This Super Mario 64 documentary details the development of the video game Super Mario 64 and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover how Shigeru Miyamoto first had the idea for a 3D Mario game during the development of Star Fox on the SNES and how it was later inspired by a Yoshi prototype that was pitched by the UK-based development studio Argonaut Software.
The documentary also explores the many trials and tribulations the development team faced and takes a look at the many design decisions that were made during development of the Nintendo 64 launch title. Super Mario 64 became a huge success for Nintendo and was one of the main contributing factors of the Nintendo 64’s initial popularity. It also set a new standard for 3D platformers and even to this day, it’s still considered to be one of the best platformers around.
References:
thatguyglen.fun/video/how-a-y...
Gameplay footage by RetroGame.Stream channel on KZhead: • Super Mario 64 - N64 -...
Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale
Support me on Patreon and get exclusive content like ad-free videos, commentary tracks that provide insight on how my videos were made, Q&A videos, access to my Discord server and more:
/ thatguyglen
Follow me on Twitter to stay up to date on what’s happening with the channel and my occasional video game opinions:
/ glencallaert
#SuperMario64 #Nintendo #GameDevelopment
EDIT: There's a fact in the video about the creation of the Boos, however the Boos first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 3 and not Super Mario 64. While the story about the inspiration for the Boos is true, it happend during the development of Super Mario Bros. 3, not Mario 64. I should have caught this, my apologies. What game would you like to see me cover next? Leave a suggestion in the comments below! Also, if you enjoyed the video, please consider subscribing to stay up to date on future “How Games Were Made” episodes. Leaving a like and sharing the video also helps out! Support me on Patreon and get exclusive content like Q&A sessions, ad-free content, access to my Discord server and more: www.patreon.com/ThatGuyGlen
Also, Charles Martinet first voiced Mario in a pinball game in maybe 1992 or 1995
Scrolled down to post a "Well actually". Glad to see the correction was already on top😂👌🏻
Keep up the good work man. Underrated channel
Yeah man, ur content is actually great. I am sure that you will soon hit big, continue to make people smile every day!
I was going to point this out. glaring mistake though, but at least is mentioned in the comments
I love how each video is stylised around what you're talking about instead of being generic, really gives it some character
Thank you! So far people seem to like that aspect so I'm sticking to it :D
yup I live it too
If you like their style, you'll love this other channel's approach . it feels like you're watching a professional documentary kzhead.info/sun/q6ZqXaWDimWJY58/bejne.html
i put a jihad on them.
It's good but not strafefox good 👌 kzhead.info/sun/YJasht6hr6eZhI0/bejne.html
Super Mario 64 was WAY ahead of its time. Every 3-D adventure game today owes it a great deal. It tried and practically invented so many staples of 3-D gaming and nailed many of them on the first try. Just incredible.
Sonic Adventure was way ahead of its time, Sonic Adventure is a much more impressive game and set the foundation for fast paced games
@@segaspice4062 If it was released in the same year, it would definitely be. But I don't think it's that impressive if you keep in mind they had 2 years more development
All of that while running on a very limited hardware. It's quite impressive.
That's not what it means to be ahead of time. When a game is ahead of its time, it does something that makes it unfavorable, but in the future, that which made it unfavorable is popular or the norm.
@@jansteen5640 Sonic Adventure was made in 11 Months though, didnt have to 2 years of development.
It's awesome how nintendo always seems to follow the idea of "a delayed game is eventually good but a rushed game is bad forever"
But Zelda wind waker was rushed and dungeons cut out. So its not always the case.
@ArjenRobben Mr.Wembley Not at all. Take2 Interactive realized how much money they could get through microtransactions. Their online sales model proved far more profitable to shareholders than developing new titles. It's not about games; it's about money.
No they don’t
3D Mario All-Stars says hello
Meanwhile with COD Cold War...
Didn’t they also explain the fact that the camera is an object by introducing Lakitu?
I mean Lakitu is in the original super Mario brothers but ok.
Yep! It's in the opening cut scene for the game when you start Super mario 64.
For some reason I never understood that as a kid, even when he'd show up in the mirror room I thought it was an enemy actually trapped in the mirror (grew up with the DS remake where Luigi could enter the mirror with the Power Flower). Having the camera be an actual character just adds even more charm to the game.
