Stars & Object Placements

This is a sub-page of Development:Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64).

Star#

File: sm64/

Appearing in the base folder of the source code, star is a file that contains a list of positions for Stars, item boxes, and other objects for the game's 15 main courses. It appears to be very out of date, however, revealing scrapped missions, early object locations, and altered terrain for the levels. Of note is that many Stars appear to have placeholder coordinates set at the world origin, majority of these are ones that spawned from objects. The data listed for Rainbow Ride also appears to be nothing but a placeholder list of objects with empty coordinates.

The following in-game screenshots will show the final game's Stars in a collected/transparent state in order to distinguish them from the ones in star.

Bob-omb Battlefield#

Objects listed for "battle_field"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	0000, 0000, 0000	bomking
Star 2	0000, 0000, 0000	kame race
Star 3	1550, 1200, 0300	None
Star 4	-600, 4400, 0600	None
Star 5	-600, 4400, 0600	8 coin
Star 6	-5500,1500, 2300	8 coin
Wing Cap Box	-2500, 0250, -4000	hane itembox
Koopa Shell Box	6300, 1300, 4700	kame itembox

Stars In-Game

Stars 1 and 2 (both have empty coordinates). Looking at their descriptions, the objectives of both were the same as the final game.

Star 3. Early placement of Star 6 from the final game.

Star 4. Possibly the original location of Star 3 from the final game, as its placement seems to match with the original location of the island seen in prerelease material.

Star 6. Another 8 Red Coin Star location?

Item Boxes In-Game

Whomp's Fortress#

Objects listed for "castle2"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	0300, 5550, 0000	None
Star 2	-2500, 1500, -750	None
Star 3	0000, 3750, -2800	None
Star 4	-400, 3700, 0000	None
Star 5	6666, 6350, 6666	None
Star 6	-300, 5550, 0000	8_coin
Vanish Cap Box	1270, 4100, 930	toumei itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Early placement of Star 2 from the final game.

Star 2. Same location as Star 3 from the final game.

Star 3. As seen in the Spaceworld '95 demo.

Star 4. Placed behind the tower's breakable wall, replaced by a 1-Up in the final.

Star 5. Possibly an early location of the "Fall onto the Caged Island" Star, as there's a similarly distant island in prerelease material that looks similar to the one used for Star 5 in the final game without the cage around it.

Item Box In-Game

Removed Vanish Cap box. Odd as there aren't any Vanish Cap surfaces in the level for Mario to pass through.

Jolly Roger Bay#

Objects listed for "sunkenship"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
in the cave
Star 1	5100, -4500, -250	None
in the ship
Star 2	-680, 1360, 1580	hip_drop_box
on the sea
Star 3	0000, 0000, 0000	on_the_ship
Star 4	0000, 0000, 0000	whirlpool
Star 5	0000, 0000, 0000	on_the_mast
Star 6	-1600, 1300, -1400	8_coin
Metal Cap Box	-5000, 1400, -300	metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	0120, 0000, 3150	metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	4500, -4800, 4300	metal itembox
Koopa Shell Box	2400, 1700, 7400	kame itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Placed in the tunnel leading to the cave.

Star 2. Early version of Star 1 from the final. The description suggests it was supposed to be in an item box like in the final.

Stars 3, 4, and 5 (all have empty coordinates). Star 3 may have appeared above the ship after it rises to the surface. Star 4 was likely related to Star 5 from the final game. Star 5's note reads "on_the_mast", which is odd as the ship from the final game doesn't feature any kind of structure on top of it—though the sunken ship seen in the 1995 B-Roll footage does in fact have a tall pillar.

Star 6. Early 8 Red Coin Star location, out of bounds.

Item Boxes In-Game

Removed Metal Cap box (2). Placed underwater, which is odd considering that Mario cannot destroy item boxes underwater. Perhaps this was a scrapped ability for Metal Mario?

Removed Metal Cap box (3), also placed underwater.

Cool, Cool Mountain#

Objects listed for "snow_mountain"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	3500, -4700, 4650	pengin1
Star 2	3650, -200, -1200	pengin2
Star 3	-4100, -950, 1850	snowball
Star 4	-2000, -2200, -3000	None
child pengin
Baby Penguin	-470 , 3460 -870	pengin1
Baby Penguin	-470 , 3460 -870	pengin2
in the slider
Star 5	-7500, -5700, -6550	slider
Star 6	-6550, -4500, -7500	slider_race

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Seemingly an early spawn location for Star 2.

