12 ms·

Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3 Minutes – World Record Speedrun Explained [video]

633 points by ubercow13 6y ago

nacs 6y ago
The video explanation is almost as impressive as the speed run itself. The speed run is literally doing low level assembly code manipulation to pull off this time apparently. Worth a watch even for people who aren't into gaming.
- zamadatix 6y ago
  The 0 exit speedrun for Super Mario World uses pretty much the exact same method (koopas and all) as well https://www.speedrun.com/smw/run/y65xp50z https://www.speedrun.com/smw/run/y65xp50z SMB3 also has an interesting tool assisted speedrun (non-human doing the inputs) where fast inputs on the second controller cause an overflow on the input buffer allowing for the game to be beaten basically instantly from the start screen. If you like this because of the interesting stuff done to abuse the game The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time has pretty much been a history of "and then a quicker way to corrupt the game was found". It's not always about going fast either, challenge runs also get a lot of very interesting results from a lot of dedication. Super Mario 64's A Button Challenge (try to beat the game with as few A presses as possible) has tons of outrageously complex tricks with amazing explanation videos. One in particular caught people's attention to the point it became a meme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A though it's not actually the most technically impressive to come out of that endeavor.
  - dane-pgp 6y ago
    An A press is an A press. You can't say it's only a half.
    - userbinator 6y ago
      I immediately understood what a half-press meant, because when something/someone tells you to "press x", it usually means "press and release"; and omitting half of that is exactly what I expected "half a press" would be.
    - hombre_fatal 6y ago
      Sure you can, when you define ahead of time that "press" means a full down/up cycle. When you say the down part of the cycle is a "press", you're being just as arbitrary.
      - zamadatix 6y ago
        That was a direct quote from 1:08 in the video pointing out how people comment and debate on what an A press is or isn't based on the title of things instead of listening to the explanation... not an actual thought by the commenter. Watch the first 2 minutes, you'll get a chuckle :).
        Hamuko 6y ago
        Yeah, it's a particularly famous video and it's become fodder for all sorts of jokes. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APo7805Yzhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APo7805Yzhk
      - Firehawke 6y ago
        That's known as positive and negative edge in the fighting game community. Some fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter) actually check inputs at both the positive and negative edges of button presses, so you can actually hold punch while doing the quarter circle forward and let go as you hit forward. A lot of advanced combos and tricks use negative edge.
        userbinator 6y ago
        The exact same phrases are also used in digital electronics.
    - nicetryguy 6y ago
      Well, TJ "Henry" Yoshi, hear me out. An A press actually has 3 parts to it: When A is pressed, when A is held, and when A is released. Together, this forms one complete A press.
      - SQueeeeeL 6y ago
        The fact that TJ "Henry" Yoshi has gone on to be a pretty solid member of the M64 speed running community regularly posting runs who just owns being a meme is such a positive thing
        nicetryguy 6y ago
        That's pretty awesome. Good community. I don't follow speedrunning much anymore; i was heavily involved several years ago (i'm in a Salt vod). Shoutouts to SimpleFlips
    - mumblemumble 6y ago
      tl;dw version of the video's explanation: A full A press involves both pressing and releasing the button. If you press the button during one level, hold it down, and then release it during another, then only half of the button press can be counted against each level. Otherwise you'd be double counting it.
  - xmprt 6y ago
    I'm really glad that video became a meme (probably because of the completely unnecessary argument about what a half-A press is) because it got me interested in how a lot of these old games work. The engineering that went into optimizing them is incredible and it's a shame that newer games typically don't bother as much.
    - wiz21c 6y ago
      For optimizations, the compilers do much work for you now. So it's not like it's not done anymore, it's done in another way. I myself stopped handcrafting assembler when I noticed that GCC beaten me 9 times out of 10 :-)
      - semi 6y ago
        But notably not in SM64, where they disabled compiler optimization for some reson. Vintage Gamer has a good video about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlbE2eROC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlbE2eROC0
