Mario Kart 64: Freeing Marty the Thwomp in Mario Kart 64

In Mario Kart 64 there is a green thwomp mysteriously locked behind bars in Bowser's Castle. He has been unofficially named Marty and has been the subject to longstanding rumors that he can actually be unlocked as a playable character. Several hoax and April fools joke images and videos have popped up over the years supposedly showing the convoluted things you need to do on the track in Bowser's Castle to unlock Marty as a playable character. Well now you can finally race as him with this hack! The current version works only in Bowser's Castle for Player 1 but it works for all engine classes and in both Time Trial and VS. mode (so you can play your friends as Marty).

Watch the video: https://youtu.be/BLnP77-vTv0

Requires the expansion pak to run.

See the readme for more details.

Free Marty the Green Thwomp
by Triclon

Questions, comments, or found a bug?
Email me at [email protected]

I usually hang out in the Overkart 64 discord: https://discord.gg/4XRmJ5vbKQ
Visit my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/triclon
Visit my website: https://sites.google.com/view/triclons-mario-kart-64-page/home


Description:
In Mario Kart 64 there is a green thwomp mysteriously locked behind bars in Bowser's Castle. He has been unofficially named Marty and has been the subject to longstanding rumors that he can actually be unlocked as a playable character. Several hoax and April fools joke images and videos have popped up over the years supposedly showing the convoluted things you need to do on the track in Bowser's Castle to unlock Marty as a playable character. Well now you can finally race as him with this hack! The current version works only in Bowser's Castle for Player 1 but it works for all engine classes and in both Time Trial and VS. mode (so you can play your friends as Marty).


See the youtube video of freeing marty:
https://youtu.be/BLnP77-vTv0


How to patch:
Apply the .bps patch to a (USA/NTSC) Mario Kart 64 rom that is in .z64 format using your own patching utility or one of the following fine online Patchers:
https://www.romhacking.net/patch/
https://hack64.net/tools/patcher.php
Some emulators can also soft patch a .bps file to a vanilla rom.


This rom hack was made using my Nintendo 64 Gameshark code injector which can directly patch gameshark codes into any rom. It can be found here:
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/1659/


You can find the original (long) gameshark code and the assembly code that makes it work here from which you can copy into your favorite emulator, or if you have the patience you can type it into a real Gameshark:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XS0t5bveLWWpPBy72kFx0DccS7m16JnhBBOLDtNa-7o/edit?usp=sharing



I would like to thank micro500 (https://www.youtube.com/user/pjgat09) for help with the assembly code.


A few interesting things I noticed when making this hack:
-Marty's green color isn't caused by the lighting in his cell. The developers purposely shaded him green instead of blue.
-Marty's behavior differs a bit from the other thwomps. He normally keeps his eyes closed but driving up to him makes him laugh at you.

Database match: Mario Kart 64 (USA)
Database: No-Intro: Nintendo 64 (v. 20210220-053642)
File/ROM SHA-1: 579C48E211AE952530FFC8738709F078D5DD215E
File/ROM CRC32: 434389C1