At this point, your intuition no longer serves you.

March 9, 2018 4:47 PM

Much like with quantum physics, when looking at Super Mario Bros. at the very lowest levels, things stop resembling the phenomena we're familiar with and start to act pretty weird. No, I'm not talking about that Super Mario World-based demonstration of the idea behind the Many Worlds hypothesis. Instead, let's take a look at an in-depth yet highly accessible explanation of the weird, unintuitive stuff involved in a world-record speedrun of Super Mario Bros. [YouTube link. Warning: Half an hour long and interesting enough that you will probably wind up watching the whole thing.]
posted by DoctorFedora (18 comments total)

You're speaking all of my language.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:58 PM on March 9, 2018

It's like a plate of beans, only it's filled with mushrooms.
posted by Fizz at 5:15 PM on March 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

The amount of knowledge and precision that goes into these speedruns is weirdly inspiring. This reminds me of another, much weirder, look into beating a specific mario 64 level with only half of a button press. Think it was posted here a few years ago.
posted by Rinku at 5:41 PM on March 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

I like this in-depth take on one particular speedrun, but if you want to look at the history of this particular category, Summoning Salt has a really good video on it.
posted by TypographicalError at 5:43 PM on March 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

Yes, I did wind up watching the whole thing. People have some weird hobbies. And evidently I’m willing to watch them.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:00 PM on March 9, 2018 [3 favorites]

Two things about that video: pronouncing it “bros” and the exclusively-white dude who pursue this hobby.

The bit about running through walls is fascinating.
posted by migurski at 7:02 PM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

And to get even more ridiculously specific, here's the history of world record attempts on one specific level of Super Mario Bros, the one that contains the infamous 'wrong warp'.
posted by Merus at 7:21 PM on March 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

It occurs to me that, by sheer coincidence, I posted this on March 10, which Nintendo has declared "Mar10 Day"
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:19 PM on March 9, 2018 [6 favorites]

The amount of knowledge and precision that goes into these speedruns is weirdly inspiring. This reminds me of another, much weirder, look into beating a specific mario 64 level with only half of a button press. Think it was posted here a few years ago.

My god, it's so talmudic. Making a whole system -- nay, a whole universe -- out of errata and glitches.
posted by greatgefilte at 8:33 PM on March 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

This reminds me of another, much weirder, look into beating a specific mario 64 level with only half of a button press.

This person is absolutely crazy and an excellent teacher.
posted by a car full of lions at 8:52 PM on March 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

But can it spell all the names of God?
posted by j_curiouser at 8:55 PM on March 9, 2018

If it's Turing-complete, yes.
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:15 PM on March 9, 2018 [2 favorites]

this is just sheer athleticism
posted by pmv at 9:29 PM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of another, much weirder, look into beating a specific mario 64 level with only half of a button press.

This person is absolutely crazy and an excellent teacher.

He's a bit unhappy with the reception to the video, I believe. It's become something of a meme and while most of the use is affectionate (the video is ridiculous but absolutely serious, and it's hard not to appreciate the amount of thought put into it) tone can be difficult on the internet.

Less bandied about but perhaps more impressive - he's got 70 stars and game completion with a single A press (which incidentally is to jump onto the pole in Bowser in the Fire Sea). I should maybe make a follow-up post here about that.
posted by solarion at 9:52 PM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]

If it's Turing-complete, yes.

It is, by the way.
posted by flabdablet at 8:24 AM on March 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

This video is really good! I appreciate how lucid and accessible the breakdown is, because it's one thing to explain in speedrunning jargon what's going on in a run for an audience of speedrunners, and another entirely to communicate what is happening and why it's interesting and how it works to a more general audience.

A lot of speedrunning documentation and commentary tends to feel like fast technical sports play by play, or thick noir patter—there's nothing wrong with it, but it's built for an audience that is already all-in on the jargon and the context. So stuff like this that manages to get into detail in an accessible way without also getting overly glossy or condescending is I think really really valuable.

Also, when he explained about sixteen minutes in about why coin toss frames explain the two different demo runs during the title screen attract mode, I literally giggled with surprised joy.
posted by cortex at 9:07 AM on March 10, 2018 [2 favorites]

So, how is all this stuff *discovered* in the first place? How do you know about the judges on jumping into the star cube at the right pixel, etc., etc.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:14 AM on March 10, 2018

So, how is all this stuff *discovered* in the first place?

Two main things:

- Trial and error, as with the flag glitch or hit boxes - someone randomly does something that produces a weird result, and eventually replicates it reliably (or determines what’s causing it), and

- Looking at the system memory storage live as someone plays. Seeing how seemingly unrelated elements are tied together can lead to advanced knowledge of how a level might play out. (At the most basic level, this is how a Game Genie worked - find the bit of memory that went from 3 to 2 when you died, and force it to stay at 3, and you have infinite lives.)
posted by Molten Berle at 11:19 AM on March 10, 2018 [1 favorite]