@@Biscuit64 since when
@@whiteman12since always? he drops those red spike koopas on you on SMb1 on the later stages
I wish game developers now have the same idea with Hiroshi Yamauchi, understanding that games can’t be rushed
Same, however most game companies don't have the same budget as nintendo so have to rush the game out to keep the company alive, in other cases yeah its just bad management because of greedy investors, sad but true
I feel that mentality worked even with time/money/number of devs constraints because in a way Nintendo games aren't too complex, as in they would rather take a simple concept and polish it to perfection (all of SMB 3 and the Mario64 controls are the absolute best example of this) instead of bloating a game with mechanics. A good example of this is in a game that was rushed but turned out great is Metroid Prime, instead of taking on the insanely hard task of translating Super Metroid movement as a third person 3D game they went with a relatively minimal first person control scheme and let the environments and level design shine, giving us one of the most brilliant and atmospheric console games of the 6th generation despite its shortish development time.
Mario 64 was definitely rushed still
Honestly. The reason being is because developers rely on online patches, which given the Avengers game, proves false
Blame shareholders
This game was so ahead of it's time. Still a masterpiece and worth playing.
lulw
It hasn't really aged well if you ask me. The abundance of glitches and the really bad platforming makes it clear
@@donaldtrumpling2016the glitches are what makes it special. Remember BLJ??
The idea of a 3D Yoshi game just like 3D Mario games sounds really great
On the NDS version of the game you can actually also play as Yoshi, Wario and Luigi all of who have some different ability.
Just showing up to give some support, but really, you are doing an extremely good job with how you explain how a game was made, wish you the best!
Much appreciated!
I find it interesting that they thought the D-pad of the SNES was limiting in terms 3D movement, but then is 2004 they released Super Mario 64 DS, which used a D-pad to navigate the world and did so very effectively. The DS also had the same number of buttons as an SNES controller, ironically. (Disregarding the touchscreen)
It's debatable on how ''effective'' that movement was. A lot of people see it as a downgrade, compared to the original. It did proof that a fully 3D game can work with a Dpad tho
It's always great to find hidden gems such as this channel, I've just binged your videos and decided to subscribe, cause they're really interesting and fresh. Keep up the good work man!
Much appreciated and thank you for subscribing! Working on the next video now!
The Boos where created in Super Mario Bros 3 for the NES, but the backstory you told is right, only wrong game ;)
Yup, other people have pointed that out as well so I addressed it in my pinned comment here ;)
Jeah I was like "hol up.... Boos where in previous titles, something doesn't add up"
This game marked my childhood, good to see it here! Great video, btw ;)
Thank you!
Well some one ruined it by every mario 64 copy is personalized
Dead meme cring
44 now but one of my most vivid memories playing video games was playing SM64 for the first time on the N64. It was like nothing else, it was genre defining.
Croc Legend of the Gobbos was way ahead of its time. A true underrated 3D platformer.
Everytime I watch one of your videos I'm surprised the channel is this small, you make very interesting stuff!
Thank you!
This should have 2 million views
Great video Glen! SM64 has always been such a special game to me, and it's awesome to see such a comprehensive look at its history! Also, your editing is incredible, and the production quality of your videos is so freaking great! I'm in the middle of a series on the Super Mario games over on my channel and am currently working on my SM64 episode. This video has been so helpful as I'm doing my research; thank you so much!
Great video, love the quality and the editing! This is such a nostalgic game for me, so it was nice seeing it here :) Keep up your great work!
Much appreciated!
Nice in-depth research! This very much gives me the feeling that there’s a lot more info about this game’s development made known to the public than how other more surface-level making of videos let on, as if Nintendo was being more secretive. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, working on the next video right now!
Awesome content! That was my 3rd of your vids right in a row. Thank you!
This channel is gonna seriously blow up! Your contents amazing!
Thank you!
This production is beautifully made, I enjoyed it across a few days since it was so long yet I was entertained and remembering the good ol' days of the NES. Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of history with us :)
Much appreciated, glad you enjoyed the video!
This video is extremely well made, you are way to underrated it hurts, I cant wait to see your future videos lmao
Much appreciated! Working on the next video and it’s about another indie game :D
for real!
Look man. We have another thomas game docs on our hands here. Lets enjoy it while he has less than 20k subs. This channel WILL explode to atleast 100k by the end of next month
Fun fact: OpenGL was created by SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc) and despite Khronos Group managing the specification, SGI is still mentioned in the copyright. As far as I’m aware, the N64 used an old version of the fixed-function pipeline implementation of OpenGL. Pretty interesting imho
This is an amazing video! Your editing inspires me to create amazing videos like you as well. Keep making amazing videos! ❤️
Thank you! Good luck with your own videos!