- gregsadetsky 6y ago
  Agreed, I was first perplexed at what was going on, starting to not see where it was going at all with the low-level explanations, and then when the enemy positions turned out to be assembly instructions... mind blown. It also reminded me of this video which shows Flappy Bird being code injected into Super Mario World, by hand... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0
default-kramer 6y ago
Great video. The realization that "beating Super Mario Bros. 3" is much less well-defined than I thought is very interesting. Not just technically, but like there's some philosophical metaphor that I can't quite describe...
- devindotcom 6y ago
  Yeah, that's why the community has specific categories for different runs. I appreciate glitched runs because of the acumen needed to accomplish them but it's 100% runs that truly impress me most as a gamer. The speedrun world is almost like a scholarly domain, with all the usual bickering about terminology, whether this qualifies as that, and so on. I would be interested to read an ethnology of the community.
  - striking 6y ago
    > The speedrun world is almost like a scholarly domain, with all the usual bickering about terminology Right. Like the most recent 100% runs of Ocarina of Time[1], which use glitches to obtain items early and break the sequence of the game, while still obtaining every item from its source eventually making them still legitimate 100% runs. You'd think "100%" and "glitchless" were synonymous, but they're not anymore! 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nc4lhj3Uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nc4lhj3Uk
    - thomasfortes 6y ago
      Terraria speedruns have a NMA category (no major abuses) that have a set of rules defined by the community, if more games start to make 100% possible with glitches I can imagine these games adopting something similar.
    - fernandotakai 6y ago
      >You'd think "100%" and "glitchless" were synonymous, but they're not anymore! they never wore! it all depends on the community definition. you can have 100% glitchless and 100% with glitches. or you can have both have the same category. it all depends on what the runners define.
devindotcom 6y ago
This was interesting. I used to whine about doing this kind of glitched run, but it's just a different category of speedrun. Amazing to have that level of precision, though of course he must have done this hundreds, maybe thousands of times to get it right. If you like this kind of explanation be sure to watch the "0.5 A presses" Mario 64 speedrun video, which is equally interesting as far as getting into the hidden guts of the game: https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A
booleanbetrayal 6y ago
This is the most fascinating technical post I've seen in HN in quite some time. I'm in awe of how people can optimize around particular goals when given enough time.
- bob33212 6y ago
  I have seen similar achievements with some really shitty enterprise software. Where I would normally pull data out of the system and use modern tools to perform analytics, other people who have used the software for years will write 500 line long SQL statements to get the same answer
paul7986 6y ago
Ive always wished someone made a Super Mario Bros. race your friend to the end split-screen (top & bottom) game. In between each player can hit certain blocks to create obstacles for their opponent. I think it would be a lot of fun! Maybe some MOD maker can make that!
- zamadatix 6y ago
  I'm 95% sure this is sarcastically referencing https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/super-mario-bros-35-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/super-mario-bros-35-sw... but in case it isn't or someone reading isn't aware.
  - Firehawke 6y ago
    For that matter, it existed in Super Mario Bros. DX for Game Boy Color as well.
  - paul7986 6y ago
    Oh wow what I wished for decades ago is coming out soon for a home console. Had no idea but thank you!! Weird it's only the original Super Mario Bros. game and only available from October to March. Didn't know it was already created on the DX...never owned one before. *upon a search a Modder created this a year ago called Mario Royale (better name then 35) https://www.ibtimes.com/super-mario-bros-35-has-elements-2019-fan-made-battle-royale-starring-mario-3042363 https://www.ibtimes.com/super-mario-bros-35-has-elements-201... . They shut him down and created their own .. surprised no one at Nintendo thought of this nor ask the modder for help. Lame, Nintendo lame!
kakkun 6y ago
And here's this glitch taken to the max using a TAS (in which a program is used to enter frame-perfect controller inputs). Apparently, a second controller is used to enter arbitrary code into RAM. http://tasvideos.org/4961S.html http://tasvideos.org/4961S.html I don't really understand it, but it really blows my mind what some people think of.
- emerged 6y ago
