Super Mario 64 Disk Version (June 12th 2000)

On June 12th 2000, the final version of Super Mario 64 Disk Version was ultimately cancelled by the higher-ups of Nintendo. The game was an enhanced version of the 1996 classic, slated to release on the Nintendo 64DD as a display of the console's technical capabilities.

This version of the elusive game was never released, but has been stated to be far enough into development for most of the additions to be included. Most information of the game comes from an anonymous developer in 2004 during the build-up to Super Mario 64 DS' release, with screenshots and scans to authenticate their claims. The original posts have been lost to time, meaning that some information has yet to be recovered.

Features
Since the original thread information about this disk version of Super Mario 64 was circulated during the early 2000s, it predated many of the beta discoveries and the theory of personalisation that exist today. Therefore many anomalies that are now documented today also seemed to have appeared within this thread, and went under the radar with users assuming that they were new additions for the Nintendo 64DD port.

Real-Time Clock
Super Mario 64 Disk Version was intended to use the Nintendo 64DD's real-time clock to simulate a day-and-night cycle in-game. The anonymous developer recalled that fifteen unique backgrounds were made in order to achieve this effect, although it was not implemented into every level. Big Boo's Haunt, Hazy Maze Cave, Lethal Lava Land, and Wet-Dry World were all explicitly mentioned to be unaffected by the time of day.

Behaviours of enemies and course-specific events would also change depending on the time of day. For instance, Hoot was originally going to only appear during the night as opposed to having to be woken up. The enemies that would appear in a course would also change depending on the time of day. For example, Dry Bones were originally intended to appear in Shifting Sand Land if it was night.

To use the real-time clock to it's fullest potential, three courses were made to fully utilise the time of day in order to achieve certain power stars. These courses go as follows:
 * Sun Dial Mile, a first floor level that was said to be similar to Bob-omb Battlefield as it was a grassy field area. The focal point of the level is the elaborate sundial placed in the center of the level, which was positioned so that it would point to the mission in regards to the corresponding time of day. The level was split into four sections to reflect the four major times of day: sunrise, morning, afternoon and night.
 * Motor Rotor Factory, a basement course that was said to be set in a factory. According to the developer, shipments would come into the level at certain times of day that would change the arrangement of platforms, and the player could earn these shipments by reading a sign the player is spawned in front of. The course is stated to have rising water levels, ladders as seen in concept artwork, and a robotic, spherical enemy not unlike a Chuck-ya. Judging by it's description, it can be assumed this enemy is the scrapped Motos enemy.
 * Tick Tock Clock, which appears in the original Super Mario 64, was intended to be completely reworked to use the real-time clock. The clock Mario enters to get into the course would be synced up to the real-time clock. Depending on the time of day, the arrangement of platforms in the level would change. At night, the mechanisms of the clock would stop moving in the same way that entering the level at 12 in the original game would cause the course to be still. The level would also get a tint to reflect the time of day.

Despite being the same concept, it seems that this usage of the Nintendo 64DD's internal clock is different to the internal clock anomaly that people have reported happening in earlier builds of Super Mario 64. The developer never mentioned the internal clock being in earlier builds of Super Mario 64.

Internet Connectivity
While never implemented fully, Super Mario 64 Disk Version was going to use the Nintendo 64DD's online service, Randnet. The anonymous developer vividly remembered the rest of the team struggling to think how to actively involve internet connectivity into Super Mario 64 in a reasonably sensible manner, without being too intrusive on the game.

The idea that got the furthest into development was a world ranking system, where players would be able to share their times and coin counts for certain missions. The player was intended to submit and view records by talking to Koopa the Quick, who would appear outside of Princess Peach's Castle after beating him in Bob-omb Battlefield. However this was never implemented into the game, as stated by the anonymous developer.

Since online play was considered too unlikely given Randnet's capabilities, the team opted instead to try and incorporate a ghost trials system into the world ranking system, similar to the Mario Kart series. While the feature did end up working, the team eventually decided that the idea should be scrapped due to how taxing it was on the Nintendo 64 hardware to upload replays between consoles, with one Nintendo 64 overheating beyond repair in one test session.

Convergence with Level Anomalies
The anonymous developer mentioned levels that aren't found within the most circulated ROM of Super Mario 64, but are commonly recalled in the stories of unverifiable players.

