The 'Shroom:Issue 111/Pipe Plaza
Director’s Notes
Welcome 'Shroom readers to this special edition of Pipe Plaza.
This issue is dedicated to Walkazo, and whilst Pipe Plaza might not be the best place to remember her, she was most certainly one of the most memorable users we have had on this site. May she rest in peace.
Also, you may notice that our interviews are again absent, this is due to Banjo resigning from the section. There is, however, some good news - Gutsehman (talk) is willing to continue the section, provided he get another co-host. So think you could do it? Then get in touch with him and find out!
Section of the Month
| Pipe Plaza SECTION OF THE MONTH | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Section | Votes | % | Writer |
| 1st | Poll Committee Discussion | 5 | 31% | MrConcreteDonkey |
| 2nd | Anniversary Announcements | 3 | 19% | Lakituthequick |
| 3rd | Retro Feature | 2 | 13% | Yoshi876 |
| 3rd | The 'Shroom Report | 2 | 13% | Henry Tucayo Clay |
Wanna know what's been going on in the Poll Committee? Find out here.
[read more]
Monthly Report
Written by: Paper Yoshi (talk)
Hi, everyone, and welcome to this month's issue of Monthly Report! Still no news on this section, so it's time to check how the wiki stats have changed since last month!
(Credit goes to Stooben Rooben (talk), Super Mario Bros. (talk), and Viper26 (talk) for the table coding (I based this on Stooben's coding, which was later modified by SMB, myself, and Viper26 when each one of us wrote this section)
| June Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Statistic | As of 23 June 2016 (12:00)* |
| Content Pages | 17,124 |
| All Pages | 138,648 |
| Files | 70,888 |
| Edits | 1,867,113 |
| Edits per Page | 13.47 |
| Registered Users | 21,690 |
| Active Users | 313 |
| Bots | 2 |
| 'Shroom Writers | 37 |
| Autopatrolled | 39 |
| Patrollers | 4 |
| Administrators | 10 |
| Bureaucrats | 3 |
| Proprietor | 1 |
| May — June Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistic | As of 18 May 2016 (07:15)* | As of 23 June 2016 (12:00)* | Percentage Change |
| Content Pages | 17,088 | 17,124 | +0.211% |
| All Pages | 137,948 | 138,648 | +0.507% |
| Files | 70,380 | 70,888 | +0.722% |
| Edits | 1,848,560 | 1,867,113 | +1.004% |
| Edits per Page | 13.40 | 13.47 | +0.522% |
| Registered Users | 21,527 | 21,690 | +0.757% |
| Active Users | 299 | 313 | +4.682% |
| Bots | 2 | 2 | 0% |
| 'Shroom Writers | 37 | 37 | 0% |
| Autopatrolled | 40 | 39 | -2.5% |
| Patrollers | 3 | 4 | +33.333% |
| Administrators | 10 | 10 | 0% |
| Bureaucrats | 3 | 3 | 0% |
| Proprietor | 1 | 1 | 0% |
Featured
Hello 'Shroom readers and welcome back to another edition of Featured, the only place this side of the Mario Wiki where you'll get news about the Mario Wiki Featured Articles.
Featured Articles
One new article has been featured in the past month.
- Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash was featured on 6 June 2016.
Re-Featured Articles
No new articles have become re-featured.
FA Nominations
There is one ongoing Featured Article Nominations.
- Rocket Start was nominated on 31 May 2016. The current opposes on it deal with its organization and length.
Failed FA Nominations
No new articles have failed the featuring process.
Unfeatured Articles
One new article has been unfeatured in the past month.
- Macho Grubba was unfeatured on 12 June 2016. It was unfeatured due to its length and the padding that was present within the article.
Unfeaturing Nominations
There are no ongoing Unfeature nominations.
Failed Unfeaturing Nominations
No new articles have failed the unfeaturing process in the past month.
Thanks for reading see you next month, for more Featured Articles news.
Tip of the Month
When saving images to your computer to put on the Wiki, remember to save them as a .png file instead of a .jpg file for better resolution. Images should also have a transparent background (if they don't have a specific background already, like character art), and as much of that background should be as cropped as possible.
Poll Committee Discussion
Hiya, this is the Poll Committe Discussion, and I'm Nyrie, the one who was forced to write it this month.
Time to go over the 3 fantastic polls from this month.
