Draft:Every Copy of Mario 64 is Personalized

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Hey, the console's personalized too! It's orange!

Actually, it's about ethics in ... Video games

Cutscenes

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Every Copy of Mario 64 is Personalized is an internet urban legend that purports that, well, every copy of the video game Super Mario 64 is personalized. Like every other urban legend on the internet, it has predictably gotten out of hand, with an entire community around it, a wiki dedicated to cataloguing "anomalies" (i.e. changes caused by the personalization, which can be as minor as a specific enemy lacking pupils or as massive as entirely new levels), and even crossing into Mandela effect territory. It also has a lot of creepypasta elements, because apparently every urban legend worth its salt has to scare the pants off of people.

Given some of the claims surrounding the legend, it's not surprising that it's pretty much impossible to falsify and serves as the perfect test for Occam's razor, given that most of the "evidence" can easily be attributed to ROM hacks or good old photoshopping. Although it should be noted that, unlike many other Urban Legends discussed, most involved seem to have some understanding this is utter bullshit and are simply attempting to have fun out of what they find to be an interesting premise.

This article will attempt to cover the most relevant theories in the space, with our usual style of wit.

Origins

Super Mario 64 is one of the most urban legend heavy games in all of existence. When Did You Know Gaming did a video on Mario rumors, they noted that "some of the wildest rumors" specifically came about through this game, specifically making note of tales where players claim to get extra powerups, ride Yoshi, and (most famously) unlock Luigi. The last one being so well known that the TV Tropes page for "Urban Legend of Zelda," includes a picture of the "L is real" plaque from this very game, which players believed was a hint that you could play as the other Mario brother. This one is of particular note because, as the same website notes, "This particular rumor was perpetuated by [Nintendo of America] translator Dan Owsen on the company's website, though he didn't actually claim it was real; he instead gave suspiciously vague denials to troll the people who just wanted a serious answer that he couldn't be bothered to give. He did eventually clarify that it was meaningless, but even then, the answer was buried in his FAQ, which didn't help."

So, this begs a rather important question: How exactly do so many people have such contradictory claims about a video game? How did all of these rumors pop up without so much as some truth existing to any of them? Is everyone just lying, or are some telling the truth?

So... how does this even happen?

The main "explanation" for the wackiness (and quite possibly one of the most notable (and outlandish) claims in the community) is the idea that Peach's Castle in the game is actually home to a powerful artificial intelligence hidden in the walls. (No, really.) The AI allegedly can, among other things:

• Modify the game's code directly (OoT Triforce%-style)
• Pluck new things out of thin air (even from newer Mario games without access to the internet or any way of knowing)
• Prevent itself from being dumped onto a ROM

All of that… in 1996, on a console that could barely handle full-motion video. Yeah, sure.

It's also claimed that the way-too-ahead-of-its-time AI isn't actually present on every copy of the game (which you can apparently tell by the loading times), which kinda defeats the whole "every copy" part of the name.

The odds of this existing are essentially non-existent, and even the MIPS Hole Wiki, essentially the number one wiki for this notion, admits on its page for the AI that "The existence of the Personalisation A.I. is debatable due to the lack of evidence behind it."

Wario Apparition

“”YOU WANT FUN? RATIONALWIKI WILL SHOW YOU FUN!

—Spud

One of the most well known parts of the whole fiasco is the Wario Apparition, which is supposed to happen on certain copies just outside the painting to Dire, Dire Docks . The usual routine is that Wario (as a disembodied head) interrogates the player just before the painting, and chases them back the way they came, which is now suddenly a lot longer.

Wario's appearance is generally explained as a side effect of what has become known as "Wario Land 64", an allegedly cancelled game for the Nintendo 64, which was supposedly being worked on before Mario 64. The only relevant part of it is a powerup that would turn Wario into a disembodied head. Of course, this may as well have been completely made up.

References

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• Urban legends
• Hoaxes
• Memes