  The progression isn't particularly mind blowing, though. Once somebody notices a buffer overflow / register pollution of some sort, you note which area of memory it's executing and then reverse engineer how to modify that memory to execute particular instructions. I would expect a community like HN would consider this par for the course. That said, what's impressive to me is the amount of time and energy individuals are willing to expend on this sort of thing. Speed runs in general, the sheer time investment and dedication. There's a sand mandala aspect to it all.
  - kakkun 6y ago
    Yeah, it turns out the link I posted is from one of the people behind the discovery/application of the glitch, so it really seems to be the logical next step if you know what you're doing. And agreed on speedrunners! It's not something I could ever do myself, but it's one of my favorite aspects of gaming.
  - csours 6y ago
    I don't know if you've watched The Dawn Wall; it reminds me of speedrun grinding IRL.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    I wonder how many of these people eventually go on to become developers and/or enter the (anti-?)security community, because finding and exploiting bugs in non-games also requires the same sets of skills.
crazygringo 6y ago
That's absolutely insane. Manipulating the state of the game world so that its data maps to instructions to complete the game, and then glitching in a way that executes it. The only thing I'm not clear on: even knowing exactly what you're doing... how likely is it that you could pull this off in real-time? Did the player have to do this 10 times? 100? 1,000?
- kibwen 6y ago
  I don't know about the run shown in the OP, but there are a fair number of memory-manipulation/ACE speedruns that are feasible in RTA ("real-time attack", a.k.a. something a human could pull off, as distinct from TAS). Off the top of my head I can think of such routes for Pokemon Red/Blue, Ocarina of Time, and Super Mario World. To answer your question of "how likely is one to pull this off" for those three, the Pokemon one requires no almost advanced execution, other than turning off the console at a precise point to corrupt the save data you otherwise just need to follow a simple (though long) series of steps. The Mario one requires some pixel-perfect precision, and runners often used hacked ROMs that display coordinates in order to train. The Zelda one requires exact angles to be held on the analog stick, and I've heard of people creating guides out of cardboard and rubber bands in order to help them achieve the angles more reliably. Sorry that I don't have any video links on hand, but you could almost certainly find examples of these in the GDQ archives. EDIT: Found a good video for the SMW example, by SethBling, which actually goes a step further and manually reprograms SMW into Flappy Bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 EDIT 2: Here's an excellent explanation of the Zelda ACE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRJWDKb5Bo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRJWDKb5Bo
  - Hamuko 6y ago
    GTA Vice City and San Andreas Any% are also memory manipulation. World record for Vice City is 8.5 minutes and 15 minutes for San Andreas. I think both are very precise but very much doable by speedrunners, although not consistently.
  - lillesvin 6y ago
    One of the Castlevania games (maybe Symphony of Darkness?) achieves ACE by inventory manipulation. Mega Man 1 has an ACE category as well which is really interesting. I think Nudua explained it somewhere. (On my phone, but a quick googling should help you.)
leshokunin 6y ago
Excellent video. I'm impressed the author went to recreate the run frame by frame, and then used those findings to analyze what was happening. Never expected this video to turn into a full on reverse engineering explanation. As a side note, this kind of speed run has become more popular in the recent years for a combination of reasons: - First, it's difficult to improve on the regular world records since they're so optimized (just have a look at Quake Done Quick and its sequels). - Second, the emulators available to the speed running community have evolved. They now include better ways to track what's happening in memory. - Third, the games themselves are understood better (as recently exemplified by the Super Mario 64 full reverse engineering). So it's creating a whole new genre of runs that simply isn't about execution anymore. If you're interested in the topic, you might like the Super Mario World speed run that uses a similar technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gECESOoU8Es https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gECESOoU8Es), or the recent work on removing randomness from Wind Waker runs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hs451PfFzQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hs451PfFzQ).
- ehsankia 6y ago
