Memory Map

Paper Mario uses the Nintendo 64’s full 4 MB of RAM, mapped from 80000000 through 80400000. The addresses below are for the US 1.0 ROM. End addresses are exclusive, and small gaps between known regions are omitted. Star Rod requires the expansion pack because it uses the additional 4 MB from 80400000 to 80800000. The tables show the unaltered vanilla locations; Star Rod may relocate the heap regions denoted by *.

Broad Layout

Address Range	Contents
80025C00–801512B0	Engine code, data, and BSS.
80164000–80196C60	Two display contexts used to build graphics tasks.
80197000–801AA000	Effect buffers and battle-entity workspace.
801AA000–80200000 *	Audio heap.
80200000–802C3000	Mode-dependent code, assets, and temporary memory.
802C3000–802F4A60	Event script interpreter, sprite, entity, message, and font code and data.
802FB800–8034F800 *	General heap. It is preserved during an ordinary battle transition and rebuilt when a map is loaded.
8034F800–8038F800 *	Sprite heap.
8038F800–80400000	Three framebuffer-sized regions.
803DA800–80400000 *	Battle heap, overlapping the third framebuffer.
80400000–80800000	Expansion pack memory used for Star Rod patches and relocated heaps.

Mode-Dependent Memory

The region from 80200000 through 802C3000 is reused according to the current game mode. Rows from different contexts therefore overlap intentionally. An overlay may occupy less than the full range reserved for it.

Context	Address Range	Contents
World, battle, and menus	80200000–80210000	Background image or mode-specific scratch space.
World	80210000–80240000	Map shape and model data.
World	80240000–80268000	Map data overlay.
World	80268000–80280000 *	Collision heap.
World	80280000–8028E000	World script API library.
World	8028E000–802AE000	Map textures.
World	802B6000–802C3000	Smaller world overlays loaded as needed.
Battle	80210000–80218000	Stage shape data.
Battle	80218000–80238000	Battle-section overlay data.
Battle	80238000–8023E000	Partner battle scripts.
Battle	8023E000–8029DA30	Battle engine.
Battle	802A1000–802ACC60	Battle menu and other load-on-demand battle code.
Battle	802AE000–802B6000	Stage textures.
Pause and MainMenu	8023E000–80242BA0	Menu graphics shared by the pause and file-select menus.
Pause	80242BA0–802700C0	Pause menu.
MainMenu	80242BA0–8024C080	File-select menu.

Pointers into mode-dependent memory are only meaningful while the corresponding code or data is loaded. This is why a function or structure from one Star Rod context cannot be used from another, even when both have valid names in the database.