SM64 Monthly Report: April 2023

Another month, another Monthly Report.
Info on stories for April:
1. Saturn: Custom Maps Edition
GlitchyMarioMario64's customized version of sm64rise's Saturn brings custom levels into the Saturn interface with some commonly sought after machinima maps, selectable within Saturn's menu. Keep in mind that these levels replace maps from the original game and some levels may have issues such as invisible walls. New things for the Custom Maps Edition are planned in the future, including the addition of the Machinima Castle stage, which is currently still being worked on. Team Short 64 posted a tutorial on compiling the Custom Maps Edition for those who have already installed Saturn (or another SM64 PC port implementation) with sm64pcbuilder.
Saturn: Custom Maps Edition on Github: github.com/Gli...
Team Short 64's tutorial: • Video
Sources: Rise Realm Discord server, GlitchyMarioMario64, Saturn: Custom Maps Edition, Team Short 64
2. Saturn-Legacy Updates
Saturn's primary branch maintained by sm64rise was updated early this month. Most notable were a few new enhancements to the chroma key stage and its associated chroma key tools. Changing the level's background color no longer necessitates reloading the entire level, and a few commonly used background colors (black, green, pink, and blue) are now easily selectable. In addition to bug fixes and quality of life enhancements, this update also introduced improvements to the included moonjump functionality, the ability to have custom animations organized in folders, and easier selection of color codes included within custom models.
Sources: Rise Realm Discord server, Saturn
3. PassTheWind Collab
MarioUltra64's PassTheWind collab announced in March had its deadline and completed upload this month. This concept collab's objective is to have a character attempt (unsuccessfully in the end) to pass through the windy ice bridge in Snowman's Land.
Find it here: • PassTheWind Collab
Source: PassTheWind Collab
4. Forest of Illusion Closure
Video game preservation group Forest of Illusion, who primarily worked with archiving Nintendo content, announced late in April that they are ceasing operations. The primary cause for this was said to be lack of time and energy for future efforts and maintaining the group's online presence. Prior to this announcement, the Forest of Illusion website and RUclips channel were already taken down, which had some fearing a copyright action from Nintendo may have targeted the group. (A Discord screenshot posted on Twitter showing someone involved with FOI appearing to confirm the existence of copyright issues was thought to validate this suspicion for a time, but the user who posted this has since taken it down for being "unrelated"). Forest of Illusion's official statements do not mention copyright as a factor, though. The extent of the information behind the closure is still in some doubt, however, with some people involved or familiar with FOI claiming there is more to it than was initially disclosed.
Sources: Various Twitter users, Forest of Illusion
5. Team Short 64 sabotage
Team Short 64, a machinima team led by TheShortSonic64, announced in late April that someone given access to channel administration features made several unauthorized changes to the channel's content, which included titles, thumbnails, and the channel banner image. Some channel managers were also revoked from their positions by the bad actor. Exactly how access was given is not extremely clear, but, in any case, the situation appears to have been put under control.
Sources: Team Short 64 / KrazyGyro, TheShortSonic64
6. Other Releases/Tutorials
Links to other releases and tutorials from the month of April:
-VioIce64's Saturn port of WarioManGuy's models for Peppino and The Noise: • Video
-An outline tutorial for Kinemaster by Shroomy Crusaders: • SM64 Tutorial - How to...
-Savestate pack by MemesBoi: • SM64 Mobile Animations...
-
-Movie Mario in SM64 by MemesBoi: • Movie Mario SM64 Model...
-Three releases/tutorials by Team Short 64:
Saturn port for Peach: • Peach (SM64 Saturn Mod...
Goober: • Video
Tutorial on improving colorcode shading in Saturn: • Video
-Several releases by Lazym12:
Shadow The Hedgehog 64 1.4: • All Hail Shadow Crush ...
Chao In SM64: • Kronos Island 4th Move...
Huey 64: • Map Medley Paper Mario...
Star Wars Inquisitors 64: • Megaleg Phase 1 & 2 Su...

