Princess Peach's Castle

Princess Peach's Castle is a recurring local in the Mario universe, being the royal castle of Princess Peach. The expansive castle serves as the hub world of Super Mario 64, with the paintings acting as the portals between the game's several levels. In Super Mario 64's story, Bowser infiltrated the castle and trapped all the Toads and Power Stars within the castle walls.

Geography
Princess Peach's Castle itself is a vast multi-story castle made from grey bricks and a red roof. The sides of the castle overhang its moat, which is typically risen (although it can be lowered in the basement). The castle has four small spires with flags and a taller central spire with a massive spike. The front of the castle has a stained glass window of Princess Peach, which is also visible in the castle's foyer.

November 22nd 1995
Found in the patent for the Ultra 64 (the original name for the Nintendo 64) are six images displaying Princess Peach's Castle in greyscale. These images show a slightly different version of the castle. Most notably, the stained glass window is now a clock, and there's a massive cloud that intersects the central tower of the castle.



Shoshinkai '95 Demo
With the first true unveiling of Super Mario 64 to the public came the first iteration of the castle. As a result, the public could look at the interior of the castle for the first time

The outside of the castle appears mostly unchanged from the patent aside from the removal of the cloud and other minor changes. The interior is vastly different from how it appears in the release. One difference is that in the released version, the walls were painted to look like a sunny meadow. In this version, however, it is painted to look more like a twilight sky with oranges at the bottom and dark blues at the top of the walls. The stairs that lead up to the second floor are also notably missing. Instead replaced with two giant steps, Mario has to jump up.

Eternal Star Statue
In the center of the castle courtyard, a statue of a star can be found in the middle of the fountain. Underneath it is a plaque with ambiguous writing. The most popular interpretation of this plaque is that it reads "L is Real 2401", leading many to believe that Luigi is hidden somewhere in the game and that the number "2401" relates to how he must be unlocked. Other interpretations are that it reads "Eternal Star."

The plaque reappears in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where it can be read legitimately. The text that accompanies it is entirely unrelated to Super Mario 64 and is used more as a generic plaque texture. The Eternal Star Statue also reappears in Super Mario 64 DS and Super Mario Odyssey, where Princess Peach's Courtyard reappears. Interestingly, in Super Mario 64, DS Luigi is unlocked through Big Boo's Haunt, which is accessed through the courtyard.

Fourth Floor

 * See Princess Peach's Castle/Fourth Floor

In most copies of Super Mario 64, there are only four floors to Princess Peach's Castle: the basement, the ground floor, the second floor, and then the final floor, which houses the clock room and endless staircase. However, a mysterious fourth floor has been rumored to exist within some copies of Super Mario 64.

Most interpretations of the fourth floor have spanning halls that seem to go on endlessly, with rows of Boos floating through the hall aimlessly though some players have also seen Waluigi here.

Black Box
Seen only within the save select screen of Super Mario 64 DS. There is a strange black box that can be seen on one of the back spires of the castle. It's situated high on the wall, and what it was intended for is unknown.

Internal Plexus
It's commonly theorized that the castle is a physical manifestation and representation of the A.I., which personalizes and adapts Super Mario 64 to the player's desires. The castle's intricate and bizarre layout could be a result of the A.I.'s intricate inner workings, with the castle's very walls and rooms representing the A.I.'s vessels and nerves.

This hypothesis is supported by a former developer's anecdote about the fabled 1995/07/29 build of the game. Here he describes that the basement of the castle was used as a testing ground for the A.I.'s ability to adapt to players, creating an endless labyrinth for players to run through. An unfortunate playtester was apparently droved insane by endlessly wandering the basement. The fact that the castle now appears bigger in the retail copy only implies that the A.I. has grown more since the 1995/07/29 build.

Reportings

 * Everything in this section should be taken with a grain of salt. These are all unverified claims.

Wario Land 64
Supposedly, Princess Peach's Castle is a remodelling of Wario's Castle, from the scrapped Wario Land 64, that served as an early prototype to Super Mario 64.

The outside of the castle looks extremely different: It's now mainly coloured in a dark grey, the red parts of the outside of the castle have been replaced by yellow; the windows are more scrappy and less cartoony, and they have purple accents; and most notably, the large Peach painting has been replaced by a gigantic silver W. Additionally, the sky is grey and full of clouds; the valley around the castle's trees are now leafless and black, and the valley is noticeably smaller, too. While the waterfall and the water below the castle stay the same, there is a gigantic door with a whole new texture in the center of it, that leads to a certain dungeon-themed level from the prototype.

The interior's layout itself hasn't changed at all, but the textures have, in its entirety. The castle walls' textures have changed to resemble gold walls, with symbols that reference Wario around them. There's also several small portraits of Wario, money and garlics; some of these smaller portraits have been graffiti'd, too. The portrait rooms also have different wall textures, that resemble the main parlor's. The portraits, ofcourse, have changed, to resemble the game's levels.

Castle Garden

 * Main article: Castle Garden

Youtube user Jefftastic, who was responsible for documenting cases of DLR and the Flying Fortress, discovered a strange version of the castle courtyard, named the "Castle Garden". Unlike the courtyard, which only boasts trees and a fountain, the Castle Garden has a grassy area with flowers and a path that extends to a sign and a door on the left. This door leads Mario to a dark room, where a lonesome Toad questions why he isn't out saving the other Toads and Peach from the castle walls. There's another door in the dark room, although upon entering it the game crashes.