Mistake in Super Mario 64

In this video I look into a mistake in SM64 code that makes the smoke cloud texture appear incorrectly.
Huge shout out to zoinknoise for creating a patch for this fix
www.romhacking....
N64 Squid Article about N64 texture formats
n64squid.com/h...
Huge thanks to the SM64 decompilation team & ProjectRevoTPP for finding this error.
I made this video on March 20 2020 but decided to re-edit it to be 9:16 to be a youtube short
#nintendo64
#shorts
#sm64

[@PenguinMaths]

I've always thought the smoke looked a little too much like the spray paint tool in MS paint. Nice explanation.

[@BillyEilish]

Exactly!! Glad it got fixed eventually. I don't know if Nintendo will have it fixed on the Switch?

[@SmashyPlays]

@@BillyEilish they didn't fix it in 3d all stars so nope

[@thatexitsignuser]

Yeah like back when GTA SA myths were all just black ms Paint spray tool

[@linksgranny64]

It's like something you notice out the corner of your eye but you didn''t notice till someone points it out

[@eastbeastfilms]

Came here to say the same thing. Rather fond of the original

[@tentacle0]

it's called a mistake but sometimes I wonder if someone did that by accident, saw the result, and thought it actually looked better. the "correct" smoke texture kinds just looks like a black blob when bunched together.

[@AbandonedVoid]

so does smoke

[@devilblackdeath]

@@AbandonedVoid But to be fair modern techniques use animated smoke sprites or volumetric shading to get better effect. Those cluttered unanimated sprites have too much definition to be used as a particle-based smoke. Even when it was done that way back then they tended to be more round in their overall shape whereas here it's shaped like a cloud.

[@badreality2]

@@devilblackdeath Via composite, it looks like "smoke".

[@shred_zed1]

@@badreality2 that's what I was thinking, it could have easily just looked better on older much smaller, lower definition TVs.

[@DrakeAsleep]

I agree

[@VenusFeuerFalle]

I always thought these are ashes, as a child, instead of smoke.

[@lumpofpooonastring]

Mario’s dead ashes

[@Andy_0L]

That's weird

[@Kno_2-d8h]

@@Andy_0L😐

[@samsaverino8159]

I always thought it looked weird

[@frosted_glaceon5513]

Marios were burned in the making of this.

[@ViceCityGinseng]

2 to be exact

[@shigerunintendo_943]

No Mario's were harmed in making of this game

[@cuhTheEditor]

⁠​⁠@@ViceCityGinseng “Marios” theres a reason he said that

[@ViceCityGinseng]

@@cuhTheEditor 2 to be exact there’s a reason I said that

[@cuhTheEditor]

@@ViceCityGinseng sureeeee

[@Laughy-Flaaffy]

I think the “fixed” version looks better in our HD resolution, but the original probably looked much better on our little blurry tv’s in the 90’s. The developers most likely made that “mistake” deliberately.

[@circuit10]

I doubt that, they would just have changed the original texture image instead of corrupting the texture format and hoping that it somehow makes it look better

[@alielouafiq2552]

That's not true, if that's the case why would have used the wrong Asset

[@DoubleBob]

@@alielouafiq2552 Cause who cares?

[@GerhardTreibheit]

yeah, they probably were like "meh, this even looks better, lets just keep it that way"

[@awsomebot1]

Why even assume it's a mistake in the first place. It's not like it was a typo

[@MrFoxInc]

It's been mentioned before, but maybe this was a mistake that they intentionally kept. Maybe it wasn't even a mistake, maybe they figured that the original is missing something or looks off (especially on a CRT at the time) and the coder did this simple change in the code and it luckily worked out well for them. The whole "Happy accidents"-thing by Bob Ross is not a meme, it's a common occurrence in the field of design and any designer worth his salt keeps an open mind about this. This thing about the smoke was "easy" to find because it was written in code but I'm sure Mario 64 has a bunch of designs that started out as something else too, and there's no public documentation about that. Speaking from my own experience, it happened to me more than once that I was working on a sprite and as my fingers slipped and put a pixel where it doesn't belong, I realised that this is a cool visual accent and I started building around that. Everyone who is just getting started in design: Know that not even the pros always know what they're doing. Some of it is experience, some of it is intuition and some of it is just "Oh oops. Huh. I guess that works. Nice."

[@FritzCopyCat]

I agree. I'm not convinced It wasn't left that way intentionally, as it does look better (almost like a particle effect).

