Why Obtaining the 121st Star in Super Mario 64 Will Be the Hardest Challenge (Debunked in Part 2)

[@SwankyBox]

🔴IMPORTANT UPDATE 🔴- So it turns out things in this video aren't 100% accurate. Since this video has come out new information has come into play (for me at least) thanks to the M64 modding community. Check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/noK8pnx_arWbj5I ---- Original pinned comment: Gonna add a quick note about The Cutting Room Floor excerpt. So the excerpt is commenting on what stars used to be back in the day. 2D sprites essentially. However, what wasn't mentioned was that this sprite is now the same model as a normal power star. I think that's incredibly important to document because it shows it was updated, or at least all assets tied to those old stars were universally updated to reflect modern stars. I think if this was mentioned or documented in the past, a lot more people would have raised an eyebrow. Context is really everything. Also, got any ideas for getting this? Someone hiding ACE mechanics up their sleeve? I'm curious to hear your thoughts!

[@kwisowofer9872]

Well, what object in Super Mario 64 normally rotates diagonally?

[@RogueRabbit]

Swankyzone Luigi in Mario 64

[@RogueRabbit]

Breath of the Wild

[@poggatura]

no

[@MineCreeperHD]

Ace was discovered recently in Oot, right? maybe in the future, there is a way to do it in sm64 where we could change the stars loading properties by some mean... I'm no expert tho so idk if that's even possible^^

[@themidnightotaku22]

Would this star be called: “Deep Dive off the Icy Slide” if it was collectable?

[@Scrubermensch]

"Can the penguin fly?"

[@clickerty3]

"The Ice Jumping"

[@Jonkstrap]

Yea! honestly, this stars location feels like it should actually be in the game.

[@V1CT1MIZED]

I like it :D

[@Twilit_Gamer]

"Icy Slide's Shiny Pride". That's be a good name, right? Or should it be "Shiny Pride of the Icy Slide"?

[@theYTfox]

Arbitrary code execution to enable the star then collect it, sounds like a TASBOT job for me, new category 121 star would be awesome

[@MineNAdventurer]

New speedrun to Mario 64, The TAS only 121 (techncially 122 in story) star run

[@kiraangle2823]

Ace is legend of zelda exclusively far as n64 goes from what i know

[@nicholasargiros1331]

Was thinking this exact thing

[@apex8304]

kira angle it’s worth noting that OOT runs on a modified super Mario 64 engine. So I’d wager it’s indeed possible just nobody’s figured out how yet

[@augustdahlkvist3998]

With ACE you could just spawn and collect any amount of stars you wanted.

[@rex_ink]

oh god those stars are gonna haunt us forever arent they

[@edgelord8337]

True.

[@CarlosEduardo-nt8dn]

There is always a starman waiting in the sky

[@teedeegremlin]

The stars' cloaking devices are clouds.

[@jebalbert5903]

@@CarlosEduardo-nt8dn awesome bowie reference

[@dbnet_]

no, probably not lol.

[@CyluxHalfheart]

10:07 to skip to what you actually came here for.

[@guitarwithjamesoffical]

Cylux Halfheart I saw this at 10:04 smh

[@_Teej_264]

0:00 for what I came for

[@guitarwithjamesoffical]

TJ Lowe haha well yes the video was great :)

[@_Teej_264]

@toad the Imperial guard and Mario the plumber the whole video

[@legendxpro8315]

Thanks, I hate clickbaiters

[@IvoryTears17]

"So is there a 121st star?" Well, yes. But technically no.

[@pigs6486]

Technically yes, officially no

[@MetroidPrime388]

@@pigs6486 officially yes, but actually no

[@phillipg7041]

Actually yes, but collectable no

[@Proj8ct]

Technically nes actually yo

[@Yx_Shorty_xY]

Sort-of-maybe yes, but let’s go with that’s a yes to a no.

[@PkmariO64]

I have actually collected the 121st star and found out that you unlock Luigi by doing so. Trust me guys, I’m on the internet.

[@nekosh1ru]

Just tried it, unlocked luigi on top of the roof! You will have to wait at the fountain for 60 minutes before hand though.

[@YTSirBlack]

Stop making Belmonte's hoaxes

[@mattfromwiisports9414]

@@YTSirBlack It's a joke you soggy cereal

[@kirbycreep]

@@nekosh1ru *64 minutes

[@nekosh1ru]

@@kirbycreep Oh yeah, my gucci smart shoes must have their time set wrong

[@bigtimetimmyjim6486]

Theory: Luigi is hiding inside the 3-star door at the bottom of the slide pit.

[@jazzabighits4473]

L is real

[@EpicEric25]

2401

[@gamersinacontainer]

NO

[@gamersinacontainer]

@Yoav Otts YESN'T

[@otherlego]

gamers in a container YESN’T’VE

[@f1ggyc]

Tip: wiki pages store their own history, you don't need to use the way back machine and also it will go back past the landing page

[@kneesnap1041]

I was nearly tearing out my hair when I saw he wasn't using the history feature. He could have even seen who added the post, contacted them, and asked clarifying questions.

[@aryandescendant6116]

@@kneesnap1041 Email him.

[@justindeclair346]

The fact that this game is almost 25 years old and people are still finding new things and coming up with new goals for it amazes me. This game truly never dies.

