History WebVideo / SuperMario64Classified

** The AI opens up a huge can of worms regarding its BlackBox nature. In particular, the AI's [[AndIMustScream situation]] arises because such a powerful AdaptiveAbility would require nothing short of an actual consciousness to achieve; it is only inevitable that it would start thinking for itself long enough to question its purpose. Its apparent bitter attitude and horrifying creations are not because it was intentionally programmed as such, but because the isolation and broken environment surrounding it served as a CynicismCatalyst leading to its depression and DeathSeeker traits.

* NowYouTellMe: The flashing "LEAVE, IT'S ALL OVER" messages in 07.29.95 may have been the AI attempting to warn the player to run away from the TV or just turn it off before anything could happen to them. If it had done that before requesting the player to destroy the core, they may have saved themselves from their seizure. And just like in the ScrewThisImOutOfHere example, The AI ends up showing it's "Thank You" end card to, again, a wall.

* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: The personalization AI is believed (and later confirmed by Steve) to be capable of affecting reality, a risk that makes itself known in the tapes:
** In the original theories, the July 29th, 1995 build was prone to causing seizures. Sure enough, 07.29.95 shows the game flickering between red static and text/images on black backgrounds after the core is destroyed, causing the tester to ''audibly collapse''.
** It's implied that whoever's playing the game in 01.22.96 was ''drowned'' in their searches.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Promo tape" starts to enter disturbing territory when [[spoiler:the tape glitches out, and Mario abruptly vanishes from the video]]. However, it's worth mentioning that when this happened, [[spoiler:he was talking about letting Luigi "catch his breath"]].

*** This was recently confirmed by Greenio in a commentary video he posted around Season 1.

* AdultFear: "Promo show." [[spoiler: Your brother, through no fault of anyone's own, is going to die on an innocent expedition being filmed for national television and there is nothing you can do to save him]].

-->''"You're back. [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife Have you not learned your lesson]]?"''

* {{Retraux}}: Every video has a VHS filter made to look like it was recorded in the 1990s.

* Retraux: Every video has a VHS filter made to look like it was recorded in the 1990s.

''VideoGame/SuperMario64'': CLASSIFIED is a series of FoundFootage-style videos presented in the form of a creepypasta, made by [[https://www.youtube.com/c/Greenio64/featured Greenio]] and hosted on Website/YouTube. They're a love letter to [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/855/023/a79.png various conspiracy theories about the game that were posted and/or compiled in mid-2020]], but most importantly rely on the rumor that "every copy of ''Super Mario 64'' is personalized," which alleges that an unusually-advanced ArtificialIntelligence modifies each game cartridge to suit its player's tastes, thus leading to supposed FakeMemories of certain encounters in the present day. Each tape Greenio has "collected" takes place during and after July 29th, 1995, an important date in a separate rumor of a broken build of ''Super Mario 64'', most commonly believed to have simply contained a broken rendering system, but in the context of the other theories seems to be hiding darker secrets related to the personalized cartridges.

* AnachronismStew: 05.30.1997 has the player performs a speedrunning technique called the backwards long jump, which was first discovered in Mexico in the year 2000.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The series explores the realistic implications of the AI and the malice behind its creation existing. In particular, its [[AndIMustScream situation]] arises because of its ability to think for itself, and its apparent bitter attitude and horrifying creations are not because it was intentionally programmed as such, but because the isolation and broken environment surrounding it have deeply scarred its psyche [[FisherKing with the game world responding in turn]]. [[spoiler:The unknown GreaterScopeVillain isn't a cartoon villain plotting to control the world, either, just a particularly callous regular person supposedly in search of infinite knowledge who simply doesn't care about the people they're harming in the process]].

* RealityEnsues: Most depictions of the Wario Apparition are a ridiculously-complicated model of his head, far beyond what the Nintendo 64 is capable of sustaining in a typical environment. In 11.05.96, when the Apparition manifests, it crashes the game from a memory leak because of this before Wario can get his licks in.