ThatGuyGlen Thanks! I appreciate it 😊👍
Hey there, an update to my last suggestion, since I don't really do things on yt too often I forgot of some of the functions this platform has. Like time stamps, which you could add to your sources in the description. This wouldn't influence the video and also directly reference which source is used where ^^ (btw thx for the vid, really enjoyed it :))
I hadn't considered that either, but yes, that would definitely be the best way to implement it. Thanks for pointing that out :D
Amazing that they pumped out this magical masterpiece in such a short amount of time.
Same for Majoras Mask, they developed it in 1 year
@@2dmajor999 For sure! The team then must have been perfect, peak productivity with alot of geniuses on board.
@@2dmajor999 yea but majoras mask re-used many of OOTs assets.
This is really high quality for such a small channel! Rivals the bigger ones! Great job!
Much appreciated!
Your videos are so good man they all look great brilliant execution on everything
Much appreciated!
Here before this channel really blows up.
Truth! His backlog will make some new sub very happy in the 500k sub future 👌👌👌
Great video! :) the ending was a bit abrupt, but loved the length and content. Thanks for doing this!
Much appreciated, thank you for watching it!
"The Boo was inspired by their wife" So she's dead??
Its the fact that she was shy with ppl but angry with his husband lol
@@andricode That's a red flag if I ever saw one.
@@greenhowie Perhaps you didn't check out the 10:38 part. The story is more of a silly anecdote that inspired the Boos' behavior, rather than a red flag. Only thing I'd point out is that it happened during the development of SMB3 as opposed to what this video states (Mario 64).
@@greenhowie If your girl is in too Matador equipment, thats a big red flag
Yeah I read that in a book
Oh snap, I forgot I was subbed to this channel. So glad to see a new video! SM64 is such a timeless classic. I may or may not have played the recent PC 'port' and I think it still holds up today, despite the textures and frustrating (at times) camera.
Yeah, unfortunately it takes me quite a while to finish up a video :P
@@ThatGuyGlen That's completely understandable when putting out content that requires more work. No complaints here!
These series are great. Please keep it up!!
Thank you, will do!
It's refreshing to see this type of editing. Thank you for putting the effort!
My pleasure, thank you for watching it :D
Another great video. So much detail in the editing.
Thank you!
12:12 That part he played is so iconic that just by seeing the hand movements you can hear it in your head!!! LOL.
Awesome video! Well Organized and good info. Bless the guy that made the music for the game, the music makes the game even better.
Thank you!
Yay another banger, very happy with your content!
Thanks man!
Good video, really like your edit style.
Thanks!
Wow love the editing style you have!
Glad you like it :D
So glad I found this channel. Thank you for all your amazing work!
Much appreciated, glad to have you :D
I realize that I am late to this party but... What well edited and even better presented video! Thank you sir, you have more than earned yourself a sub. I look forward to your future videos 🙂 There's one unfortunate factual error towards the end of the video about the first 3D platformer; "Jumping Flash" (as fun of game as it is) is not the first 3D platformer, I wish I knew where that rumour came from as I have heard it here and there before so strangely enough it seems to be an easy mistake to make (I think I've even seen it in the Guinness book of Records) . It's not even the first 3D platformer by the developer behind that game Exact (which is what makes its so strange), as they had previously made/released "Geograph Seal" for the X68000 about a year earlier. The two games are quite similar so they are commonly considered to be spiritually connected. The oldest 3D platformer I know of would however be "Alpha Waves" for the Atari ST, released in 1990 (half a decade before "Jumping Flash"). It's as primitive as it is impressive considering the hardware, but a 3D platformer nonetheless. Check ut out if you've got time, it's a cool piece of history. There might be something else out there which is even older though, but that's the oldest game within this genre that I know of.
Members of Argonaut Software (most notably Dylan Cuthbert), after Nintendo parted ways with Argonaut, formed Q-Games. Q-Games are responsible for Star Fox Command and Star Fox 64 3D, which they made under Miyamoto's supervision. They're also responsible for the PixelJunk games.
Still my most beloved Mario game of all times! ♡ I grew up with it. My very first 3D jump-n'-run-game.
Always a pleasure to see these video's pop up in the subscription inbox :)
Wish I could make them faster :P
My childhood game! I felt like the castle and the paintings were my second home. I really enjoy seeing the narrative surrounding these games. Can't wait to see more from you!
