History Of Super Mario 64 Rom Hacks

In this video I look at the entire history of Super Mario 64 mods for the N64 Nintendo 64.
0:00 1996-2004 Pre Hacks Era
1:38 2005-2009 First Hacks Era
5:08 2010-2013 First Major Hacks Era
8:00 2014 Chaos / Console compatible
13:53 2015-2016 Last Impact Era
15:48 2017 End of Skelux Era
16:49 2018 Rom Manager Era
20:37 2019 Simpleflips Competitions
23:57 2020 Decomp Era
28:22 2021 Romhacking.com Era
31:34 2022 Serene Fusion Era
34:58 2023 Current Era
If you want to play any of the hacks in the video go here
romhacking.com/
Corrections
3:48 Missing stars was released May 2nd Wiki & Romhacking.com are incorrect.
13:03 Wacky Worlds Was Made by Dudaw12 not Vertex
22:39 Super Mario 64 Land not Super Mario 3D land
23:15 Star Display came out Feb 2017 Wiki listed it wrong
28:22 Scuttlebug_raiser
Creators in this video
@BehindTheCode_wGerry
@Master0fHyrule
@BowserN64
@Starxxon
@frauber
@Skelux
@vinyboiler
@Lugmillord
@BroDute
Skillux
@DobieMeltfire
@Kampel125
@KazeN64
Kinopio
Vertex
@Davideesk
@nebula1684
@Pilzinsel64Pilz
@SimpleFlips
@Alkamyst04
@aglab237
@Dan_GPTV
@aloxadosm64
@PastaPower
@felegg779
@falcobuster9184
@Arthurtilly
@pieordie1
@FoxenFoxen
@thorndust5329
@MrComit
S_NDBB
@biobak
@samothethief
@Render96
@cowquack
@Cheezepin
@jesusyoshi54
@LinCrash
@Toasterketchup
@Tomatobird8
usernamesarespiders
scuttlebug_raise
@Reonu
@mario_jams
@spktk64
@Morskip
@TheGael95
@ArcticJaguar725
@chrisrlillo
@TeamCornersoft
@axollyon
@DNVIC
@mushie6475
@rovertronic
@thecozies
Zenonx
@bellicosebean
@an_unidentified_emu
@FazanaJ
keyblader
@PhantoFantasma
@someone2639
@yoshimilkman3692
@thelegendofzeina1707
Merch
/ @snooplax
Twitter
/ snooplax
#nintendo64
#N64
#SM64

[@dahboo2273]

I remember back in 2011 I had a friend online and he was telling me about this thing called a “ROM Hack” called super Mario 74. I was so lost but I watched him play it not knowing how many hacks would come in the future.

[@donaldthescotishtwin]

Damn sm74 is a big throwback

[@ChrisPTY507]

@@donaldthescotishtwin Yeah specially the extreme edition of SM74.

[@Lugmillord]

@@ChrisPTY507 I wonder what happened to the guy who made it

[@GoofyPoptart]

​@@LugmillordThere he is!!! I still play it till this day bro that's no BS, 74 taught me a lot about the mechanics of the game like diving deep into the way the movement works, I had to once I reached course 14 and 15 I had no choice to up my skills you helped me get better than ever all those years ago.

[@ChrisPTY507]

@@Lugmillord I wonder the same! *Winks

[@enorma29]

Kaze is seriously a programming genius. Right beside Steve Wozniak or John Carmack in terms of sheer talent and creativity.

[@e-mananimates2274]

I was impressed when I saw his Last Impact hack, but he blew it all away with the upcoming Return to Yoshi's Island! As for the cherry on top, he's even enhancing the original game engine himself! WhileyI'm not sure it runs successfully at 60 frames-per-second on a console, it's still a solid improvement over the original!

[@ChrisHilgenberg]

​@@e-mananimates2274just seeing his dev videos where he takes the source code that was dumped from the gigaleak and fixes bugs and adds enhancements to the SM64 engine directly is absolutely insane. He's one of the best in the mod scene for a reason

[@MrAlexmasi]

Kaze has no talent or creativity. He has skills he worked to obtain.

[@zachariah74]

@@MrAlexmasi Level creation and design = creativity, no?

[@MrAlexmasi]

@@zachariah74 Kazes level design is widely regarded as mediocre.

[@DaVince21]

Yooo, shoutouts to Simpleflips! It's kinda amazing how much his competitions have influenced and grown the hacking community.