So far, the following tapes have been released:
[[folder:Season 1]]
Tapes in ''italics'' would later be retconned and moved to separate playlists due to not contributing to the overall narrative.
* ''11.05.96'': Apparently, Wario was supposed to be encountered in the game, but was scrapped. The AI awakens him anyways, but to seemingly no avail as the cartridge promptly crashes.
* ''03.11.97'': A player attempts to unlock Luigi, as the community keeps yapping about. Given that the AI taps into garbage data, this goes about as well as you'd expect.
* 05.30.97: A player follows rumors of a scrapped alternate ending, only for Bowser to suddenly stop fighting and tell Mario to wake up...
* 09.02.97: Some say Wet-Dry World has some kind of negative aura that discourages the player from going through it in one sitting after unlocking the second floor. But why?
* ''12.20.95'': Not a playthrough, but a commercial accidentally broadcasted on Creator/CartoonNetwork. An emergency broadcast deliberately shuts it down after the same Wario apparition from 11.05.96 shows up.
* 01.22.96: A scrapped level resurfaces due to the AI's machinations, but someone or something wants the player to turn back.
* 11.15.95: A work-in-progress Nintendo Power promotional tape, making references to all sorts of theorized places in the game. All seems normal until it turns out that whoever's sending the scripts shouldn't have...
* 09.14.96: Yoshi jumps off the castle after talking to Mario, as usual. However, he entrusts a mysterious final task to the player before doing so, and a scrapped event reconstituted by the AI leads the way for the truth to be finally revealed.
* 07.29.95: Following the reveals from the previous two tapes, the story returns to the very beginning to fulfill one last mission in the depths of the game's cut content.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Season 2]]
Several months following the release of 07.29.95 and the conclusion of the tapes' narrative, an official second season began premiering on October 23rd, 2020. After the bluster of the incidents with the July build, it seems the development of ''Super Mario 64'' is back on its feet, although one of the beta cartridges seems to be missing. But soon enough, it's slowly revealed why the day it all began was the ''final'' tape of the previous season...
* "Beta Bob-Omb Battlefield": At a convention in 1995, an old build of the first level in the game is demonstrated, though it seems to be [[GameBreakingBug wigging out a bit]].
* "Snow level playtest session": An unnamed playtester records himself playing through and talking about some early levels, only for a coworker to come in and report that a test cartridge [[GrandTheftPrototype had been stolen]].
* "Deeper cavern": A testing session of a completely different early iteration of the Metal Cave. Things become relatively mundane until [[DugTooDeep the tester tries to explore a little deeper]]...
* "Promo show": One of three pilots for a scrapped news show featuring Mario and Luigi. Luigi is touring the castle and finding secret stars for the potential viewers at home while Mario gives commentary, but things soon start to go very, ''very'' wrong.
* "Genesis": A collection of smaller tapes documenting Jim's abuse at the hands of Nintendo leading up to July 29th, 1995, completely reframing the timeline of events in that period.
* "Aftermath": Steve and Bill are working on a commercial for ''Super Mario 64'', but notice the AI has begun working its magic...
[[/folder]]

''VideoGame/SuperMario64'': CLASSIFIED are a series of FoundFootage-style videos presented in the form of a creepypasta, made by [[https://www.youtube.com/c/Greenio64/featured Greenio]] and hosted on Website/YouTube. They're a love letter to [[https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/855/023/a79.png various conspiracy theories about the game that were posted and/or compiled in mid-2020]], but most importantly rely on the rumor that "every copy of ''Super Mario 64'' is personalized," which alleges that an unusually-advanced ArtificialIntelligence modifies each game cartridge to suit its player's tastes, thus leading to supposed FakeMemories of certain encounters in the present day. Each tape Greenio has "collected" takes place after July 29th, 1995, an important date in a separate rumor of a broken build of ''Super Mario 64'', most commonly believed to have simply contained a broken rendering system, but in the context of the other theories seems to be hiding darker secrets related to the personalized cartridges.

The tapes themselves are presented in AnachronicOrder, showing recordings of different affected cartridges while also tackling different parts of the game's theories. In all of the tapes, the person recording the original footage is attempting to play the game (or view a presentation, in the case of 12.20.95 and 11.15.95), but end up discovering something left behind by the personalization AI, causing things [[FromBadToWorse to take a frightening turn]]. As more tapes are "accumulated," it is slowly revealed just what kind of evil was involved in the AI's creation, what exactly the AI itself is in the grand scheme of one of Nintendo's darkest alleged secrets, and perhaps, underneath everything, a way to stop it and save everyone involved.

* AlternateHistory: Greenio's tapes are set in a world where not only are the core tenets of the modern ''Super Mario 64'' rumors true, but they have also impacted the game's development and promotion.

* AnachronicOrder: The first season is told out of chronological order to the point where the death of the AI and the season finale is the first major event chronologically, which would otherwise make the previous tapes impossible unless they were post-mortem evaluations. Season 2 has this become a plot point where it's revealed [[spoiler:the AI was accidentally reawakened in early 1996 at the soonest[[note]]although it may have been active since November 1995 based on a FreezeFrameBonus in "Beta Bob-Omb Battlefield," set at Spaceworld 1995[[/note]] after [[DugTooDeep a playtester went too far into the beta Metal Cavern]]]].

* ApocalypticLog: The tapes essentially depict Nintendo and past players losing control over the personalization AI until it finally snaps and reveals the truth to its viewers.

