Problem is there's a ton of these 'amazing' fangames and projects in the works and only a fraction of them are ever finishes. They rarely get past demo stages.
Big shout-out to Kaze Emanuar. Been waiting for this for years! I highly recommend watching his videos as he breaks down all that he did to amp up the performance of this game. It's absolutely insane. He did stuff Nintendo couldn't do back in the days.
as soon as i saw the title i was this is kaze's mod, this guy is a true programmer and if game studios today applied ANY of his tricks or learned ANY thing from him we would not be counting fps, but kfps, and frame time wouldn't be in milliseconds, but microseconds
Don't forget to read all the dialogue. Egg Coins on the Radar actually gives you a radar that detects how close you are to each egg coin you haven't collected yet. Look at the top of the screen.
not only does it run on original hardware, kaze had to not do a few things because it wouldn't run on emulator, mainly not micromanage the cache too much
To be fair, time constraints are a real problem in programming. Kaze is brilliant, but he is doing what the original developers would probably do for a hypothetical Mario 64 2 with 30 years of hindsight and no release date. Mario 64 was the first game Nintendo developed on the console, so there was a lot of room for optimization. There are some brilliant examples of optimization from the actual N64 era like Rogue Squadron that make the console punch above its weight class, but not quite like Kaze's optimizations obviously. The end-of-cycle games like Rogue Squadron on N64 or Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube are better representations of what developers could with known optimizations in a console's era, not games like Mario 64 from the start of the console that are basically a tech demo in comparison. Rare was one of the better developers for this, and it shows when you compare Perfect Dark visually to Goldeneye or how performant Rogue Squadron is (in low res mode) compared to the visually simpler Diddy Kong Racing from a year prior, which struggles to run above 10-15FPS much of the time.
I've been watching Kaze's videos for like a year now. Tons of crazy stuff happening, and whenever the full game releases, he wants to assemble a team to put all of these optimizations to use for a new & improved Vanilla Mario 64 (better graphics, same original levels)
This isn't a ROM hack. He completely overhauled the entire game code for the past 3 years. He removed the audio synthesizer, since it's only used for a red coin sound effect, so that all the audio code could fit into cache. I don't think there's even 1 graphical asset from Super Mario 64 in this game. It's an entirely new game, loosely based on the Mario 64 engine.
I was just thinking “this is almost on par with Mario Sunshine’s graphics on the GameCube” and lo and behold, the madman actually got Delfino Plaza in there. Incredible.
I don't think Kaze ever said that. I have heard him respond to comments stating that his optimizations achieve near Gamecube graphics quality, and he downplayed that comparison, though he appreciates that people are excited about what he's been able to achieve. Of course, the graphics could rival Gamecube graphics when playing on more modern hardware at a higher resolution (using emulation). The Gamecube's rendering power (and memory capacity) are far beyond that of the N64, and usually run games at 480p, sometimes even at full 720, sometimes even at 720p and 60fps. Not even Kaze's optimizations can get Mario 64 to ever be on the same level as Mario Sunshine, at least not when running on original hardware, though it can be good enough that people might mistake the graphics for Gamecube graphics at first glance.
The C Button camera shift sound effect is replaced with a sound effect from SMB2 Yoshi's Island. It's the sound effect of a shy guy passing a bomb and something to do with the piranha plants in pipe levels (but I can't remember specifically what).
Kaze has some videos on his channel diving into the technical aspects of some of the stuff he's done. As a programmer myself it's some pretty cool stuff. Gonna wait for the full game myself before I give it a go. Looks really neat though.
N64 romhacks have gone so crazy recently, it's more than astounding. If we just stay with Mario 64, another unbelievable project would be the Mario 64 Multiverse crossover thing that also just had an update shortly ago.
Just finished the video. My goodness this hack is breathtaking. So much attention to detail. That midair spin move might be based on, and have the same sound effect, as Mario's down-B in Smash Melee . There's a "secret" in Melee where Mario can gain height from it, but you had to mash insanely fast for it to be a recovery option.
I'd just be happy with the optimized, 40 to 60 fps version of the game, but judging from the level of game design here it looks like we're about to get the Super Mario 64 2 we've always craved for. By the way the improved resolution in textures and sprites is impressive.
