Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone, Issue 2 (Patreon)

Welcome, everyone, to the second issue of Supper Mario Broth: Special Zone! For information on what this column is, please take a look at the announcement of the restructuring of Supper Mario Broth Patreon tiers and rewards. 

Today, we are taking a look at what Mario Kart 64 looks like when a special development variable, responsible for the track's height, is changed to 0, resulting in an appearance similar to Super Mario Kart on the SNES.

When the Koopas keep trooping, and you just don't know why,
when the Bloopers keep blooping, no matter what you try,
when the Bowser keeps Bowsing, and something seems off,
it's time to start browsing Supper Mario Broth.

Super Mario Kart 64

Dataminers at tcrf.net have discovered a variable in the code of Mario Kart 64 that is responsible for vertical scaling of the game's tracks. Since normally scaling an entire 3D environment along a single axis is not something done in-engine but rather within the development software used by the designers prior to importing it in the game, it can be assumed that this was intended to be used in some sort of scrapped gameplay functionality. Likely, there would have been a mode that scaled the environment up or down slightly to create more challenging tracks, similar to Mirror Mode.

I have modified the game's code to set the variable to 0 and taken screenshots and footage of the resulting changes to the environment. In addition to the bizarre appearance, many of the underlying mechanics of the game are exposed when it is modified in this manner.

We start with Luigi Raceway. It is immediately apparent what the change does visually: now the tracks appear as they would on systems not supporting true 3D graphics, similar to how Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart: Super Circuit only featured flat tracks.

Another thing to note is that the scaling applies only to track geometry, meaning that everything that exists as a separate object - obstacles, racers or in this case, the starting banner - remains as it would normally.

Here, Mario is in front of what would normally be the entrance to the tunnel. A side effect of the scaling is that everything that is precisely perpendicular to the ground plane, such as walls, is multiplied by zero and as such ceases to exist. 

Not only is the visual aspect of the vertical objects affected by it, but so is the collision - at least for the player characters. Mario can simply drive off the sides of the tunnel and fall into the abyss here due to the wall being multiplied by zero and no longer stopping him. 

Here, Mario is in the tunnel. Note that the lighting is still applied correctly to the player characters. Here and in the previous picture, trees are floating in mid-air due to their position being fixed and not being subject to the scaling as the level geometry is.

In some tracks, like Koopa Troopa Beach, the obstacles do not appear at all, likely being programmed with some failsafe to check the ground below them before being rendered. Due to the ground being in the wrong place, the objects do not appear.

This course allows us to see how functionality of certain parts of the environment is implemented. If you have played the game, you know that the player characters will tumble down certain slopes if they drive or jump up them. It would be logical to assume that the tumbling is tied to the steepness of the slope; however, the fact that Mario tumbles on flat ground in the footage shows that it is actually hardcoded into the slope. Thus, no matter how we change the inclination of the slope, including setting it to zero, Mario will still tumble as though it was steep.

In Kalimari Desert, we see the inverse of the situation of the trees below the track in Luigi Raceway. Due to the 0 plane being below the standard position of the track rather than above it, the cacti appear to float above the track.

In Toad's Turnpike, we can see moving obstacles acting as though the geometry is the same despite it changing. The cars and trucks on the road follow a set path that is not affected by the scaling.

This track crosses itself in the middle. Usually this appears as an overpass; with the overpass being flat and the road under it dipping down and then back up. The truck next to Mario in this screenshot follows the original route, making it appear to descend below ground. On the other side of the overpass, which now appears as a simple crossing, the cars emerge from the ground again.

The scaling is very useful to reveal which parts of the courses check for ground being present and which ignore it and follow a set path. In contrast with the cars in Toad's Turnpike, these boulders in Choco Mountain dynamically check for ground below them to interact with, resulting in glitched behavior with the scaling applied. Due to not finding ground in the expected spot, the boulders simply spin in midair.

Interestingly, even despite the ground being completely flat, some code in the engine prevents Mario from using this to take a shortcut. If the player drives over to a place on the track they are not supposed to be in, the player character will fall into the abyss. This suggests once more that the scaling could have been more than a development tool and was designed to be implemented to change the tracks for gameplay.

Something very interesting happens when the player character falls off the course in Wario Stadium, by driving into an area normally behind a wall. When Lakitu rescues the character from the abyss, there will be a water droplet effect as though they fell into water instead of a bottomless pit. For some reason, whoever implemented the death plane for this course (which can normally not be accessed) decided to make it a water surface. An in-universe interpretation of this, while of course completely frivolous, would be that there is an underground aquifer or sewer below the stadium that the drivers would fall in.

If you have looked up Mario Kart 64 on the Internet in the past decades, you may have encountered an urban legend surrounding this green Thwomp, nicknamed "Morty" by fans. The Thwomp, normally behind a cage and inaccessible, does not move and is the only green Thwomp in the game. Due to being unique but also serving no apparent purpose, many theories arose around the concept of it hiding a secret.  Here, due to the cage being a wall, we can get a clear view of the Thwomp.

However, when we try actually approaching it, the disappointing reality sets in that the ground behind the cage has no collision, as it was never intended to be reached. Thus, the player character simply falls through the ground into the abyss. 

Interestingly, red lighting is applied to the character inside the cage area, while yellow lighting is applied to the ground and the Thwomp, making it appear green. The Thwomp itself is actually just as blue as the others - no green Thwomp textures are used in the game.

Finally, this shot of Rainbow Road is included because really makes it appear similar to the Rainbow Road from Super Mario Kart due to the complete flatness and lack of guard rails, which due to being vertical, are destroyed by the scaling - hence the name of this issue.

This concludes the second issue of this column. Please keep in mind that issues are released daily; if you wish to not receive email notifications, please adjust your email settings under the Profile Settings menu in your Patreon account.

Thank you very much for reading.