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Nintendo Businesses Entertainment Games

A Look Back at Making Mario 64 43

Posted by Zonk from the letsa-go dept.
Press the Buttons has commentary on a short, interesting piece at the Miyamoto Shrine site. There, they look back at the making of Mario 64. From the article: "Possibly the most important part of Mario 64 was making sure Mario was easy to control. Before any of the levels had been created Mr. Miyamoto had Mario running around and picking up objects in a small 'garden' which he uses in all his games to test gameplay elements. 'Alot of the animation was actually in there before any of the game' explains Goddard. 'The Mario that he had running around basically looked the same as he did in the final version. Mario's movement is based on good physics, but you have bits on top that you plug in so you can do things you shouldn't be able to do. They spent a lot of time working on the swimming, it's harder than running to get the feeling right, they didn't want you to avoid the water, the wanted to make it an advantage and fun to dive in.'"
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A Look Back at Making Mario 64 More

A Look Back at Making Mario 64

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  • Most important part (Score:3, Funny)

    by Threni ( 635302 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:03PM (#14441162)
    Surely the most important part was making it impossible to know where the bloody was going to swivel around to next, from pointing at the back of his head to looking behind him.
    • It was straightforward enough for me. Just push the stick in the direction you want to go and if the camera changes change the direction you're pushing. Of course I still needed to change camera modes to cross narrow paths.
      • The problem was that there was no way to *anticipate* the camera's movement. Apparently depending on some random variable, and adding in the Evil Bit just for that extra touch of evil, the camera would wildly swing over one direction *just before* you make a critical jump while running along, making it impossible to stop your jump quickly enough, and sending you down to your demise or at least all the way to the bottom of the level.

        It's so damn frustrating. The roaming camera is never where you want it to
        • In my opinion, Mario Sunshine was a better game than Mario 64: more variety and better levels. But then I played them in reverse order: I only played Mario 64 DS last year.

          That said, 64(DS) is still a fantastic game. The basic gameplay is fun and there is a very good balance between challenge and reward. It also has a very strong "just one more star" effect that kept me playing. It reuses the same levels, but it does so many different clever things with them that it doesn't matter. I often get bored of game
        • I never really felt like the controls were difficult, or the camera hated me. This is why I think Mario 64 is one of the best 3D platformers. I didn't find the levels repetitive because even though you did the same level over and over, each mission was very much unique and was often seperated into its own part of the environment. Unfortunately I can't expect you to change your opinion based on my opinion, so I guess as they say, to each his/her own:D
    • GTA San Andreas apparently used Mario 64 a a role model for how to make a good camera system.

      I just love the cinematic thrill of driving in one direction and looking behind me after doing a sharp turn. Really gives the game that added touch.

  • Mario 64 Completion in 16 minutes (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:05PM (#14441185)
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6493722340 610946105 [google.com]

  • Cameras Still Don't Work (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:27PM (#14441399) Homepage
    I loved that game, still do. It is right up there with Super Mario World as one of the best games ever made, bar none.

    I think it is a bit sad we still don't have the camera right in most games. You would think we would by now, but we don't. I just finished Shadow of the Colossus (great game), but there are real camera problems.

    When you are fighting a Colossus and there is lots of room, the camera works very well most of the time (like when you are climbing on their back). But as soon as you walk around a confined space or fight a colossus in a small room, the camera is a MAJOR pain and caused me to get motion sickness very quick (I'm susceptable to that). And in other situations (like on the final colossus when you are climbing on his hand) the camera doesn't work well even though you are in a big space (the camera has a hard time figuring out which side of his hand to show you) and this makes it hard to see what you are doing.

    The biggest problem with all these is that they try to fit the camera into the world. The camera shouldn't model a phyical camera that can't be inside a wall, it is supposed to show a "mind's eye" view that doesn't have those limitations. Imagine if they tried to shoot sitcoms in real rooms instead of rooms missing one wall. It would be a disaster.

    Yet in SotC and many other games, the camera must "obey" the world and can not be "in" a wall. Why not let the camera go there and make the wall invisible? If I am pivoting the camera to try to get a sense of where I am, having it suddenly run into the wall my back is up against and stop is very disconcerting. It takes you right out of the expiriance. There you are, about to fight a giant monster, up against a wall, and the only view you can get is that of yourself and that wall because the camera can't show you the oposite view.

    It was a great game, but most camera systems still suck. The only games that don't really have problems are fixed camera games (Tycoon games, Warcraft III, first person shooters, driving games, etc). I haven't seen a 3D platformer yet that has a "perfect" camera system. They all have problems.

    But they all have the same problems that Mario 64 had 10 years ago. 10 years ago. Loot at how far we've come in other respects (graphics being the obvious example), yet we can't fix the camera system.

