Why were the player icons replaced with question marks in Yoshi Valley Mario Kart 64 track? [closed]
Solution 1:
While I do not have insight into the game's code, there is evidence that there was no such hardware limitation.
- As you noticed yourself, the minimap knows who is in first place and can make the marker flash in rainbow colors.
- Perhaps more importantly, the game has 3 "Game Screens" which can be cycled through by pressing the Right C button. The last Game Screen displays all players rather than just the first 4, and shows their relative progress in the race.
This Game Screen is also available in Yoshi's Valley and works in the same way, though all player icons are now question marks as well. As you play, you can observe some players making significant jumps as they traverse shorter paths. The question marks also rotate as the players they represent get hit by items or obstacles.
Based on the evidense, it is very obvious that the Nintendo 64 is fully capable of keeping track of player positions even in Yoshi's Valley. Therefore, I believe that the question marks had nothing to do with hardware limitations, and were actually meant to add more suspense to the game, as players would have no way of knowing whether they chose the right path or not.