100 Coin Star
100 Coin Stars or 100c Stars are stars that appear after collecting 100 coins in all of the main courses. They are the only stars that appear at Mario, instead of spawning in a fixed location. They do not appear in any courses besides the main ones, even if you manage to collect 100 coins.
Phenomena
Coin Count vs Coin Display
The game has two variables to keep track of Mario's coin count-the coin count and the coin display. The latter is displayed on the screen. By using glitches or pause buffering the global timer, these variables can differ.
Coin Overflow
Because Mario's coin count is stored as a long integer, it can range from -32768 to 32767. However, in all versions of the game besides the Japanese N64 version, the coin count is capped at 999. In the Japanese version, the coders accidentally set the life count to 999 instead, which becomes a -25 because the life count is stored in a short rather than a long. By performing a renewable coin duplication glitch, like the Breaking-Disappearing Cork Box glitch, you can go from 999 to 1000 coins in the Japanese version and keep gaining coins. This is also possible with coins from Bowser's breath. When you collect a coin with 32767 coins, you go to -32768 coins because the coin count is a signed value. The HUD also stops updating because it normally only counts up if the coin count is higher than the coin display. When you get from -1 to 0 coins, you will then be able to collect 99 coins again and spawn a second 100 coin star. Even if yellow, this second star will not increment the star counter.
Uses
Because 100 coin stars can spawn anywhere you can collect a coin, they are very useful.
A Button Challenge
Mario gains a height bonus when in the freefall action because he is able to ledgegrab. Although Mario cannot ledgegrab out of the dive recovering action that is commonly used in the ABC, there actually are a couple ways to do it and utilize that bonus. One example is the Amp Clip, and the second way is the Star Dance Clip (SDC). When Mario collects a star in midair, he is immediately put into an action that allows him to ledgegrab, regardless of his previous action. If his ledgegrab check succeeds, he appears at the top of his ledge to do his star dance. With most stars, he would then just leave the course, but the 100 coin star doesn't force him to do that, so he can then continue to collect another star. When combined with VSC, the SDC is even more effective because VSC, which is already a freefall state, can Ground Pound to gain extra height before collecting the star. In the ABC, the SDC is used:
- as an alternative strat to collect To the Top of the Fortress 0x on the Japanese version[1]
- to get to the mainland on the tiny island of THI 0x, saving 5 A presses[2]
- to get to the cogs 0x in TTC[3]
- to go to HMC 0x[4]
as well as in many other A press saves.