Star 2. Likely for a second penguin rescue mission, going by the description.

Star 3. Early spawn location for Star 5 from the final game.

Star 4. Same location as Star 6 from the final game.

Star 5. Placed at the end of the slide subarea, in a similar spot to where the penguin race Star spawns.

Star 6 (above Mario in screenshot). Description indicates it was the original spawn location for Star 3 in the final game.

Baby Penguins In-Game

The coordinates for both are identical, spawning in basically the same location as Tuxie from the final game. The second baby penguin likely corresponded with the other seemingly planned rescue mission.

Big Boo's Haunt#

Objects listed for "ghost_house"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	-1850, -2200, -1150	chikasuiro
Star 2	100, 200, 800	onigokko
Star 3	1200, 1100, 1800	None
Star 4	-2000, 1300, 1850	None
Star 5	2500, 2000, 0250	None
Star 6	3150, 1150, 0750	8_coin
Vanish Cap Box	-1150, 0200, -1000	toumei itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Spawns in the basement, seemingly in place of Star 2 from the final game. "Chikasuiro" means "underground waterway".

Star 2. "Onigokko" means "chase" or "tag", so this was likely an early spawn location for the "Go on a Ghost Hunt" Star from the final game.

Star 3. Placed near the Vanish Cap box in the lobby.

Star 4. Early placement of Star 3 from the final game.

Star 5. Placed above the platform accessed with a wall jump.

Item Box In-Game

Removed Vanish Cap box, placed in the back room with the Boos. It would've allowed Mario to pass through the Boo painting from the other side.

Hazy Maze Cave#

Objects listed for "cave_maze"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	-3600, -4000, 3600	nessy
Star 2	5800, -4000, 2400	metal
Star 3	-2100, 2100, -7550	gus_room
Star 4	0800, 0800, -3000	secret_hole
Star 5	-5600, 3200, 0600	up_to_the_hole
Star 6	4000, 0250, 5200	8_coin_in_life_room
Metal Cap Box	0000, 3900, 3000	metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	1800, -550, -1600	first_metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	5000, -450, -2700	next_metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	3100, -550, 0500	next_metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	1900, -550, -4000	next_metal itembox
Vanish Cap Box	-500, 2100, -7800	toumei itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 2. Early placement of Star 3 from the final game.

Star 3. Same placement as Star 4 from the final.

Star 4. Out of bounds, next to the toxic maze. Star 6 in the level script has the same commented-out description of "secret_hole", suggesting that this later became the "Watch for Falling Rocks" mission.

Star 6. Early 8 Red Coin Star placement.

Item Boxes In-Game

Removed Metal Cap box (1). Placed out of bounds above the main entrance to the elevator room.

Removed Vanish Cap box. Possibly for passing through the large mesh gate, although its collision surface is not of a Vanish Cap type and can't actually be passed through.

Lethal Lava Land#

Objects listed for "volcano"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	-1450, 0500, -6700	None
Star 2	3850, 0323, -5600	bigmotos
Star 3	0000, 0000, 0000	9_pazzuls
Star 4	-5100, -800, -4100	8_coins_by_kame
Koopa Shell Box	7600, 0550, 1400	kame itembox
in_volcano
Star 5	2550, 3850, -850	None
Star 6	1800, 3400, 1450	None

Stars In-Game/in Model Viewer

Star 1. As seen in the Shoshinkai '95 demo, later replaced by the "Boil the Big Bully" mission. This Star actually still exists commented-out in the level script.

Star 2. Seemingly an early spawn location for the "Bully the Bullies" Star. This mission may have originally involved the scrapped Motos enemy at one point, with the message beside it reading "bigmotos".

Star 3 (has empty coordinates). Seems to be related to a mission with the Bowser puzzle. The note seems to be referencing 9 out of the 15 pieces of the picture.

Star 4. Early 8 Red Coin Star location, out of bounds. The Red Coins in this level were likely collected by riding on a Koopa Shell, as the message beside this Star reads "8_coins_by_kame", with "kame" being used to describe Koopa Shells.