[@ecstaticwooper368]

the fact we've gone from Jimmy Neutron Luigi to huge feature-length hacks with custom code and entirely new game mechanics is kinda nuts

[@ddnava96]

I still remember when "The missing stars" was like the biggest deal in SM64 romhacks

[@Megapig9001]

No joke I was looking for a video to cover this specific niche like five days ago lol. Glad it exists!

[@Megapig9001]

Was a great video! Only crucial thing that I feel like was missing was Mario 64 Online/Net 64.

[@AvrgDerk]

​@@Megapig9001DEFINITELY I remember being in the discord when that dropped, played with several random people and just never heard of it again years later.

[@Lugmillord]

Fantastic video! I still remember the early days so fondly. Luigi's Pepsi Castle, Super Mario 128, Flatland Battlefield, Skelux's crazy carnival level. That one was so impressive back in the day. This video must have been so much work. Goes directly into my favorites! Also yay: Recognition :D

[@AutisticYui]

I have such nostalgia for Simple's early rom hacking competitions... What an amazing time to be in the community. Can't wait to see what people do with the game in the future!

[@YeahImRose]

yui real?? hope you've been well

[@carltonleboss]

It's amazing to see how far SM64 romhacking has come.

[@zerorig]

UltraHLE was the one that really popularized N64 emulation in my mind. By 2005 we were already getting into gamecube emulation.

[@dacueba-games]

When UltraHLE came out, you needed a Pentium class machine when many were comfortably rocking 486s and connection speeds so slow you'd take an hour to download a (corrupt) ROM. By 2005 however, any old PC could run Project64 at full speed. UltraHLE only popularized N64 emulation in hardcore groups. I believe the video stands correct.

[@claudiopaustian5394]

ultra hle came out in 1999, I remember having a pentium was pretty normal by then... problem is you needed a 3dfx@@dacueba-games

[@frauber]

Nice recollection, just missed acmlm and Jul boards, which host the early history of SM64 Hacking. Also, hcs already got The Missing Stars to run in console as early as 2009, there is still a video of it AFAIR. Missing Stars also has custom code written in "C" besides MIPS R4300ASM.

[@LuigiXHero]

Glad to see you're still alive. Missing stars is still my favorite sm64 hack and one of my big inspirations for making games and hacks.

[@Chelarino]

as someone who has heard all of these names plenty of times before, but only ever caught bits and pieces of what they actually accomplished individually, this is a very nice video to catch up because i always felt kinda guilty eating up sm64 romhack content left and right for probably almost a decade at this point, be it watching videos or play them myself, without actually knowing who to thank for the legacy of what is quite arguably one of the most impressive gaming communities of all time

[@CyberweaverVT]

I’d love to see you explore B3313!

[@RealClassixX]

The name "Toad's tools" is just brilliant, really.

[@guyrocketram9698]

the opening part is sooo nostalgic! i remember watching a lot of those videos back in the day and being OBSESSED with mario 64 romhacks, i wanted to make romhacks when i grew up. frauber's videos especially eeeee :3 thanks for making this video. never realized how much i truly grew up with mario 64 hacks

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

5 months later I gotta say thank you so much for this video, the amount of people entering the romhacking world has increased quite noticably ever since this was posted. And I'm not even a developer or anything I just want more people to play these truly incredible games.

[@SertFilzon]

I love how you casually mention yourself at 20:10

[@reborn756]

Man, having Super Mario 64 and many tools as early as 2005 is Mind Blowing to me, when first got a computer and found about SM64 hacks I couldn't believe it I thought they were really nice edits or something, when I tried Super Mario 74 or Star Rod I was like wow I never finished any mod but I kept downloading every mod that came out and modding tools to make small edits to my videos for many years lol. Now there are so many mods it'd be literally impossible to keep up lol

[@martinthomas2072]

Just remembered super mario 64 bloopers that used texture hacks and gamesharks, it was mindblowing for the time, back in time in the old KZbin. Greetings from Chile 🇨🇱

[@thorndust5329]

Yo, cursed castles was a quite large project, Foxen came up with all the level concepts and models, I did the music, and Kaze and Cheesepin I believe both helped with technical aspects The painting textures were all scans of real paintings his roommate did I did the music when I was 16/17, it's crazy to think about now

[@JyrexMk]

I am very greatful for this work !

