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
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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 64Wikipedia 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 to entirely new levels), and even crossing into Mandela effect territory. It also has a lot of creepypastaWikipedia 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. This article will attempt to cover the most relevant theories in the space, with our usual style of wit.

The source of all the madness[edit]

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 kinda defeats the whole "every copy" part of the name.

Wario Apparition[edit]

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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 MarioWiki. 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.

1995/07/29 build[edit]

Allan please add details