0:52 It’s not that those things were impossible on the N64… It’s simply that Nintendo could not do it on time for the console’s launch. And after they immediately focused on modding the Mario engine to Zelda OOT.
the fact you can get the stars out of order is something very nice that has been lost since n64. even sunshine, railroaded you into an order for most of the stages.
This is stunningly good! I'm guessing there's a software limitation that prevents Kaze from implementing Sunshine's superior camera (smooth camera panning controls instead of in juts)?
I can confirm that this works on original hardware. I had to "byte swap" the Mario 64 rom file I had before I could properly patch the ROM with Kaze's rom hack file (that's something to consider doing if it doesn't work for you the first time)... and you have to load a regular version of Mario 64 on your flash-cart, then reset the system, before being able to properly load the patched ROM file... but, after that, it was working perfectly! I did find a recent upload of video capture of this demo being played on original hardware, but it was using a fake CRT filter from a Retrotink 5x which made the game look very dark on my monitor, but you can get a very good idea of how smooth the game is on original hardware still from that video, if nothing else.
I had never heard of “Blue Bunny Ice Cream”, your joke flew over my head until I worked out it was probably some American brand that’s not in my country
I would say though the N64 reached enough potential on its late cycle. The only console i would say really needs desesperately more programming to show its full potential is the Atari Jaguar...
Graphics and features on this level weren't out of reach for developers in the 90s, just look at Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Super Mario 64 was a much earlier game so it wasn't as polished as the games that came after. The graphics in this hack remind me of Rare's games.
Ive been kept up with Kaze and Simpleflips Kaze is the reason i beleive we should hold nintendo and other companies more acountable for optimizing their hardware and games they have 0 excuses
To be fair, Nintendo is quite good at optimization, look at Breath of the Wild at the start of the Switch life-cycle and then Tears of the Kingdom robust and bugfree crafting system. Japanese developers like konami, Capcom and Nintendo usually optimize games well. Is western companies like Ubisoft and EA whose games are an unoptimized bugfest
The most egregious example is Animal Crossing New Horizons. Game was a huge deal, huge budget, and they couldn't have reasonable load times for such a low graphics game. Sometimes I wouldn't even go in my house to hangout because there was an annoying loading screen BETWEEN ROOMS. I get a short loading screen to enter the house, but not being able to quickly transition between rooms once inside was sad.
I know its just a demo so maybe it will change, but as cool as this is (and it is VERY cool), for being called "return to yoshi's island" it looks nothing like yoshi's island...
Optimizations on the level that only someone without a deadline can deliver
Beautifully done
Problem is there's a ton of these 'amazing' fangames and projects in the works and only a fraction of them are ever finishes. They rarely get past demo stages.
@@thenonexistinghero Except Kaze has all 15 levels finished and is now only in the last optimisation phase with testing and bugfixing.
@@1MyNickname1 Do we have an "official" release date ? Been seeing Kaze stuff here and there but idk if he did say when it should come out
Well said!
@@1MyNickname1thats fake
That Delfino Plaza runs at 30+ FPS on real N64 hardware btw.
That’s great to know! Cool info.
Can confirm!
not to mention the first course literally runs nearly to exactly 60 fps on actual n64 hardware even...
it can chug a bit if you look at the whole map at once.
Kaze is an absolute genius. He's literally transformed our understanding of the N64 hardware, let alone SM64 specifically.
Big shout-out to Kaze Emanuar. Been waiting for this for years! I highly recommend watching his videos as he breaks down all that he did to amp up the performance of this game. It's absolutely insane. He did stuff Nintendo couldn't do back in the days.
as soon as i saw the title i was this is kaze's mod, this guy is a true programmer and if game studios today applied ANY of his tricks or learned ANY thing from him we would not be counting fps, but kfps, and frame time wouldn't be in milliseconds, but microseconds
Don't forget to read all the dialogue. Egg Coins on the Radar actually gives you a radar that detects how close you are to each egg coin you haven't collected yet. Look at the top of the screen.
all those optimizations made by kaze over the years are really coming together beautifully. that man is incredible at what he does
The fact that this works on the original hardware just shows that the developers didn’t know what they had! Kaze you are programmer and a wizard!
not only does it run on original hardware, kaze had to not do a few things because it wouldn't run on emulator, mainly not micromanage the cache too much
@@mineyoucraftube1768 Or using the 9th bit.