[@gabe_dies_alone6399]

The hardest part: convincing the community that there is 121 stars

[@Scarapter]

because there isn't, its a load of junk data the editor read and then loaded into the game, its nothing more than an appearance of a star, but not what defines one. it's like plastic replicas of food, you can see it, but you can't eat it

[@gabe_dies_alone6399]

Scarapter I didn’t even watch the video I just commented lol

[@chanchitojr3398]

Scarapter deep asf

[@horseyproductions2983]

Eat your cereal

[@vexzno]

For some reason this popped in my head and i haven’t finished the video yet and it’s dumb. Wait, if there are 121 stars, the 100% speed run was a 99%! This was the sentence

[@scibusG]

Wikis (like tcrf) have view-able page histories. You don't need to use Wayback Machine. The info was added on May 30th 2012

[@ultimatestargazer]

yoo my birthday is may 30

[@danboekenoogen4957]

When you said “2D stars,” my first thought was the beta star sprite.

[@isabellegrimes8775]

Dan Boekenoogen Same! I just never made the connection to it being a 121st Star lol

[@GibusWearingMann]

Same, and the behavior described matches up.

[@egoalter8745]

Sounds to me like flat earth

[@cat_ann_]

Thats literally what TCRF was referring too. Too bad this guy is incapable of realizing that.

[@robertanderson9447]

@@cat_ann_ Except he corrects himself in the pinned comment so no need to be a dick

[@thrakerzad5874]

Imagine if collecting this star just caused you to go back to the start screen and erased your game save but when you go to start a new game you're Luigi now

[@zaz1007]

That would be a dream for some and a nightmare for others. Lol.

[@jared-2]

You can now play as Luigi.

[@kab43]

L is real 121

[@oranda26.22]

Plot twist: there’s also a 151st Star in the DS version that unlocks Waluigi

[@realperson9951]

[Waluigi's hat symbol thing] is real 2041

[@G_Genie]

@@realperson9951 Γ is real 2041

[@realperson9951]

@@G_Genie thanks

[@kuutti256]

also put the 2401 backwards : 1042

[@venomouscosmo3297]

@@kuutti256 10 years and 42 months after the games releasing for ds

[@ChristopherMoom]

11:44 Huh, so you can spawn the 121st Star and fully see it ingame, but you can't actually collect it... *_We were on the verge of greatness, we were THIS close_*

[@tekayo63]

Why'd you comment twice

[@Atsuuwu]

How...How are you on every video I watch?!

[@Zonic3451]

I wish, chris. I wish.

[@pirilon78]

Are you stalking me? You are on EVERY SINGLE VIDEO I watch. Merg, gd colon, and now this

[@Toadallythebest]

Hi again

[@mrmimeisfunny]

The star rotating diagonally is really uncanny.

[@milanmalfait9914]

Reminds me of troll stars in Brodute's hacks.

[@bashfulwolfo6499]

I honestly think the coins are uncanny and I don't know why

[@DiagonalTanooki]

Diagonal mario 65

[@SalokinQuagsire]

it's cursed

[@davida.5258]

It makes me uncomfortable

[@Metalwario64]

The Cutting Room Floor just had the entire segment on this star removed. The reason for removal was :(After consulting the SM64 decomp and talking with multiple team members, we see no code basis for this theory. As far as we can tell, this must be due to an issue with TT64 as there is absolutely no code basis for this.) So... was TT64 just putting those objects there from nothing or what? [EDIT] So, it's just reading garbage data from elsewhere in the ROM it seems... What a shame.

[@LunaticShiN3]

Judging by some people's comments, TT64 was reading some part of the game's code that it wasn't supposed to read and interpreted it as objects when they were actually not. Although honestly I wouldn't know why Swanky would be using TT64 in the first place since that tool is very outdated anyway

[@Metalwario64]

@@LunaticShiN3 Where are other people discussing this? There's not much I can find on TCRF's talk page for the game, and the TCRF section of the JUL forum doesn't seem to have anything either. I'm just very intrigued by this stuff.

[@kneesnap1041]

Thank you. Everything makes sense now. I kept telling myself this made no sense and sounded like it was reading incorrect data. I guessed it was reading outdated entity info that wasn't cleaned up, but this makes more sense.

[@LunaticShiN3]

@@Metalwario64 Other people are discussing this in this video's comment section

[@honestyprofessorcaesarreal5091]

Wow, this is so crazy, I actually remember my friend making up a "secret" for this level where if you beat the penguin to the bottom, spawned the 1-up mushroom and had the penguin slide over it right at the finish line, it would spawn a secret star, no idea a true 121 star, was SO close...

[@marinellovragovic1207]

Too bad that this 121st star is not even existing in the first place... He made an update video where he apologizes and explains that there was a mistake on his part. The entire game has no code for this star anywhere.

[@shainahullihen1159]

Whenever I beat the penguin, I don't get a 1 UP, only in the hidden slide I get the 1 up.

[@jd5655]

You cannot collect this “121” star. I sat through the whole video.

[@hondamanvtec2894]

Well I did But playing with Luigi 24 years tolate wasnt worth it

[@Subscriberswithnovideos-en3lw]

(D E B U N K E D. I N. P A R T. 2.)

