Super Mario 64 fans have been obsessing over a blurry plaque in the castle courtyard for over 30 years. We might finally know what's written on it, according to a report by Video Games Chronicle. This is thanks to a programmer who used open-source computational analysis software to get to the bottom of things.

This isn't graphical upscaling software. The image is simply too blurry for that. Even modern reissues still have that same blurry plaque, so that hasn't been a help to anyone.

Instead, programmer Mochi64 used the analysis engine to pore through millions of combinations of words and fonts, looking for something that matched the pixels in the plaque. The end result? Mochi64 believes the top of the plaque reads "Eternal Star" and the bottom reads "We hope so."

This isn't an absolute answer. Those are simply the two sentences that provided the closest possible match via the analysis software. There's still a chance it could be something else, but the software did make millions of comparisons.

There were several high-profile rumors throughout the 1990s and beyond that the plaque read "L is Real 2401." This was seen as a tease that Luigi was hiding somewhere in the game. IGN actually offered a $100 bounty to anyone who could figure out how to unlock Luigi and Nintendo Power even mentioned the "L is Real 2401" theory in an April Fool's Day issue.

Here's your only official footage of multiplayer Super Mario 64 from a Spaceworld 95 video kiosk as the camera clearly focuses on both characters https://t.co/cLCdSIl5B9 pic.twitter.com/RdtTGb8LpJ

Source link