Genocide of the Marios

February 3, 2008 7:44 PM

Remember Super Mario Frustration? Kaizo Mario World is another of those super-hard Mario level hacks, this one of Super Mario World. Someone played through its first level 134 times, with save states, recording all his deaths, then digitally composited them into one trip through the level. The result was Many-Worlds Mario. (For those interested, here's a video of a tool-assisted perfect run of much of the game. Here's the rest. Here's some more.)
posted by JHarris (36 comments total)

Hey, here's a blog post by the guy who made it, describing its construction.
posted by JHarris at 7:50 PM on February 3, 2008

Thanks. I love this stuff.

Here's a recent essay by Jason Scott on speed runs.
posted by danb at 7:50 PM on February 3, 2008

This reminds me of a novel I read back In the 90's--I've forgotten which one.

But the idea was there was someone who was able to take advantage of quantum eigenstates or something like that to pull off some impossible heist or break-in or something. Every time he made a decision he created a branching universe/timeline/whatahoozit or something. Eventually one of the many, many branches (mostly resulted in dead or incarcerated selves) accomplished the goal. Might have been written by someone named Egan but I'm to lazy to look it up and I'm sure the book is long-donated.

So yeah. It reminded me of something. Carry on.
posted by sourwookie at 8:01 PM on February 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Wow, it's like being able to see the various outcomes in the realities relatively close to us in the multiverse.


Although I feel sad for the guy in that one universe where he made it all the way through on the first try, posted a video of it, and no one believed him. :(
posted by parallax7d at 8:02 PM on February 3, 2008

http://fromearth.net/LetsPlay/Kaizo/

^ This is a fun little series featuring commentary and various failures and hilarity and so forth.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:08 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Mario on acid.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:08 PM on February 3, 2008

Now, why the heck did it not link? I could have sworn...

No matter.

Here.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:08 PM on February 3, 2008

Thanks! Phew, I almost copied and pasted.
posted by parallax7d at 8:22 PM on February 3, 2008

Oooh. Nondeterministic Mario World. Awesome.
posted by wanderingmind at 8:29 PM on February 3, 2008

Glad I could save you the seventeen hundredths of a calorie, parallax. I live only to serve.
posted by sonic meat machine at 8:35 PM on February 3, 2008

Yeah, I actually had already copied, and was just about to select the address bar when I was like "score!". 2 clicks saved is 2 clicks earned.
posted by parallax7d at 8:56 PM on February 3, 2008

Remember to file your click taxes early this year!
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:58 PM on February 3, 2008

In this one, Jon goes in blind to a Special Stage level.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=8995799804738175148&hl=en-CA

I believe I may have toxic mirth syndrome from too much laughing. My face hurts. Why is other peoples frustration so funny?
posted by Parannoyed at 9:20 PM on February 3, 2008 [12 favorites]

Oh Parannoyed, that was so funny and sad! Thanks for sharing.
posted by Danila at 9:40 PM on February 3, 2008

As somebody who followed the SomethingAwful Let's Play Kaizo World thread as it was happening, I heartily recommend watching the videos on the page that sonic meat machine linked to above.

If not all of them, at the very least the three-way blind race through Bowser's Castle with only a single save state per room.
posted by nmiell at 10:14 PM on February 3, 2008

That would make for an awesome superhero. Quantum Mario, spinning off a skillion expendable doppelgangers to achieve the impossible!

♪♫ Quantum Mario... ♫♪
♫♪ (CAN WE DO IT) ♪♫
♪♫ Quantum Mario... ♫♪
♫♪ (YES WE CAN) ♪♫




(0.0000000000000001% of the time.)

(You die horribly the rest of the time.)

(♪♫)
posted by Rhaomi at 10:30 PM on February 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

These videos of yet another Mario clone are even more hysterical.
posted by zardoz at 10:39 PM on February 3, 2008

Just found this: why not give it a try, too?
posted by zardoz at 10:41 PM on February 3, 2008

sourmonkey, it was a Greg Egan short story.
posted by thecjm at 11:15 PM on February 3, 2008

grrr. i mean sourwookie. It's time for bed.
posted by thecjm at 11:15 PM on February 3, 2008

Paranoyed, that was basically the best thing I have ever watched online.
posted by blacklite at 11:16 PM on February 3, 2008

sourwookie: You're probably thinking of Quarantine by Greg Egan. There's also a short story by Paul Melko called "Ten Sigmas" which follows a similar theme.
posted by teraflop at 11:48 PM on February 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

thanks zardoz, very cool.
posted by parallax7d at 12:01 AM on February 4, 2008

I was guilty of not reading the whole blurb before clicking the link. I said to myself, "well of course it's easy if you keep generating all these extra Marios."

That was hilarious, Parannoyed.
posted by grouse at 2:37 AM on February 4, 2008

Reminds me of a movie I just watched, King of Kong. It's a documentary about these guys who are insanely good at Donkey Kong. They'd play for hours only to have their "man" killed by the random path of a barrel. Same kind of persistence as this Mario stuff.
posted by wastelands at 6:43 AM on February 4, 2008

Great post! I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Thanks!
posted by mikeo2 at 7:53 AM on February 4, 2008

Thanks thecjm and teraflop. That was the story!
posted by sourwookie at 8:22 AM on February 4, 2008

More tough mario, w/ commentary
posted by craven_morhead at 8:41 AM on February 4, 2008

Shadow Nina Mario (SnM) wins again!

I love the part with the Bullet Barrage at the end.
posted by aftermarketradio at 9:25 AM on February 4, 2008

I just wasted far too much time watching Kaizo Mario videos. And I used to be proud about having beaten The Lost Levels.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:59 AM on February 4, 2008

It ends up looking remarkably like that DS game, Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. Except that it makes me flinch.
posted by ignignokt at 5:39 PM on February 4, 2008

I really enjoy those Let's Play threads, especially the ridiculously hard games. It's fascinating watching what people are willing to throw themselves at.
posted by graventy at 7:02 PM on February 4, 2008

If you're interested in people playing romhacks, extremely difficult ones in particular, then you're in luck: this is raocow.

Difficulty highlights: these two from VIP3 and these three videos from SMI2.
posted by flatluigi at 7:49 PM on February 4, 2008

Bizarrely, the newest game reviewed on jayisgames.com right now is a game called "A Sea Gull Company", which is basically a tough platformer in which this "past dead selves" replay element is 'essential' to (or more or less a part of) the gameplay. It's pretty neat!
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 7:56 PM on February 4, 2008

sourwookie said:

This reminds me of a novel I read back In the 90's--I've forgotten which one.

But the idea was there was someone who was able to take advantage of quantum eigenstates or something like that to pull off some impossible heist or break-in or something. Every time he made a decision he created a branching universe/timeline/whatahoozit or something. Eventually one of the many, many branches (mostly resulted in dead or incarcerated selves) accomplished the goal. Might have been written by someone named Egan but I'm to lazy to look it up and I'm sure the book is long-donated.

Interesting. Terry Tao (young genius and Fields medalist) wrote an article about this video games/quantum mechanics analogy. It's in his blog .
posted by pantufla_milagrosa at 11:56 AM on February 7, 2008

sourwookie: Also, the novel you're referring to is probably by Greg Egan. He has a homepage, and there's a short story in it with the same theme. I also remember reading the book or story you describe but can't recall the title. I personally enjoyed his book Permutation City very much. It also has a many-worlds theme, but it doesn't sound like the one you meant.
posted by pantufla_milagrosa at 12:02 PM on February 7, 2008