Recent Polls
Have you ever watched The Super Mario Bros. Super Show? (Baby Luigi (talk), May 15, 2016)
| Have you ever watched The Super Mario Bros. Super Show? |
|---|
| Yes, I have watched all episodes. 12.43% (303 votes) |
| Yes, I have watched most episodes. 19.08% (465 votes) |
| Yes, but I have watched only some episodes. 40.62% (990 votes) |
| No, but I have watched the other Mario cartoons. 7.51% (183 votes) |
| No, I have not watched a Mario cartoon at all. 20.35% (496 votes) |
| Total Votes: 2,437 |
Favourite part of the Mario series (Stargazing (talk), May 22, 2016)
| What is your favourite part of the Mario series? |
|---|
| The atmosphere/charm. 16.95% (401 votes) |
| The plot(s). 3.93% (93 votes) |
| The characters. 24.73% (585 votes) |
| The setting(s). 2.62% (62 votes) |
| The music. 13.44% (318 votes) |
| The gameplay. 36.01% (852 votes) |
| Another part of the series. 2.32% (55 votes) |
| Total Votes: 2,366 |
Which Nintendo video game generation is your favorite? (Baby Luigi (talk), May 29, 2016)
| Which Nintendo video game generation is your favorite? |
|---|
| NES 2.69% (56 votes) |
| SNES/Game Boy 7.26% (151 votes) |
| Nintendo 64/Game Boy Color 10.09% (210 votes) |
| GameCube/Game Boy Advance 24.75% (515 votes) |
| Wii/Nintendo DS 22.1% (460 votes) |
| Wii U/Nintendo 3DS 33.11% (689 votes) |
| Total Votes: 2,081 |
Analysis
- Have you ever watched The Super Mario Bros. Super Show: I wouldn't expect the kids who visit this website to even know what this show is. Maybe they're just confusing it with those WaCkY Hotel Mario Youtube Poops.
- Favourite part of the Mario series: Can anyone say seriously that they play Mario games for their deep storylines? Apparently, at least 93 people.
- Which Nintendo video game generation is your favorite: Total shocker. Except not really.
Tune in next month, when the fat-astic Packy will be writing this section.
Forum Update
Written by: MrConcreteDonkey (talk)
Hey, welcome to the Forum Update! Today, we're looking at May.
News
Bans
- Shy Guy (Shy Guy (talk)) was banned for a month, for spamming despite being told to stop. His ban ended on June 23rd.
- Drift (Driftmaster130 (talk)) was permanently banned for trolling and a long history of questionable posts.
- TabuuAndPeach (TabuuandPeach (talk)) was banned for a month, for constantly making spammy posts despite being told to stop.
Statistics
In May, 163 new topics were created and 8403 posts were made. 28 new members joined - the most so far this year - and 209 was the most online.
|
TOP POSTERS
|
TOP TOPIC STARTERS
|
MOST TIME ONLINE
|
(Bold means new entry and Italics mean inactive for at least the past month.)
Thread of the Month
▄▀▄▀▄▀Ａ Ｅ Ｓ Ｔ Ｈ Ｅ Ｔ Ｉ Ｃ Ｔ Ｈ Ｒ Ｅ Ａ Ｄ▄▀▄▀▄▀ by GBAToad wins Thread of the Month. No question.
Mafia
The only game currently ongoing is BMB's Steven Universe Mafia.
- Stooben's 'Shroom Mafia III (Lounge) was won by the Innocents, after 8 months!
- Anton and Meta Knight's Battlestar Galactica Mafia (Lounge) was also won by the Innocents!
Thanks for reading.
Community Report
Hi readers! Welcome to the Community Report section. It shows our the latest goings-ons around the Super Mario Wiki – the promotions, the demotions, the recently passed and ongoing proposals.
