A HUD (short for Heads-Up Display) is an overlay commonly used in videogames to give players real-time updates on various statistic in-game, such as their character's health status, inventory, or even location on a map. In Super Mario 64, the HUD is used to tell the player how many lives, Power Stars, coins (when in a level), Mario has, and what camera mode is being used.
Read more about HUDs here.
In SM64 hacks, creators often retexture aspects of the HUD to fit a specific aesthetic or style. A select few hacks have the HUD hidden by default and will only show it if Mario takes damage, or the game is paused (e.g. SM64: Last Impact, SM64: The Green Stars). In SM64: Beyond the Cursed Mirror, the player can choose to have the HUD completely invisible by toggling the appropriate option in the settings menu.
At the opposite end of the HUD spectrum is hacks that deliberately have an excessive HUD. This is nearly always done for humour and/or annoyance in meme hacks, and can be seen in hacks such as Project Fire-bubble.
Below is a collection of custom HUD elements used in SM64 ROM hacks, organised by which information it is conveying.
Health (AKA HP)[]
Stars[]
![Star Revenge 1: Star Takeover]]](/wiki/File:SR1StarTakeover-staricon.png "SR1StarTakeover-staricon.png (642 bytes)")
Coins[]
Lives[]
Other[]
