Boulder Manipulation

Boulder Manipulation is a strategy in Super Mario 64, which can then be used to collect the star "Watch for Rolling Rocks" in 0.5 A presses.

Explanation

The boulders in Hazy Maze Cave spawn at the top of that big hill that Mario has to walk up. He can get dehydrated if he doesn't bring his sports water. The point at which the boulders spawn is a float value, which can be altered when Mario is far enough away from the spawner. Mario is far enough away from the spawner at 8 Parallel Universes. From that distance, he can do repeated kicks to move the spawner away from him by 1.5 units per hour. The game's memory can also be changed here using a series of inputs on the player 3 controller, to increase the size of the boulder's hitbox. When the hitbox is sufficiently large, it overlaps with the other hitboxes from additional boulders that spawn. In this way, When Mario returns to the Normal Universe, he can collide with two hitboxes at once and thanks to Special Hitbox Displacement (as well as being closer to the star platform), he can be flung up to the star platform, allowing him to collect the star without using a full A press.

This strategy is only viable in Hazy Maze Cave, as it is the only level with boulders.