When speaking of secret levels to be turned into full levels, both Hollow Horror Halls and Sunshine Isles were mentioned amongst The Princess's Secret Slide and The Secret Aquarium.
 * Hollow Horror Halls is a rather frequently discussed level that is similar to Big Boo's Haunt, aside from the fact it takes place primarily indoors with a labyrinth of hallways and only holds two secret stars. The developer refers to Hollow Horror Halls as being accessible through the castle courtyard like many other players, though the method of entry is left unspecified.
 * Sunshine Isles is a secret level from Super Mario 64 DS, which acts as a reference to Super Mario Sunshine, a game which postdates Super Mario 64 and this build. When talking about Sunshine Isles, the developer makes no mention of its relation to Super Mario Sunshine, meaning that the level could've possibly not been intended to be a reference to Super Mario Sunshine. This makes sense, since Sunshine Isles doesn't actually resemble anything from Super Mario Sunshine aside from the music and a vague summer aesthetic.

When talking about brand new levels to add to the game, the developer mentions using unused assets to finish and create a level for the second floor called "Afar Star Skies", a level concept and name eeriely similar to The Starry-Night Skies. Given the fact that the developer mentioned the existence of an unused level which they salvaged assets from to make this level, it can be assumed that these assets come from Starry-Night Skies.

New Game Plus
Before the implementation of the internal clock and other assets, a smaller group of developers were supposedly tinkering with levels to design a "New Game Plus" after beating the game with all 120 stars. This new mode would change the aesthetics and difficulty of levels in the game.

Oddly enough, this "New Game Plus" is strikingly similar to how the Night Light, a rare Super Mario 64 anomaly, is described to change levels. Most levels were supposedly set at night, and were made harder just like when the Night Light is switched. Some levels also eeriely resemble instances of aesthetic level rearrangement, such as blue lava in Lethal Lava Land or a red sky in Big Boo's Haunt.

New Game Plus was never implemented in later builds and was more of a hobby between that smaller division of developers. Talks of implementing it into the final game were frequent, suggesting that it would reverse the time of day in levels given by the internal clock: day aesthetic at night, and night aesthetic at day.

Development
A version of Super Mario 64 running on the Nintendo 64DD had existed since the addon's unveiling in 1995. According to the anonymous developer from 2004, they and a small development team were tasked with updating this version of Super Mario 64 into an enhanced experience to show off the capabilites of the Nintendo 64DD. This happened directly after the release of the Nintendo 64DD in Japan, where the console was already underperforming and Nintendo were worried that the addon would require a game to prove its worth in the west.

Development of this new version of Super Mario 64 was an uphill battle according to the anonymous developer as Nintendo continued to pile more and more demands onto the relatively tiny development team, as well as the struggles of having to translate and decompile Super Mario 64's messy and outdated code. The anonymous developer was a frequent playtester for the game and recalls many of the additions and removals that the game had during development.

However on June 12th 2000, the project was unexpectedly shut down when Nintendo finally decided that the Nintendo 64DD would not be worth bringing internationally, and that Super Mario 64 would not save the console from mediocrity. The anonymous developer remains unaware if any builds of this disk version that they worked on (not the versions made before 2000) still exist today.

Discussion
In the summer of 2004 leading up to the release of Super Mario 64 DS, the aforementioned anonymous developer made their first posts on an online gaming forum on a topic about the upcoming remake. The anonymous developer chimed into the conversation by relating the remake to the Nintendo 64DD port they recalled working on all the way back in 2000. His initial post chronicled the development of the game in detail, whilst also listing some of the additions planned for the game.

Users were interested by this anonymous developer, though many were under the impression that he was merely roleplaying and none of what he was saying was true at all. Users would question him on some of the details and discrepancies within his posts, and the anonymous developer would respond with his recollections of the development process, as well as pictures of alleged development sketches.

After another anonymous user claimed to work on the disk version with his own additions leaving a sour taste within the thread, the anonymous developer soon stopped responding to messages completely and went silent, marking the last time the developer was heard from.

Unfortunately the forum posts which this anonymous developer posted in has been lost to time, unarchived and only retold through the memories of users who were there at the time. Interest in the post had supposedly died down the moment the anonymous developer arrived, leaving many forum users ignorant to the developer's ramblings. The anonymous developer has yet to be resurface, and their identity remains a mystery.