[@thehostwiththemost8752]

Great video. I remember being really blown away years ago by some of the texture hacks you showed here, it really is impressive how much has become possible since those days

[@visualsynthetics9882]

I wish the banjo kazooie rom hacking community got more into custom coding and giving us some new moves, optimized performance, and tighter control over the character. I really hope it gets there one day cause playing the most recent sm64 rom hacks is so surreal - the game has basically been rebuilt from the ground up to run just as good as any modern 3d platformer (actually better than most modern platformers) yet somehow still run on a console from almost 30 years ago *bows to kaze*

[@NoBudgetProduct15ns]

Seriously thank you for this, as someone who is just now getting into mario 64 rom hacks last year I always wanted to know the history/timeline! Fantastic video!

[@ChrisPTY507]

I remember back in the early 2010s when Romhacks were unfamiliar to many of us. I am surprised at how much the Mario 64 Romhack community has grown. I remember playing Star Road and being amazed by Skelux's creativity in that game. I also played the Star Revenge saga games by Brodute when I was in college. Just wow... time flies!!!

[@WoahItsWeej]

Wonderful, I now have a massive list of historic rom hacks to play! Great video, can't wait to try these out

[@DoodleNoodle26]

I've wanted a video like this for years and it finally happened!! Thanks so much for making it, I really enjoyed :)

[@itsongaming]

I’ve seen some of the bigger ones but never knew there were so many SM64 ROM Hacks, very informative! 👌

[@yazorock]

I can't believe it, you resurfaced such deep memories. I remember when Toad's Tool was released, oh my god. I also followed Frauber and was stunned at his day/night cycle.

[@Drudicta]

Thank you for all the info, I now wanna go out and try some of the decomp hacks, and emu hacks that I never knew existed.

[@macN64]

Another great video! The spring and summer of 2014 was such an exciting time for me. I remember checking that forum thread all the time, waiting and hoping for Vertex to share his discoveries - and it felt really touch and go at times. I think the 24MB thing was probably more coincidence than anything, in retrospect. The 48MB and 64MB roms usually had more changes made to them, and therefore more things which could be broken. As the video says, 24MB hacks were "Toads Tool only" hacks for the most part, and you would be unlikely to find 24MB hacks which have custom level models with broken textures (or things like the RCVI hack, the broken Mario screen skip or which try to write to the framebuffer's memory area). Year of the Plumber is a great hack for sure, it still looks and sounds fantastic, and it plays not too badly on console these days, once fixed.

[@CaptainLorax]

2:14 "At the time when this video came out, people didn't even understand what a rom hack was." .... I think most PC gamers DID understand in 2005. Sure, maybe some KZbinrs didn't understand but there were tons of rom hacks for older systems.

[@NewportBox100s]

This is so epic! Can’t wait to start streaming these.

[@mechalex01]

32:15 B3313 is the best creepypasta hackrom of Mario 64.

[@indigoiozzi]

Insane video! I have played a few hacks before and was wondering about what to play next. This video is a great guide

[@LuigiXHero]

Missing stars may be ugly by today's standards but it still holds up with it's custom stuff and levels. I recommend it.

[@jakemcduffee3649]

This is such a well done video! Really helpful for people new to Mario 64 romhacks like myself. Love your soundtrack choices as well!

[@KrazyLanLo199]

I've recently started playing Mario 64 rom hacks too, the most fun I've had with Mario 64 since I was a kid

[@graduator14]

Great video! Definitely need to try these.

[@GmShyGuy]

SM64 is my favorite game of all time, and one of the reasons why, is the modding community. So many creative ideas, and so many love is poured into all of these! Also, please do make that video talking about B3313. I'm currently playing through it, and i'm loving every second. Definetely deserves the video!

[@mrsillytacos]

he might considering it's the most downloaded ROM hack to date, and he did like 6 streams on it.

[@GoofyPoptart]

Dude I played through all of that and oh man!!! Was it crazy!! I stopped at like 198 star's I think I couldn't find anymore Im missing a lot but once I got that many it was almost impossible without a guide afterwards.

[@jpsplat]

as someone who found out about mario 64 romhacks like 2 days ago this was a great video to get up to speed! Its so nuts to see what people are doing with decomps, would not be surprised it it gets people's foot in the door to making totally original homebrew 64 stuff.

[@petermarker7855]

yooo snooplax documentary just when i was about to eat let's goo 😼🍴

[@racckoon6127]

Wow... only now I'm realizling how long I've been in this community... Maybe one day I'll make a rom hack. I do plan to!... this is incredible how long this has been going on. I remember waiting for Super Donkey Kong 64, Last Impact, Ocarina of Time too!... Using Toads Tools so many years ago... absolutely insane. Can't wait to see what the future brings for us!