@@mineyoucraftube1768 tbh he should just release a version built with emus in mind and other built with n64 in mind
@@ssg-eggunner if anything he's gonna do something to detect if it's emulator or real hardware and use self modifying code accordingly
To be fair, time constraints are a real problem in programming. Kaze is brilliant, but he is doing what the original developers would probably do for a hypothetical Mario 64 2 with 30 years of hindsight and no release date. Mario 64 was the first game Nintendo developed on the console, so there was a lot of room for optimization. There are some brilliant examples of optimization from the actual N64 era like Rogue Squadron that make the console punch above its weight class, but not quite like Kaze's optimizations obviously. The end-of-cycle games like Rogue Squadron on N64 or Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube are better representations of what developers could with known optimizations in a console's era, not games like Mario 64 from the start of the console that are basically a tech demo in comparison. Rare was one of the better developers for this, and it shows when you compare Perfect Dark visually to Goldeneye or how performant Rogue Squadron is (in low res mode) compared to the visually simpler Diddy Kong Racing from a year prior, which struggles to run above 10-15FPS much of the time.
4:20 thanks for getting that coin Dave
I've been watching Kaze's videos for like a year now. Tons of crazy stuff happening, and whenever the full game releases, he wants to assemble a team to put all of these optimizations to use for a new & improved Vanilla Mario 64 (better graphics, same original levels)
That would be so cool!
That render of Mario especially is gorgeous. I’ve seen some clips of a version of Mario 64 in HD, but Mario himself just never looks good.
Imagine having this in the 90s, that would have been completely crazy.
This isn't a ROM hack. He completely overhauled the entire game code for the past 3 years. He removed the audio synthesizer, since it's only used for a red coin sound effect, so that all the audio code could fit into cache. I don't think there's even 1 graphical asset from Super Mario 64 in this game. It's an entirely new game, loosely based on the Mario 64 engine.
the mario 64 mod of theseus
We are on the 5th ship at this point. The amount of modifications is insane.
You still have to patch a ROM of the regular version of Mario 64 to create a playable ROM though.
@@syncmonism true, he did start with the ROM
10:48
*Dave:* That's the first time we've taken damage, interestingly enough.
*Bunny Goomba:* What, am I a _joke_ to you?
Dave probably hoped Chris would cut that part out but we all know and love Chris. 😂
yeah, Kaze is a wizard. Been subscribed to his youtube channels for a while, and he does some amazing stuff with the engine
DGR screaming at the top of his lungs, “AH NO KARMA” is something I had on this year’s bingo board. I can now cross it off.
Kaze knows the internals of mario 64 better then then Google know about me
*Mario 64
*better than (comparative)
*Google knows me.
The king goomba fight is better than every goomba fight I have seen in the entire Mario franchise
Kaze really has made the rambus go vroom-vroom.
I was just thinking “this is almost on par with Mario Sunshine’s graphics on the GameCube” and lo and behold, the madman actually got Delfino Plaza in there.
Incredible.
I don't think Kaze ever said that. I have heard him respond to comments stating that his optimizations achieve near Gamecube graphics quality, and he downplayed that comparison, though he appreciates that people are excited about what he's been able to achieve. Of course, the graphics could rival Gamecube graphics when playing on more modern hardware at a higher resolution (using emulation).
The Gamecube's rendering power (and memory capacity) are far beyond that of the N64, and usually run games at 480p, sometimes even at full 720, sometimes even at 720p and 60fps. Not even Kaze's optimizations can get Mario 64 to ever be on the same level as Mario Sunshine, at least not when running on original hardware, though it can be good enough that people might mistake the graphics for Gamecube graphics at first glance.
Wow, that SMB1 section was so cool! I always wished they would do a whole 3D game like that!
The C Button camera shift sound effect is replaced with a sound effect from SMB2 Yoshi's Island. It's the sound effect of a shy guy passing a bomb and something to do with the piranha plants in pipe levels (but I can't remember specifically what).
It does sound to me more like the sound of mario 64 goombas jumping up into the air when they see Mario.
