{"rewrite":{"id":"r_fd7e992ca8c7a6b7382a66ad","clusterId":"c_f4210ec98ce190060ecccbd9","slug":"researcher-recreates-super-mario-64-tablet-text-as-eternal-star","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"Researcher Recreates Super Mario 64 Tablet Text as Eternal Star","summary":"A researcher who goes by mochi64 rebuilt the 32 by 32 pixel stone tablet in Super Mario 64's castle courtyard by re-rendering candidate inscriptions and scoring them against the game's image. \"Eternal Star\" ranked first among 1,237,405 candidates, and a search of 17,700 common English words produced \"We hope so\" as the second line. Nintendo has not confirmed the reading.","whyItMatters":"The cottage industry around the \"L is Real 2401\" tablet finally has a scored, reproducible answer, with the old reading's mismatch more than twice the new one, so the mystery is now an argument about method rather than about rumor.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eThe full text reads, in the study\u0026#39;s estimate, \u0026#34;Eternal Star / We hope so.\u0026#34; The \u0026#34;L is real 2401\u0026#34; reading scored 2,031 on the image-mismatch scale, about 2.6 times the 789 for \u0026#34;Eternal Star,\u0026#34; and a 2019 reading of \u0026#34;A Secret star / lie here ~\u0026#34; scored 4,304 against 1,129 for the new text.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe method is the point. Rather than read the 3 to 5 pixel tall characters, mochi64 re-rendered candidates the way the original artists would have shrunk them, overlaid each on the stone background, and compared pixels. \u0026#34;Sternal,\u0026#34; the next real English word after \u0026#34;Eternal,\u0026#34; placed 13,217th. The weakest link is the final \u0026#34;so,\u0026#34; where \u0026#34;or,\u0026#34; \u0026#34;us,\u0026#34; and \u0026#34;he\u0026#34; score close.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Super Mario 64's castle tablet now has a scored reading: \"Eternal Star / We hope so.\" A researcher re-rendered 1,237,405 candidates and matched pixels, not letters. The old \"L is real 2401\" reading scored about 2.6 times worse. Nintendo has not confirmed anything.","twitterPost":"A researcher re-created Super Mario 64's castle tablet from its 32x32 pixel image: \"Eternal Star / We hope so\" ranked first of 1,237,405 candidates. \"L is real 2401\" scored about 2.6 times worse on image mismatch. Nintendo has not confirmed the reading.","threadsPost":null,"newsletterBlurb":"The Super Mario 64 courtyard tablet has a new scored reading: \"Eternal Star / We hope so.\" The researcher, mochi64, re-rendered over a million candidate inscriptions and compared pixels against the game image rather than trying to read the 3 to 5 pixel tall characters. The old \"L is real 2401\" reading scored about 2.6 times worse, and Nintendo has not confirmed any of it.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"Game Spark\",\"url\":\"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/10/22/173949.html\",\"title\":\"Researcher takes on 30-year-old Super Mario 64 mystery: the 32×32-pixel stone tablet and the \\\"Eternal Star\\\" theory [Interview]\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4745,"outputTokens":716,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1792670833,"createdAt":"2026-10-22T12:02:49.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-22T12:06:10.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T12:06:10.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_f4210ec98ce190060ecccbd9","canonicalTitle":"『スーパーマリオ64』30年来の謎に挑んだ研究者が語る、32×32ピクセルの石碑と「Eternal Star」説。話を訊いた【インタビュー】","representativeArticleId":"a_2759070d31ba9a55e2420abe","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"Super Mario 64\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"news\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-22T10:30:03.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-22T10:30:03.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-22T12:06:16.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"Game Spark","url":"http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2026/10/22/173949.html","title":"『スーパーマリオ64』30年来の謎に挑んだ研究者が語る、32×32ピクセルの石碑と「Eternal Star」説。話を訊いた【インタビュー】"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["Super Mario 64"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"news","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}