B3313 Player's Diary May 2024-June 2024

June 13, 2024 - 85 Stars - first entry

I've been meaning to start this diary for a few weeks now and finally got it together to start, I didn't want to go too much further in the game without having a place to keep track of some of the fascinating things I've found. Pretty much every sit-down with this game has been memorable, opened up new parts of the castle (or plexus as you will come to know it), had some scary or cool glitch, and at its most tame yielded a star or two which progressed my game along. Not only is this an impressive art project but it may be my favorite Mario game I've played and comes from such an interesting place of memetics, analog horror, childhood experiences, AI, it's interesting that this game came out at a similar time as "I Saw The TV Glow" movie which I would say has a lot in common spiritually with B3313.

If you are reading this I do assume you have some familiarity with the game already. If not, I would suggest stopping here to avoid spoilers and doing a bit of research on youtube/wikis/reddit etc. about the game. I don't have time (yeah right) or am I qualified to really summarize what the game is about, I encourage you to check out the history of the game and its foundational info such as the Mario 64 iceberg which along with beta versions of the game and a wide aggregation of urban legends and tall tales comprise the core of this game.

Is every copy of Mario 64 really personalized?

Below is a summary, to the best of my memory, of my experiences playing this past month along with some screenshots and images from the game I've accumulated along the way. It pains me I didn't start this earlier cause so much has happened and I will do my best to get up to speed. Anything below that is a continuation of the journal.

Turn back here and report to Quality Assurance if you do not wish to spoil anything for yourself, if you have questions about the game or feedback/tips please reach out to me drugdoinmusic@gmail.com. If you worked on the game definitely get in touch I have so many questions.

June 18, 2024 - 100 Stars - catching up a bit here

I've been bad about journaling these already but now that I have the images from my earlier plays uploaded I'll be more caught up to give details when they are more fresh. I also don't want to spoil anything so I'll keep it broad but there have been multiple very effective forays deeper into the castle. I do feel like I spend most of my time in the game exploring the castle, not to neglect the levels but there's something at this point so exciting about finding new rooms in the castle. Since starting the game I have hit the yellow switch once which removed my hat, swapped the blue item box for the red, introduced blue coins worth 5, and also effected some of the warps and entryways where you spawn. I know that the yellow switch has a reputation of being not ideal to hit and I'm sure that's deserved but I thought it progressed the game along nicely and with the ability to fly and extra coins for getting lives it was hard to see as a negative, especially considering the fanfare that comes with pushing it. That was around 40-50 stars and I had no idea how I stumbled upon it, since then the area kind of seems oddly accessible now as it is not that deeply hidden in my opinion though finding it for the first and even second time felt very surprising. On second hit of the yellow switch I considered the very practical idea of making a save state right before in case the effects were too much. Though this is kind of cheating I think it's in the spirit of the game to decide which variables you like since they seem to usually have their pros and cons. Something I noticed for the first time was that I was losing -1 from my star count after getting a star, so the number moving in the opposite direction of how it should. This frustrated me obviously and I tried multiple save states until I was in one that had populated the metal mario boxes but didn't take away any other switches, I had not yet even seen the green switch and was used to the idea of losing one and gaining one upon hitting the yellow switch so this seemed best. Eventually the star count began moving in the right direction once more.
This night also yielded a bunch of stars from the Plexus itself, ones that various incarnations of Toad present to you when you meet them. I reallly do like the game's sensitivity to what time it is because finding some of these esoteric moments in the castle late at night just really touches on the soul of the game. I think of B3313 as like the video game sister of "I Saw The TV Glow" if anyone has seen that movie. I felt legitimately depressed when finding the 4th floor toad statue room and accidentally fast traveled out of the situation in excitement at the "find the core" flashing text. It gave me the impression that I was near some nether or possibly final-oriented areas and in some ways I was right but I wouldn't find that out until much closer to the time I'm writing this. Moving towards the core of the AI is the natural progression of the game right? I love just wandering the castle and finding new rooms and routes. I'm not sure if it's because of hitting the Yellow Switch or if it's the intended room design but the textures in some Plexal rooms are incredibly jagged almost MC Escher-type ruins of broken polygonal architecture. It's hard to say if these are good or a set-back.
While it's been rare I've enjoyed letting friends hop in on my file and run around and encourage them to save if they do get a star. My girlfriend ran around the castle courtyard for a minute and while she could barely control Mario (she is not a usual videogamer and didn't use the 64 controller as much) she did manage to uncover a brand new area I was unaware of. Again this so touches on the spirit of the game to me in that the randomization and chance element makes it that no matter what type of player you are a very specific path to you kind of opens up. Same way I've seen someone on a forum saying they found the Yellow Switch in like the first hour or so of playing the game and were sad they lost their hat. When I started the game I ran and long jumped my way to the castle door like I always had and inventoried the main rooms. Now I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of my way around and slowly more rooms are revealing themself each time I am able to sit with the game. Just that opening of some new pathways led me to an additional red star which opened up some other new areas because of the further randomized warp system. The warp system which can either be so agonizing or open up something really interesting.