(credit to YoshiKong (talk) for previously developing this coded table system and to Crocodile Dippy (talk) for the alterations made)
PROMOTIONS/DEMOTIONS
| Affected User | Previous Rank | Current Rank | Promoter/Demoter | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario jc (talk) | Autopatrolled | Patroller | Glowsquid (talk) | June 7, 2016, 15:14 |
RECENT PROPOSALS:
| Proposer | Summary | Outcome | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reboot (talk) | Change rule 9 to centre on voters rather than votes. Proposal to change Rule 9 of the proposals policy that says "more than half of all votes cast must be for a single option" to "more than half of all voters must have cast votes for a single option" and "All proposals must pass by a majority, including proposals with more than two options." to "All proposals must be approved by a majority of voters, including proposals with more than two options.". The proposer argues that Rule 9 is slightly vague since this proposal has passed. |
5-3 (read more) | May 30, 2016, 23:59 |
| Roy Koopa (talk) | Automatically pass proposals if the outcome is clearly unanimous. Proposal to automatically pass proposals after 48 hours if there is at least 15 support votes and no oppose votes. The proposer argues that if someone has written a proposal that's already been discussed, we have to wait for 7 or 14 days for it to pass. |
CANCELLED BY PROPOSER (read more) | June 20, 2016, 23:59 |
RECENT TALK PAGE PROPOSALS:
| Proposer | Summary | Outcome | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| LudwigVon (talk) | Merge Green Star (Super Mario 3D World) with Green Star. Proposal to merge Green Star (Super Mario 3D World), a green collectible star from Super Mario 3D World with Green Star, a green collectible star from Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel. The proposer argues that these two items are not different enough to be split and there are various items that are merged together even though they have different functions from game to game and if we split them by their functions it will start to create inconsistencies. |
17-11 (read more) | May 23, 2016, 23:59 |
| MarioKid (talk) | Merge Rainbow Mario with Invincible Mario. Proposal to merge Rainbow Mario, a form where Mario needed a Rainbow Star with Invincible Mario, a form where Mario needed a Super Star. The proposer argues that there are no differences, since both power-ups makes Mario invincible. |
2-12 (read more) | May 30, 2016, 23:59 |
| Reboot (talk) | Move Skull Switch to Boss Switch, incorporate Super Mario Land (and possibly other games). Proposal to move Skull Switch, a switch which appears in New Super Mario Bros. to Boss Switch and incorporate Super Mario Land's switch that also appears in boss battles. The proposer argues that it's best to have both switches on one page rather than making up two page names unnecessarily. There was also the option to include the switch that appears at the end of Bowser's battles in other New Super Mario Bros. games. |
2-0-4 (read more) | June 1, 2016, 23:59 |
| Wildgoosespeeder (talk) | Split Start Dash from Rocket Start. Proposal to split Start Dash, a technique where the racers at the beginning of a "track event" crouch down into their starting position and build up their potential energy to gain a quick boost in their start, from Rocket Start, a technique that allows the player to get a boost at the start of the race. The proposer argues that the Start Dash is a Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games concept and that the Rocket Start is a Mario Kart concept which means they are two different things. |
10-0 (read more) | June 14, 2016, 23:59 |
| Driftmaster130 (talk) | Delete MarioWiki:Trolls. Proposal to delete MarioWiki:Trolls, a policy page that informs about trolls. The proposer argues that this page has almost the same content as MarioWiki:Vandalism in characteristics and how to stop them. |
CANCELLED BY PROPOSER (read more) | June 19, 2016, 23:59 |
ONGOING PROPOSALS:
| Proposer | Summary | Link | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driftmaster130 (talk) | Enforce a timestamp with user signatures. Proposal to enforce the usage of a timestamp with user signatures. The proposer argues that enforcing users to either set up their custom signatures to display the timestamp or just have them use the plain default signature which already includes a timestamp will be more easier to know when a comment on a conversations was made without having to look at the talk page edit history. |
11-1 (read more) | June 20, 2016, 23:59 |
| Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) | Move Mario Party 3 Duel Maps back to their old capitalization. Proposal to move Mario Party 3's duel boards names to the general capitalization (GATE GUY to Gate Guy). The proposer argues that the all-caps names are merely stylizations and do not reflect the actual name of the subject. |
11-2 (read more) | June 21, 2016, 23:59 |
ONGOING TALK PAGE PROPOSALS:
| Proposer | Summary | Link | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fawful's Minion (talk) | Split Category from Mario characters and real people. Proposal to split the deceased category to make one for real people and one for characters. The proposer argues that it is weird to have characters and real people share the same category. |
17-0 (read more) | June 22, 2016, 23:59 |
NOTE:All stats and figures included in this section were correct as of June 19th.
That’s all for this issue of the Community Report. Thanks readers to take the time to read this section and remember to participate to ongoing proposals.Retro Feature
| Walkazo | |
 |
|
| First article: | Sketches Related to Mario, Issue LX |
| Last article: | Adventures of Little Mario, Issue 111 |
| Sections Written: | Main Team: 4 Palette Swap: 24 |
| Positions held: | Contributor |
Hello, readers! I'm your Spotlight manager and Pipe Plaza Director, Yoshi876. Welcome to Retro Feature, a section in which I delve deep into the archives to bring you the best blasts from the past. This time I bring a section from a Walkazo, who sadly died this March, cutting her great talent short.
Walkazo joined the wiki on 27 July 2007 and she submitted a piece of artwork to The 'Shroom in Issue LX, which was released on 17 March 2012. She would contribute four special sections for The 'Shroom, the first being an overview of the evolutionary history of Koopas; then the genetic history of Bowser's family; then a comparison of Koopa species; before finally concluding with further science. Walkazo formally joined The 'Shroom 18 April 2015 in Issue XCVII, writing Mario's Boombox, a section she would continue to write up until her death. Her other Palette Swap section: The Adventures of Little Mario debuted in Issue 100, but sadly this issue marks the final time we will see her creative doodles and imagination.
