Turns out, Super Mario 64 can trap you in a menu for 2.25 years—as long as you wait that long beforehand: ‘This is a fair punishment’

13 Comments

  1. In Super Mario 64, after you jump into a level’s painting, you have to spend at least 12 frames on the star select screen before you can select a star and enter the level. (Note: the article incorrectly says 12 seconds rather than 12 frames.) The game tracks the number of frames you’ve waited by starting a counter at 0, going up by 1 on every frame. If you press A and the number isn’t at least 12, it doesn’t work. The number is stored as a signed integer, so if you wait about 2.25 years, it overflows and turns negative, and will take another 2.25 years to reach positive 12 again. Basically, choose a star within 2.25 years or you’ll be softlocked for another 2.25 years. If they’d used an unsigned integer, you’d have a 4.5-year window to select a star and then be softlocked for 12 frames.

  2. shawn0fthedead

    I will never get the 2.25 years it took me to read this article back 😭

  3. has anyone warned TJ “””Henry””” Yoshi yet or did he already get stuck in gay paint jail

  4. Losing the red cap and not getting it back was catastrophic as a child

  5. Boeuf1987

    Alright, but first we need to talk about parallel universes.

  6. Deliriousious

    Information that is completely useless to everyone, yet is still rather interesting nevertheless.

  7. AutocraticHilarity

    This is delightfully random trivia. It’s a treasured game that keeps on giving.

  8. People like Kaze Emanuar and Pannenkoek make life worth living with stuff like this.

    Seriously, the degree of passion people like this have to find out this much about their favorite games to such a degree is something that never ceases to put a smile on my face.

  9. Imagine booting up your save after 800 days and Mario’s just standing there like: ‘You finally returned… to be punished

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