Super Mario 64 Beta Archive
is a YouTube channel and Alternate Reality Game based around fictional unused content found in early builds of Super Mario 64.
The channel is run by Eric Bennett, a tester for Argonaut Software who worked on an experimental feature of the Nintendo 64 which would read the player's thoughts through the controller to customize the game. Later on, Eric is accompanied by Meg Moberly, who developed a GUI for the game.
Note that none of the content seen in this channel is real, as it is just a rather unique take on the Mario 64 iceberg meme, but with how convincing the videos look, it’s no surprise that one would think these are legit at first.
In January 2021, "Eric" announced that he would cease uploading videos. Some of the team behind this channel would go on to start a Denser and Wackier Self-Parody Spin-Off channel called Ultra Mario Brothers Alpha Archive that same month, ran by a man simply known as Tim, who apparently hates Eric and Meg for supposedly ruining his career. The channel was later simply rebranded as TimMarioArchive.
Tropes:
- Arc Symbol: Water. It's a reoccuring symbol across multiple videos, one of the people running the channel is even afraid of it.
- Call-Back:
- One of the renders shown in "Render Showcase" is of Mario looking at an N64 cartridge in confusion, the same render from "Anti-Piracy Screen".
- N64 Employee Tape references Developer Animation Showcase, Developer Crash Handler, and Early Castle Grounds.
- Copy Protection: As indicated by the title, "Anti-Piracy Screen" depicts the game opening a stock anti-piracy message, the text for which is taken directly from the actual anti-piracy screen◊ for the Japanese version of Donkey Kong Country. Alongside the text is a render of a baffled Mario holding an N64 cartridge while sitting on the console's logo.
- Cut Short: The series abruptly ended with the video "Summer '95 Build", with Eric citing the (In-Universe) reason being that he and Meg decided that they wanted to return to a normal life. A community post was uploaded shortly afterwards confirming the end of the series.
- Deliberate VHS Quality: Tying in with the setup of the channel's content consisting of rediscovered tapes made during Super Mario 64's development, almost all of the channel's videos feature a VHS filter with authentic distortion effects (the exceptions are the cassette rips, which use HD artwork that mimics the game's promotional renders due to the main content being audio-only). Additionally, the game footage features visual artifacts typical of composite video, adding onto the idea that these tapes were recorded in the mid-1990s using original Nintendo 64 hardware.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first video, "1995/07/29 Build Rejected Commercial" (taken down but re-uploaded elsewhere), was a lot less subtle than later videos and ends abruptly with a flash of monochrome. Later videos would go down the route of being just slightly unsettling.
- Instructional Film: "N64 Employee Tape" instructs employees both on how to clean the console and how to set up a playtesting session.
- Just Friends: In the community posts, Eric and Meg both insist that they're not romantically involved with each other.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: This channel's personalization mechanism, Game Sync, seems to read the player's brain waves. Strong negative emotions, like guilt and grief, mess with the system in a way that can cause serious harm to the player. Consider the following text, from "Wing Cap Tower GUI":GAME ASSETS AND LEVELS AT RISK.PRESS A FOR MORE DETAILS.PLEASE REMOVE ALL STAFF FROM THE ROOM.PLEASE SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION.
- Mysterious Note: Eric receives an encrypted zip file in an anonymous email and uploads it in a community post. The subscribers brute force it open and find design documents that belonged to him.
- Nightmare Face: The "Developer Crash Handler" screen from an early debug mode features a somewhat disturbing small photo of Mario smiling with his eyes obscured in darkness, along with a text in Japanese, and a percussion-only version of the Game Over theme.
- Script Breaking: The method of crashing the game (copying, checking score, and then trying to erase an empty file) featured in Developer Crash Handler is an actual way to crash the game. The crash handler doesn't show up for obvious reasons, though.
- Side Effects Include...: N64 Employee Tape tells employees to stop a playtesting session if the playtester shows signs of a panic attack, is sick or needs a break, begins to experience Déjà Vu, the game crashes or locks, background music stops playing, cases of extreme lag for seemingly no reason, or the game displays the playtester's name.
- Snuff Film: "Developer Animation Showcase" features a shot of Mario drowning that's a bit longer than in the final (real) release. Innocent enough, until you read the description.
- The Television Talks Back: One of the signs in "Early Castle Grounds" will repeat Eric's thoughts.
- The Unreveal: "Early Castle Grounds" shows a secret entrance at the rear of the castle, and ends just before we get to see where it leads.
- Unbuilt Trope: The "Anti-Piracy Screen" video. Far from calling 911 and forcing you to confess or containing any blatant Creepypasta tier imagery like many of the videos that followed in its wake, the Anti-Piracy Screen is simply a set of English and Japanese messages (taken verbatim from the Japanese release of Donkey Kong Country) overlayed on top of a picture of Mario sitting on the N64 logo holding a blank cartridge.
- What Could Have Been: Invoked with the very concept of the channel, which pretends to be a real showcase of scrapped concepts for Super Mario 64 and, in some cases, the Nintendo 64 itself.
- Say thanks on the way out.