[@Subscriberswithnovideos-en3lw]

And look at his PINNED COMMENT

[@ninezat]

@@Subscriberswithnovideos-en3lw and you should LOOK AT THE DATE OF THE COMMENT. also he made this comment for people who DONT. WANT. TO. WATCH. THE. WHOLE. VIDEO.

[@jd5655]

Zat thanks! I honestly did sit and watched the whole video. It’s all click bait tbh.

[@kwisowofer9872]

0:27 Blinking - over 500k views

[@thisisasupersayin376]

*Watch it*

[@fders938]

Yeah, of course! Why *wouldn't* you spend 9 minutes learning about blinking?

[@bw-leftturnracing7779]

I've watched that video. It's actually very interesting.

[@LinksYTLink]

That's Pannenkoek2012 for you

[@Hema8551]

@@LinksYTLink it is by uncommentatedpannen

[@GilWanderley]

The question now is how many "star collected" flags are in the game. If there is only 120, collecting this one would either work the same as collecting some other star or just raise the counter, but not actually be the 121st star.

[@Magitek1112]

Every star has its own ID, right?

[@anonymousanonymous6214]

@@Magitek1112 that's correct

[@LunaticShiN3]

There are 182 "star collected" flags in the game, but only 7 of them correspond to Cool Cool Mountain. Furthermore, this supposed star isn't actually a real star since its behavior is the one from a different object.

[@RainbowDashShadesOfApproval]

@@LunaticShiN3 but that specific star could reference one of the unused flags. I suppose, unless solid proof is presented otherwise, would it be possible to activate the unused flags without hacking?

[@LunaticShiN3]

@@RainbowDashShadesOfApproval The unused flags correspond to secret levels (Slide, Aquarium, Rainbow, Bowser levels, Cap switches and end cake picture (yes, end cake picture has 7 star flags)) and cannot be activated from any other level than the one they correspond to. Trying to set a star to a flag of a level it's not in will simply make the star not count towards the star counter, which leads to something that the SM64 romhack community call a "troll star"

[@kwisowofer9872]

After collecting 121 stars: “You can now play as Luigi.”

[@Billbobs678]

@k ? it's...a joke

[@Vinnieleverton]

the nintendo 64 crashes before saving

[@kwisowofer9872]

Vinnie Leverton well, it only crashes once you play Paper Mario after unlocking Luigi.

[@bidoof367]

@@Billbobs678 it's...a joke

[@geographygal2178]

@@bidoof367 it's... a joke

[@SnugLife]

it's 4:30 a.M And I need to sleep RN, but i really want to finish this

[@yes3206]

SNUG LIFE!!! BIG FAN DUDE!

[@SnugLife]

@@yes3206 :)

[@ManchesterUtdz]

Snug Life love you dude

[@pastorjay75]

5.09am 😂

[@LuisSoto-lt2hf]

Dude its 4 am and am looking at this wtf 😂

[@randysachs532]

Every point is “so where’s the start, WELL FIRST LETS TALK ABOUT THIS OTHER THING”

[@flyforce16]

He's a clickbaiter

[@philhuntsman7588]

This is so fucking true i hate it

[@bonkdotioimealol]

So fcking true. He keeps baiting so much for something that isn't even real.

[@quakezero8968]

It took him like 10 minutes to actually talk about the damn star

[@edgelord8337]

Person: I finally got 120 stars 121st star: allow me to introduce myself.

[@trashycannoey]

edgy sonic

[@edgelord8337]

@Paweł Fijałkowski lol thanks!

[@idkusername4106]

Person: FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-

[@pirategamer6630]

I can't freaking believe this..back to the game I go...:D

[@pirategamer6630]

@Vanguarded_Heart 117 Welp...now all I have to do is find a way to make that star actually collectable (seriously help with this, how would you do that?)

[@Bootleg_Jones]

This is not star 121, this is just a leftover object from development that happened to be assigned the star model. Objects are defined by their behavior not their model, hence why many rom hacks have model swapped goombas, stars, etc. that still behave like goombas, stars, etc.

[@shadoxfm8822]

It's just a glitch from tt64

[@Metalwario64]

It doesn't actually exist. Unfortunately, this entire video's premise is founded on outdated information stemming from a glitch in the level editor Swanky uses. Now that we have the decompilation, it has been shown that those objects aren't actually there. It's sad because I thought they were evidence of something more, but it seems that it wasn't.

[@smgeezus7186]

Nice Action 52 Profile Picture.

[@sameash3153]

lol the nerve of this video to call out other fakes

[@Mario4736]

He should delete this video

[@phantompop3192]

121 Star: *exists* Speed run records: we don’t feel so good

[@Marionova]

There is no 121st star. It's an issue with an outdated tool that reads garbage data from random places and those objects are a result of that. They don't exist in any other tool, or within the actual game code as seen by the decompilation project.

[@Marionova]

Guess you like false information. Some people don’t.

[@Krayfishkarl]

I'm continuously blown away that we're still discovering new things from this game.

[@ChristopherMoom]

5:21 Mario gets sacrificed to force Nintendo to make Super Mario 64 2

[@finnjager1510]

Did they react on swanky long ago? Lmao aiming to comment on every game video.