  I'd argue that many frame perfect moves used to setting up the memory is very much execution. Maybe a different kind of execution, but still very much skill based.
  - hosh 6y ago
    In this video, the speedrunner made a mistake and had to compensate on the fly to get the enemy into the exact position when he hit the pipe. I think that is more impressive than a perfect run.
    - hbogert 6y ago
      Yes, mind was blown when he explained this. The executioner had the intrinsic knowledge of the inner workings to cope with this. Just wow.
- Bnshsysjab 6y ago
  Also be sure to check out the super Mario world flappy bird code injection: https://youtu.be/hB6eY73sLV0 https://youtu.be/hB6eY73sLV0
vga805 6y ago
I love the speedrunning and ROM hacking communities. Speedrunning has become my sports entertainment. And I finally learned Assembly by messing around hacking Super Mario World. All I can say is that I wish I combined my passions for programming and gaming much earlier in life. If you like this kind of video, I highly recommend Summoning Salt's World Record Progression videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w They don't always dig deep as the original video post, but the discovery of glitches comes up often and the videos are incredibly well done.
xiaodai 6y ago
one of the best nerd food of all time. reminds of this keynote on how to get the best pokemon and cheat in pokemon blue! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsEsZbXE-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsEsZbXE-4
racl101 6y ago
This guy makes such good videos. I mean, I marginally gave a shit about a lot of these games now that I'm old (even though I owned all of them as a kid), much less about speed runs, but after watching his videos by chance, I suddenly care again ... and maybe even a lot more for the endeavour of speed runs. And that's the hallmark of a good documentary.
- drewboo 6y ago
  I've always found the any% categories of speed running to be the most interesting, since it often works by manipulating the code of a game to work in really inventive ways. if you like videos like this, pannenkeok2012 does super in depth analysis of everything Super Mario 64 https://www.youtube.com/user/pannenkeok2012 https://www.youtube.com/user/pannenkeok2012
  - racl101 6y ago
    Will check that out! Thanks!
wodenokoto 6y ago
Here is Mitch Flower Power performing the glitch on live TV in 2016 with Stephen Colbert: https://youtu.be/jvLwpnn1F4Y https://youtu.be/jvLwpnn1F4Y I believe Mitch was the first person to do this trick in RTA.
- ehsankia 6y ago
  What the hell, he just pulled that off with all the distraction and people yelling, with all the stress, on a single try? How is that even possible, don't speedrunners do thousands of runs to get a win like this? Was it a real run? And Colbert was speaking and distracting him during some of the most important part of the run and cut off before even really showing his win. What a shame.
  - Gaelan 6y ago
    In many cases, there are "marathon safe" methods that are slower but much easier to get on first try and/or recover from on failure. (The "marathon" refers to live speedrunning marathon events like Games Done Quick.) Presumably, he used this.
  - wodenokoto 6y ago
    He also did it at GDQ. Which really speaks to how good Mitch is. But once you are at this level, it is the other details that requires grinding: The thing that sets the run from TFA apart from this run is the hammer bro manipulation that easily fails AND the luck of having good hammer bro movement (6% chance) after the manipulation is done. Getting those two things on top of good execution is what requires thousands of tries for these top players.
- vga805 6y ago
  In addition to how good Mitch is, he's also one of the nicest people around. I recommend his twitch if you wanna watch him speedrun, these days he's grinding SMB 3 10% with a crazy hammer bros. manipulation.
thornjm 6y ago
Related CTF challenge you can undertake yourself: https://gitlab.com/cybears/fall-of-cybeartron/-/tree/master/challenges/pwn/block_dude https://gitlab.com/cybears/fall-of-cybeartron/-/tree/master/... Write-up of solution: https://greenbender.github.io/ctf-writeup/post-cybearsctf-2019-writeup-blockdude/ https://greenbender.github.io/ctf-writeup/post-cybearsctf-20...
- bottled_poe 6y ago
  Thanks for this, looks interesting
Sniffnoy 6y ago
It really bugs me that people refer to this glitch as a wrongwarp even though it's ACE, not a wrongwarp...
gfaure 6y ago
EDIT: I mixed up two retro gaming YouTubers. The below refers to Bisqwit, not Bismuth. His personal views aside, I hope you find Bisqwit's other videos interesting. I really respect this guy as an engineer and a retro gaming enthusiast, but he has some videos explaining his personal irrational Islamophobia that really make me wonder about him as a person -- here's one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxSAi4sueQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxSAi4sueQ
- ddlsmurf 6y ago
  Relevance ?