Walkazo was a much bigger name on the wiki instead of in The 'Shroom, though. She was promoted to administrator on 21 January 2009 and to a bureaucrat on 22 July 2011. With those positions she acted as a kind and mature overseer, voting regularly on proposals and helping to make the wiki a much better place. And we will miss her for all of those reasons and more.
And hopefully a fitting tribute to her would be to bring you back in time to look at one of her scientific analysis of the Koopa species. I hope you enjoy reading it.
One of the things I've always loved about the Mario series is how it leaves so much to the imagination. You can spend endless hours trying to reconcile all the conflicting information presented to us by creators who obviously don't think a happy-go-lucky series like Mario needs to bother with consistency, but to me, that sort of problem solving is just as fun as the games themselves. Yeah, I know, I'm weird - and it gets weirder. While I started out simply wanting to mash all the games and their worlds together into one timeline and one master map, my real passion isn't history or cartography: it's science. At first, you wouldn't think that science has much business with games based on a portly plumber who eats mushrooms to grow giant, shoots fireballs from his hands, and jumps three times his height (when he's not simply using a raccoon tail to fly), but hey, in the Mushroom Kingdom, who says you can't have magic and science? My favourite branch of science is zoology, which lends itself quite handily to the vast array of species found in the Mario series. In particular, I focus on the Koopas - their diversity is fascinating, especially if you think outside the box and include Clubbas, Spinies and Buzzy Beetles. It's always made me wonder how they're related, and by extension, how they evolved - and from what. Of course, taxonomy is considered to be one of the drearier breeds of biology even amongst zoologists, so rather than bore you all with a detailed analysis of the Koopa family tree, I've decided to stick with the macroevolutonary half of the equation and do a quick overview of where I think Koopas in general came from. But don't let the jargon scare you off: macroevolution is the least nitty-gritty of all the evolutionary subjects (in my opinion), and I'm not about to bring stuff like gene flow, allopatric speciation or the Red Queen into a discussion about Mario. Just some good old speculation about the enemies we know and love. Everything You Know is WrongFirst of all, Koopas are not turtles. And I don't mean that in the "well, they live on land so they're more like tortoises" sense - I mean it in the "there is no possible way these guys are or evolved from turtles" sense. Why? Well, the most obvious difference is that various Koopa species can remove their shells and still function, whereas a turtle shell includes both its spine and ribs, all fused together with a set of bony dermal plates. If Koopa shells were turtle shells, then de-shelling a Koopa would be akin to pulling someone out of their own ribcage. This would not end well. One could argue that the turtles that gave rise to the Koopas could have evolved so that their vertebrae and ribs are free-floating again, while the dermal plates remain, but you don't evolve that degree of specialization and then go back. Yes, in evolution, certain traits are gained and lost and regained sometimes, but not to this extent, especially when you consider all the other unique aspects of turtle physiology. Even their breathing is specialized: since they can't move their ribs anymore, they use their throat, gut muscles and even the muscles attached to their legs as a set of bellows to pump air in and out. Koopas don't do this: as you can see in many of the RPG sprites, Bowser and the other Koopas inhale and exhale like the rest of us. But wait, you say: the games are always calling the Koopas "turtles", and messy biology aside, they do look pretty similar. Two words: convergent evolution. Plenty of things evolve to look similar, for example, glass lizards may be legless reptiles, but they're not snakes; harmless hoverflies purposefully evolved to look like stinger-bearing bees and wasps; and Glyptodon looks a lot like a turtle too, but it's actually an ancient relative of the armadillos. Given the benefits of a shell, it's no wonder they've popped up multiple times in both real life and the Mushroom World. And as for the "turtle" stuff, there's lots of completely unrelated animals being called the same thing in real life. European Blackbirds aren't related to American blackbirds, but to American Robins, which, in turn, aren't related to European Robins at all - those are a kind of Old World flycatcher (not to be confused with the flycatchers you get in North America, of course). And earthworms, tapeworms and ribbon worms are all long, limbless "worms", but we're more closely related to fish than they are to each other. With real life science that screwy, it's not surprising that the fictional characters have trouble with their nomenclature too. Koopa CreationOkay, so Koopas aren't turtles - but then what are they? Well, first of all you need to identify the first Koopa and work backwards from there. Most people assume that Shellcreepers were the first Koopas since they, well, came first, but I disagree. The main issue is the old removable shell