/vr/ - Retro Games

uh where can I read about the more batshit theories here

>Enchanted SC88 samples used in the soundtrack
Doesn't sound anything like an SC88.

>>6459563
That's why it's enchanted.

>>6459563
There are probably at least a couple Sound Canvas samples in there somewhere, most 90s games had at least a few.

>>6459556
Croc was supposedly in development for Nintendo as a Yoshi game but they canned it and developed Mario 64 instead. Then it had to be ported mid-development to Playstation. I could believe it.

There was an anon that once posted a theory about SM64 being a virtual simulator for a masonic ritual.
People shitted on him but I thought it was a fun thread, even if he believe it.

you'll find this place isn't that much like /v/, anon

>>6459521
And they say Sonic fans are autistic...

Blanked out?

>>6459624
LOL you've been posting this in every Mario lore thread lately.
Yes, Mario fans can be autistic, but more like the hardmless kind of autism, like Ulilillia.
Sonic fandom is batshit insane, instead of doing theories about the cities on the back of Spring Yard Zone, they prefer to write whole thesis on Sonic's feet flesh structure and of course make OC donut steels on deviantart.

It's too bad it's impossible to have cool discussions about these kinds of fun ideas anymore without retards swarming out of the woodwork to let us all know that THEY are definitely NOT schizophrenic.

>>6459598
Any archive for this thread? Sounds like an interesting read.

>>6459637
It was actually some twitter guy, the thread was about it
>>/vr/thread/S5381671

Mario lore threads are fun

>>6459634
Based

>>6459598
I remember this thread actually, the whole Hermes reference with the winged cap was interesting and he seemed to point out some Rosicrucianian and alchemy symbols if I remember correctly.

>>6459652
Did Nintendo really make a comic of Mario knocking over one of the Twin Towers before 9/11 happened?

>>6459660
Anon, did you watch the Super Mario Bros. movie? It includes a whole scene about Koopa taking down the twin towers with a super scope.

>>6459660
Literally everyone wanted to knock down the twin towers in the 90s.

That Mario. He's a working man. I would not be surprised if he and his brother were masons.

>>6459521
HMC being the septic system kills me both because of how ludicrous it sounds and how plausible the actual map makes it.

>>6459634
see: >>6459707

>>6459652
>cleanshaven mario

>>6459730
>autistic sonic fan can't into jokes and humor
color me surprised. Back to deviantart, you.

>>6459764
>i-it's just a joke...haha!
Mario fans are sonic fans 2.0

>>6459774
Back to deviantart, obsessed shitposter

>>6459746
Japanese men can't grow mustaches in high school. It would have been funny for him to have had a wispy one

>>6459521
I think i'm on the bottom because since i was a kid i've been constantly dreaming with secret areas in Mario 64 and they seem so real that sometimes i forget they dont exist.

>>6459839
Mario is Italian not Japanese

>>6459865
Do you ever dream of owning strange consoles that don't exist.

>>6459865
Stop that creepy shit, Anon...

>>6459896
I thought he was from the Bronx?

>>6459521
Somewhere in the middle of 3 and 4.

>1995/07/29 build (DO NOT RESEARCH)
I'll bite, what is it? Just an arbitrary date and MUH HYPER-REALISTIC GRAPHICS stuff?

>>6459521
>every copy is personalized
Huh? Any proof? To what degree? And what's wrong with that build from 1995?

>>6459921
Most Italians are from the Bronx, so you're not wrong

>>6460114
The levels you played aren't the ones I played. In mine, Bob-omb Battlefield was an eerily empty battlefield with trenches and the gas from Hazy Maze Cave. It's weird, because the music was the same normal low-pitched hum that plays on youtube videos. I can hear it even when I turn off the game now, and it has saved my life many times on the streets.

>>6460147
Based schizo.

>>6459909
not really, but i dream with weird videogame locations a lot.

>>6460104
Peach’s castle in that version was modeled after a sex trafficker’s mansion

>>6459521
I read a guy's website that claims that Mario 64 has lots of hidden areas and that Nintendo confirms it, but I can't find the site anymore. He had pictures that sure looked real.

>>6459634
>every mario lore thread
>every

... how often do you people have this conversation

>>6459521
>L is real 2401
It obviously says "Eternal Star". The fucked up kerning is because they're using a Japanese font.