- esaym 6y ago
  Say what? Watched the video and it did not even mention Islam?
  - ddlsmurf 6y ago
    It's a great video, that must have taken hundreds of hours just to animate, not to mention the research. That the author has opinions I don't agree with or are unpopular is another matter. I can have more than one thought because I'm not 4 anymore. This reflex to stigmatise and virtue signal annoys the freak out of me. Just enjoy the video.
  - moozilla 6y ago
    He's probably referring to this comment Bisqwit posted in the comments on that video: > I believe there is an incredible number of counterfeit doctrines and antichrists (Greek word that literally means counterfeit messiah), some more obvious and some more subtle. Islam being one of the most obvious ones. (It's a reference to Islam at least. Not sure how calling it a false doctrine is Islamophobic; seems like a pretty standard Christian take.)
- sparky_z 6y ago
  You appear to be mistaken. The video we're discussing is by someone called "Bismuth", but you've linked to a completely different person called "Bisqwit".
jaysonqpt 6y ago
One interesting aspect of modern technology is that there are huge inefficiencies everywhere. It is also an opportunity since anyone can jump in and create/improve something a lot better. This video is an interesting demonstration of 2 things - human ingenuity and the scope of improvement even when it is not obvious!
CyberRabbi 6y ago
Ropping to victory would have been impossible if Nintendo didn’t constantly cut corners and implemented stack canaries like they should have.
- kohtatsu 6y ago
  This comment is indistinguishable from sarcasm.
sgrove 6y ago
For those of you who (like me) are curious to see what it’s like to have your product broken in ways unforeseen but people unimaginably motivated, check out the IGN speed run series - I love hearing every time the team watching a world-record speed run for the first time says, “whoa, how did that happen? Tim, didn’t you handle that kind of physics bug?!” It’s absolutely gold: https://youtu.be/2sGN3peODwY https://youtu.be/2sGN3peODwY It’s fantasy, but I’d love to see a “miyamoto-and-team watch five classic games be hyper-optimized speed-run“, although the distance may be too great. Part of what makes the ign series enjoyable is that the programmers have intimate knowledge of two worlds: the code, and the gameplay
sam_lynx 6y ago
Watched that guy heavily a few months ago. He makes great explanations, really breaks things down so laymen can understand it.
- toastal 6y ago
  Summoning Salt & Bismuth do great videos about speed running
lnyan 6y ago
That's quite interesting. The visualization and explanation are awesome. Besides, I have learned stack exploits, but I had never expected they could also be used in an NES game.
fortyseven 6y ago
UPDATE: They do! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Mario_speedrunning_records#Super_Mario_Bros._3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Mario_speedrunni... (see also, replies) ---- I'm not saying this kind of thing isn't impressive -- because, duh, it's amazing! I just don't think it should count as a record. Or at least it should have it's own category. For me it just crosses a line between exploiting a side effect or minor bug, and... well, this. If I could somehow glitch physics at the quantum level in real life, to instantly warp me to the finish line of a race, is it fair? Is it in the _spirit_ of the race? It'd be incredible, sure, and on paper, yes, you went from point A to B faster than a cheetah. But it's no longer a race concerning the physical fitness of the contestants. It's about systemic exploitation. I guess this question bleeds into the idea of physical augmentation and enhancement, and quickly into some Deus Ex stuff, if you push it enough. Love the hack, just pondering the ethics of it being a record.
- chki 6y ago
  I'm not a speedrunning expert but I think that there are usually subcategories for "glitchless" runs, where you can only use the intended game mechanics. So your suggestion has already been approved by the speedrunning community.
  - fortyseven 6y ago
    They work fast, eh? (Speed... run.. er, never mind. ;D)
- berbec 6y ago
  It is it's own category. https://www.speedrun.com/smb3 https://www.speedrun.com/smb3 has the following: 100%: "Beat the game, entering and completing every stage and Hammer Bros. fight" Any %, warpless: "Beat the game as quickly as possible without using any wrong warps or warp whistles. Warp whistles may be collected but not used." Any %, no wrong warp: "Beat the game as quickly as possible without using any wrong warps." Any %: “Time starts on pressing Start on the title screen. Time ends when Mario is visible in the princess' chamber. If the game crashes, the run is invalid." The run shows is an Any% run.
Regenschirm 6y ago