problem we see in both Shellcreepers and the next, better-known evolutionary step: the Koopa Troopas (the four-legged kind, not the two-legged ones - which are a different species, even though they're called the same thing in the games, but I digress). You think turtle shells are specialized? Detachable Koopa shells are ten times crazier: that kinda thing would take time to evolve - there's no way Koopas started out with 'em. It'd also be a lot harder to go from a quadrupedal lifestyle to bipedalism when you've got a heavy shell pushing down on you, whereas it's a lot more understandable if certain two-legged Koopas dropped to all fours from time to time. Plus there's the fact that, shells aside, Koopa Troopas are pretty plain, whereas the other species have a myriad of special powers, from firebreath to walking on the ceiling and everything in between. Yeah, all those could have evolved multiple times, and I certainly can't make a perfect Koopa family tree without some powers appearing and disappearing, but it's still more plausible if the common ancestor of the Koopas had the skills right from the start, and they just wound up dormant in different descendents.  Bowser clearly stole his look from Gastonia, a relative of Ankylosaurus. And that brings us to the most powerful Koopa of 'em all: Bowser. He has firebreath, lighting and teleportation powers, shockwave-inducing Ground Pounds, a poisonous bite, black magic, and the ability to pull massive amounts of hammers out of nowhere - and that's not even including his variable size and other extra powers given to him by objects like the Grand Star, his transformative abilities in the anime movie, or the fact that he can have all his flesh burned off by lava and come back for more. If you consider his kids too, you can add Flutter Jumping, limb-stretching, Sonic Roars, both high-speed spinning and double team-like attacks, and the ability to climb vertical walls and walk on the ceiling to the list of mad skills. Not too shabby for a species Nintendo hasn't even officially named yet. It's also pretty representative of what Koopas as a whole are capable of, minus a couple things like changing colours, turning invisible, pulling spiked balls out of your mouth, or swapping your arms for wings, but like the removable shell stuff, those kind of specializations would have come later. And, while some games imply that Bowser's own shell is removable, the only time we actually see this is in the MS-DOS version of Mario is Missing! - but that also had the tail being green and part of the shell, and even though it only covered Bowser's back, taking it off miraculously made boxer shorts appear in front too, and really, this is the game that brought us Weegee, so how much faith are we seriously going to put in its science? Personally, I say shell-removing doesn't happen until we get down to the Koopa Troopas, with the Strikers being early examples. I've got a whole complex theory about how the shell removal arose, but I'll make this as fast as possible... Basically, the neural spines of the vertebrae extended upwards and fused with bony plates on the skin (think Spinosaurus meets Ankylosaurus), and similar plating eventually curved back down around the body forming the plastron part of the shell. The hollow between that plates and the ribcage became a reservoir for hammerspace energy, with the bony connection with the spine and all the fleshy bits receding, until eventually the only connection is energy itself. The Strikers can break it momentarily to throw their shell and materialize a new one, and Koopa Troopas have gotten to the point where their energy can recede inside their body, allowing them to exist without one indefinitely. The shell stuff isn't the only change that happens, of course, but as I said earlier, this article isn't about the evolution within the Koopa family - all you really need to take away from all this is that something like Bowser was the first "Koopa". Beta Bowser?With that finally out of the way, we move on to the question of where Bowser's species came from. Bowser himself was actually inspired by an anime ox character, and his shell was only added later on in development because one of the developers realized it made little sense to have a cow as the turtle king. And back then they were a lot more turtley: not including the non-Koopa Troop Shellcreepers from Mario Bros., de-shelling wasn't introduced until Super Mario World, and the Super Mario Bros. Koopa Troopas were still four-legged as far as the sprites went. The Hammer Bros. were bipeds, however, and unlike their cousins, sported bird-like beaks, which might have been because Shellcreepers originally had beaks, but might also be a reference to another fictional, beaked, shelled biped: the Kappa. Lots of Mario fans assume that the Kappas were the inspiration for the Koopa name, but in Japan, the turtle soldiers and their kingdom aren't called "Koopas" at all: only the king goes by that, having been named after a kind of Korean soup. (As an aside, his English name origin is a lot less concrete. One theory is that he's named after Jon "Bowzer" Bauman of the rock band Sha Na Na, like how the Koopalings were later named after musicians, but I prefer the hypothesis is that it comes from a kind of fuel tanker - large, round and potentially fiery, just like the Koopa King.) Soup is even more useless