b floor with the big booze forest sub area the temple area contains piranha plant enemies other than this there isn't much difference between shifting sand land in it and not much more about the stage is really known toxic cavern described as similar or in some cases a mix of hazy maze cave and big boos haunt this stage features a lot of the aesthetics of hazy me's cave and features primarily scuttlebugs and booze for enemies sharing the same painting is lethal lava land except colored purple this stage actually features the now purple fireball within the stage but is described only as an obstacle as opposed to being an enemy or a boss not much else is known about this stage bowser in the randomized realm floor 2b is said to hold a fourth bowser stage and is described as a combination of bowser in the sky and bowser in the dark world reportedly the stage holding true to its name is random every time you enter it and is said to be able to use assets from any stage or anywhere in or out of the castle difficulty of this stage is also determined by how many stars the player has and how many times the player has died beating bowser in this stage results in the player obtaining a key as normal in most bowser fights however to this day it's still unknown what this key is used for an interesting theory about this stage is that it was used to test the ai's abilities which apparently it does in many ways from difficulty adjustment to randomly generating assets bowser's domain accessed via falling down a second trapdoor in the hallway that leads to bowser in the dark world bowser's domain is a sub-area that serves as bowser's own castle and happens to share many similarities to peach's castle in terms of design and layout upon entering the stage you'll land in a central area with a similar sundial design as the one on the main floor of the castle there are many doors around mario and a staircase leading up straight ahead the walls feature many paintings both of old stages and some new paintings not found in the standard game atop the stairs is a single door which uses the texture from the doors of the village area of wet dry world this store leads to an outdoor courtyard area that features a well as well as a painting of the wet dry world skybox which you can't enter where this leads however is still unknown back down the stairs where mario spawned into this area if you enter the door directly behind where mario lands upon first arriving you'll come out into the basement although outside of a couple of paintings such as one matching lethal lava land and one matching the japanese version of what dryworld there isn't much here that's been documented another of the doors in the main area mario spawns in at leads to the koopa library which is full of bookshelves signs and features a dark almost purple colored cap switch which is said to unlock all three cap switches in the game instantly the library also holds a door with a bowser painting above it and a warning sign that leads to the bowser room that was previously mentioned yet another door for the main area leads to what is referred to as the three-way room but it doesn't seem to have been explored much and is still a mystery lastly we have yet another room that is referred to as bowser's greenhouse that appears to be an indoor garden like room with grass flowers trees bridges and oddly enough a mirror similar to the one in the mirror room if mario uses an invisible cap he can go through the mirror similar to how he does in super mario 64 ds and enter a room that is described as looking very similar to the babon battlefield painting room but with a painting that instead features luigi if mario jumps in this painting the player will be transported back out into the main room except this time they'll be playing as luigi furthermore about this greenhouse room there are reportedly two with the second being much larger not featuring a mirror and having a large body of water and along with the door you entered there's reportedly another door that leads to a seemingly infinite hallway of doors and rooms that keep branching off from each other described as looking much like the halls and corridors found in peach's basement miscellaneous phenomena wario apparition perhaps the most popular entity to come from the iceberg as well as cause research into the personalization to kick into high gear we have the wario apparition considered an uncommon entity even in the most personalized copies the absolute terror and impact caused by the wario operation has led to its notoriety in rare cases players who have entered the boss door in the basement of the castle that leads to daradara docks in bowser in the virus sea have reportedly been greeted with a giant floating wario head over the entrance to dire dyer docks when spotted by wario he'll then proceed to chase the player and the camera will stay focused on wario as mario runs towards it the door you entered now gone turned into an infinite hallway as you try to escape wario will laugh maniacally as he tries to eat mario as he runs a unique music track also plays while wario is chasing you and that's the music you're hearing now all reports of players encountering the wario operation are the same up to this point and from here reports vary some have reported wario's face slowly deteriorating and taking on a horrific mangled and gruesome form some have reportedly outrun the floating head and been rewarded a star others say that you must stop running and fight wario at a certain point all of these reports could be considered valid in simply alternate cases of aei doing its thing in some more extreme cases some players have reported suffering from memory loss or even so far as having stroke-like symptoms after encountering the wario apparition the implementation of wario in the game is heavily speculated as the ai is of course known for reinserting deleted assets it's speculated if wario was originally meant