[@eymed2023]

That last paragraph is so true, not just about programming, but everything in life.

[@Chrisrobba]

Most definitely, I’m sure it was tested multiple times and they liked it that way.

[@circuit10]

I can see it being a mistake that was left that way but I don’t think it’s intentional, you wouldn’t think “I need to change this texture, but instead of just changing the image, I’ll intentionally cause the GPU to read the texture in a corrupted way and hope that somehow makes it look better”

[@undividual3891]

@@circuit10 Its not corrupting anything, just displaying it differently.

[@Noisy_Cricket]

This has to be one of the most famous glitches in videogames. Even as a kid I thought that smoke looked horrible, but figured they must've run out of memory or something. Glad to know it was just a glitch.

[@BananaMana69]

Yeah people keep saying it probably looked better on a CRT but I played SM64 on a like 13 inch, cheap ass CRT as a kid and I definitely noticed the smoke looking really weird. I used to burn myself constantly to try and get a better look at it.

[@superlavahair1536]

@@BananaMana69 ?

[@ElSandwich777]

Here I was thinking the issue was Mario’s dead ass eyes.

[@mem62680]

Bro!

[@Zenith_Editzz]

I did too wtf

[@brandongordon4019]

Honestly, from these 2 clips, I like the look of the glitched texture a bit more. Something about the way they stack up together looks better to me. But might just be nostalgia, who knows

[@circuit10]

@happytreefriendslegacy227?

[@ethanpoegamerpoe9346]

Nah, I like it a lot more

[@bloxianguy778]

@happytreefriendslegacy227 Cool, and that’s your opinion.

[@tacokoneko]

i have played this game so much that i see the original as the "normal" one and the fixed version as "modded"

[@Sly88Frye]

I can't believe somebody actually would figure this one out.

[@bos7aim]

Maybe it was intended when the game was programmed in the first place for CRT TVs with scanlines which has handles the end results differently

[@mariowario5945]

Nope, it looks buggy on original hardware with a crt too. It's also less efficient with the color format that they accidentally set it to

[@Htw6048]

Scan lines are the result of the pixels being BLASTED ONTO THE SCREEN, and so you can see the pixels so bright that you can see horizontal lines

[@mark9294]

Absolutely outrageous. I’ll travel back in time and demand my money back

[@FourthIdentity-gu2zk]

Stuff like this makes me realize I was NEVER gonna be a video game designer

[@pokeplazagamer]

I feel like this is a mistake anyone would make, and it was probably never fixed during development because nobody looked close enough to realize it was wrong.

[@wileecoyotegenius5955]

Honestly I think the smoke in the original game looks better.

[@Anonymous-wi6ig]

But it looks more like spray paint than smoke.

[@bloxianguy778]

@happytreefriendslegacy227 Your opinion is nice.

[@coldstuff9784]

I like it too but that might just be the nostalgia talking

[@speedrunz5life]

Mario also has X's in his eyes even though he's not dead

[@cay7809]

that’s on purpose?

[@LITTLE1994]

That's what makes it hilarious.

[@BananaMana69]

Even as a kid I thought the smoke texture looked odd. I have vivid memories of burning myself over and over in lethal lava land to look at the weird smoke.

[@stormychu5677]

Very nice, funy how such a small bug existed for so long.

[@JohnSmith-qj2ud]

They couldn't exactly update games back then and it would cost way too much to recall all the copies to fix it

[@theconfusingwords]

Fantastic short! Great job Snooplax

[@bestlorim821]

I tought he was talking about that fire💀

[@glidershower]

I saw it as the kind of embers in smoke you see when burning paper or charcoal. Like some particles of Mario's overalls were floating in the air burning off. I think this one went unnoticed because the "faulty" smoke actually is more transparent than the intended texture for it.

[@Liminally_ill]

This is new to me and all I do is watch Mario 64 stuff 😭😭😭 great content!

[@shadowlink2000000009]

I always thought the smoke looked weird now I know why

[@sperryyoungerjr.3985]

Thanks. I've learned something on game development. I'm currently studying to become one.

[@sonyabladesbooty3890]

A what

[@timmyfamilygaming8465]

Good luck on becoming a game

[@Felix-Felix]

I've always noticed that, even as a kid. I remember making Mario 64 drawings on MSPaint and using the spray tool for the smoke and even, in my silly child brain, thought they "made part of mario 64 on paint"

[@DrakeAsleep]

Yeah I always thought the fire looked like the black spray from ms paint.