to us than the Shellcreeper stuff as far as trying to build on real life development goes, but while both the design inspirations and etymology of the Koopas prove to be a dead-end, the Kappa connection is going in the right direction: we're just barking up the wrong myth. Here There be DragonsAt least one add for Super Mario Bros. spoke of "conquering dragons", and y'know what? It was right. Aside from that, nothing official calls him a dragon, but he does breathe fire. Not convinced yet? Then I direct your attention to the Koopa that's not a Koopa: Yoshi. Yes, as evidenced by that shell on his back (I'm sorry, but saddles are not grown, and they are not dome-shaped), Yoshi was originally envisioned as a kind of benevolent Koopa, and he also has a few draconian traits too (most noticeably in his Super Dragon Final Smash). I'm not saying Yoshis are long-lost Koopas, but I do think they're at least a distant cousin, and while I won't argue against Yoshi being a dinosaur, I challenge the notion some people have that he can't be a dragon too (making Koopas a member of both classifications as well). In real life, dinosaur fossils were confused for dragon bones at least a couple times, and now they're naming all sorts of those new Chinese dinos after dragons (and also this guy, the "Dragon King of Hogwarts"). Of course, scientists know better than to get the two confused, but when you're looking at fictional dinosaurs, many of whom breathe fire (i.e. Yoshis, Birdos, Dino-Torches and Reznors), the fact that the lines are getting blurry is quite understandable.  Mommy?  Cousin? So we've now established that Shellcreepers weren't the first Koopas, Bowser's species was, and they didn't come from turtles, they came from dragons, which in turn are a kind of dinosaur. But which dinosaur? Given the vast diversity of Mario dragons (including Koopas, Yoshis and other dragonish dinos), there's no way they came from any one dinosaur. Firebreath and flight are cheap in the Mushroom World: convergent evolution involving those powers happens all across the board, so it's more likely that different dinos developed dragon tendencies than one firebreathing breed giving rise to everything from Rexes to Blarggs to the TTYD 'Tail family. Unfortunately, this is when the solid information dries up: there are no dragons or even dinosaurs in the Mario games that remotely resemble Bowser and the Koopas. But macroevolutionary biologists are no strangers to big gaping holes in the fossil record - there are ways around them, and our way is a movie most people wish never saw the light of day: the Super Mario Bros. live action film. The Lizard KingThe idea that dinosaurs could evolve into things that look exactly like humans is totally unrealistic, but at least this movie gives us some official material to back up the Koopas-are-dinosaurs idea. It also gives us an ancestor for ol' Koopa: the "lizard king" himself, Tyrannosaurus rex. Too bad that doesn't actually work - and for reasons similar to the turtle problem. T. rex may not have developed a highly specialized carapace and a unique internal organ design to go with it, but by the time this species arose, the forelimbs of its line had degenerated pretty severely. Its arms were pretty strong, but they were also inflexible and teeny compared to the overall body size, and it's unlikely that the two-fingered hand could give rise to the human-like Koopa limbs: once you lose a toe, you don't typically grow it back with new and improved opposable action. So, while T. rex is a good starting point, for the Koopa ancestor, we need to go back further. Of course, this is easier said than done, since there's a bit of a Catch-22 in the Tyrannosaur family: the higher up you get, the more fingers you find, but the dinosaurs get smaller too. But all is not lost: the theropods were a diverse bunch, and while we have to jump ship completely from the Tyrannosaur line, other families have plenty of promising possibilities. Allosaurus is probably the quickest option to come to mind, since it's basically a slightly smaller cousin of T. rex with longer arms - but only three fingers. Another family gives us Acrocanthosaurus, which is large and sports robust limbs, plus, its neural spines are already elongating, but once again, only three fingers. And then there's Ceratosaurus: it's not overly large, its neural spines aren't particularly tall, and its forelimbs are short, if muscular, but it does have four fingers, and the bony deposits in the skin running down its back could be the precursor to the armour plating that becomes Koopa shells, while the weird lumps on its head just need to move around a bit to give you the start of Bowser's oxen horns. Admittedly, while it's the closest match I've found so far, Ceratosaurus is far from perfect. There have been plenty of times I've even considered scrapping the four-finger limitation and simply saying the Koopa ancestor had three fingers and regained a fourth as its thumb (polydactyly is a pretty well-documented mutation, after all - just ask Inigo Montoya). That'd certainly make the search a lot easier, but then again, where's the fun in cutting corners? I've loved dinosaurs even longer than Mario and could spend hours digging through Wikipedia for new species - it is a bit frustrating when you realize a perfect Koopa ancestor is actually an artist's impression and the only fossils they have of it are a couple leg bones, but that could easily change by the next read-through as more and more fossils are unearthed, expanding our knowledge and forever changing how we think of these ancient creatures. The discovery of Yutyrannus earlier this year, was a game-changer, for example, not only because its large size and three-fingered hands were unheard of in the Tyrannosaur line (as I mentioned earlier), but because the thing's covered in feathers from head to toe. Now scientists are wondering if Tyrannosaurus rex was also a big fuzzball, thereby ruining the mental images of children's favourite man-eating monster forever - and also providing a possible origin for Koopa hair, if I may play devil's advocate here. (And while we're at it, how 'bout them feathery Paratroopa wings?)  