to be a boss at some point in development but it's entirely unknown for now anti-piracy screen anti-piracy screens are nothing new in gaming and even weren't anything new back in the days of the nintendo 64. i specifically remember earthbound having an anti-piracy screen and i'm sure more games beyond that had them as well it has been reported that there is an anti-piracy screen in all copies of super mario 64 even those that aren't heavily impacted by the personalization ai on very rare occasions players have reported the game showing the screen randomly in the middle of gameplay or as intended with a fake game as soon as you try to turn the game on in one reported instance it was said that after the screen was shown the player's game card never worked again dynamic level arrangement used to describe the implementation of stages such as delicious cake and drip drip cave dynamic level arrangement refers to a phenomenon in which the personalization ai creates entirely new courses out of stage geometry and textures used in the standard stages dynamic level arrangement is unable to implement any new textures or implement stage geometry that isn't present in the most common versions of the game due to the game creating entirely new stages as opposed to rearranging the more common stages of the game this is considered a much more advanced phenomenon compared to our next point dynamic level rearrangement dynamic level rearrangement or dlr for short is a much more common phenomenon and occurs in varying degrees of severity it's often also used to justify the inclusion of the ai being implemented in super mario 64 in the first place as a way to adjust difficulty for players of varying skill levels only for it to get out of nintendo's control and become what we know it as now the dlr in much rarer instances has also been known to change the color of certain game assets and is responsible for phenomenon like the blue lava and lethal lava land and skybox textures changing in certain stages and even adding completely new music to stages in some cases in regards to adjusting level difficulty the game has been said to make missions much easier or change location of stars in order to make them more easily obtained by the player if they're less experienced in other instances it is known for placing random rows of coins one ups and is also considered to be responsible for many players seeing the visual indicator for the womp's fortress hidden one up as well [Music] july 25th 2020 iq leak the iq leak brought to light many removed in early versions of assets that were no longer in the final game the major discovery of this leak was of course luigi being found in the files which of course is awesome especially as we all know super mario 64 was originally going to have a two player feature so i don't think it was any major surprise anymore that luigi was going to be in the game but finding the model is certainly significant beyond that we also have files relating to seven unused levels varying from test areas to unused levels to unused enemies like the previously mentioned motos and also some early unused models including one for yoshi an early model for princess peach that most notably from her final appearance has legs and an early model of the scuttlebug enemy that is seen in early gameplay footage and screenshots that were found lastly some interesting mario animations that were unused in the final game were also found these include an animation of mario performing a dance before transitioning into the dance he does after obtaining a power star which either was removed to cut it short or the beginning of another animation entirely that gets overridden by the dance in the final game a pulling animation as if mario was pulling a box or some other object in early punching animation and a strange animation of mario running while looking down with his arms outstretched possibly used when holding something such as mips or a bob arm or a box or something and that was my semi-comprehensive detailing of the super mario 64 personalization ai there's bound to be some things i missed or failed to mention as this whole thing runs very deep with people adding to it every day but i hope that it was at least enough to keep you entertained and that you were able to enjoy this long video i planned on making the second video while creating my super mario 64 iceberg video just as a follow-up given the way that video ended when i mentioned that there was simply too much to talk about in terms of personalization but the response the video got was beyond what i could have ever imagined as i had said i really made that video as a challenge for myself to see if i could do it but more so as a learning experience in regards to the iceberg itself but also to teach myself audio and video creating which i'm still very much a novice at i had planned to send the video to my friends for them to enjoy is they had never really heard of the iceberg or any of the strange oddities surrounding super mario 64 but the comments likes views subs all of that have just been completely overwhelming for me in the best possible way you've all been incredibly supportive asking about when more is coming and it's a very strange feeling knowing that there are people out there who are actually looking forward to more of my future videos and that's kind of amazing well the super smash bros iceberg zelda franchise iceberg and ocarina of time iceberg are all on my schedule not really sure in what order but we'll see sorry if the sending is getting long but to close out i'd just like to give a big thank you to everyone watching and i truly hope you have a swell day

Channel: NEScRETRO

Views: 144,809

Rating: 4.8634319 out of 5

Keywords: Super Mario 64, nintendo, Super Mario 64 iceberg, iceberg, iceberg video, mystery, video game mysteries, Nintendo 64

Id: un8M9mJKzww

Length: 70min 27sec (4227 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021