 I still remember the first time I played Mario 64. It was back in the 90s when interventions at EPCA used to showcase tons of new cutting-edge technology before you would see it anywhere else. Most times when I would go there, I wasn't too interested in what they had, but when I went in and randomly saw a video game being showcased, it was a big deal. Back then video games did not get the notoriety they do today, so it was kind of a surprise. There were all these booths where you lined up to play the game and I must have waited hours to do it. Every cab there was obsessed and basically had to be pulled away from the system once their time was up. Then finally it was my turn. After playing for a few minutes, I realized it was like no other game I had ever experienced before. The sound effects, the physics, the motion they were also perfect. Almost as if they were created just for me. Upon leaving the park that day I thought about almost nothing else other than getting my hands on a copy of that game. Then after a few weeks my wish was finally granted. My parents got me the game along with a Nintendo 64 console for my birthday. I couldn't have been more excited. It's funny because before that I was always kind of an athletic kid, but once I got that system my outdoor time severely dropped. I played constantly. When I first started playing it, it felt a little different than the one at Epicat. The sounds were a little off and the colors too, but it was hard to tell. The game was else too focused on that I forgot about it quickly. Over the coming weeks I played through the entire game essentially beating every level and collecting every star until I was completely done with it. However my addiction didn't seem to end. There was still so much more to investigate after you had technically beaten the game. That was when I started researching the games at an Easter eggs and came across one that really intrigued me. It's the one about the star fountain outside the castle. If you walk right up to it apparently people said you could read the words, El Israel 2024, in blurry letters. Many people thought that 2024 was the amount of stars you needed to get to unlock Luigi from the game. The mystery really intrigued me because I had passed fountain tons of times while playing and knew exactly where it was. I just hadn't even really looked at it that closely. Though I went to check it out but after comparing images I found online with the actual game, I couldn't even see what everyone was talking about. I even got a dry erase marker and began methodically connecting the lines together on my TV screen in order to figure out what mine said. After connecting the various blurry pixels my stomach dropped. The text on the screen spelled out, eternal hell. Before that point I never had any fear associated with the game, so that was a major paradigm shift for me. I explained it away by saying it was probably just the angle I was standing at and pretty much convinced myself everything was okay. Although deep down I think it scared me enough to switch on to playing other games. I mean I was like 10 at the time. Recently though, rumors have come out that every version of Mario 64 is personalized by some sort of experimental AI created by Nintendo. Finally after hearing this, I could explain what I had seen on the statue all those years before. So I ended up getting the old N64 out, dusted off my Mario 64 cartridge and popped it in. I'm not even really sure why I just had to see how much deeper the rabbit hole went. I pulled up an image on my phone of the supposed Mario 64 conspiracy iceberg and just sat there playing through each and every one of them seeing if they were real. Exploring the old castle with this new lens felt so good and brought me such joy, but nothing that I so really seemed to tie anything together for me. There were a few odd things but I didn't really see a bigger mystery there. So I started looking into whether there was any real world evidence. I then found an account called, Show You Fun, on Reddit who seemed to have been on the very same path as I was a couple weeks prior and he had connected the dots on a worldwide conspiracy revolving around the game. The pattern apparently happened the same way every time. Someone would post on Reddit or Fortune or something like that about that, they were going to start exploring their personal game cartridge to see how theirs was different than others. That person would then follow some sort of storyline that was not part of the main gameplay and would go missing shortly after. He had even included police reports of the people that were affected. One particularly disturbing story was about a username Smiles64 who found a weird access panel by punching a brick in the wall after draining the mode around Mushroom Castle. That pathway then led him to a library where he found a book he could open. This book contained a terrifying little story about a society of people who were stranded in a village beneath the ground and were drowned by an industrialist who flooded it. The book also came with a key to open some door. What Show You Fun had put together was that this story was probably referring to the wet dry world level where you could blast yourself into a little abandoned town beneath the surface. The more cases I read