"Super Mario 64: Fan opens a door for the first time in 28 years - and achieves nothing with it
A door remained locked for 28 years. But now a fan has managed to get through a door with the help of various tricks. It brought him nothing but a little fame.
Almost 28 years after the release of "Super Mario 64", a fan has now managed to open a door that was previously closed for the first time with video evidence. "Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 as the launch title for the new Nintendo 64 console and was the first three-dimensional Super Mario game. Thanks to the new freedom in space and the then ground-breaking graphics, not to mention the fun gameplay, the game enjoyed great popularity. If only it weren't for the thing with the door ...
A locked door has been a thorn in the side for almost 30 years
The centrepiece of the drama is a door in the snow world "Bibberberg Bob". This world is one of the first you can enter in the game. Here you jump into the chimney of a mountain hut and then slide down an ice rink. If you manage to do this without falling off, you will end up in a room with a door. As soon as you pass through the door, a golden star appears and you can complete the level.
Source: Nintendo
Once passed through, the door can no longer be opened from the outside. An inconvenience for fans who want to explore every corner of the world. Speedrunners also speculated whether a few seconds could be saved here. Speedrunners try to set speed records in games. To do this, they often bend the game mechanics: they exploit glitches and take unusual shortcuts.
In "Bibberberg Bob", one such shortcut could be a good idea: If you leave the hut with its slide party on the right and jump straight down the mountain, you will also reach the hut at the bottom of the ice rink. To get to the star, however, you would have to enter the hut and then leave it again - and this is exactly the path that was previously blocked.
Glitch and overlapping codes vs. invisible wall
Fan "Alexpalix1" has now found a way to open the door. He recorded his success and posted the video on Discord. The YouTuber "pannenkoek2012" explains in a detailed video post what the problem with the door is and how Alex managed to open the door.
In his video, Pannenkoek uses polygon models to show that the door could be opened. However, an invisible wall in front of the door prevents Mario from reaching it. A trick to overcome this wall has long been known: With the help of a large penguin in front of the hut, you can have yourself pushed through it. However, because there is no solid floor directly in front of the door, Mario falls to his death.
Alex was able to utilise another mechanic of the game at this point. Pannenkoek shows the code sections in the video and explains: If Mario enters a change of direction in free fall, his "Falling" status is overwritten by the "Walking" status - even if he continues to fall downwards. The "Walking" status is the prerequisite for opening a door.
And so it is apparently enough to change direction at the right time in the fall to open the door.
In the end, the trick is useless
Thanks to his tricks, Alex was able to open a door that had been locked for almost three decades. But it doesn't give him a speed advantage. In his video, Pannekoek demonstrates that the usual route across the ice rink still gives him a few seconds' time advantage.
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