Only DGR can showcase an arleady amazing romhack and make it seem even better.
Kaze has some videos on his channel diving into the technical aspects of some of the stuff he's done. As a programmer myself it's some pretty cool stuff.
Gonna wait for the full game myself before I give it a go. Looks really neat though.
I had no idea that N64 mod/hacking was such an enormous genre on yt. keep up the good work!!
man i love kaze... been waiting on this hack for a good while... can't wait for the full game! looks amazing..
I'm over here yelling at the YT vid that you missed that one purple coin, haha! GGs DGR, this romhack looks amazing
This is incredible!! Not just for the technical aspects, but it’s just so fun and whimsical and creative!
Playing this little demo was so delightful I actually played it 3 times in a row
N64 romhacks have gone so crazy recently, it's more than astounding. If we just stay with Mario 64, another unbelievable project would be the Mario 64 Multiverse crossover thing that also just had an update shortly ago.
Just finished the video. My goodness this hack is breathtaking. So much attention to detail. That midair spin move might be based on, and have the same sound effect, as Mario's down-B in Smash Melee . There's a "secret" in Melee where Mario can gain height from it, but you had to mash insanely fast for it to be a recovery option.
Metroid 64 seems possible now. I've been following that guy for a while. Crazy what he's done.
I need Kaze to release the full game this newest demo was so good and much more polished than the previous version
Haven’t seen a video of you in forever.
Pleasantly surprised to see you in my Recommended page!
Why did it take Dave so long to try jumping on the goombas in the floor during the boss? 😂
“Super Mario 64 is my favorite game of all time”
-The rapscallion that chickened out of Kaizo Mario 64 after only 8 moons
Hyper upgraded coin look -> vanilla coin collection sprite?
Everything else is amazing, 111%!
I'd just be happy with the optimized, 40 to 60 fps version of the game, but judging from the level of game design here it looks like we're about to get the Super Mario 64 2 we've always craved for. By the way the improved resolution in textures and sprites is impressive.
TBH Kaze broke the mold a few years ago when he made Last Impact. It seems he has outdone himself this time cause this just looks Amazing
Oh nice! I’m excited for this.
Reminds, the original Mario 64 team was only 7 people, theres a lot a few determined fans could do to this game.
1:51 model, not sprite
I think he meant the texture used in the model
Hi DGR I'm a big fan of your channel, I watched you since day 1, you're an amazing person and keep up the great work!
Who else was expecting Mario to appear as Baby Mario?
I mean, it's *return* to yoshi's island, i find real nice the concept of Mario going back to it once grown up
Haven’t been watching ur content as of late, but I’m always delighted to come back to see you haven’t changed! I love ya man! ❤
Could you imagine how mind blown we would have been as kids if this is the level of design we got back then?
So awesome. DGR and Kaze. What a duo.
This rom hack looks so cool, like pushing the game to its limits.
1:50 that's a model bruh. not a sprite. or if anything it's the texture you're admiring.
Please dont let Nintendo ruin this
Good morning Dave!
Dang. This looks CLEAN
0:52 It’s not that those things were impossible on the N64… It’s simply that Nintendo could not do it on time for the console’s launch. And after they immediately focused on modding the Mario engine to Zelda OOT.
You will go back and get that coin!!!
...
..
Good.
the fact you can get the stars out of order is something very nice that has been lost since n64. even sunshine, railroaded you into an order for most of the stages.
This looks IMMACULATE!
I wonder if he had some sort of flashback with that Delfino Plaza music
This is stunningly good! I'm guessing there's a software limitation that prevents Kaze from implementing Sunshine's superior camera (smooth camera panning controls instead of in juts)?
Kaze really is one of a kind, insanity
Darn you dave for keeping us in suspense for the coin
So excited for this to be released! Kaze rules
I was just plating SA2 And beat the jungle level, that bird's nest star caught me by surprise lol.
That is the most amazing ROM hack I have ever seen! Fantastic work by Kaze!!
Excellent SM64 romhack! Love even the simple details of the game. 😄
Kaze is truly doing a stellar job, he's so good at optimizing and understanding the hardware...
Fans: Hey Dave, any plans to get back to the Mariothon?