Whenever i see stuff like this (youtube recommends speedruns + indepth speedruns videos on and off over the last few years), i imagine something like game of life where a ton of pixels are getting smaller and more refined. The thought behind it is, that we as brains churn through everything and as we are that many and we are connected so well, we just churn through games which have been released 32 years ago by doing everything you can do with it. Just a few days ago i saw a video where they used debug code to manipulate the game state and one of those things was a sprite fix, as there is a bug in super mario bros. 2 where the last frame was skipped and the memory fix fixes that. The same happens with more complex 3d games as well, like thx to nvidia tools frame analysis of games exist on yt. Nice to see all the render pathes explained step by step.
ducktective 6y ago
ahhmm clears throat This wouldn't have happened if they used Rust ;)
- ddingus 6y ago
  Seems like a challenge as some would say the game would not have happened, on an NES, in Rust. :D
- chrismorgan 6y ago
  The reason you get these sorts of bugs is not because of the languages used, but because of the tight constraints, most notably the limited amounts of ROM and RAM available. You simply couldn’t code such a thing in safe Rust. If you wanted to make cartridges like this with Rust, there would be a lot of unsafe code, and you’d get just the same bugs. Put another way: if you said, “you wouldn’t get this if you wrote it in Java”—well, sure, but that’s because you wouldn’t get anything, because the JVM wouldn’t fit and couldn’t run on the target platform.
  - ducktective 6y ago
    yeah I was joking :D...Designers had to use assembly...
    - chrismorgan 6y ago
      One of life’s pleasures is taking jokes seriously.
- kibwen 6y ago
  If there's one thing that makes me regret pushing Rust, it's this. :P Although fortunately, physics engines in any language will always have exploitable, memory-safe bugs that make for great speedruns.
thret 6y ago
I was thinking someone should write a story on the premise that we are living in a simulation, where 'glitches in the matrix' like déjà vu, coincidences, freak accidents, etc., are due to accidental arrangements of people corrupting the program... but then I realised someone already had. In El ángel exterminador (1962) a group of people are trapped in a single room (level) due to their accidental seating arrangement. They are freed when they unlock the same sequence. In Groundhog Day a similar thing happens where the protagonist is trapped replaying the same level, until he figures out the correct sequence of actions to pass it. I am sure there are others.
- unimportant2117 6y ago
  If you want a story that handles this scenario pretty much exactly, you might want to check out “Unsong” [0] by the excellent Scott Alexander. That world is basically a biblically-inspired computer simulation which gets corrupted when Apollo 8 crashes into the celestial sphere. Also boiling a goat in its mother’s milk causes a segfault for some reason the developer can’t quite explain. [0] http://unsongbook.com/chapter-1-dark-satanic-mills/ http://unsongbook.com/chapter-1-dark-satanic-mills/
  - schoen 6y ago
    You might want to link to the prologue rather than chapter 1: https://unsongbook.com/prologue-2/ https://unsongbook.com/prologue-2/
  - thret 6y ago
    The payoff is real: “So the whole universe runs on this system of sapphires connected by paths?” “MOST OF IT RUNS ON SAPPHIRES ON PATHS, BUT I USE RUBY ON RAILS FOR THE DATABASES.” I quite enjoyed this story, thank you for sharing it.
- ani-ani 6y ago
  I saw El ángel exterminador and it was great, but I don't think it hints at any simulation. The phenomenon does not really need any literal explanation, but if I had to provide one, I would rather suggest a mystical occurrence or entity such as the "angel" hinted by the title, somehow triggered by the characters, and the seating solution may be a way of telling the humans to stay in their place.
womitt 6y ago
Bunnyhop was my favourite glitch. The phoon too much for zblock bunnyhop fragmovie video [0] still makes me laugh even like 10 years later [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvDUO42Hys&t=370s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvDUO42Hys&t=370s
red_admiral 6y ago
Gives the term _shellcode_ a whole new meaning!
- fortyseven 6y ago
  I snorted. ;)
runnr_az 6y ago
Really interesting... love it when talented people apply their considerable skills to something ridiculous.
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
  It's one definition of hacking.
syspec 6y ago
Inked in this YouTube video description, is another channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroGameMechanicsExplained https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroGameMechanicsExplained Just spent an hour watching, great stuff on both channels
carolipirjapa 6y ago
Here's a video of moving arbitrary code from Pokemon Red to SML2 on original GameBoy. https://youtu.be/SL_Zuc0tlvo https://youtu.be/SL_Zuc0tlvo