>>6459521
can someone redpill me on the bowser room?

>>6460281
It's fake.

>>6459730
I mean, can you disprove it?

>>6459521
There's a lot of stuff in the wario tier that's super well-known

I refuse to believe that zen buddhist nerds fucked up on psilocybin would include any metaphors in their videogames

>>6459521
>>6460114
>>6460147
You're memeing but...
>type on google the words "every copy"
>first autofill suggestion is the full thing

what the actual FUCK? What's stranger is that none of the results are related to the supposed theory, nor do they explain why you get that as the first suggestion.
I'm 100% serious, try it yourself right now.

>>6460678
That and the Argonaut story.

>>6461042
Yeah, nice joke bro...
>Try it
>It's real
>My fucking face

>>6461042
wtf
I guess this thread cause an uptick of people searching for it?

Some of these are really dumb, but sm64 is certainly a weird game.

>he didn't unlock cold cold crevasse

Any lore behind Yoshi's house in SMW?
Also how his japanese full name is Super Dragon Yoshi

The flooded remains of a blasphemous city that had to be sealed away for the good of the Mushroom Kingdom.

>>6461364

Was this or OoT that miyamoto was talking about when he said something like "there's this one secret that hasn't been found yet" some years back?

Haven't these games been datamined to death anyways?

Threads like this are why games like Mario 64 are the apex of video games.
A book or a show cannot create a feeling like this and a sense of community.
Games should stop trying to explain everything and be like movies. Let he imagination of the players run wild

>>6460147
AND THEN MARIOS EYES TURNED HYPER REALISTIC AND STARTED BLEEDING HYPER REALISTIC BLOOD

>>6461042
>You're memeing

Are we just using "meme" to mean "joke on the internet" now?

>>6461042
Me and my friends started noticing that Youtube started recommending us stuff based on what we are thinking.
Not even joking.
Shit's getting weird.

>>6460186
Are you telling me Jeffrey nearly managed to Epstein his way into my fucking childhood?

>>6459521
This is a retarded larp

>>6460264
/vr/ can be a wonderful, frightening place.

>>6461308
>I guess this thread cause an uptick of people searching for it?
You got it, ace. They're plucking keywords directly out of your browsing history. But only to "improve" your searches, of course. They'd never do anything else with that kind of power!

>>6459521
I don't have issues with video game theories most of the time, but the amount of autism tier speculation, conspiracy theories, and cringe pasta on games like SM64, Majoras Mask, and Final Fantasy 8 make me want to kermit. Who the fuck came up with half of these?

>>6461789
AND THEN BOWSER TOOK A BLOODY HYPER REALISTIC SHIT

>>6461804
I know that at least google for me will recommend shit based on text on a fucking picture from here, rather than a post. Takes 2 letters to know exactly what the fuck I'm looking for.

>>6461821
People with a lot of time that are not satisfied that most if not all of the stuff has been found out in any of their childhood favorites. I remember when I found out some kid got a Celebi that I thought you could actually unlock it ingame and spent an absurd amount of time theorizing about how the fuck that worked instead of figuring out that I couldn't do it normally.

>>6461841
They have automated image recognition. What do you think you've been helping to build every time you solve a captcha?

>>6461821
Fans of the game.
SM64 theories are mostly for fun though, the real autism is from videos like this one, but it's harmless and genuinely interesting, unlike Sonic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=639s

>>6459521
I don't think I go that far down, but I do think they stole it from Argonaut, so I guess all the way?

>>6460186
This is horrifying any backstory?

>>6461854
I wish they would pretend not to creep on people like that, honestly. Just pretend.

>>6459521
>Yoshi commits suicide
Explain.

>>6461804
>>6461841
>>6461854
>>6461871
Read this entire picture if you want to see how far down the rabbit hole goes.
Nope, no TL;DR. Learning how to control your attention span and impulse is the first step to survive the future cyberpunk dystopia we're entering.

>>6461885
Bro he gives you 100 lives which is the most he could have and then he jumps off that castle! That means he killed himself!

>>6461902
This but unironically.

>>6461869

Some 8873737732 edgy 4 me xoomer made it up.

>>6461894
Whatever the case, I wish there was a way to revert this but there's nothing else people can do other than get really violent. Today on the news: some dude saying "we have apps in our phones that track things like our location, do we really have an argument to avoid using applications that can track whether you're close or not to someone who has been diagnosed to have been infected with COVID-19 to "save lives"?"

