Here is a concise summary of the provided text:
**Title:** Uncovering "Texture Archeology": The Hidden Sources of Retro Video Game Graphics
**Summary:**
* In 2020, a group of internet sleuths discovered that many 1990s video games, including Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64, shared identical textures, such as a ubiquitous "cobblestone" pattern.
* Through "texture archeology," they uncovered the sources of these textures, including:
1. Japanese texture CDs used by Nintendo.
2. A software suite called Alias 3 (later acquired by Autodesk), which bundled the "cobblestone" texture.
* The community's findings have been documented on a wiki, revealing that many retro game textures originated from real-world photographs.
* The project has expanded to identify textures in other games and media, preserving gaming history and showcasing the intersection of reality and retro gaming graphics.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text, each with a number and in short sentence form, excluding opinions:
**General Facts**
1. The 1990s produced unique and over-the-top advertisements and imagery.
2. Texture archeology involves finding the source photographs of textures used in media.
**Specific Discoveries**
3. A metal cap texture in Super Mario 64 (1996) originates from a fisheye view of a garden.
4. The texture was discovered by ecumber05 on July 5th, 2020, in an old Silicon Graphics workstation file.
5. Fanimal found that many Super Mario 64 environmental textures come from real photographs on Japanese texture CDs.
**Cobblestone Texture**
6. A "cobblestone" texture is widely used in 90s games, including Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, and Banjo-Kazooie.
7. The search for the cobblestone texture's source began in July 2020 and lasted for months.
8. Fluvian of 64history.net found the source of the Cobblestone texture on February 11, 2021.
9. The Cobblestone texture comes from the software "Alias 3", developed by Alias Research Group in 1993.
10. Alias Research Group merged with Autodesk in 2006, explaining the texture's presence on Autodesk's website.
**Additional Texture Matches**
11. Textures from Alias 3 have been identified in other popular media, including Windows 95's maze screensaver.
12. Source photography for Half-Life textures was released by Karen Lore, a texture artist at Valve, in February 2021.
13. The SpongeBob palm tree texture is made from an actual fecal matter image.
14. Fruits in Super Smash Bros. and planets in the Super Mario Galaxy logo have been matched to their source photographs.
**Preservation Efforts**
15. Render 96 preserves gaming history by acquiring and archiving abandoned texture CDs and software on archive.org.
16. Render 96 maintains a wiki documenting their texture findings, created by fanamel.