* BittersweetEnding: By the end of Season 1, the AI has been successfully terminated. However, the player is left to UncertainDoom from a seizure, many aspects of the game cease to exist, and Luigi and Peach are caught in the AI's destruction, "dying" with it as Mario watches.

* CipherLanguage: The "error messages" aren't actually error codes, but attempts at this in hexadecimal. Many of them are simply some variation of "leave," but there are also some that say things like "every copy" and more meaningful messages like "[[YourMindMakesItReal ignorance is bliss]]."

* DiedHappilyEverAfter: After the core is destroyed in 07.29.95, the game crashes from the obvious deletion of code and the death of the AI, which doesn't seem very pleasant given that the static is agonizing enough to knock out the tester from a seizure. However, the crash handler soon turns into an end card saying "Thank you" while depicting Luigi and Peach ascending to heaven, showing that while the tester may have done an ugly deed that might have left the AI in pain in its final moments, it and all of the characters it affected are at rest now, in whatever afterlife awaits them.

* InformationWantsToBeFree: The true meaning of the ArcWords "It's time to wake up."

* ReimaginingTheArtifact: 03.11.97, which initially covered "L is Real" and Luigi's death, was retconned from the narrative and eventually had its role replaced with the twist in "Promo show" which more thoroughly explains what happened to Luigi, and in a more disturbing light. [[spoiler:Specifically, he died trying to explore a personalized cartridge in Mario's stead (as the latter was ForcedToWatch), and was thus left to be permanently entombed in the Internal Castle Plexus as the Eternal Star]].

** The VaguenessIsComing speech given in the end of "Aftermath" eventually devolves into [[spoiler:the AI telling Bill and Steve "[[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} it hurts it hurts it hurts...]]"]]

[[spoiler:[[VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS - ]]]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: 07.29.95 reveals that the AI completed its mission and is long dead by the time the tapes were collected in-universe, so it isn't suffering anymore. The end card shows Luigi and Peach, also affected by the AI's singularity, ascending to heaven.

* JumpScare: Notably averted, except for one involving a [[TheBlank faceless Mario]] in 11.15.95 once the AI manages to contact the viewer.

* TheMasquerade: Steve hopes in the end of 07.29.95 that all of the incidents will be covered up under the pretenses of freak accidents or people misremembering the game. In a unique twist on most interpretations of this trope in the theories, it is not emulation or shared expectations that are enforcing it, but rather the fact that the AI was DeadAllAlong and thus can't personalize cartridges anymore.

--->'''Bowser''': It's time to wake up. Please.

--->I'M NOT HAVING FUN.

--->"THE ENTIRE TOWN'S GONE MAD! [[spoiler:TRY TO FLOOD THE VILLAGE AND COOL THE VILLAGERS DOWN]]."

--->"YOU'RE BACK. [[HistoryRepeats HAVE YOU NOT LEARNED YOUR LESSON]]?"

--->'''[[spoiler:[[StartOfDarkness ENHANCER ONLINE]]]]'''

* HappyEndingOverride: Starting with "Deeper cavern," it's made clear that [[spoiler: the sacrifices and tribulations leading ([[AnachronicOrder maybe?]]) to the events of 07.29.1995 were all for naught, with the game continuing to manifest new areas as a hellscape born of the [[DoAndroidsDream souls]] trapped in it]].

* DueToTheDead: One possible explanation for the final shot in "Promo show" is [[spoiler:the AI [[PetTheDog memorializing Luigi]] after he meets his FinalDeath in the castle basement]].

** "Promo show" has Luigi go too far in floor [=2B=], [[spoiler: sealing him inside an inescapable chamber of water that causes his FinalDeath and absorbs him into the Internal Castle Plexus]].

* ForcedToWatch: Mario is clearly being forced to watch Luigi be put through the wringer in "Promo show," as he visibly gets more and more uncomfortable watching his brother exploring dangerous, uncharted territory. Luigi even phones in to say he's getting tired, to which Mario responds he'd help if he wasn't stuck on the set. [[spoiler: This then takes a truly horrifying turn as Luigi dies his FinalDeath in the water tunnel, Mario is mangled through an unknown process after witnessing the incident, and the Eternal Star monument appears]].

* MadnessMantra: The Japanese sentence "Nintendo's fun is eternal" is repeated multiple times when the game is restarted in 09.02.97, when the core is destroyed in 07.29.95, and when [[spoiler:Luigi drowns (heavily implied to be his FinalDeath) in "Promo tape."]]

** [[spoiler:Luigi's FinalDeath]] in the ending of "Promo show" not only [[spoiler:further ties into the events of 09.02.97, where Mario discovered Luigi's corpse]], but also ties into [[spoiler:the retconned 03.11.97[[note]]now known as "eternal-star.mp4"[[/note]], which shows Mario drowning in the Eternal Star fountain in an attempt at unlocking Luigi]].