Anyways, back to the topic at hand: While I dislike plenty of youtube channels that dedicate themselves to create random bullshit to increase their revenue, I like reading into this kind of stuff. It'd be interesting if someone put up a website or wiki listing and describing these.

>>6462010
>I like reading into this kind of stuff. It'd be interesting if someone put up a website or wiki listing and describing these.

I'm on board ith that. The best part of playing SM64 was discovering secrets and reading about rumors and fan-theories feel like a continuation of that.

>>6459627
makes me think peach's cake was supposed to be a level at some point. maybe mario would shrink down onto it bbh style

Super Mario 64 now that I think of it has been one of the few games I really had weird dreams about, even as an adult without having played it for a long period of time. More than once I had this dream that the outside of the castle was much, much larger and there was a maze full of corridors with red carpet all over them, leading to dozens and dozens of different paintings. It was never ending.

>>6459642
Shit, a lot of that actually makes sense.

>>6462037
early 3d games had a vacant surreality that's most synonymous with dreams so it makes sense

>>6461791
>Now
Retards are talking like that for about 8 years already.

>>6459556
If this were /x/, people would ask for details on individual ones and someone else would answer. I'll start:

>Delicious Cake
>The Forbidden Door
>"Ally with info"
>Island in the distance

>>6462083
A meme is a unit of cultural information, so it's actually entirely accurate to say you "memed" on someone if you asserted your narrative on them.

>>6459634
This.
I remember a Sonic thread where someone pointed out that the levels and time of day imply that the whole of Sonic 1 takes place over 24 hours, but people spurged hard and insist that Sonic levels have no logic to them and only Mania-fags believe that they do.

>>6462094
>Island in the distance

In Bomb-omb battlefield, you can see some islands in the distance. This means that the battlefield is part of an archipelago and supposedly, there are other areas similar to that one. People have been trying to reach the island with wings or cannons, without success...

>>6462102
This is sad.

>>6462094
>Delicious Cake
Leftover text in the japanese game found in the list of level names

>>6459521
This is an excellent thread.
There IS something mystical about Mario 64. It might be the surreal yet welcoming setting, combined with precision gameplay. I Can’t put my finger on it.
I remember vividly seeing and playing it At a friends house for the first time. I would have been maybe 12. He lived in Squalid conditions, with openly alcoholic parents and a doomed younger sister. But this piece of technology, that was his to own and master, made everything seem alright. A slow trickle of kids in my Vancouver Island community began getting consoles. And looking back, growing up in the N64 era really was magic. I believe it has to do with Japanese craftsmanship and the radical shift into 3 dimensional thinking for my young brain. I vividly remember standing in front of his Tv thinking that it was the most interesting thing I had ever seen. I had NES Genesis and PlayStation growing up but nothing ever hit me like a bolt of lightning as Mario 64 did.

I do believe that there is a book waiting to be written on the subject, and I thank you fellow nerds for your ruminations.

>>6462094
>"Ally with info"
https://www.neoseeker.com/forums/22330/t1031097-ally-with-info/
http://www.cheatsguru.com/nds/super_mario_64_ds/questions/2170862/

It's from Mario 64 DS though

>>6462126
>There IS something mystical about Mario 64. It might be the surreal yet welcoming setting, combined with precision gameplay.
I always used to joke that Nintendo was using some sort of black magic, since Mario 64 is still the best controlling 3D platformer of all time. They nailed it immediately on their first try. But now I see that thread about the masonic symbolism in the game, and shit starts to get creepy.

>>6462126
Great post. I hope your friend (and his sister) are now ok.

The sense of mystery of Mario 64 is unparalleled. I discovered it with the DS remake and it felt exactly the same, even with the new, improved technology. I as completetly blown away by the hidden, atlantis-like city in Wet Dry World and the castle seemed full of secret

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought Bowser got into the castle with his submarine... And I'm pretty sure the game implies it hard

>>6462138
I don't know if I'd say best controlling, but definitely you can do all sorts of weird stuff with the controls that wouldn't have been thought imaginable (and more to discover). Somehow the physics of this game allow for someone experienced to finish this fucking game in less than 15 fucking minutes. It's glitchy and broken, but it's almost as if it allows all the freedom possible to make whatever you want working if you are precise enough. It's unlike any other platformers, even later 3D mario releases.

