Programmer Attempts to Decode the Mysterious Plaque in Super Mario 64

A programmer going by Mochi64 believes he has finally deciphered the text on the blurry plaque in the castle courtyard of Nintendo's video game Super Mario 64. The game came out in the 1990s, and fans have spent more than 30 years trying to read the inscription. The latest attempt was reported by the gaming outlet Video Games Chronicle.

Mochi64 used open-source computational analysis software rather than an image upscaler. The image is too blurry for upscaling to help, and even modern re-releases of the game still show the same fuzzy plaque. Instead, the programmer had the software sift through millions of combinations of words and fonts, looking for the one that best matched the pixels on the plaque.

The result is not definitive

According to Mochi64, the top of the plaque reads "Eternal Star" and the bottom reads "We hope so." These are the two phrases that gave the closest match in the software's comparisons. It is not a certain answer, and the plaque could still say something else, although the program ran millions of comparisons.

Earlier theories

For years, a popular rumor held that the plaque said "L is Real 2401." It was seen as a hint that Luigi was hidden somewhere in the game. The outlet IGN once offered a $100 bounty to anyone who could unlock Luigi, and the magazine Nintendo Power mentioned the theory in an April Fool's Day issue.

The rumor got fresh life when the game's director, Shigeru Miyamoto, said the team had experimented with a two-player mode. He added that they dropped the idea to save memory, but that did not stop the speculation. An early build showing Mario and Luigi running around a bare room fed it further.

The phrase "Eternal Star" fits, since the plaque sits beneath a giant star statue. The second phrase may suggest that the developers hoped players would collect every star. Official confirmation from Nintendo is considered highly unlikely.