[@solgaleo3533]

At last... super Mario 128... it’s been years... But real talk though it’d be awesome if Nintendo would finish and released some of their scrapped games like they did with starfox 2 or at least released the roms to the public

[@allthingsgaming6]

Just admit it... That was Sunshine

[@unwithering5313]

I once saw a Rom (I think it was) called 'the lost stars' I wonder if that has any reference to the lost sequel

[@Toadallythebest]

soab

[@sonicexer1856]

This fascinates me. The fact that we as consumers will NEVER be sure we know every single thing about a game. The only people that do are the creators.

[@fidelluz2942]

as a developer I should say that sometimes neither the creators knows what's happening. There is so many changes through the development of a game and other people doing his own changes that a bunch of leftovers are hidden because no one knows how properly remove then without messing

[@graybacks]

@@fidelluz2942 amen

[@richcast66]

fidel luz There is so much code during development cycles that I wouldn’t blame devs for leaving things behind

[@FamilyTeamGaming]

Like said before, not even the devs know everything. There's no one single person doing everything in the game, and there's not even one person that does most things. Communication can sometimes be an obstacle and sometimes developing a game in general is a mess. Sometimes lots of stuff happens without people realising, ideas get implemented in the game but dropped halfway, etc.. As someone who messed with ROMhacking tools and proper game making tools for so long, I'm willing to bet this star might've never even been intended as a "121st star". Maybe a rough draft of this slide level was finished relatively early in development and they included a star (the one in the video) as a concept of where and how the level could end, perhaps similarly to Peach's Secret Slide. Then as they changed the level around and changed the goal to something more closely resembling what we see now, they decided to hide the star since, while not needed anymore, it would be more convenient to just leave it there to be placed again if they had an idea for another use for it. As more and more things changed, they probably continuously failed to find an use for it, but then eventually forgot it was even there to begin with so they forgot to delete it. I think that's the most likely explanation. If they never intended this to be a 121st star, this star would've probably been the one rewarded at the end of the slide, instead of how it is in the final game where the star is strangely awarded after leaving the slide level. I guess as another bit of speculation, maybe that bit of sleight of hand might come from a time the devs couldn't figure out how to make stars obtained in sublevels count for the actual level, so they spawned it outside, but perhaps they quickly figured that out but never changed it for this instance, keeping the star in the video unused.

[@masterhand03]

This sounds like a job for some kind of TAS-type hack rather than an actual human making it happen, but then again, humans have done some pretty crazy precise glitches in the past.

[@ShursGarden]

Well, TAS is really just "What to do to do this trick."

[@ianmoore5502]

@@ShursGarden right. And people have used that as a guideline and found human-friendly methods of accomplishing diffucult things before. Evem ACE!

[@supermentoskid]

@@ianmoore5502 people have done ACE without tas??? Are u sure?

[@carso1500]

@@supermentoskid all the time, just look at the world record for ocarina of time speedruns

[@Ostr0]

Yeah hopefully they can perform it

[@ChristianJiang]

11:40 The way this star spins is so cute omg

[@centurion_viii1254]

What are you talking about, it's not cute

[@emmastevens8586]

@@centurion_viii1254 it is kind of

[@wolfe_864]

It’s creepy

[@bryanlee5195]

9:59 if you want to skip to the chase.

[@gengar-edits3457]

thanks

[@blaster7532]

Lets wait a while until pannenkoek does a 2 hour long video explaining how that star is made of HOLPS on 3 different pararell universes and how we can clone it using hyper speed and building vertical synced speed on the slide in a frame perfect execution

[@teedeegremlin]

doge beanie good grief.

[@BlackFantasy470]

I'm always speechless if more than 20 years later still mysterious objectes are found. I can't remember any object rotating that way therefore I'm curious what this thing actually is especially since it can't be collected but doesn't hurt Mario either. Isn't it possible to change its value to that of an actual star and collect it? Or does did not work?

[@isabellegrimes8775]

It’s the old data for the billboard-style stars back in pre-release footage being applied incorrectly to the new star model, from what I understand. The rotation speed and direction are interesting because it seems to imply that the object didn’t rely on standard animation frames.

[@isabellegrimes8775]

Also even if you could collect the star, the data for it’s been gone for quite some time. Changing it to a new star entity would work, it just wouldn’t be authentic. I don’t think anything could be, tbqh

[@shadoxfm8822]

It's just a glitch from toad tool 64 lol

[@asnakeneverdies]

@@isabellegrimes8775 Weren't the billboard stars just animated sprites set to always face the camera like the coins, Isabelle? It would not make sense for those to behave like that, I think. 🤔

[@JayEAA]

The animation was the animation for the key in Big Boos haunt, content that was removed before release. Someone found the model, HUD texture, and that animation and reconstructed it previously.

[@PsychicCatTCG]

People talking about getting stars like this while I’m still stuck on rainbow ride lmao

[@AstroTibs]

"Do a star dance on the death barrier" is a pretty sweet sequence of words

[@kneesnap1041]

Honestly this sounds like corrupted data to me, or at the very least old ids got changed. These objects are just too random to have actually been placed there intentionally, and their positions hovering around 0 0 0 is suspicious. I can't say for sure, but in my experience this comes when you load in entity data which was made for an older version of a game in a newer version, where it uses wrong ids, misinterprets data, etc. I doubt this star was put there intentionally.