[@BradGoo-p3q]

I always thought the smoke looked weird as a kid

[@karkatvantas69420]

Its still insane to believe that for 25 years, we thought that the glitched smoke was totally normal.

[@Nix-Man]

Nintendo: Thank you for point that out. *releases the chain chops*

[@meltedyakkystick3891]

I always thought the smoke texture looked off in this game even when I played it as a kid

[@ZMYaro]

I kind of bristle as this being treated as a “mistake”. This definitely looks as though it could have been an intentional artistic decision, especially since it appears similar to the effects for warps and the vanish cap.

[@magicalcapi9148]

LITERALLY unplayable! How Nintendo keeps getting away???

[@wareforcoin5780]

Gr8t b8 m8, I r8 8/8

[@GODOFAWSOMENESS1]

I prefer the mistake. It looks better and looks more like smoke then the fix

[@krisbies]

It’s crazy just how many of the greatest games of all time are just spaghetti code held together with nothing but scotch tape and prayers

[@buzzmathehedgehog1974]

OMG THE SMOKE IS DIFFERENT!!!!!

[@timiddorangaming]

I like the glitched one a lot more... Fits with the style of the game better than a formless black pillar

[@clairefox437]

I immediately realized that the smoke was weird, but I thought that it was just like that for no reason.

[@deanwings]

I thought the OG looked better like smoke particles. Maybe that's what they were going for and it wasn't a mistake, or a happy mistake.

[@vasheal]

That doesn't mean it was a mistake.

[@WoFDarkNewton]

Ok, but there's still something iconic with the original which is lost with the fix. It's very clear that it was a mistake, but maybe it wasn't a mistake to leave it like that.

[@Chernobog2]

Similarly, the texture for Deku Sticks in both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is incorrectly rendered, but the end result on both games still looked like a piece of wood so it just worked out

[@kevingustavocarrascogonzal3430]

On a CRT this wouldn't have been noticeable either which is a cool detail

[@goatsplitter]

As a professional coder, "the fix being as simple as changing 3 letters" hits it home lol.

[@scorpionwins6378]

Something that always bugged me about SM64 was the health recovery system, how collecting coins and jumping into water would replenish your health. When underwater they could have used an air meter to track how long Mario could hold his breath instead of draining his health when he was under for too long. I also don't understand why coins are used for health recovery when developers saw for to include those spinning hearts located in random areas of the map.

[@bananachild1936]

What if it was intentional? Because the original texture didn't looked "crispy" enough?

[@sasgayable]

Boy I hope somebody got fired for that blunder

[@Levacque]

I think the original smoke looks better, but that's only because it's what I expect to see

[@TicyPhenylFanClub]

I like how they didn't fix it in all stars

[@RetroDarioGaming]

That is because they used the Super Mario 64 Shindou Version

[@circuit10]

The All Stars version is quite low effort, they didn’t fix or change much other than textures

[@Grooveedood]

I always thought the smoke looked weird

[@Rócherz]

But the wrong texture is my childhood… 😢

[@HireEgg]

Too bad

[@TGWT]

tbh, the game is soo good to the point that nobody wouldn't notice it too much. Also, i find the old coding more charming about the game.

[@andrewpotts]

Here I thought the mistake was Mario's voice. It sounds notably deeper than hos other voice lines.

[@lhip_b]

Of course it took that long, it's 3 letters in like 1000000 lines of code. Dang.

[@cristianmr08]

My ass could never discover this

[@adamnoakes2550]

Might be Mandela Effect, but I had the PAL version which released later with various patches and I seem to remember it having "fixed" smoke.

[@KYLE1654-v7m]

I wonder if they didn't have time to fix it. This game did have a deadline.

[@theghostcreator776]

... What do you mean have time it literally would have taken half a minute if that

[@g2worn92]

What’s the music in the video called?

[@lucdubois3927]

It's the observatory music from zelda majora's mask

[@WilfredCthulu]

Bruh we've known this for like years now.

[@wareforcoin5780]

It's ok to make a video about old information.

[@shao1423]

Maybe the devs felt the bugged looks better

[@nuttyboy23231]

I always wondered why the smoke looked like pepper

[@animosity3771]

i did not know he had X pupils until now

[@jeremyandrews3292]

I'm guessing they probably didn't notice because it looks okay either way... I honestly wouldn't have known what the difference was if you hadn't pointed it out, it's very subtle. The original looks more like soot or ash coming off Mario, the fixed version looks more like smoke. Either way could work, really. Neither looks too far off from what I'd expect to see.