633 points by ubercow13 6y ago

nacs 6y ago

The video explanation is almost as impressive as the speed run itself. The speed run is literally doing low level assembly code manipulation to pull off this time apparently. Worth a watch even for people who aren't into gaming.

zamadatix 6y ago
The 0 exit speedrun for Super Mario World uses pretty much the exact same method (koopas and all) as well https://www.speedrun.com/smw/run/y65xp50z https://www.speedrun.com/smw/run/y65xp50z SMB3 also has an interesting tool assisted speedrun (non-human doing the inputs) where fast inputs on the second controller cause an overflow on the input buffer allowing for the game to be beaten basically instantly from the start screen. If you like this because of the interesting stuff done to abuse the game The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time has pretty much been a history of "and then a quicker way to corrupt the game was found". It's not always about going fast either, challenge runs also get a lot of very interesting results from a lot of dedication. Super Mario 64's A Button Challenge (try to beat the game with as few A presses as possible) has tons of outrageously complex tricks with amazing explanation videos. One in particular caught people's attention to the point it became a meme https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A though it's not actually the most technically impressive to come out of that endeavor.
- dane-pgp 6y ago
  An A press is an A press. You can't say it's only a half.
  - userbinator 6y ago
    I immediately understood what a half-press meant, because when something/someone tells you to "press x", it usually means "press and release"; and omitting half of that is exactly what I expected "half a press" would be.
  - hombre_fatal 6y ago
    Sure you can, when you define ahead of time that "press" means a full down/up cycle. When you say the down part of the cycle is a "press", you're being just as arbitrary.
    - zamadatix 6y ago
      That was a direct quote from 1:08 in the video pointing out how people comment and debate on what an A press is or isn't based on the title of things instead of listening to the explanation... not an actual thought by the commenter. Watch the first 2 minutes, you'll get a chuckle :).
      - Hamuko 6y ago
        Yeah, it's a particularly famous video and it's become fodder for all sorts of jokes. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APo7805Yzhk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APo7805Yzhk
    - Firehawke 6y ago
      That's known as positive and negative edge in the fighting game community. Some fighting games (e.g. Street Fighter) actually check inputs at both the positive and negative edges of button presses, so you can actually hold punch while doing the quarter circle forward and let go as you hit forward. A lot of advanced combos and tricks use negative edge.
      - userbinator 6y ago
        The exact same phrases are also used in digital electronics.
  - nicetryguy 6y ago
    Well, TJ "Henry" Yoshi, hear me out. An A press actually has 3 parts to it: When A is pressed, when A is held, and when A is released. Together, this forms one complete A press.
    - SQueeeeeL 6y ago
      The fact that TJ "Henry" Yoshi has gone on to be a pretty solid member of the M64 speed running community regularly posting runs who just owns being a meme is such a positive thing
      - nicetryguy 6y ago
        That's pretty awesome. Good community. I don't follow speedrunning much anymore; i was heavily involved several years ago (i'm in a Salt vod). Shoutouts to SimpleFlips
  - mumblemumble 6y ago
    tl;dw version of the video's explanation: A full A press involves both pressing and releasing the button. If you press the button during one level, hold it down, and then release it during another, then only half of the button press can be counted against each level. Otherwise you'd be double counting it.
- xmprt 6y ago
  I'm really glad that video became a meme (probably because of the completely unnecessary argument about what a half-A press is) because it got me interested in how a lot of these old games work. The engineering that went into optimizing them is incredible and it's a shame that newer games typically don't bother as much.
  - wiz21c 6y ago
    For optimizations, the compilers do much work for you now. So it's not like it's not done anymore, it's done in another way. I myself stopped handcrafting assembler when I noticed that GCC beaten me 9 times out of 10 :-)
    - semi 6y ago
      But notably not in SM64, where they disabled compiler optimization for some reson. Vintage Gamer has a good video about this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlbE2eROC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKlbE2eROC0
gregsadetsky 6y ago
Agreed, I was first perplexed at what was going on, starting to not see where it was going at all with the low-level explanations, and then when the enemy positions turned out to be assembly instructions... mind blown. It also reminded me of this video which shows Flappy Bird being code injected into Super Mario World, by hand... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0

default-kramer 6y ago

Great video. The realization that "beating Super Mario Bros. 3" is much less well-defined than I thought is very interesting. Not just technically, but like there's some philosophical metaphor that I can't quite describe...

devindotcom 6y ago
Yeah, that's why the community has specific categories for different runs. I appreciate glitched runs because of the acumen needed to accomplish them but it's 100% runs that truly impress me most as a gamer. The speedrun world is almost like a scholarly domain, with all the usual bickering about terminology, whether this qualifies as that, and so on. I would be interested to read an ethnology of the community.
- striking 6y ago
  > The speedrun world is almost like a scholarly domain, with all the usual bickering about terminology Right. Like the most recent 100% runs of Ocarina of Time[1], which use glitches to obtain items early and break the sequence of the game, while still obtaining every item from its source eventually making them still legitimate 100% runs. You'd think "100%" and "glitchless" were synonymous, but they're not anymore! 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nc4lhj3Uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4nc4lhj3Uk
  - thomasfortes 6y ago
    Terraria speedruns have a NMA category (no major abuses) that have a set of rules defined by the community, if more games start to make 100% possible with glitches I can imagine these games adopting something similar.
  - fernandotakai 6y ago
    >You'd think "100%" and "glitchless" were synonymous, but they're not anymore! they never wore! it all depends on the community definition. you can have 100% glitchless and 100% with glitches. or you can have both have the same category. it all depends on what the runners define.