A quick sketch of what the Koopa ancestor could have looked like. It's got spikes, horns, a snout, flexible arms and ribbed belly scutes like Bowser's species, with bony plates starting to form what will eventually be the rim of a shell. Along with its firebreath, the wings are a holdover from its dragon roots, but like species to come, they're feathered and sprout above the border of the proto-shell. It's also got feathers on its head and neck like the theropod dinosaurs, as well as their digitigrade feet - for now. So who knows - with new species being discovered all the time, maybe the perfect Koopa ancestor simply hasn't been dug up yet. And with Nintendo still churning out new Mario games, there will always be a supply of new Koopas to add further down the evolutionary line too. Macroevolution may be a real life field of study, but as you can see, it can be applied to both real and fictional dinosaurs alike. I certainly find both halves of the equation to be quite engrossing, and while I doubt anyone's quite at my level of weirdness, I hope I at least gave you some idea of how interesting this stuff can be - whether it's solving a paleontological puzzle, or a pixelated one. |
The 'Shroom Report
Hello, everyone, I'm your Statistics Manager, Tucayo, and welcome to another issue of The 'Shroom Report. As a reminder, in the Milestones section, writers will get mentioned every 10 sub-team sections and every 50 all-time sections, teams will get mentioned every 100 sections, and The 'Shroom will get mentioned every 500 sections. All information is based off our Historical Sheets. This section will cover Issue 110.
| First-time Writers | |
|---|---|
| Writer | Section |
| None | |
| Milestones | |
|---|---|
| Writer/Team | Milestone |
| Crocodile Dippy (talk) | 150 overall sections |
| RandomYoshi (talk) | 10 Main/Staff sections |
| Super Mario Bros. (talk) | 130 Main/Staff sections |
| Yoshi876 (talk) | 20 Fun Stuff sections |
| Most Sections Written | ||
|---|---|---|
| Team | Writer | Number of Sections |
| Main/Staff | Super Mario Bros. (talk) | 130 |
| Fake News | Ralphfan (talk) | 97 |
| Fun Stuff | Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) | 121 |
| Palette Swap | FunkyK38 (talk) | 101 |
| Pipe Plaza | Paper Yoshi (talk) | 115 |
| Critic Corner | Crocodile Dippy (talk) | 75 |
| Strategy Wing | Stooben Rooben (talk) | 17 |
| Overall | Henry Tucayo Clay (talk) | 280 |
| 'Shroom Trivia |
|---|
| Walkazo is the only writer in 'Shroom history to have won a SOTM and a Staff SOTM for the same section in the same issue on more than one occasion; The Adventures of Little Mario on Issues 103 and 108. |
Anniversary Announcements
Written by: Lakituthequick (talk)
- “Clearly, your computer has a horrible virus - the only cure is to throw it out the nearest window immediately.”
- —Walkazo (Talk Page · Forum Profile), 24 January 2016
Hi there dear readers. Welcome to another edition of Anniversary Announcements, where the facts check themselves and the sources actually matter to a certain extend[1].
We'll start off with the 12th and last meeting of the year. The full review was once again continued and was finished also in this meeting.
For the sake of brevity, minor changes in name and unchanged awards are not listed here. Refer to this document for a full list of nominees.
| # | Name | Additions | Removals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notes (if applicable) | |||
| U10 | Outstanding Community Achievement | MrConcreteDonkey (wiki boards userpedia) | - |
| S7 | Best Use of Images | - | Word Searches (Palkia47 (talk)) |
| S9 | Favorite Special Issue | - | Holiday Issue 2009 Holiday Issue XLV (45) Holiday Issue LVII (57) Holiday Issue LXIX (69) Holiday Issue LXXXI (81) Holiday Issue XCIII (93) |
For some general announcements. Most important of course: the polls have been opened! For the coming month, you will be able to vote on your favourite and least favourite Mario elements, and on your favourite elements of The 'Shroom and the Super Mario Wiki community. Click here to go straight to the polls!
Next, multiple users, primarily from Europe, have indicated that they would prefer the ceremony to happen a bit earlier on the day, because most of it happens during the night in these areas. Following this, a poll has been created on the forum to gauge about how many people are for this. The results of the poll are not binding, but are taken into consideration. You can find the poll here.
Lastly, due to this issue of The 'Shroom being postponed by a week, it was removed from S9 Favorite Special Issue.