[@MG1-]

Machinima Motivation:
Motivation was down slightly this month following a stronger March. This month did offer a decent amount of creativity, though.
Machinima Milestones:
Congratulations to everyone who passed a channel milestone this month! As always, sorry to those I may have missed this time around and thanks to a couple of people in MG1 Discord who helped with bringing some milestones to my attention.
Machinima Of The Month:
Machinima of the Month for April goes to MGU4's "Mario & Luigi Summon Demons". This fully voice-acted machinima offers something fresh and visually amazing.
See it here: ruclips.net/video/DAT12nSSm_8/видео.html
Other cool videos:
MJacobBarker's "Mario And Luigi Get Evicted": ruclips.net/video/kQjqvYyZDnA/видео.html
Jediwarriormike's "Mike & Revio Adventures: Lost Men's Madness Chapter 2": ruclips.net/video/6X5hxl07ruU/видео.html
Machinima Trends:
A machinima trend in April was seen in the "Wow, that was really cool videos". This trend took an approximately one second video clip from SMG4's "Mario Tries Life Hacks" and ended up with a video chain nearly 30 seconds in length.
Community Interviews:
This month's interview guest was webbtail245. webb answered TBNSMB's questions about his machinima process, his favorite machinima style, and more. In the end, webb gives a nice inspirational piece of advice for machinimists deciding on which direction to take.
Subscribe to the people of Monthly Report:
MG1
ruclips.net/channel/UCPLb8Y1lhr_HDQBcEM15qmg
The Best NSMB
ruclips.net/channel/UCi4KoucD-23jQZ17PkXGfyw
Captainzero5637
ruclips.net/channel/UCXRjj5eXEuZjBMnHVIYZazA
TheSonicfan8352
ruclips.net/channel/UCx5MTlM73NEdp_Qx3b1DHIQ
Thanks for watching!
Intro and Outro by JK150.
Monthly Report logo in intro by JK150.
Monthly Report logo in thumbnail by CosmicFox.
Monthly Report logo in studio background by webbtail245.
Monthly Report logo in background of interviews room by 64ify.
Monthly Report logo in Machinima Motivation, Machinima Milestones, and Machinima Of The Month segments by Mercy64.
Music used:
Overture - Super Mario Galaxy (recomposed by JK150)
"Koopa's Road (Beta Mix) - Super Mario 64" by SilvaGunner
ruclips.net/video/25mtYpsieCs/видео.html
"Koopa's Road" (Original) by Nintendo
Some segments:
Super Mario Sunshine: Sky and Sea (SM64 DS Soundfont) by CodyChief117
ruclips.net/video/V3eRaSimgWY/видео.html
Other Segments:
"Super Mario Star Road Soundtrack - File Select" (Space Junk Galaxy remix) by Skelux

[@Azure64248]

Machinima news makes me feel very happy, I automatically get drawn to this series. Love it!

[@ninja_raven256]

It's really sad how FOI just went without warning, they were a valuable source for prototypes and unreleased games. I also find this month's SM64 trend really cool.

[@MG1-]

Yeah, everything getting deactivated hours before the announcement was odd and (based on some people's reactions, at least) there didn't seem to be any previous indications that the group lacked necessary financial resources. That does make sense looking back, though.

[@yfab2748]

Was quite surprised to find out that my milestones were still being counted. More surprised that the monthly reports are still continuing and doing well

[@proxy_43]

wooo yea baby

[@thegreatestSH64]

this is actually cool
news reporter mg1 and the best nsmb

[@seannaboy]

Top tier report, as always. Too bad I missed the premiere...

[@JK150YT]

new monthly report and i got 4K? epic

[@Furious64.]

amazing

[@veryFair64]

tem tode got 2k subs,,,for next monf,,,

[@MG1-]

I actually put that in for March!

[@veryFair64]

@@MG1- oh shit maybe i don’t even know my own channel

[@webbtail245]

zoinks scoob