User blog:Ultra64Detective2401/An Introduction to Anomalies

Sequence:The Basics of Anomalies

Previous:N/A

Next:Why Every Copy of Super Mario 64 is Personalized

Hello there. Welcome to my introduction to the anomalies that can be found in Super Mario 64. This is the start of a series of posts where I gather info on anomalies, theorize about them, and explain them to you.

Now, there may be some of you who do not know what an anomaly is... or wonder how we even know anomalies exist at all. We all remember Super Mario 64, and our friends tell the same stories as us. Certainly, we don’t recall anything anomalous... at least, most of us don’t. So why are we so sure there’s anything strange at all within the game? Why not just believe Nintendo and the decompilation team when they say there is nothing strange about the game?

Well, if you think about it, there are things that shouldn’t happen, yet happen anyway. Have you ever felt something was off when you played someone else’s copy of Super Mario 64? But just couldn’t figure out what it was?

''But wait! What if all that was “off” was just that I’m holding a different controller? What if it’s that my friend didn’t unlock the same things I have? What if I just played differently because I’m not progressing on MY save file, but someone else’s, and this resulted in me feeling differently about the game?''-Hypothetical Reader

If it were that simple, you should have the exact same feeling with the exact same intensity when playing games OTHER than Super Mario 64. And yet, it seems to be at its strongest with THAT specific game. As if... there were something else going on.

Now, this may seem unrelated, but I promise this will be relevant soon-Do you recall the 1-up that can be found by breaking a hole in the back of the tower in Whomp’s Fortress?

If you don’t, now you know. Go check, it’s there.

''How is THAT anomalous? A hidden 1-up? It’s just a secret! We found it in the game’s code!''

Oh, the 1-up itself isn’t anomalous, but let me ask you this:How was this 1-up first discovered? It wasn’t on any official guides... there is no special texture for the spot you need to break.. so you have NO way of finding this out on your own.

''Hm? I remember seeing a crack! That’s how I know! ...Wait, that crack wasn’t supposed to be there?! Am I remembering wrong?''

I remember the crack as well. And yet it doesn’t appear in the game’s code. Check out gameplay videos of Super Mario 64. You won’t see any crack. Strange, isn’t it? I’ll get back to you, as I need to answer this other response first. But let me tell you- you  probably didn’t misremember anything. Again, more on that later.

It was dataminers, of course!

No, it wasn’t that. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/n64/198848-super-mario-64/faqs/3325 This was known since 1999, at the latest. Modern tools like Toadstool 64 weren’t created until 2007.

And this was July of 1999 at the latest.. the Oman Archives wouldn’t be leaked for another few months. So not only were there no easy tools to search through the level geometry, but there was no way of even reverse-engineering the Nintendo 64! No decompiling the source code, no nothing!

Not only that, a different 1-up was completely missing from the FAQ, despite it claiming to be complete! Specifically, a 1-up in Tall Tall Mountain, where if you go through all four corners at the start of the slide area, a 1-up will appear! If the Whomp’s Fortress 1-up was found through datamining, why wasn’t the Tall Tall Mountain one found the same way? So there’s no way the 1-up could have been found that way! They needed some clue to find the 1-up... and yet there weren’t any. How paradoxical..

...Or WAS there a clue after all? Now it’s time to go back to the other reply.

Some people clearly recall there being a cracked wall texture revealing where the 1-up is... and they HAD to figure out about the 1-up somehow... and you may be one of them. But how is this possible if there was no crack?

Well, there was no crack in the game’s code, but you couldn’t have first misremembered seeing a crack, yet still punched that exact spot on the tower for no reason at all, just happening to break the tower. If there was no crack, you wouldn’t have found the 1-up on your own. So there must have actually been a crack there.

But... why? How? How did it get there, if it wasn’t programmed into the game? This is an example of an anomaly. A behavior within the game that is not the same as what was (supposedly) programmed into the game.

But that’s not answering the question, just pushing it back a layer. Why does this anomaly exist in the first place? Are there more like it, or is this the only anomaly? And why does playing a different copy feel wrong?

These questions will be the focus of the next post in the series.