Item Box In-Game

Shifting Sand Land#

Objects listed for "desert_pyramid"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
desert
Star 1	-1500, 1300, -320	top_the_pyramid
Star 3	-2000, 1500, -650	top_the_pyramid
Star 2	0000, 0000, 0000	hagetaka
Star 3	0000, 0000, 0000	put_on_4_pole
Wing Cap Box	4850, 300, -5900	hane itembox
Koopa Shell Box	-6000, 300, -4000	kame itembox
normal_pyramid
Star 4	1300, 4900, -400	None
Star 5	0000, 1200, 1600	8_coin
pyramid_from_the_top
Star 6	0000, -1000, -3800	BIG_hand

Stars In-Game

Stars 2 and 3 (both have empty coordinates). Star 2 was presumably related to Star 1 from the final game, as "hagetaka" means "vulture". Star 3 presumably would've spawned upon touching the four pillars around the pyramid, as a separate mission from the Eyerok boss.

Star 3 (alternate location). Another early placement for Star 2?

Star 4. Early location of Star 3 from the final game.

Star 5. Early 8 Red Coin Star placement, which was later moved to the main area as Star 4.

Star 6. Nearly identical spawn location for the Eyerok boss Star from the final game.

Item Boxes In-Game

Dire, Dire Docks#

Objects listed for "submarine"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
cx2302_before_submarine_escape
Star 1	3900, 0850, -600	on_the_submarine
cx2301
Star 2	-3100, -3600, 0000	order_box
cx2302_after_submarine_escape
Star 3	3400, -3200, -500	through_ring
Star 4	3900, 0300, 5950	8_coin
Star 5	0000, 0000, 0000	UFO_catcher
Star 6	3100, -3750, -3600	star_box_itembox
Metal Cap Itembox	1100, 0350, 3850	metal itembox
Metal Cap Itembox	6700, 0350, 3850	metal itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 2 (early spawn location). Its placement is very similar to where the Manta Ray Star spawns in the final game.

Star 3. Same spawn location as Star 5 from the final game.

Star 5 (has empty coordiantes). The note beside it interestingly reads "UFO_catcher", possibly implying a mission involving claw cranes was once planned for the submarine area. To go with this, a name belonging to a removed water related object found in sm64/include/tagdecode.h reads e_ufo. It's possible the crane idea later evolved into the moving poles used for the 8 Red Coin Star in the final.

Star 6. Contained in an item box, but it's unobtainable due to it being underwater, similarly to the removed Metal Cap boxes in Jolly Roger Bay.

Item Boxes In-Game

Snowman's Land#

Objects listed for "snowman"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	-350, 4750, 0400	snowmans_head
Star 2	4800, 1000, 4300	in_the_ice_tower
Star 3	4300, 1000, 0500	pengin_family
Star 4	0000, 5100, 0300	over_the_snowmans_head
Star 5	0300, 1500, -5300	big_motos
Star 6	-4000, 1200, 4500	8_coin
Wing Cap Box	5100, 1200, -5500	hane itembox
Metal Cap Itembox	-5500, 1200, -5400	metal itembox
Koopa Shell Itembox	4300, 1200, 3000	kame itembox

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Seemingly an early placement of Star 1 from the final game, but clips severely into the ground.

Star 2. Seemingly an early location of Star 3 from the final game; also clips into the ground.

Star 3. The note beside it says "pengin_family", so this was likely another penguin rescue mission.

Star 4. Placed above the snowman's head.

Star 5. Early spawn location for Star 2 from the final game. Like Star 2 from Lethal Lava Land, its message reads "big_motos", implying that it also involved Motos; or perhaps an ice variant? Furthermore, there's a name for an unused snow related object listed in sm64/include/tagdecode.h that reads e_icemotos.

Item Boxes In-Game

Wet-Dry World#

Wet-Dry World was bigger and originally in one area according to "star", similar to the DS version. Objects listed for "water_town"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	1400, 1600, 5600	None
Star 2	0800, 4800, 0700	None
Star 3	-800, 2300, -2000	None
Star 4	0600, -2650, 0000	under_town
Star 5	3000, -3100, 3200	no_water_under_town
Star 6	5500, 0500, 5500	8_coin
water_switch
Water Diamond	4550, 3100, 4750	None
Water Diamond	-400, -1950, 0250	None
Water Diamond	3350, -3450, -2300	None
Metal Cap Box	-5100, -3250, 5000	metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	5100, -3250, 5000	metal itembox
Metal Cap Box	1800, -3250, 0000	metal itembox
Vanish Cap Box	-4900, 2200, -250	toumei itembox

Stars In-Game/in Model Viewer

Star 2. Possibly an early location of Star 2 from the final game.

