Mario no Photopi

Mario no Photopi
Developer: Datt Japan Inc Publisher: Tokyo Electron Platform: Nintendo 64 Released in JP: December 2, 1998 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material.

Mario no Photopi is a photo-editing game in a similar vein as Mario Paint and Mario Artist, but considerably more obscure.

Originally in development for the 64DD, it was later retooled and released on cartridge. Said cartridge uses a unique custom design with two SmartMedia slots at the top, which makes the game a nightmare to emulate.

Unused Graphics

File Browser Placeholder Images

These images are placeholders for the six image slots shown in most file browser windows. They're unused in the final game.

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  Slot 1, UL

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  Slot 2, UM

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  Slot 3, UR

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  Slot 4, LL

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  Slot 5, LM

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  Slot 6, LR

Boot Error Messages

These two messages are all that seems to be left of 64DD support. They would be inserted into a wooden box and displayed on the title screen, the same way the "no controller" error is.

No code exists to test for the 64DD's presence, and the game runs fine with only 4MB of RDRAM. The reported memory size is ignored; read and writeback tests are used instead. If present, it will use the additional RDRAM and push framebuffers to the top of memory.

Studio Menu Icons

Three existing buttons have alternate images. In each case, the symbol in the hidden variant is not properly lightened.

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  Clip (Normal)

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  Clip (Hidden)

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  Clip (Hover)

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  Horizontal Flip (Normal)

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  Horizontal Flip (Hidden)

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  Horizontal Flip (Hover)

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  Vertical Flip (Normal)

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  Vertical Flip (Hidden)

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  Vertical Flip (Hover)

An additional set of buttons exists with no known function. These are not quite as high as their used counterparts, but the precalculated transparency is correct.

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  Unknown (Normal)

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  Unknown (Hidden)

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  Unknown (Hover)

Studio Menu Tooltips

Tooltips normally appear over options in the Studio menu when hovered over. Due to a glitch, the user-definable 8-color palette's tooltip will not be shown.

Three options were removed from the Adjust menu, usable only with loaded images. Although the Border, Edge Shadowing, and Cropping features no longer exist, their tooltips made the cut.

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  Border

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  Edge Shadow

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  Cropping

Studio Layout Options

In order to edit your previous work, you need to create a new one with the same size and orientation, then load your old work from the Studio's File menu. Originally though, on the layout select screen an option would be presented to edit an old project or start a new one.

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  Create New Work

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  Continue Previous Work

There were also changes made to layout options. L-sized prints were named differently, different-sized buttons and darker woodgrain was used, and sizes were given in millimeters instead of pixels.

DPE Output Menus

Two alternate images can appear on the DPE Output Center's main page, but their conditions can not be met. The hanging sign can be swapped with an FDI logo, and the message at the bottom of the screen can be presented on a wood background.

There is a fourth type of print job that can never be produced but is internally supported and messages exist if it is created. Under normal circumstances three types of print jobs can be created:

1. Any number of Other-sized prints can be made. These exist as a "home print" option.
2. L-sized and Postcard prints are handled differently. Only one print job can be made at a time, and these are Fujifilm Digital Image (FDI) print requests. Print shops or kiosks would run these off in minimums of 10 sheets on print paper, like any other digital photograph.
3. If an L-sized or Portcard print used encrypted Character artwork from a supplemental disk (ANG files), that request could only be handled by a participating Fujifilm photo lab or Digipri kiosk. The top Character layer will not be precomposited when the request is created.

A message exists though for an Other-sized print that uses an ANG file. Normally this can't occur though because this print type can't contain a Character layer. The reason is entirely practical: Character art can't be resized and some exceeds the image bounds.

Options

An option to select Monaural or Stereo sound was removed.

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  Stereo (Normal)

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  Stereo (Depressed)

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  Mono (Normal)

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  Mono (Depressed)

There was also an option to replace fine movement control with zoom controls on the D-Pad.

Room Select Images

A plain blue X and red O are loaded in the room select. These images are identical to the ones used in the copy debug test.

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  Red O

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  Blue X

Unused Font

A silver italic font for the characters A-Z remains unused. It would not have been used for internal messages, many of which contain numerals, punctuation, and Japanese. No fonts are in use during play; all gameplay messages are pre-rendered as images. No credits roll is provided, however, so it is at least plausible this was the intended use.

Title Screen

The tan photograph at the top of the title screen has a picture of Mario holding a camera on the right edge. This differs from the final release's Character art. Instead of standing, he holds his leg up in the final art and is turned more towards the viewer. Other clipart found on the title screen matches released content.

SmartMedia Page Copy Debug Test

There is a test to confirm low-level page copy functions between two disks. This feature is fully accessible, but most if not all controllers need modification to access the test.

When turning on the power, hold all four directions on the D-Pad to run the test from disk 1 to disk 2. Holding A along with all four directional buttons runs the test copying from disk 2 to disk 1.

The test creates a file called SHIPPING.TST on the target drive. The file is exactly 512 bytes large, filled with a simple incremental pattern. Unlike a normal write, this is written not logically by physically to a single page on the card. In other words, instead of 512 bytes of data it writes one page. It is then read back and tested for errors. The file is then removed.

This tests that the low-level copy function required to copy encrypted ANG files from one card to another functions correctly. The encryption is likely a form of weaponized ECC, requiring data not normally copied when a file's data is transferred. On success an O is drawn and an X on failure.

Development-Related Text

Present in memory at 0x800a2c30 is the camera maker and model exif data embedded in output JPEG files.

DATT_JAPAN_INC.
PhotoP_N64_Ver1.0