[@xaviertaylor1]

You know that peach artwork Is scary

[@LittleRainGames]

Original looks better, i believe it was a stylistic choice.

[@thebadlegoanimationman2709]

Well since the first one was the one we all knew that's the real one and the 2nd one is a mistake. I rest my case.

[@TrappedinaBrain]

It's an interesting observation, but it's kind of stretching to call it a "mistake". It could've been an intentional creative choice.

[@zyn87]

Why is it a mistake? It looks better to begin with. The "correct" way looks like a black blob, not smoke.

[@circuit10]

Because it was done by accident?

[@wilosaur]

you don't know thay

[@Johnny_Duster]

No Mario’s were harmed in the making!

[@Slitikus]

Who looked to the left and squinted they're eyes with this one?

[@Genzaijh]

I always wondered why the smoke looked weird like a shot gun spray pattern, but just accepted it as it was due to the blockinees of the game back then, who knew it was just a programming error. Nice to see what it was intended for. Also interesting the original developers didn't catch this. I guess at the time they thought it was good enough. I haven't played post N64 versions. I wonder if they fixed this yet. If not I bet they will after they find out what they did. Man I bet Nintendo could learn a lot from hackers, you guys are doing amazing things.

[@OctagonalSquare]

I could honestly see this being noticed a year or two after release, but you can’t do download patches so whoever noticed it just didn’t say anything

[@wolfetteplays8894]

I knew that texture was always off 🤔 just didn’t know the technical reason for it

[@Eric-nn9xf]

I’ll take OG mistakes over a fix

[@mvpandrew93]

*Personally I like the incorrect graphic. The correct one looks too much like the smoke that comes out of the karts on mario kart.*

[@UnstableRebel]

Good work mate! I hope those coders burn in hell for their past transgressions

[@circuit10]

Um…

[@DeathSentence1991]

Some people just have too much time on their hands

[@Dark_Mario_Bros.]

Well, even thought the smoke was a mistake or not, I think it still works despite that 😅

[@LexicaLovesick]

Wow, I hope somebody got fired for this wretched mistake.

[@colinjackson-xn9ro]

Nintendo ninjas are coming after that hacker

[@WTFAREUDOIN420]

HMM... Remember people, EVERY COPY OF SUPER MARIO 64 IS PERSONALIZED

[@frankjosephdaniels3733]

Did they say they made a mistake? Maybe they did it on purpose.

[@syncmonism]

I'm not sure if the new one actually looks better though. Maybe they saw the mistake, but realized that it looked worse after fixing it, so switched it back to the mistaken code again?

[@Bepdomize]

Yeah, we didn't realize it was a mistake because it looked better than the fix... No context behind it doesn't help either.

[@rikvis]

Uh oh. Someone is getting fired.

[@mayhoinville9687]

🎀 The "Mistake" looks better, tbh

[@ipeealot_o9550]

Mario looks like he got Amaterosu by itachi

[@maguirre16]

How anyone would find that is insane

[@poiklp5615]

It's not a mistake games just weren't out very long yet... Plus it works perfectly fine

[@ChristenSmith-p3c]

it can only work if you don’t have enough stars and you go to the infinite staircase

[@sebcuh]

astral observatory music🔥

[@AgentXRifle]

Eww vertical format! I love you snooplax but how about we stick with landscape instead of portrait 😂

[@BillyEilish]

That's because this part of KZbin #Shorts!

[@БогданКрименюк]

@@BillyEilish A.k.a. TikTube

[@giratina2825]

Thx for giving me a headacke with this info 😂😭

[@mikebblack]

I think it was intentional as the top one looks better. I do that all the time. Use happy accidents... If i had the creative design director over my shoulder saying "that dosent look right" then i update it. Then they say perfect leave it dont touch it. Keep it like that.

[@KingdomHeart556]

The mistake looks better

[@acglass]

We’re assuming it’s a mistake… not a decision…?

[@Hai7273]

I felt there was something wrong back in the days😮

[@dw9932]

I wonder if it was intentional it looks more realistic for smoke when corrupted and glitched

[@held2053]

Those unused eyes

[@frikyouall]

I can promise you that 9 y/o me did not care.

[@Nonskiller]

I think the mistake is good and the intention should be removed instead.