Star 6. Early 8 Red Coin Star location, out of bounds. Its height seems to indicate that it was located in the main area, rather than in the underwater town like the final.

Water Diamonds In-Game/in Model Viewer

Removed water diamond (1). Out of bounds.

Removed water diamond (3). Out of bounds.

Item Boxes in Model Viewer

Removed Metal Cap box (1). Out of bounds.

Removed Metal Cap box (2). Out of bounds.

Removed Metal Cap box (3). Out of bounds.

Tall, Tall Mountain#

Objects listed for "monkey_mountain"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	1200, 2600, 0150	top_of_the_mountain
Star 2	1800, 1200, 1050	waterfall
Star 3	-2900, -2700, 3650	slider_exit
Star 4	7300, -3100, 1300	on_the_mushroom
Star 5	0000, 0000, 0000	monkey_basket
in_the_slider (cx3604)
Star 6	-7100, -1250, -4800	8_coin_in_the_slider

Stars In-Game

Star 2. In the same location as Star 5 from the final game.

Star 3. In the same location as Star 4 from the final game.

Star 4. In the same location as Star 6 from the final game.

Star 5 (has empty coordinates). Related to Star 2 from the final game.

Star 6. The 8 Red Coin Star is placed at the end of the slide subarea. Due to how Red Coins are coded, the Red Coins would have to have been placed near the end of the slide due to the slide taking up several subareas. The Red Coin mission was later moved to the main area as Star 3.

Tiny-Huge Island#

Objects listed for "big&small"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
BIG_map_cx1301 (small_mario)
Star 1	-2550, 7400, 0600	None
Star 2	2500, 4200, -2500	None
Star 3	0350, 2700, -8500	None
Star 4	0000, 3250, 6700	None
SMALL_map_cx1302 (big_mario)
Star 5	-850, 2600, 0200	None
Star 6	0850, 1500, -850	None

Stars In-Game

It seems that the level was placed higher earlier in development as some stars are placed in very close to another final stars position but very high in the air.

Tick Tock Clock#

Objects listed for "clock_tower"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	-1260, -2280, -1260	None
Star 2	-1680, -1340, -820	None
Star 3	-1840, 0060, -960	None
Star 4	-1580, 3060, -340	None
Star 5	-1140, 6200, -780	None
Star 6	1500, -4600, 0900	8coin

Stars In-Game

Star 1. Early placement of Star 3 from the final game.

Star 2. Early placement of Star 1 from the final game.

Star 3. Early placement of Star 2 from the final game.

Star 4. Likely an early placement of Star 5 from the final game.

Star 5. This seems to have been replaced by the "Stomp on the Thwomp" Star in the final game.

Rainbow Ride#

Objects listed for "fire_building"

Objects	Coordinates	Descriptions
Star 1	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Star 2	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Star 3	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Star 4	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Star 5	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Star 6	0000, 0000, 0000	None
Wing Cap Box	0000, 0000, 0000	hane itembox
Metal Cap Box	0000, 0000, 0000	metal itembox
Vanish Cap Box	0000, 0000, 0000	toumei itembox
Koopa Shell Box	0000, 0000, 0000	kame itembox
1 Coin	0000, 0000, 0000	1_coin itembox
3 Coin	0000, 0000, 0000	3_coin itembox
10 Coin	0000, 0000, 0000	10_coin itembox
1-Up Itembox	0000, 0000, 0000	1up itembox
Star Itembox	0000, 0000, 0000	star_box itembox

Objects In-Game (All Have Empty Coordinates)

Commented-Out Level Objects#

Some of the courses have objects commented-out in their level script, specifically in the Sstage file of the stage folder. Similar to star, many of the commented-out Stars appear to have been placeholders.

Bob-omb Battlefield#

A commented-out Star can be found in sm64/maps/stage9/Sstage9.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 5500,3400, 1200, 0,0,0, 2,0,0, e_tripstar ) /* Ukisima */

In-Game

Nearly identical placement to the "Shoot to the Island in the Sky" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final.