>> https://twitter.com/owenbroadcast/status/1075258475020779520?s=21

>>6462150
>It's glitchy and broken, but it's almost as if it allows all the freedom possible to make whatever you want working if you are precise enough.

You just described reality.
SM64 is what it is because its internal world works like a microcosm. Just like we can reach the moon by building enough power and making a spaceship (remember that flying was still a dream in 1800s) you can go anywhere you want in M64 if you exploit the game engine enough.

>>6462141
All I know is that his (and her) life got really rough before my mom moved me to the states. Canada was always a bad place. It’s too complicated to get into but it involves a very British style decision to ignore and allow psychological and sexual abuse to be a fact of life.

>>6462165
Sad :(

>>6459660
Not just Mario but The Tick, The Simpsons, Sam & Max Freelance Police, Johnny Bravo, Iron Man, and Men in Black. It's as if the attacks were being telegraphed for years.

>>6462191
Yep.

>>6462191
The only example that really sets off alarm bells is The Simpsons, because of that magazine cover Bart holds up. But it's no secret that Matt Groening is a freemason.

Anyone know more about the LLL painting fireball, Bob-Omb Village, or Rainbow Ride Village?

>>6462204
>>6462197
I stand corrected. I had no idea there were so many blatant examples.

>>6462197
The Viceland Magazine one is just undeniable proof, nobody can tell me with a straight face that's a coincidence

>>6462197
most of these are just allusions to the twin towers existing. nothing special about that

also the twin towers were threatened with a bomb in 1994 so i think the idea of them being terrorized was in the collective unconscious in the 90s-early 00s til it actually happened

>>6462253
Also the Twin Towers had literally had a plane crash into it before. It's the reason why everyone was so blase about the first plane hitting the towers.

>>6462197
bruh, the number to call the police on september 10th 2001 was NINE ELEVEN DAWG ITS A CONSPIRACY BRO

>>6462271
>everyone was so blase about the first plane hitting the towers
There is absolutely no way you actually lived in America at the time.

>>6462191
Its almost as if notable building being paired with notable number is a recurring theme in culture. I can't imagine the wild ass shit that would have happened if the Empire State Building was hit on President's Day or the Statue of Liberty was hit on 7/7.

>>6462284
Here they come.

>>6461821
Most of these are literally just joke versions of old playground rumours and memeing on old BBS rumours., though.

>>6460147
I believe this may have to do with what I referenced as “Japanese craftsmanship” earlier. Think of this game as not simply a commercial product meant to move units but rather as the pinnacle and peak of Japanese art. It is entirely possible that It was made with the intention of blowing young minds. The Masonic and occult symbolism isn’t a maybe, it’s real and frankly it is a very Japanese trait. Just look at anime. It is always layers on layers of obscure meanings and reference.
I believe the individual copy meme springs from the imperfection of memory inherent in humans. What we remember is how we coped and processed In the moment. not What the experience looks like frame by frame in review. I also believe that any piece of art that exploits this (as we are all currently attesting to) is some next level shit.
All I am saying is that maybe This particular piece of art is better designed than we realized as kids. I don’t think Nintendo are a bunch of watermelon brained mastermind motherfuckers, but I do think that the elements came together to create an absolutely elite abstract world that was at once familiar, beckoning and mysterious to a degree that it literally shocked young minds. That is what GOOD art does

>>6460686
THIS THIS THIS

>>6462280
Most news stations at the time were "Oh, shit. A plane hit the Twin Towers." right up until the second plane hit. Until the second on, most thought it was just a terrible accident. The panic set in only when they realized it was ON PURPOSE.

>>6462191
9/11 wasn't the first attack on the towers. Plus they were a famous landmark.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing

>>6461821
>Inability to understand sarcasm and jokes
Yep, that's autism. Good selfie.

>>6462303
Ok, I misunderstood what you were saying.

>>6461808
All the world is a retarded LARP and all the men and women merely cosplayers

>>6462296
Good and informative post. Indeed, this is what happened with Mario 64.
The Dry wet world is obviously taping into the collective memory of mankind. Stories and mythos of great civilizations destroyed by a flood are seen and recorded all across the globe. Discovering this secret part of the level touched something that is inherent in our collective heritage

Meme aside. What do you think of videos/practice like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goad2ijHBE8

>>6462304
Plus like... they were the most distinctive part of the New York skyline and having landmarks destroyed or on fire in sci-fi isn't remarkable at all.