[@biobak]

It is! The tool he uses in this video, TT64, has been outdated for a bunch of years now. It's crappy old software, and it reads past the bank where objects are stored. It then interprets that data as object position/behavior/model ID and displays them as such when it shouldn't.

[@brianjc720]

Bump

[@kneesnap1041]

@@biobak Makes perfect sense

[@castonyoung7514]

Although I though the room in question was just previously used for testing it looks like you're right, he admitted it.

[@MsDapsy]

10:46 Location of the 121st star (technically 10:10 , thanks @ElijahMG ^^)

[@MyHandleIsAplaceholder]

Thank you.

[@sonicdesignz9362]

Thanks. I appreciate the production value Swanky put in, but he dragged this video too long with this long winded intro filler.

[@BCNinja89]

Jeez dude, thank you.

[@cloudyej7535]

This is no the actual location, swanky Changed the location so the star can be seen

[@MsDapsy]

@@cloudyej7535 You're right, it's technically 10:10 , thanks for pointing that out ^^

[@garrettoliva5154]

"When Mario touches A star he basically becomes invincible." Well yeah. Every Mario game 101.

[@TheGlassMan]

Wonder what happens if he touches the sun? If it makes him invincible, for how long?

[@aubren6456]

Me: Finally painstakingly gets all 120 stars SwankyBox: There is another

[@blueberryblues5644]

You gotta cut right to the chase man. I was bored long before you were attempting to grab the star.

[@maragazh9993]

"...a floating 3 star door. Yap, that's an odd one. Not only would you never be able to use it, because it would need a floor to be utilized, but it wouldn't take you anywhere anyways." Brilliant observations, Mr. Holmes!

[@SpinachSALLAD]

The 2d sprite isn't actually a star unless it is assigned to a "Star get" action (+1 star to counter, Play Star Get animation)

[@masahirosakurai64]

Parents: What do you want to do when you grow up? Me: I want to collect the true 121st star in Super Mario 64.

[@toypikachutheoctoling6029]

I have always questioned a lot of the mysteries that this game holds

[@NathanSifuGaming]

Wow... that’s such a cool discovery! I think it’s actually more interesting that it CAN’T be collected, to have it so close but still out of reach.

[@LiveForMusic711]

I feel like this video is just as clickbaity and misleading as other 121 star videos. I definitely would not count this as another star

[@Metalwario64]

It's actually not. After he made the video, people in the community got with the people who made the decompiilation of SM64 and it turns out the objects were being added by the level editor that Swanky used (and the person from the original article on TCRF, which has since been removed), since it was just reading garbage data from elsewhere in the ROM. I won't call it clickbait, since I love when Swanky does these kinds of videos. It's just a shame that this couldn't have been found before he made the video, as the entire thing as essentially been nullified, and that's kind of sad.

[@shanemontanez6281]

@@Metalwario64 People are just too lazy to figure out the code and "turn the star on"

[@smloader]

yeah I had my hopes up and was severely let down, an object hard coded to not appear in any capacity may as well not be in the game. even if arbitrary code execution could be used to both make the star load and make the star properly interact with Mario, that's fundamentally altering the object TWICE. that's just a hop skip and a jump away from turning a tree into a star with ACE, calling it the "real 121st star," and saying it was because the tree must've been programmed with the wrong object id.

[@ruggie.74]

Your first Swankybox video, eh? Every video he makes is clickbait.

[@smloader]

@@ruggie.74 guess my naiveté shines through once again

[@Robeebert]

You: Me: thing You: thing: words Okay, guys, no need to read any other comments. Just gave you them all.

[@josephikrakowskiwithflextape]

the fact that there were about 3 comments with these jokes directly under this comment is sad

[@maxsync183]

i feel like everyone should be way more sick of this meme than they are. just kills comment sections really, theyre hard to read when your eyes are constantly rolling

[@gircakes]

The “nobody:” meme is even worse.

[@RickRaptor105]

"I knocked on the door of God himself" Kaze shows up Next you should knock on the door of Dad (Simpleflips) and ask him to collect the star

[@JTakZ]

Underrated, Dads going to be so shocked. All 120 star runs are invalid, 121 stars or its not 100%.

[@NeviTheLettyFan]

Finally caught a Simpleflips stream. He spent 12 hours trying to collect a non obtainable star in CCM and fell asleep live on stream. Great entertainer he is.

[@THECOMMUNISTCHANNEL]

Me: Yess I got all 120 stars after days!!! Video: Me: *Ah shit here we go again*

[@teedeegremlin]

THE COMMUNIST CHANNEL what if you are the 121st star.

[@enderkatze6129]

I would've assumed that the "2D star" the cutting room floor was talking about was a power star, but a 2D pre-release version of what would become the powerstar we know

[@abab201]

I literally enjoyed every second of this video. You are an awesome video maker and I hope you continue to make videos maybe even movies irl like ones we can watch as the theater if that is on your goals list. Please never stop making awesome videos

[@Tosmasta00]

I wonder if that star was intended as a reward for beating the harder version of the penguin race.