Jolly Roger Bay#

Two commented-out Stars can be found in sm64/maps/stage12/Sstage12.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003c,S_polystar, 7190,-3200,-2150, 0,0,0, 1,0,0, e_tripstar) /* after uuubo */

/* seqLevelActor(0x0001,S_polystar, 0, 1600, 3000, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, e_tripstar) treasure boxes and the yellow item block */

In-Game

Alternate spawn location for Unagi's Star that is positioned out of bounds, oddly enough.

Nearly identical placement to the "Plunder in the Sunken Ship" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final so as to require draining the ship first to open it.

Big Boo's Haunt#

A commented-out Star can be found in sm64/maps/stage4/Sstage4.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 690, 2200, 2500, 0, 0,0, 4,0,0, e_tripstar) /* beranda */

In-Game

The "Big Boo's Balcony" Star was seemingly planned to spawn at the balcony rather than on top of the mansion.

Lethal Lava Land#

Three commented-out actors can be found in sm64/maps/stage22/Sstage22.s:

/* seqActor(S_NULL , 0,154,-5631, 0, 0,0, 0,0,0, e_mapobj_motos_07 ) Broken bridge. */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, -1450, 500, -6700, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, e_tripstar) yama */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 3850, 323, -5600, 0,0,0, 1,0,0, e_tripstar) bigmotos */

In-Game

The tumbling staircase leading to Star 1. This was removed from the level script so it could be spawned from the Bully boss after being defeated.

Early version of Star 1, which can be seen in the Spaceworld '95 demo. This placement is the same as in the star file.

Early spawn location for the "Bully the Bullies" Star, also the same as in star.

Shifting Sand Land#

A commented-out Star can be found in sm64/maps/stage8/Sstage8.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003e,S_polystar, -5580, 1380,-2557, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, e_tripstar) /* hagetaka */

In-Game

Alternate spawn location for the "In the Talons of the Big Bird" Star. Early screenshots of the level show this pillar in a slightly different position similar to where the Star is placed. — Alternate spawn location for the "In the Talons of the Big Bird" Star. Early screenshots of the level show this pillar in a *slightly* different position similar to where the Star is placed.

Snowman's Land#

Three commented-out actors can be found in sm64/maps/stage10/Sstage10.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 130, 1600, -4300, 0,0,0, 1,0,0, e_tripstar) /* big_motos */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar,-4700, 1400, 5850, 0,0,0, 3,0,0, e_tripstar) /* fura fura de */

/* seqActor(S_movebg02, 4377,1843,4361, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, e_ice) */

In-Game

Mostly-identical spawn location for the "Chill with the Bully" Star.

Mostly-identical placement for the "Whirl from the Freezing Pond" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final.

Wet-Dry World#

Two commented-out Stars can be found in sm64/maps/stage11/Sstage11.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar,-2200, 2600, 3500, 0,0,0, 0,0,0, e_tripstar) /*ukiita */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 1550, 4350, 100, 0,0,0, 1,0,0, e_tripstar) /*bridge */

In-Game

Nearly identical placement to the "Shocking Arrow Lifts!" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final, possibly to prevent players from cheating with higher water levels.

Nearly identical placement to the "Top O' the Town" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final.

Tiny-Huge Island#

Three commented-out Stars can be found in sm64/maps/stage13/Sstage13.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_NULL, -6300,-1750, -6300, 0,0,0, 0,4,0, e_tripstar_getdummy) big Pakkun */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 2600, 3550, -2400, 0,0,0, 1,0,0, e_tripstar) /* big top */

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, -150, -500, 2000, 0,0,0, 2,0,0, e_tripstar) on small */

In-Game

Nearly identical spawn location to the "Pluck the Piranha Flower" Star. Oddly, it uses the behavior that secret Stars use. This means it would spawn as both invisible and intangible if one or more secrets were placed in the area. Its second behavior parameter is also set to 4, which... does nothing.

Identical placement to the "The Tip Top of the Huge Island" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final.

Placed above the small island in Tiny Island, implying that the platform served a greater purpose originally. The "Rematch with Koopa the Quick" Star seems to have been added in its place. An early backup of Star names actually has a name for this Star, "おきのちいさなしま", which means "tiny world's small island".

Rainbow Ride#

A commented-out Star can be found in sm64/maps/stage15/Sstage15.s:

/* seqLevelActor(0x003f,S_polystar, 5120, 4125, 4045, 0,0,0, 5,0,0, e_tripstar) /*on island */

In-Game

Alternate placement of the "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Star, which became a boxed Star in the final (to the left in the screenshot).