The door at the bottom of Super Mario 64’s Cool, Cool Mountain slide can be opened from outside in an unmodified game. Speedrunner Alexpalix—also reported as Alexpalix1—used a penguin-assisted clip to get through the cottage’s exterior collision boundary, then timed Mario’s turnaround action so the door began opening during a fall. It is a community-discovered exploit, not a newly unlocked room or a useful speedrun shortcut.
Which door was opened?
It is the cottage exit at the bottom of the Cool, Cool Mountain slide. In ordinary play, Mario enters the cottage at the top, slides down, and leaves through this door. The door works from the inside, but approaching the cottage from outside does not normally let Mario reach its trigger: the exterior collision barrier blocks him, and the outside face of the door has no knob.
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Time Extension’s May 13, 2024 report describes the missing exterior knob and barrier as reasons players could not ordinarily re-enter the hut from outside: Time Extension’s report.
How does the outside entry work?
Reports credit the discovery to speedrunner Alexpalix, also named as Alexpalix1 in coverage. The method combines a clip involving the nearby mother penguin with a precisely timed turnaround action. The clip gets Mario through the exterior collision boundary; the turnaround then starts the door-opening animation as Mario enters free-fall.
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HotHardware’s May 13, 2024 account explains the unusual interaction: Mario crosses the kill plane that would normally reset him, but the door-opening animation carries him through the doorway instead. This is the reported explanation of the trick, not an independently verified frame-by-frame input guide. Read HotHardware’s explanation.
Coverage also points to a video by pannenkoek2012, but the available written accounts do not establish an exact input sequence or frame count. The key takeaway is the interaction between the collision boundary, the turnaround, and the door animation—not a standard approach players can perform simply by walking up to the door.
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What “without mods” means here
The reports describe using behavior in the game rather than modifying the game. That does not mean Nintendo intended the maneuver as a feature. Time Extension’s writer Damien McFerran characterized the missing outside knob as evidence the designers did not want players to re-enter the hut that way; this is the journalist’s interpretation, not a statement from Nintendo or a named developer.
Does opening it reveal a new area or help a speedrun?
No new room or area is reported. The discovery makes it possible to enter from the outside through a door ordinarily used as the slide’s exit, resolving a long-running community mystery about the apparently one-way entrance.
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It is not reported as a speedrun improvement. HotHardware says the penguin setup takes longer than simply exiting the cottage from inside on the way to the star. GameSpot’s May 13, 2024 coverage also describes the discovery and its context.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the “28 years” headline needs context
The 28-year framing refers to the gap between Super Mario 64’s 1996-era release and the May 2024 reports of the discovery. It is not an exact interval for every region: Time Extension lists the Nintendo 64 release as June 23, 1996 in Japan and Asia, September 26, 1996 in North America, and March 1, 1997 in the UK, Europe, and Australia.
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