    Great game though. It is a Shakespere or Dickens or Hemminway of video games. Not in story (very generic), but in getting everything right (pacing, little extras, challenge, presentation, etc).

    • I have to say that I didn't like Mario 64 very much --- that kind of collect-all-the-tokens, do-every-level-500-times adventure bores me stiff. But I agree with you completely about cameras; most of them suck.

      (I was once playing Banjo and Kazooie (another game I tired of very quickly) and died because I fell down one side of a wall and the camera fell down the other side and couldn't get back to me. I could hear that I was being eaten by something, but couldn't tell what.)

      The best camera work I've ever

      • That kind of collecting is a matter of taste. I enjoyed Banjo-Kazooie too. But if the games were released today, I don't think I would go collecting all 120 stars. But back then there was nothing else like it anywhere so each star was a totally fresh and new experience.

        I've had things like what you mention with Banjo-Kazooie happen too, and it is almost funny some times (depends on how critical it is that you stay alive then). I must say that while I've played all the Zelda games, I don't remember the came

    • Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal had about the perfect camera. I never had a single problem with it my entire way through the game. As an aside, I really tried to like Shadow of the Colossus, but between the horrible camera and the overzealous graphics (causing enormously distracting issues and choppy framerates that could have been solved with the excess power of the next generation of systems and some good antialiasing, which i'm sure they just didnt have the processing power to incorporate. It's to
      • It was an AMAZING game.

        That said, I agree. I think they should have waited and put it on the PS3. The colossi would have looked better (they look great now but...), and more importantly the environment would have looked better. A larger draw distance would have helped, but the thing that is really needed are better texture filtering (ansitropic would have fixed it some), more textures (the basic ground texture is repeated WAY too much), and a higher poly count would help. The frame-rate issue was sad. The

  • "6 years after its release..." (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The simple fact that now, 6 years after it's release, the game is still leaps and bounds above it's nearest rival makes you wonder what exactly the 15 man Mario 64 development team were doing differently.


    6 years after 1996 makes... 2002. This is four years old.

  • I don't understand... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kazzahdrane ( 882423 ) on Tuesday January 10, 2006 @06:47PM (#14441582)
    This is a story on Slashdot with the Nintendo logo proudly displayed on the main page...and yet it isn't an article about journalists guessing how the Revolution controller might possibly perhaps be used, or how it might possibly perhaps change the face of gaming simply by existing.

    Is this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?
    • I think that the real sign of the apocalypse is that there are no Xbox 2 articles today.
    • Whoever modded this Flamebait...who exactly was my post flaming? I take it you must be a journalist who's written a 3-page piece about the Revolution controller based on heresay and your imagination, and made it sound like you've been the future and are back to report on what you saw.

      Sheesh, I was just trying to make an amusing comment. I guess I failed but if you don't like it at least mod it down sensibly, Overrated perhaps. Flamebait???
  • It's good to see developers taking the time to explain stuff like this, kinda like the dude who made de_dust writing in depth about it's construction on his blog. It gives you a more indepth view into the world of game designers and what they create.
  • Mario64 is without a dought my favourite game. The magnitude of the jump between games of the 16bit era and Mario64 on the Nintendo64 has never been matched in my experience.

    The only thing I feel is lacking in repeat play throughs is more options for free-play. Flying around bob-omb battlefield or riding the koopa shell up the mountain is some of the most enjoyable gaming available, however apart from several of the earlier levels it seems that the development guys simply ran out of time to include more of
  • ...That the same kind of experimenting is going on around the development of Mario 128 or whatever it's become.
  • Hiroshi Yamauchi said at the show "I don't mean to brag, but when this game is finished I believe it will be our best ever."

    And then The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time came out. Seriously though I loved playing Mario 64. I don't have an N64 anymore, but when I bought my DS I made sure to get one with a free copy of Mario 64 DS. It's still hella fun.

  • Software patents may have harmed Mario 64 (Score:3, Informative)

    by MilenCent ( 219397 ) <johnwh AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday January 11, 2006 @08:07AM (#14444990) Homepage
    From the article:

    The camera became quite a problem for Takumi Kawagoe who was working on the Lakitu cam, Goddard recalls: "suddenly, halfway through the project, one of the people from downstairs came up and said 'Do you realise Sega has patent on being able to switch camera views?'" The team were devastated. "Half the patents that come out are for techniques people have used for years" says Goddard. "The software patents just don't work."

    I don't really have anything more to add to that, just wanted to point it out....

    (Yeah, and probably someone will reply and say, "But the other half of the time software patents ARE good!" Why you gotta be ignorant your whole life?)

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