[@TheRatSquid]

God, what a good video. A history of SMW Rom Hacks would also be a cool video.

[@some_guy7734]

not to mention Pannenkoek and Kaze’s ABC Trials, a TAS competition for $1000

[@maxrichards5925]

Man what an awesome video. I remember when I was introduced to SM64: last impact when I saw a trailer for it. Even if it was a bit janky I’ll always have a soft spot for it. Same goes for SM64 x OOT

[@2frgn]

Bro that info about parallel launcher is so goated I can't wait to switch from pj64 now

[@thodds68]

aw man was kinda hoping my sonic edition hack was mentioned during the decomp era

[@carltonleboss]

So Starxxon is the God of the SM64 hacking scene?

[@lollol4106]

a 35 min video on sm64 romhack history? thats an insta watch and like.

[@PhantomBane]

For a while, I somehow believed I knew everything about Mario 64 ROMhacks. I learned a lot from this video. Great work bro

[@Invisfire777]

The Coldplay midi during the simpleflips section was so distracting lmfao

[@SuperWiiBros08]

This is so freaking good, I really wanna check all these hacks

[@Poyostar]

You know, it's nice to have a video chronicling the Super Mario 64 ROM hacking history until this point. There are so many great ones even beyond those mentioned in the video, like Super Spamton 64 or even simpler things like the Klonoa ROM hack that replaces Mario with, well, Klonoa. This community has come so far, and I'm super proud of where they are now.

[@RoseQuartz692]

The first Kaizo hack was Super Mario 128 came out 2008

[@jhsevs]

5:33 This is really really cool. I have a couple of monochrome CRTs I should try to play this on. I really hope it is possible to play it in 60fps.

[@dieuwap]

Well made and very interesting

[@spacemario]

6:18 I'm really glad to hear that I'm not the only one who thinks that. SM Star Road is basically a SM64 2

[@JadeiteMcSwag]

Great video snoopdog

[@Auddie264]

Just ordered a hoodie I can't wait to get it!

[@R.P.Pyotrsovich]

There's a new Mario 64 hack involving a haunted manor "Mario & The Monsterous manor", I'd figure you could be interested..

[@xg.55555]

Amazing work Now please continue the hack tierlist 😢😅 Or do what you want to do. I love the channel😊

[@Skeltan]

Really neat video, I'm surprised you didn't cover sm64ex-coop (decomp online multiplayer version of sm64) because it's probably one of the biggest decomp build. It also has lua modding compatibility.

[@roundninja]

Still blows my mind every time I think about how many SM64 Rom hacks there are and how advanced they're getting

[@charlie891]

i saw all this evolve in real time, i didnt realise how lucky i was to be around for the genesis of it

[@donaldthescotishtwin]

There’s quite a few you missed out tbf. Like dudaws wacky worlds definitely had a fair impact back in the 2008-09 era.

[@sem_aki]

Will use this video as a reference on what hacks i still need to play lol

[@AProbablyPostman]

Kaze's video on 60 fps on console inspired me to go back to school for computer science

[@lilgabbo2587]

It must have been over 8 years ago when I first found out about Mario 64 rom hacking, guess I also touched a bit of Super Mario World rom hacking too. Star Road was the first one I really saw and it utterly stunned me how someone could create an original game within it, being able to make unique level designs, set pieces and even mechanics and music. I already loved Mario 64 as a kid as it was so seeing the creativity that came from the rom hacking community was awesome. Granted I did mostly watch a lot of them since I did have difficulties when it came to emulating (I was very young when I first got into it), but I was still utterly wowed by what creativity people had when it came to using an existing games engine and code to create their own mods or completely new games in of themselves, I also deeply respect the freetime and dedication because I know I wouldn't have the patience nor free time to do it myself. It's awesome to see how far Mario 64 hacking has come. It's fascinating to look back at hacks like Super Mario 64 the Missing Stars which you can tell the early years of Mario 64 hacking was unimpressive by today's standards, but at the time would have still been pretty impressive, it helped add more to an already amazing game thanks to fan creativity and user created tools. And now we have so many ambitious hacks, makes me happy how far hacking for this game has come. I guess all the hacking creativity is part of why I love Mario 64 so much, aside it being a pretty revolutionary video game I do have a lot of nostalgia for.