I mean I'm still waiting for the Empire State building to be subject to an ape attack.

>>6462197
What a dumb collection.
Yeah, 911 is a numerology thing. Not a mason thing. Every fucking religion has a sect of maximum autists who love that shit.
Mossad or whatever didn't choose the date randomly.

But none of those examples are even juxtaposing the two. It's a bunch of separate examples of a number, and attacked towers: the only association is post fact.

It was definitely a massive conspiracy and I'm not even saying a couple jews didn't know about it and put it in their TV shows (that Lone Gunman episode still seems weird) but practically all these examples are just some dumb monkey pattern matching.

>>6462357
As a programmer, it all feels a little dumb because they give silly names to all the glitches they find.

Like if the original programmers of the game saw this stuff they'd probably say shit like "oh yeah that's a bug we never encountered, it happens due to an overflow of this value because we never thought it would go that high" etc..., and not give them silly nicknames like "parallel universes". I've seen speedruners for other games (like in ocarina of time for example) use proper terminology like buffer overruns and stuff to explain their glitches, but the super mario 64 community seems to be full of max autismos who insist on coming up with ridiculous non-programmer names for everything which just obfuscates the real inner workings of the game and makes it feel more like a secret autism club than a genuine feat of reverse engineering.

>>6462412
It's called "having fun". Especially when the glitch behave like a parallel universe.

>>6462412
I enjoy that about it. It's fun. I would like to know from a programming perspective whats going on also. But im a dreamer, not a programmer so it speakingmy language.

>>6462412
cosmo hop

Not retro but this is absolutely fascinating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFMxdAxB64Q

Especially given the console the game is on

>>6461821
it's literally just meant to be a parody of these, have some fun autists

>>6462774
>Q that low
/pol/ zoomers really feeling themselves. q isn't even a singular coherent conspiracy theory

>>6462789
yeah I don't know why they fellate it so much

it's like... facebook-tier boomer shit now

>>6462812
it's also just flimsy extensions of pizzagate which is at the top so its even more confusing

anyone ever noticed this

>>6462896

>>6462896
i think it's just a framed painting of a fruit basket. the stems make the eyes/nostrils and the rim of the basket makes the smile so it vaguely looks like yoshi

>>6462896
that thing in the dark corner on the left is the real mystery

>>6462931
What game?

>>6462960
Shadow of the Colossus

What's up with the in-game corpses?

>>6462950
i dont see it
>>6462954
thats just residual smoke from the cup of tea

>>6462985
well that's cause you're stupid

>>6462994

>>6462985
you can clearly see the frame and that its hung above a fireplace in front of the cake. doesn't make any sense that it'd be yoshi

>>6462980
The what?

>>6462980
excuse me

>>6463007
>>6463012
I hear that there were corpses in the game. Almost definitely some /x/ bullshit

>>6459668
>It includes a whole scene about Koopa taking down the twin towers with a super scope.

No it doesn't you fucking idiot, you need to watch the movie yourself.

>>6459652
Cursed

>>6462107
its a skybox just a 2d image on the inside of a dome that surrounds the level,you cannot get to it,you will simply clip out of bounds

>>6459521
>every copy of mario 64 is personalized
Please take your meds.

>>6459563
here, have a Kazuna AI.

>>6463189
I know it's a skybox. I'm only explaining why it's a mystery/on the iceberg.
I think it's funnier to imagine what are the implications of such a skybox rather than just saying it's a skybox.

all this stuff is making me feel like a kid again. i havent played sm64 in forever

Has anyone have dreams of being in the Super Mario 64 castle? Have you ever dream of being inside new and hidden locations that are not in the game?

What if we could make the worlds in Super Mario 64 bigger? What if we could increase the draw distance of the game and head towards the skybox locations?

>>6461665
Lore behind the clock?

>>6463483
It is certainly possible to add to SM64s content ("making the worlds bigger") to accomplish this- it makes no use of the Expansion pack, was a typical highly-unoptimized launch game, and made extensive use of Gouraud shading and billboards, thus ensuring plenty of room to grow on as long as you don't become a graphics whore. Assuming the capability to run on an actual N64 is the only limit and an increase in ROM size to support the extra data storage, you could just take that bad boy and run with it.

