~ june 2020? VG Quantum Tunneling Mario 64 is connected to all other N64 games via hardware quantum tunneling which Nintendo was experimenting with at the time. There exists some basic coding which is evident across all N64 releases after Mario 64 which allows it to interact with these games in subtle ways. Data miners have been unearthing these secrets for years now but Nintendo has been keeping this information suppressed through intimidation tactics against hackers/leakers (Nintendo have notoriously taken action against fan projects which used modified code based on the original N64 library games). These changes would have been substantial, tweaking minor things in some games and unlocking entirely new and unseen content in others. This exciting new technology was an open industry secret in the late 90s and, according to some old Konami employees, was even emulated/parodied by Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis using his "psychic abilities" to read the player's PS1 memory card. As early as 1998 however there were several lawsuits filed against Nintendo by children's parents who sued for "legal damages". While these lawsuits have been officialy expunged from public records as of today, they were apparently settled out of court for a substantial amount. As early as 1999, ex-Nintendo employees recall being instructed to erase any physical or digital records of the HQT (hardware quantum tunneling) technology from their files. In a leaked Nintendo business insider document released in 2010, CEO Satoru Iwata was quoted as saying (in response to questions about digital preservation of older Nintendo titles) that any game produced before 1999 had already been digitally preserved by Nintendo themselves and that any physical media are best left alone. Although very little documentation exists of the hardware today, it is very unlikely that it caused considerable financial or legal damage to Nintendo overall. Whether it exists or not remains as speculation. === jan 2021: just realized... nintendo STILL insists on *cardridges*...