[@Metalwario64]

I think the layout suggests that the slide was entirely different at one point. Possibly not even a slide. In prototype shots of Cool Cool Mountain, there's a large, icy, almost pyramid-like structure present. I wonder if entering that would have been another level section, like Shifting Sand Land's pyramid, and these objects are remnants of that, since the star is using the sprite animation function from waaaaaay back in development when the stars used sprites instead of models. Another thing that give credulity to this theory is that in the Shoshinkai build, the slide of Cool Cool Mountain was just the one from Tall Tall Mountain, so I would assume that since they didn't want two separate segments to a single level, they moved the slide to Tall Tall Mountain, and changed the second area of Cool Cool Mountain to a different slide.

[@stevienicksisafreakinglege4413]

@@Metalwario64 Do you know where I can find that prototype picture? Thank you.

[@masahirosakurai488]

@@stevienicksisafreakinglege4413 Search it up yourself

[@RebatDialga]

When I was a kid I had a game magazine that claimed you did get the 121st star for beating the harder penguin race. Maybe they claimed that because it was intended after all, then

[@stevienicksisafreakinglege4413]

@@masahirosakurai488 I'm sorry but I could not find what they had mentioned and so I had asked their source, no need to be rude.

[@MsCerealCat]

This could be the new "L is real"! I'm ready for the grind!

[@abcdefg98765]

"L is real" is such a stupid """"rumor"""", you'd have to be literally braindead to have ever believed it. The exact same sign is also in OoT, where you can actually interact with it to see what it really says.

[@MsCerealCat]

@@abcdefg98765 I never fell for it, I was just making a quick reference.

[@Sm64wii]

Very epic gamer I was eight when I fell for it, and many others were young too and didn’t even play Zelda. So it seems kind of a stretch to label everyone that once had fun with a childhood rumor “braindead”

[@MsCerealCat]

Most likes I've ever had! Wow!

[@donaldthescotishtwin]

0:18 that’s a mood Swanky

[@hoppenheimer960]

I am working on finishing my master's thesis. Your video represents excellent research--even with the conclusion discussing not only a summary of what you just said, but setting up future research, areas other people can take this knowledge. Keep this template up, mate! It don't matter if your subject is Mario 64 or tryna solve world peace, being humble and honest about you research methods and findings is HUGE and something that few broadcasters do these days.

[@flyforce16]

I'm working on finishing my master's thesis as well, and I disagree. I think his videos are quite poorly-researched and demonstrate a lack of preparation, because they commonly include bad information, things that have already been debunked, poor understanding of source code (i.e. this video, which by the way was proven false right after release), and in general more interest in theories and """lore""" than the actual content of the games.

[@onlyRonan]

10:08 Skip to where the star is, and avoid the explanation / long history. Edit: turns out the 121st Star is also unobtainable, it is an unused asset just like MUCH of the other content in this game. Literally developers just stored an active Star sprite in the bottom of this level...nothing special.

[@sushivampirre304]

Ronan THANK YOU

[@zero_glitches6895]

I bet it would be called: “The Bottomless Star Jump” That’s what I bet it would be called.

[@haydenkmett9502]

"Deep Dive Off The Icy Slide"

[@kiffolisk6011]

Grab the star and get to the death warp star

[@stevenxenoknight3845]

I love your videos bro. Takes me way back to those fields again doing impossible leaps.

[@jacobtherobertson]

Alert pannenkoek2012. We have to pull him out of retirement for one more mission.

[@jacobtherobertson]

@hidlive even better

[@LunaticShiN3]

As someone who knows how stars work, there are no hopes of ever getting this thing to count as an extra star

[@RyneNeilan]

@@LunaticShiN3 as someone who knows how stars work a little bit more, there is a little bit of hope of getting this thing to count as an extra star.

[@LunaticShiN3]

@@RyneNeilan Do you really know how stars work? First of all, the object that SwankyBox found isn't a real star, just a random object that just so happens to show the visual of a star. Second, because of how star IDs work, only 7 stars per level are allowed to exist, and these 7 stars' spots are already taken by the stars that you're intended to collect. So even if you could get that object to appear, it wouldn't be a real star. And even if it was a real star, it wouldn't count towards the star counter as a 121st star

[@jacobtherobertson]

@@LunaticShiN3 As someone who knows the most about stars you could definately make this a star, collectible and count as a star. Action Reply.

[@M3G4T3RR4]

“Videos like these” *blinking*

[@JNeepshow]

"it's all in good fun" -the lie that KZbinrs tell themselves to be ok with lying for easy views

[@cowboybarbaryn1302]

There's also a thing called being wrong

[@woofyou1186]

Cryman Devilbaby thank god someone in this comment thread with reason

[@lindajackson8936]

Because people either are always right or always wrong. 🙄

[@volteonex1862]

* Content staring * What is this??

[@villagernutcracker3326]

everyone: im gonna collect that 121st star intangibility:no

[@bigbezet]

Hey SwankyBox, you don't have to use the Wayback Machine to see the history of a wiki page, there's a history tab

[@randomskillgenerator4676]

All of that build up for him to just say “can’t get it sorry” in twenty seconds

[@flyforce16]

Seriously... SwankyBox's videos are so frustrating to watch. They're all about some bullshit fan theory that he talks endlessly in circles around for 13 minutes and then leaves some ten-second teaser towards the end of the video like "oh but this is just a theory" or "it's hypothetically possible if X". Come on dude... this guy's making videos about nothing of actual substance.