>>6463483
Last I saw, they already had a mod for the PC port that has unlimited draw distance, plus analog camera controls.

>>6463483
I would wish for an easy to use world editor, I've seen dozens of romhacks already but that shit seems complicated

>>6463462
that fucking picture

Are there any available early builds of this game now that a lot of shit has been leaked? Note I said early, not like 3 days build before release kind of shit.

>>6463462
is this from a hack? seems a bit too sharp to be from the actual beta

>>6463542
I'd be excited for all the new content except I guess it probably won't be very good probably

>>6465551
Given enough time, we might see some tools come out for it to make level creation easier.

>>6461158
What's this?

Yknow it's really a testament to how good of a game SM64 really is when, even decades after it's release, it can preserve a sort of mysterious sense of wonder like this.

Reading through this thread is making me feel like a child again, the fact that the silly rumors and weird lore stuff in the iceberg chart inspire such curiosity to this day is really admirable.

>>6466216
Shinobi Kid (AKA the game that later became Alex Kidd in Shinobi World on SEGA Master System)

>>6459521
What is 1995/07/29 build thing?

>>6459521
Outside of some of the top level points and the skyboxes are photos bit (that is just objectively true, right? Seems more like a tip of the iceberg tier), that's all just objectively delusional bullshit.

>>6466298
Here >>25059115

>>6460189
http://billygard.com/mario/tips.htm
Is this it?

>>6459521
can someone explain the "wiggler's body parts used during bowser fights" kinda sounds like it could be a true programming thing but it's so vague

>>6466801
I'm thinking he's saying the yellow bombs on the edges of Bowser's stage are the assets from Wiggler's body?

>>6466808
ding ding ding

>>6462296
Mario 64 is a masterpiece, but you are also an ignorant asshole masturbating to the false idea of a magical japan. Miyamoto and company are just regular artists. This is no less a work of art than a Hockney painting, but it isn't any more mystical or magical you bozo

>>6460281
Miyamoto refused to ship the game until they included it

>>6466484
>25059115 (Dead)
add this to the lore

I don't know about personalized copies, but what I do know is 2 things:

1. Before playing the game on an emulator, I always remember finding the big boo at the corridor that leads to the courtyard being there regardless of how many stars I grabbed.
2. I've been able to reproduce the same downpitched boo noise twice around the main entrance to the haunted mansion (just a split second after entering), I keep thinking it's a glitch of some sort that I just happen to trigger but not that many people seem to have done this. I don't know why.

Also once I had sm64 and OOT both do the cartridge tilt thing, the first instance was OOT and link curling into a ball and floating around the back alley where you find the dead guard before heading to the temple of time nearly made me shit myself. I wonder if this led to people thinking these were haunted.

https://discord.gg/KXW8p9
we must reach the inverse tip of the iceberg and disable Roko's Basilisk

>>6459627
Holy shit? Is that a mother fucking portal reference?

>>6466484
whoever's shitty toad's tool hack this is forgot to make the trees not invisible

https://youtu.be/vaquvsK0u40

This rapidly became cringe

>>6469157
its from the patent dipshit

>>6464434
No, please don't be your hopes up

>>6469170
Wait, Kirby's Air Ride was in development since 1996?

>>6461308
I've seen threads with the OP infographic on /v/ and /x/ at least 3-5 times total within the past 3 days or so.
>>25070420

>>6469665
Tried to crosspost the thread on /x/ but I'm a retard, forgive me.

>>6466484
>>6466298
The black-and-white castle exterior shots are from an early patent diagram, dated November 22, 1995. Similar timing of the July 29th 1995 build (which only exists in rumors), but not the same

https://patents.google.com/patent/US6331856

>>6470209
in the 1995 July build. you can enter to the castle from behind. This function was absolutely removed

>>6470481
proofs

>>6459521
>Miyamoto stole Mario 64 from Argonaut
I kind of believe that. I mean, Miyamoto did crib a number of things from Star Fox 2 for Star Fox 64. And apparently Argonaut did pitch a spin-off with Yoshi that evolved into Croc. So....

>>6470481
Could be they replaced that part with the courtyard and they didn't want players confused about where to go first (seems kinda silly but if you look at modern games they do this frequently because they assume the existence of dumbfucks out there that won't see what's right in front of them).