Next on the list are tournaments. Since last month, a lot more tournament threads were made on the Mario Awards X board on the forums. In below table you can find an overview of all currently planned tournaments, along with links to their respective threads.
| Tournament | Host(s) | Links |
|---|---|---|
| Art Contest | Hypnotoad | Topic |
| Awards Mafia VI | Stooben Rooben and Superchao | Topic |
| Guess the Result | AC Staff | |
| Mario Kart 7 | Stargazing | Topic |
| Mario Kart 8 | Lakituthequick | Topic |
| Minecraft | Uniju and Toadbert101 | Topic |
| Pokémon (OR/AS) | Cirdec | Topic |
| Pokémon (X/Y/OR/AS) | Crocodile Dippy and Palkia47 | Topic |
| Scavenger Hunt | Lakituthequick | |
| Splatoon | The Pyro Guy | Topic |
| Super Smash Bros. for Wii U | Groden | Topic |
| Yu-Gi-Oh | DragonFreak | Topic |
There is also a topic on Pokkén Tournament here, to gauge interest, but this is not a confirmed tournament yet.
The Fire Emblem Fates tournament, which also has a topic, will not happen due to region locks and lack of interest from different regions.
You may also notice that there are two items on Pokémon. It was brought to attention that multiple people had interest in hosting a tournament for the same game. To only have one happening per game, it was decided that while there can be multiple sign-up threads, the one that sparks the most interest will be the one that runs.
As it stands at the time of writing, the Pokémon tournament by Crocodile Dippy and Palkia47 has the most interest.
Let's go over each tournament briefly.
Art Contest
Host: Hypnotoad
Date: Submissions 1 June to 11 July, voting 16 July to 13 August
Forum Topic
Anyone can submit one piece of art to the host until 11 July, after this a public vote will be opened. Art is distributed over three tiers, Beginner, Amateur and Experienced.
Awards Mafia VI
Hosts: Stooben Rooben and Superchao
Date: TBD
Forum Topic
A game of Mafia without a specific theme, anything may appear as a role. Innocent and Mafia parties are included, as well as some other parties. Locations also return again and can be visited during Day-phases.
Mario Kart 7
Host: Stargazing
Date: late June or early July
Forum Topic
Racers will be put in brackets of 4-6 people, of which the top 2-4 will proceed to the next round. Individual matches will be raced in one-off in-game Communities.
Mario Kart 8
Host: Lakituthequick
Date: 18 July to 31 July
Forum Topic
The players will be divided into brackets that race at specified times. The top 3 of each bracket will proceed to the next round. Individual matches will be raced in a room hosted by the host.
Minecraft
Hosts: Uniju and Toadbert101
Date: TBD
Forum Topic
A set of (mini)games on a Minecraft map, including classics like Capture the Flag, Spleef and building contests, as well as fishing and racing competitions, and others.
Pokémon
There are two topics for this game. Based on the interest both attract, only one will be green-lit.
Host: Cirdec
Date: TBD
Forum Topic
There are two parts of this tournament, Single battles and Double battles. All Pokémon will be locked to level 50, and teams are locked as the tournament starts. The Swiss tournament system will be used. In order to allow for Mega Evolutions, this tournament will only feature Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
Hosts: Crocodile Dippy and Palkia47
Date: 1 July to 31 July
Forum Topic
All Pokémon will be locked to level 50, and teams are locked as the tournament starts. The Swiss tournament system will be used. This tournament features all Generation 6 games, and as such doesn't allow Mega Evolutions. Only Single battles are currently planned, though Doubles are possible with enough demand.
Splatoon
Host: The Pyro Guy
Date: TBD
Forum Topic
People will play bet-of-three Turf Wars in teams of two, and continue to the next round on win. At the end, the winning team will compete 1 to 1 to determine the winning player as well.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Host: Groden
Date: 1 July to early August
Forum Topic
Best-of-five matches are played in Swiss tournament style, one-on-one. Stages are limited to neutral stages, matches are played without items on a 8 minute clock.
Yu-Gi-Oh
Host: DragonFreak
Date: 24 June to 31 July
Forum Topic
Best-of-three matches in Round Robin tournament style. Everyone uses the same deck of cards throughout the tournament, with several types of cards disallowed to balance matters.
These are a lot of tournaments all right, but that only makes things more fun! You can win tokens with each tournament and you can get prizes with these after the main events have happened.
Now that we are talking prizes, you should know that these don't come out of Yoshi Eggs. If you are interested in donating such prizes, please contact Hypnotoad, Mr. Edo or Twentytwofiftyseven on the Boards. Recommended items include all sorts of gift cards and Steam items. We are grateful for any donations!
Keep in mind that certain items impose a region lock, but you can buy most items for another region. Past years have pointed out that there are mostly North America gift cards, so European cards are welcomed as well!
Well, I think that's all for today, thank you for reading, and have a nice day.
All information above was correct as of 21 June 2016.