[@noremorseproductions]

Great video!

[@magazineog]

The creators of these hacks were like celebrities back in the day. Thankful for everyone’s contributions to the genre.

[@EKSBEntertainment]

Texture editing was possible before toadstool since I was a texture editor for sm64 smash even golden eye perfect dark

[@youreyesarebleeding1368]

I've gotta say, "Bowser's Blueprints" is an excellent name for that software. I'm running Linux and I'm glad to hear there is a tool I can use, I might give it a try.

[@ErinKatzee]

shoutouts to simpleflips for reall though the rom hack comps have done INSANE things for the community

[@GoofyPoptart]

Im happy I took my journey into the Rom scene, there's so many good games/level's with amazing design I still get mind blown to this day at some of the stuff people make. Super Mario 74 was my first adventure then Star Road & after that Last impact, all three of them had me in jaw drop the whole time playing I had so much fun.

[@FlipRB]

you should do more video like these on other 64 games

[@BIG_CLARKY]

kozza is my favorite sm64 romhacker

[@applekid1516]

So crasy 2009 man... 2009 I was playing smw hacks and I remember how I was tense for the new SM64 hacks

[@saligraphy]

The amount of creativity in this community is mind blowing!! How are these people paying for rent tho?

[@crocodileman94]

It's rare to see an SM64 ROM hack video that acknowledges Brodute.

[@txsteakman93]

brings tears to my eyes what a great milestone 🧡👍👍👍

[@KingBat]

I like how you talk about your hacks in third person.

[@mechalex01]

Epic, comrade!

[@junoeclipse7715]

This is incredibly well made and it is extremely valuable to have all this history and information compiled in one place

[@keaton718]

Fuckin' love hearing Snoop's voice. He should do audiobooks, read us Tale of Two Cities and shit.

[@opex1000]

Those were freakin awesome!

[@Matt-yz5cw]

Thanks for tip on serene fusion, looks awesome! I still think Last Impact is the top dog but excited to check it out. Is there a music list from your video? Some great songs

[@Koutsie]

+1 i wish.

[@Infindox]

That one dream hack was in 2022???? I swear time flies, I thought that was this year lol

[@ddnava96]

Tbf we were in 2022 just 9 months and 1 week ago

[@dissonanceparadiddle]

We've come so far and so fast now the Zelda hack competition where I failed to submit anything feels so recent yet so far away. I really should for practice both finish that one and try to make one for each retroactive competition. I just couldn't get this one model to stay inside another model basically a custom sign inside a small transparent room It kept either being on top of the model or below it and I'm wondering if there's some kind of collision option I needed to check off.

[@rgerber]

Kaze is his own category of "rom hacks"

[@SGTsiete]

Hearing Kaze pronounced like that sent me into a panic.

[@Exspazament]

Kaze is a legend.

[@LuigiXHero]

So the reason peach's fury is similar to vacation course is because theyre both heavily inspired by bowsers fury. I heavily recommend playing that its the best 3d mario.

[@Kirbyiscooll]

The Mario, 64 music engine works really well with other songs in the franchise. 😊😊

[@Thatkidwithacamera00]

Dude this video kicks all sorts of ass!

[@ToyotaKudoFan]

I remember when Super Mario 64 Star Road was released, I had never seen a rom hack that was basically an entirely new game in itself. Who’d have thought that it was only the beginning for massive rom hacks?

[@Ethan_Davies]

Had a massive reality check when I saw chaos edition was 8 years old. Man that feels weird.

[@jasonhunter1685]

Thank you for explaining rhis history. As for someone who's never played ANY of these rom hacks where would you suggest I get started? There are so many options its hard to know where to start. Back in 96 I bought N64 the first day it came out. I'm super comfortable with the mario 64 mechanics. Absolutely love 3D and 2D platformers.

[@speedslider3913]

What's the song that starts at 26:26? It sounds awesome!

[@Snooplax]

Return to Yoshi's Island Happy Vegetables soundcloud.com/user-746537853/course_1_happy_vegetables?in=user-746537853/sets/return-to-yoshis-island-ost&

[@mill2712]

​@@Snooplax I don't think it would be a bad idea to link the song list in the description. Would help a lot of remixers and listeners.

[@tylerconey5613]

Shoutouts to simpleflips

[@Clodd1]

Kaze is our hero.

[@RemiAutor]

lol that console compatibility link vertrex shit is hilarious.

[@smk4930]

Thanks!!