[@tronnorth726]

​@flyforce16 pewdiepie is worst lol same with other youtubers that makes long videos lol

[@MrEvilGrin]

That’s a real elaborate way of saying there is no 121st Star.

[@AlexRiversMusic]

The vid should've just started at 10:07.. way too much pointless filler content to get to the revenue mark

[@NicerBeisser]

Well thats how mafia works

[@denniskiggins3058]

Alex Rivers you are a doi

[@FireheadLazzo]

This video distilled: "But before I explain that, let me explain something else..."

[@flyforce16]

such clickbait, especially after he mocks the other 121 star videos for being false it turns out this is all fake info lol

[@BeeLy1011]

Not exactly fake, but incorrect/misinterpreted

[@stewartplays]

Before I explain that, we need to talk about parallel universes.

[@FireheadLazzo]

@@flyforce16 I don't think I'd call this fake, but it is a bit dishonest to call the others fake while this one exclusively looks at a star that was never meant to be in the game.

[@firehunterz2311]

10:12 Star location for those of you who wants a straight to the point answer

[@Cptn.Viridian]

Hmm, sounds like something Pannenkoek would go after.

[@unnam3d__]

6:58 fun fact: the star they were talking about were a animated 2d star that replaced the 3d stars we all know and love in the beta version.

[@strawberries4231]

I love your videos Swanky, you make something I loved as a kid seem like a conspiracy theory 😂

[@edgelord8337]

I got fooled by the waluigi in super mario 64 one.

[@universalperson]

So an editor from the cutting room floor just removed the entire section, commenting that they're not sure why it's there. This will be fun

[@lexikiq]

to clarify to other commenters, the decomp team (that reverse engineered the entire code of SM64) was contacted and they determined that none of the findings in this video or the TCRF section are actually coded in the game. the objects that were appearing were just garbage data that the level editor (TT64) was mistakenly adding to the level. tl;dr the star isn't actually in the game.

[@universalperson]

@@lexikiq I gotta admit, the fact that a bunch of fans are reverse engineering SM64 is truly impressive

[@EleeExe]

when he showed bowsers final level, I honestly thought he was going to do what I always had in mind. collect all coins in the level and then collect the coins that drop from bowsers fire during the battle until 100 coins, can you please also check this out?

[@CoTeCiOtm]

Nothing happens, that level is not programmed to give you a star when you collect 100 coins.

[@EleeExe]

@@CoTeCiOtm oh, thanks!

[@milanmalfait9914]

@@EleeExe If you get more than 999 coins with Bowser Fight, weird things happen and deaths give you lives while 1-ups do the opposite.

[@EleeExe]

@@milanmalfait9914 hmmm, strange

[@RSw_Why]

@@milanmalfait9914 Your life goes into the negative.

[@Zeburakeki]

This guy won't shut up. 10:07 is where the video actually starts

[@CG1337Noob]

Kinda crazy how this was one of my first video games at 5 years old and almost two decades later I'm just now watching a video about how there's actually 121 stars. The nosgalgia

[@james2175]

"I'll explain something simple, but let me waste 10 minutes of your life before I do it."

[@flyforce16]

"Those other 121 star videos are click bait, mine isn't though!" *Proceeds to make 13-minute clickbait video mentioning at the very last second that the star is unobtainable* oh and by the way the star itself is fake and part of a freaking emulator this dude was using for the vid... straight-up unprofessional.

[@samuraivader3814]

It’s the star that unlocks Luigi in super Mario 64 Guys.

[@unwithering5313]

I'm having a hard time taking all this in but it is still very interesting

[@Arisius13]

The kind of stuff Kaze Emanuar creates with the engine is just magical.

[@StickFiguresMaster]

In the Beta, Beta64/Andrew stated that in the final Japanese version, if you hold C up on the controller while collecting your key, it'd show as a glitch that you got a Power Star instead of a key, so the Japanese version is special in a way where it feels kinda beta-ish to have a glitch like that :)

[@ifroad33]

6:06, expected to hear ”parallell universes”

[@smloader]

I had my hopes up as someone who knows a lot about this game for this video to not be clickbait and was severely let down. an object hard coded to not appear in any capacity may as well not be in the game. even if arbitrary code execution could be used to both make the star load and make the star properly interact with Mario, that's fundamentally altering the object TWICE. that's just a hop skip and a jump away from turning a tree into a star with ACE, calling it the "real 121st star," and saying it was because the tree must've been programmed with the wrong object id.

[@pyrolluxjay]

Just in case if anyone was wondering, this star doesn't actually exist in any capacity and the entire video is essentially outdated garbage, really disappointed with the lack of research here, any more modern sm64 viewer program like quad64 or even the one built in with sm64 rom manager will see nothing at all, not even the decompiled code of mario 64 shows anything. This is a result of toad's tool 64 being inaccurate and reading garbage data, there aren't any unusual objects in this level in reality, not even a little bit. And when i mean doesn't exist, I mean it legitimately isn't real at all, this video is essentially covering reading a book in spanish that you thought was french and seeing an english word in there somewhere and assuming it meant something. Sorry to be blunt, but this is really disappointing, videos like these can get people the wrong idea about things like this.