the more it became obvious that each and every one of them somehow lead to the wet dry world level. I was very intrigued so I decided to try to contact Show You Fun by sending him a direct message. He never responded to me and I noticed he hadn't replied to a comment in a few days. Things were getting a little spooky I guess, but I thought it was all just part of some sort of creepypasta or a RG of some sort. There was no way this was a real thing. So I began playing through my game again and looking to see if I could find a similar storyline that would lead me to wet dry world as well. I played through all of the advanced levels again while watching gameplay on YouTube and compared it to my screen. There did seem to be a few things that seemed to be unique but mostly colors and sound effects, nothing that really lead me anywhere. I was about to give up when I realized there was still one that I hadn't checked, Bob on Battlefield. The very first level. So I went to the picture frame for it and jumped into the level. I immediately started running along with the gameplay video, but then noticed something different on mine. In the video there was just two Bob on Buddies at the beginning that give you information about the level, but in mine there was an additional one underneath the bridge that leads up to the mountain. I quickly ran over to it and punched it to get the information. It just said, under the bridge, the secrets await. I had no idea what this meant. So I walked over and started messing around under the bridge, picking and punching everything. I then discovered that you are able to grasp onto the underside of the bridge and climb across it. This was something I had never tried before and I didn't really see a purpose for it. Then I tried letting go of the bridge and doing the ground pound move, which finally broke a little square into the ground. There was one of those cannons that shoots you across the level, which I had definitely never seen before in all of my years of playing. I began getting into it and firing myself to different areas of the level, until I realized I should try firing myself off of the level, into the ocean. Aiming the cannon to the side, I successfully launched it and flew over the edge. Mario plummeted down toward the ocean below and into a little square tunnel which eventually lead to the little abandoned town in Wet Dry World. I had been down there before when playing the regular game but it was different now. It was almost as if it was in the past. There were a few characters with blonde hairpacing back and forth, seeming to patrol the streets. I approached one of them with a green tunic who some watch resembled Link from the Zelda games and attempted to speak to him. The character did not respond, it just gazed up at me and tear drops began to drip down his face. Then before I knew it Mario was surrounded by several of the little Link looking characters. They aggressively grabbed Mario and dragged him over to a little building, then opened the door and tossed him inside. A little text box popped up and said, the foundation sees all. They then slammed the door and left me in mostly darkness with a few other lifeless looking characters in there. They didn't seem like they belonged in a Mario game because they were dressed modern, almost like someone from the real world. One stood there staring into the corner while another just jumped in place. There was also a mirror in the back and I walked up and looked into it. I noticed that in the reflection I wasn't Mario anymore. I was a character that was dressed like me. Suddenly I heard the sound of rushing water outside the building. I ran over to the window to look out and saw the little characters in the town running and panicking. I then gazed up into the sky and witnessed a gigantic wario head there, just floating there laughing. I ran to the door to try to open it but nothing happened. Then the rune started filling with water. I looked at the other characters and oddly they didn't even seem worried. I just stayed in the same position they were in, as if this had happened hundreds of times before. Eventually when the room was full enough to swim, I dove down and checked everything, every possible way to get out but there was nothing. That was when the really scary stuff began. As I watched Mario's health go down, I began to feel short of breath as well. I panicked when I realized I couldn't breathe, pulled the cartridge out and smashed it on the ground. My breath seemed to come back to me at that point but I was really shaken up. I immediately called the cops but the guy I spoke to basically referred me to a psychiatrist instead. Then I started noticing the black van pulling up outside of my house. I must have triggered something and now I think I am being tracked. Either way please whatever you do do not investigate the Mario 64 conspiracy. That's really all I have to say. His story was sent to me over read it the day before retro gamer 86 went missing. I have searched for any related posts or content that he spoke about in the story but everything seems like it's been removed. So if you have any information on this case, please let me know and I want everyone to remember this as a cautionary tale to make sure that you leave this thing be. Do not investigate Mario 64.