Super Mario 64 (beta)

The Beta opening.

Super Mario 64 Beta is the original version of the game Super Mario 64. While the game stays the same in playing, there are some differences in textures, backgrounds, models, and even music.

Super Mario FX

During an interview by Nintendo Power magazine, Shigeru Miyamoto stated that he had the idea for a Mario 3D game during Star Fox's development. This led to a rumor that there was a prototype for a 3D Mario game called Super Mario FX for the SNES, using the Super FX chip. Dylan Cuthbert, who was a contributor to the development of the FX chip and helped Miyamoto with developing Star Fox, stated that "Super Mario FX" wasn't a real thing, but it was actually the codename for the FX chip itself.

Changes in the game (Shoshinkai 1995 Prototype)

Beta	Final	Description
		Peach's Castle lacked the image of Princess Peach holding the flowers, instead, it had a clock or a compass. It also had much simpler textures and slight model changes.
		Inside Peach's Castle, it was darker in color, with blue walls, and a set of platforms instead of stairs in the center.
		Significantly fewer coins, simplified model, and different star locations.
		The penguins had larger heads and smaller bodies. This level was completely overhauled, and not much of the early version is seen in footage, so it's hard to know the scale of the changes.
		Big Boo's Haunt had a different feature in the game. It was supposed to hold keys.
		Dire, Dire Docks was slightly changed, with different textures on the submarine, and different instruments on the background music.
		Bowser in the Dark World seemed to lack fog, as well as having a different skybox.
		Tall, Tall Mountain's slide dead end actually was another way to the finish, apparently, and also was originally in Cool, Cool Mountain

Items

The following are unused items that appeared in prerelease versions of the game.

1. Keys went unused but remained in the files, however they can be seen held by Big Boo's in the Pre-E3 builds.
2. A yellow switch appeared in the files, which may have been meant for the Koopa shell (which can be obtained from !-Point Blocks), the Super Star, which was nowhere to be seen in any seen build of the game, but is still possible, or just the !-Point blocks in general, which would be pretty ridiculous.
3. Speaking of Koopa Shells, a red variant appears unused in the game files, It may have been throwable, as opposed to the ridable green variant.
4. Technically an item, the Power Stars were originally 2D cartoony sprites, which would rotate like the power stars in the final game. When collected, they would leave off a puff of smoke.
5. Coins used a colored RGBA sprite, as opposed to the IA black and white sprite that appeared in the final, which would have its color changed manually for the Red, Yellow, and Blue coins. The early coin was far more golden and realistic, and also resembled the classic Super Mario Bros. coins than the final coins.

This unused flower was found in the data for Lethal Lava Land

Other Notable Changes

Some of Super Mario 64's creators playing the beta game.

• Luigi was going to be playable in multiplayer, but due to hardware limitations, the developers had to choose between more elaborate levels, or Luigi. This led to both the multiplayer function and Luigi being cut from Mario 64 and appearing on Mario Kart 64.
• Mario's HUD used different, more cartoony sprites than the final game.
  • The coin section of the HUD was present on the castle inside and outside.
• The picture frame Mario enters to go to Jolly Roger Bay originally had bubbles on it and appeared to have underwater scenery, but it was altered for international versions of the game. Oddly Japan still kept the same beta sprite for the picture and it was used in all versions (both Japanese and International) of Super Mario 64 DS.
• In 1995, Mario had different voice which can be found here.
  • The voice has been changed before the release by Charles Martinet.
• Blargg was originally planned for an enemy in Lethal Lava Land but was cut from the final product.
  • However, he is still present on the game's code, and can be loaded by a cheat code.
• After the 2020 Gigaleak more beta files have been discovered for Super Mario 64 like a model for Luigi and a maze-like room featuring textures seen in the Shoshinkai 1995 build. plus various unseen beta levels