[@flyforce16]

Ironic as he calls out the other 121 star videos for being fake too

[@Mattia_22]

Glad I just skipped to the end and didn't waste 13 minutes of my life watching this clickbait shit

[@YenpisW]

jaygl0 it was sarcasm ya dong

[@djkates1916]

My first instinct on this star is that it was originally intended to be the star you collected for fulfilling some appropriate condition within the slide area. Once that condition was fulfilled, the game would warp the star near Mario's location and swap the appropriate properties of the object to make it visible and collectable. It would be similar to how, for example, Paper Mario stores NPCs out of bounds in various rooms, then warps them into the play area for use in cutscenes. If I'm right about that intention, the reason it's still there would be simple -- either they forgot it was there, or it was just easier to not remove it. Either way, since it was coded as invisible and intangible, it wouldn't matter. If I've understood other videos I've seen properly, Mario 64 usually just spawns a star object in cases like this, rather than loading it in beforehand and moving it around/messing with its properties, but maybe this happened at a point in development when that hadn't been decided yet.

[@SuperBlooper057]

Tip: you can view every single edit ever made to any wiki page by doing the arduous process of clicking the button that says "View history" in the upper right-hand corner of the article.

[@badlydrawnturtle8484]

"All we need to collect this star is arbitrary code execution in SM64."

[@Scrubermensch]

*Conspiracy theory* Did anyone notice that there are 20 levels in the game and 2401/20 is actually 120.05? Kinda cool, right?

[@bw-leftturnracing7779]

We must have found the 120.05th star

[@YoWuzUp]

There's 24 though if counting secret stages, 15 main courses, 3 bowser levels, 3 cap levels, secret slide, secret aquarium, and wing mario over the rainbow.

[@Scrubermensch]

@@YoWuzUp which secret slide you're talking about? The one in tall tall mountain?

[@YoWuzUp]

@@Scrubermensch peach's secret slide, the other two are within levels.

[@RSw_Why]

@@YoWuzUp YO WUZ UP YO_WUZ_UP! Not dead I see. Nice

[@dannysg3229]

And the penguin kept sliding in 4:35 in the tunnel in 4:40 forever. 😉

[@FrostedKorn]

Slide Penguin never returned to the slide track in cool cool mountain, and though he wished for death but he was unable to die. So eventually, he stopped thinking.

[@xejux4928]

2020: 121 stars found! 2067 : 546 stars found!

[@DABZYSS]

Oh I found all (546 stars YOU UNLOCK WALUGUI

[@benrager429]

Your first L Is Real video is shat brought me to your channel. And while i'm sorry to admit that i don't watch every video, at least right away, i always enjoy when i see one in my notifications. Keep up the great work and even greater content, man. I look forward to the next video.

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

2D animated stars like those seen in PRERELEASE FOOTAGE. I went to look up some footage, and there is a star which appears to be a 2D image in place of the regular stars. You said it rotates... like the 2D image coins. The wiki article wasn't wrong... you just didn't put 2 and 2 together while jumping at the first thing you see. This isn't the first time you have done this... please take more time to read what is provided for you and don't read half of the statement.

[@amala1333]

But he did get the results, what does it matter?

[@fromthegamethrone]

Bloody hell dude, he makes a slip up in an otherwise brilliant and informing video, and instead of saying "well done on the video, it's great!", you decide to berate him for a little error. This world is backwards man.

[@seabassthegamer6644]

I think the pinned comment corrects this.

[@biobak]

@@fromthegamethrone The "brilliant and informing video" should not have existed, the 121st star does not exist in the code. It appears in TT64 because it's old, crappy software, that reads garbage data past the bank where objects are stored, and interprets it as objects. If he had asked about it in a hacking server instead of just kaze, he would have gotten the answer and wouldn't have needed to make an overly complex video about a simple bug in the editing tool.

[@fromthegamethrone]

@@biobak 17,000 people disagree

[@InTheLightDJ]

So let's spend 10 mins talking about how everyother video is clickbait and then I'll show you how to not get a 121st star

[@projectpitchfork860]

He just talks about the background and infornation about that. There are people who care for that and don't just want to see what is in the title.

[@InTheLightDJ]

@@projectpitchfork860 in the caption for the video it says 121st star found* it's clickbait and deserves any hate that is given to it

[@projectpitchfork860]

@@InTheLightDJ Yeah, because he thought that was real. So that's not clickbait if he just was wrong. And saying that something deserves hate is basicly just stupid, since hate isn't something like criticism, what has a use.

[@projectpitchfork860]

@@InTheLightDJ He also added a (debunked in part 2) in the title, so you're not even right about your point. If you then just read the first part and nit the full title, it's your fault.

[@InTheLightDJ]

@@projectpitchfork860 my original comment is over a month old, he didn't have that in the title back then

[@themissepick]

10:09 the all you have been waiting for

[@Novakians]

Soo-paaah mar-ee-oh SISSTYFOUR says sissty four as fast as he can EVERY video

[@stjanscrabeck7423]

If there is ever a way to collect the star, I'm sure people will start doing 121 star speedruns.