Super Mario 64 was released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64 and was the first Super Mario game with 3D graphics. Bowser kidnaps Princess Peach and scatters the castle's Power Stars across worlds hidden inside paintings, and the player collects them to reach Bowser. Director Shigeru Miyamoto conceived it during the production of Star Fox, and the team spent about a year on design and twenty months on production. Its 360-degree analog control and camera system became a new archetype for the genre, much as Super Mario Bros. had for side-scrollers. It is the best-selling Nintendo 64 game, with nearly twelve million copies sold by 2015.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.