Dave: Best I can is fan games and rom hacks.
Did not expect a Se7en reference lol
Yo that's so cool! Thanks for sharing this Dave! :) If this is possible on Mario 64, then surely it can be done on OOT too, right?
Kaze, you legend!
Delfino Plaza on N64 :O thats neat!
This looks so cool!
18:43 so excited he channeled his inner Squidward lol
I can confirm that this works on original hardware. I had to "byte swap" the Mario 64 rom file I had before I could properly patch the ROM with Kaze's rom hack file (that's something to consider doing if it doesn't work for you the first time)... and you have to load a regular version of Mario 64 on your flash-cart, then reset the system, before being able to properly load the patched ROM file... but, after that, it was working perfectly!
I did find a recent upload of video capture of this demo being played on original hardware, but it was using a fake CRT filter from a Retrotink 5x which made the game look very dark on my monitor, but you can get a very good idea of how smooth the game is on original hardware still from that video, if nothing else.
Best mario 64 romhack ever yo yeehaw!
I had never heard of “Blue Bunny Ice Cream”, your joke flew over my head until I worked out it was probably some American brand that’s not in my country
I'm an American and I'm only just now hearing about it.
@ like maybe it’s only sold in three stores in Minnesota or something? 😂
No mention of that both title and music is a reference to "Return to Monkey Island"?
Great vid, I watched twice.
Whoever desinged this should be dropping their CV at Nintendo ASAP!
Many consoles never got to reach their full potential.
I would say though the N64 reached enough potential on its late cycle. The only console i would say really needs desesperately more programming to show its full potential is the Atari Jaguar...
I will never look at it the same again 💀
Kaze and James are really showing the world what the N64 can really do, and it's amazing.
I'm still sad about Portal 64
@rogercruz1547 me too...
oh yeah kaze found some extra bits of ram. he basically downloaded memory
Graphics and features on this level weren't out of reach for developers in the 90s, just look at Banjo Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Super Mario 64 was a much earlier game so it wasn't as polished as the games that came after. The graphics in this hack remind me of Rare's games.
Ive been kept up with Kaze and Simpleflips
Kaze is the reason i beleive we should hold nintendo and other companies more acountable for optimizing their hardware and games they have 0 excuses
To be fair, Nintendo is quite good at optimization, look at Breath of the Wild at the start of the Switch life-cycle and then Tears of the Kingdom robust and bugfree crafting system. Japanese developers like konami, Capcom and Nintendo usually optimize games well. Is western companies like Ubisoft and EA whose games are an unoptimized bugfest
The most egregious example is Animal Crossing New Horizons. Game was a huge deal, huge budget, and they couldn't have reasonable load times for such a low graphics game. Sometimes I wouldn't even go in my house to hangout because there was an annoying loading screen BETWEEN ROOMS. I get a short loading screen to enter the house, but not being able to quickly transition between rooms once inside was sad.
@@xdanic3 polished ≠ optimized
*I've been keeping up with
*Simpleflips.
*believe
*Nintendo
*games. They
*excuses.
What a masterpiece, woah!!
Kaze is a SuperMario64ologist.
Kaze could make a Boeing 737 MAX into a rocket that could bring 10 passengers and a pilot to Mars using 1 banana peel as fuel if he liked airports.
I nearly downvoted this video, but then he grabbed that one coin, so I upvoted :)
I know its just a demo so maybe it will change, but as cool as this is (and it is VERY cool), for being called "return to yoshi's island" it looks nothing like yoshi's island...
This is Mind blowing!! I must play this!
the man finally discovered Kaze
wow this looks so fun! 🥰
This is what the sequel to SM64 should've been. Sunshine was great, but we really needed a SM128 as well. This would've been it.
Why are there no mods (levles) for the PC port? Everything is still ROM hacks even though the PC version has clear advantages.
For an Icecream brand, i wonder why they call it Blue Bunny and not Snow Bunny. Makes much more sense
i been tryna find kaze irl to stop him. ill keep u updated
Such a beautiful romhack! Really showcases what the N64 was capable of!
Do some super mario world rom hacks! I love those
Imagine how good games today would run if they were this optimized
He optimized the N64 so much it just became a Game Cube