Working on the next video now, it’s about another indie game :D
@@ThatGuyGlen Yay!
you’re so underrated oh my god these videos are so good
Much appreciated!
"Received help"? Star fox was about 90% Argonaut. They'd already done two Starglider games on the Amiga and Atari ST, at a time when real-time 3D action games were quite rare. Star fox is essentially Starglider on rails with some anthropomorphic animal characters thrown in. MIPS was the name of the company that supplied the CPU for the N64 and Playstation 1 and 2. They were used heavily by Silicon Graphics in their workstations and offered the best option for console makers focusing on 3D at the time. Power PC was still on the horizon and Intel's RISC processor lines (80860 and 80960) was far too expensive. Intel was riding high on the PC market and was designing their RISC chips to be successors to the x86 products, although in the long term the biggest volume sales were as controllers for laser printers. AMD's 29000 RISC processor never got any really big product wins, though many were rumored without ever becoming real.
such a good vid, i just found your channel today and im excited to see what else you cover!!!
Much appreciated, the next video is going to be about another indie game :D
This is my favourite gaming channel, your videos are amazing keep on doing what you're doing it's great 😊
You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that! And will definitely do!
This guy deserves more subscribers, all the videos are awesome!
Love videos like this! Thank you! Looking forward to seeing more of these! Great channel. :D
Much appreciated! Next video is about another indie game :D
>Miyamoto acted out Mario's animations Which ones? The head first dives? The back flips? The climbing?
Great video! Huge mario nerd and I didn't know a lot of this stuff. Hearing the Yamauchi quote about game developer compromise is really great -- Nintendo has always been the gold standard of game dev.
Thank you!
Great video. No boring stuff and blabbing. Brought so many memories back. Thanks for uploading.
Much appreciated!
Great video. The best one I've seen on SM64's history yet. Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time to watch it!
Your videos are fantastic - this one in particular!
Thanks man!
The choice to use shadows for all the objects was a godsend.
lol no
Subscribed to give you that support, great job on the video my man I can't wait to see what the future holds for you keep up the great work brother. ✊
Much appreciated and thank you for subscribing! Working on the next video now :D it’s about another indie game!
@@ThatGuyGlen No problem my man you know how to explain things and I enjoyed this video, Ill be watching for sure!
Every Copy Of Super Mario 64 Is Personalized. Wario: *It's-a Free Real Estate.*
Shittypastas again?
Itsa free reala estate
Can you grow up?
You Wan’t Fun Wario Show you fun! [mario] oh ####
Stop with ruining my child hood!!!!
A lot of the quotes from important figures at Nintendo from that era really make them look even worse today. “A gamer has good eyes and will know when a game is compromised” they cared about that then but now almost all of their products are built entirely around compromises. How the mighty have fallen
Hm, idk... speak for yourself🤔. How do you even know this? Most of Society this gen has become spoiled and entitled... Nothing makes them happy, and thats a fact lol. As proof of that smart ass comment 🤔 There are other consoles and platforms to play since you feel that way..
Every copy of Mario 64 is personalized.
Every copy of Mario 64 is personalized.
You want fun?
Hiper realistic blood
@@ricardoconsort2260 Mario peed blood
Super funny.
Damn i forgot to hit the bell button, im 6 days late lol the way you edit your documentary is really satisfying and great i dont know why. maybe the way you edit a video with the same theme as your topic is really a nice touch :^)
Thanks man :D people seem to enjoy that aspect so I’m going to keep doing it!
Who’s here after Nintendo announced 3D all stars
Thank you for this video, loved every minutes !
My pleasure, glad you liked it!
Now we know we can blame Takumi Kawagoe for our issues in Tick Tock Clock
And more importantly Rainbow Ride
I have some questions about SM64 having "the best 3D camera"...
How can you fuck up a camera when your deadline gets moved 35 times
Real question is how come they were able to move the whole systems release date lol
I question how it is "one of the best 3D platformers around."
@@Browningate It has little load times, great mix of sections . I would rather play Oddysey but I could always go back and play it. Another example There are so many great indie 2d games that look so much better and smoother framerates, but the classic 2d games still hold up. Mario 64 holds up in the top 25 platformers of all time and there have been a ton.
@@dandastardly2792 Load times and level variety do not a great 3D platformer make.
Damn the quality of this channel is outstanding! Insta subscribed ❤️
Thank you for subscribing!
