Crash

A Crash, Freeze, or Hardlock is what happens when Super Mario 64's code encounters an error, such as a division-by-zero, that causes the game to stop running and rendering frames. The audio may still play. This is in contrast to a softlock, where the game does still run but is stuck in an indefinite state or a loop where no controller input can change it.

Ways to crash the game

Cause	Exception Type	Notes
Exceed the object limit	Infinite Loop	Can be done via a variety of methods including cloning, hat duplication, build-up of monty-mole pellets, or money-bag duplication. Enters an intentional while(1) loop.
Have too many objects at once on the screen
Send the camera into a PU	Floating-Point Exception
Walking at PU speed for only a portion of the 4 quarter steps on a frame
Moving at PU speed with no joystick input for all 4 quarter steps on a frame
Moving 16384 distance into a wall (Often a PU Crash)	Floating-Point Exception
Walking with a speed greater than or equal to 2^31 / 170 (~12.632M)	Floating-Point Exception
Turning during a walking action such that speed times change in yaw is greater than or equal to 2^31 * 12 (~12.583M with dyaw = 2048)	Floating-Point Exception
Bully Knockback dividing-by-zero	Floating-Point Exception
Failed Bully/Bob-omb angle double-to-int conversion	Floating-Point Exception
Deleting a non-existent file on the File Select Screen		Go to "Copy" right when you get to the file select, then press "Score", press on any file without save data, go to Erase, and click on yes.
Moving a shadow above surface 12 while it's over OOB
Killing a Monty Mole remotely	Address Error Exception
Killing an uninitialized Monty Mole	Address Error Exception
Going out of bounds in a room with a painting	Address Error Exception
Being pushed off of a hangable ceiling while in the idle hanging or start hanging action	Address Error Exception
Sound glitch (J only)	Address Error Exception
Moving the camera immediately when entering VCutM
Getting infinite speed	Floating-Point Exception
Going near a painting after getting game corruption		Not possible on console, due to the way Emulators and Virtual Console handle addresses.
BitS entry sound glitch		8 known instances, not been reproduced. Not J only.
Teleporting while passing over a loading zone	Address Error Exception
Warping out of a level while passing over a loading zone		Maybe possible in DDD using the Sub Gate warp and whirlpool cloning to reach the instant loading zone. Not yet achieved in Vanilla.
Passing a boo over surface 12 over NULL		Possibly a non-existant crash if the shadow crashes the game first. Not yet achieved in Vanilla.
Loading Wiggler's Cave (DD Only)	Floating-Point Exception (Invalid Float)	Wiggler indexes out of range and reads a denorm as his health, which doesn't exist on console.