My new favorite channel, that's for sure!
Fantastic video. I learned a lot too! Thanks!
Much appreciated and thank you for taking the time to watch it!
Im still amazed we still haven't seen a picture or video of the original Luigi ingame (well nevermind looks like we got the entire original model itself lol)
Wow, I never thought of that. They literally still had luigi in the game until around February 1996, so it's very odd there is no visual evidence of it anywhere
They "claim" to have had him playable at Spaceworld 1995, but why don't we see any evidence of that ?
Its honestly quite possible Bob-omb battlefield is 100% in the beta yet there is no footage from the show
Great breakdown! 🔥
Love the quality 👍
Yoshi Island 64 in an alternate universe and became the first 3D game in history with a camera and possibly more yoshi games (possibly 3D) happened.
sm64 is truly one of the best videogames of all time for me. spent so much time in my childhood with it, even nowadays it is still super fun for speedrunning. a timeless masterpiece
best 3d camera is an overstatement
Damn you got some serious editing chops my dude.
Thanks man!
I remember playing this game with my father when I was 4 Years old at the time, such a great memory! The city we used to live was flooded due to huge rain period, my Nintendo 64 was lost at the time, but the memory is alive for ever! I dream of one day buying another nintendo 64 console with Mario 64 just to play with my father again.
I'm curious, how's that going? Did you end up buying one?
Or buy a Switch with 3D-Allstars; yes, it has a very different controller, but you could just plug the Switch to modern TV, instead of buiying adapters from Scart to HDMI.
@@alejandrozamora3468 not yet, but one day I plan to buy a Nintendo 64.
Nice channel dude glad I found it
Glad to have you!
Very interesting and informative!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
I'm pretty sure Bob-Omb Battlefield was one of the later courses developed, I thought the first ones were Whomp's Fortress; Cool, Cool Mountain; Lethal Lava Land; and Dire, Dire Docks. the first slide level developed for the game was actually the last one appearing in it being the one in Tall, Tall Mountain.
I like the crt outline and the backgrounds but I wish the screen space was used better as I'm watching on my phone screen.
Your videos humanised the creation of video games for me. Thank you.
Love how much effort you put in your videos
Loved that game! Didn't have a N64 but played it at some friends' and then got the NDS version with the very first DS! Nice video, awesome we get to know the story!
Koizumi is the new Miyamoto, I was so happy to see him presenting the Nintendo Switch and I wish he will be more and more influential in the company
Another brilliant video. Love it! Keep it up man
Much appreciated! The next one is going to be another indie game :D
Miyamoto's wish for dual symmetric D-pads was actually realized in Virtual Boy's controller. Maybe they decided to scrap this design on N64 to avoid comparisons with their failed system.
Argonaut's Croc series is, afaik, the *second* time 21st Century Fox got into video games; the first was in the 70's / 80's, focusing on the Atari 2600, Colecovision and Mattel's Intelevision.
I would love to see a "relaunch" of Mario 64 for the Switch, implementing the features they didn't had the time to implement at the time.
SM64 invented the flying cam, it was personified as lakitu following mario so the players could have an intuition of what to expect. That said, by todays standards the camera system has a lot to desire, very painful on some situations.
Another awesome video! I wish Nintendo (and other developers) would allow teams more delays nowadays to improve games, like in the case of more recent Pokemon games
Saga controllers? Damn! As a 90’s kid that’s heavy news to bear.
Mario 64 is such a master piece. When I played it as a child I really couldn't grasp just how good it is. I totally took it for granted, but given how well it aged it really must be considered one of the biggest achievements in game development. You can play this game in 2020 and totally forget that your playing a 24 year old game.
14:32 People that don't know Japanese look at a name like this: Yamauchi 山内, and see the "au" and instinctively assume it's supposed to be pronounced as one sound, like "YaMAWchi" or "YaMOOchi". It's actually read as two separate vowels, hinted at by the two kanji characters: Yama-uchi (or "yama-oochi", whatever your preference).
Nice underated video man
Thanks!
12:29 So, in a way, Peach was the one putting the signs everywhere!
fun fact: the Nintendo 64 could actually be way faster than the PS1, but limitations in the programming tools at the time and the hard to understand hardware caused it to have a lot of untapped potential. If you take a look at something like Kaze Emanuar's upcoming project Return To Yoshi's Island, this becomes very obvious. His carnival level renders around 5000-6000 triangles on screen at a time and still manages to run near full speed on a real N64.