devindotcom 6y ago

This was interesting. I used to whine about doing this kind of glitched run, but it's just a different category of speedrun. Amazing to have that level of precision, though of course he must have done this hundreds, maybe thousands of times to get it right. If you like this kind of explanation be sure to watch the "0.5 A presses" Mario 64 speedrun video, which is equally interesting as far as getting into the hidden guts of the game: https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A

booleanbetrayal 6y ago

This is the most fascinating technical post I've seen in HN in quite some time. I'm in awe of how people can optimize around particular goals when given enough time.

bob33212 6y ago
I have seen similar achievements with some really shitty enterprise software. Where I would normally pull data out of the system and use modern tools to perform analytics, other people who have used the software for years will write 500 line long SQL statements to get the same answer

paul7986 6y ago

Ive always wished someone made a Super Mario Bros. race your friend to the end split-screen (top & bottom) game. In between each player can hit certain blocks to create obstacles for their opponent. I think it would be a lot of fun! Maybe some MOD maker can make that!

zamadatix 6y ago
I'm 95% sure this is sarcastically referencing https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/super-mario-bros-35-switch/ https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/super-mario-bros-35-sw... but in case it isn't or someone reading isn't aware.
- Firehawke 6y ago
  For that matter, it existed in Super Mario Bros. DX for Game Boy Color as well.
- paul7986 6y ago
  Oh wow what I wished for decades ago is coming out soon for a home console. Had no idea but thank you!! Weird it's only the original Super Mario Bros. game and only available from October to March. Didn't know it was already created on the DX...never owned one before. *upon a search a Modder created this a year ago called Mario Royale (better name then 35) https://www.ibtimes.com/super-mario-bros-35-has-elements-2019-fan-made-battle-royale-starring-mario-3042363 https://www.ibtimes.com/super-mario-bros-35-has-elements-201... . They shut him down and created their own .. surprised no one at Nintendo thought of this nor ask the modder for help. Lame, Nintendo lame!

kakkun 6y ago

And here's this glitch taken to the max using a TAS (in which a program is used to enter frame-perfect controller inputs). Apparently, a second controller is used to enter arbitrary code into RAM. http://tasvideos.org/4961S.html http://tasvideos.org/4961S.html I don't really understand it, but it really blows my mind what some people think of.

emerged 6y ago
The progression isn't particularly mind blowing, though. Once somebody notices a buffer overflow / register pollution of some sort, you note which area of memory it's executing and then reverse engineer how to modify that memory to execute particular instructions. I would expect a community like HN would consider this par for the course. That said, what's impressive to me is the amount of time and energy individuals are willing to expend on this sort of thing. Speed runs in general, the sheer time investment and dedication. There's a sand mandala aspect to it all.
- kakkun 6y ago
  Yeah, it turns out the link I posted is from one of the people behind the discovery/application of the glitch, so it really seems to be the logical next step if you know what you're doing. And agreed on speedrunners! It's not something I could ever do myself, but it's one of my favorite aspects of gaming.
- csours 6y ago
  I don't know if you've watched The Dawn Wall; it reminds me of speedrun grinding IRL.
- userbinator 6y ago
  I wonder how many of these people eventually go on to become developers and/or enter the (anti-?)security community, because finding and exploiting bugs in non-games also requires the same sets of skills.

crazygringo 6y ago

That's absolutely insane. Manipulating the state of the game world so that its data maps to instructions to complete the game, and then glitching in a way that executes it. The only thing I'm not clear on: even knowing exactly what you're doing... how likely is it that you could pull this off in real-time? Did the player have to do this 10 times? 100? 1,000?

kibwen 6y ago
I don't know about the run shown in the OP, but there are a fair number of memory-manipulation/ACE speedruns that are feasible in RTA ("real-time attack", a.k.a. something a human could pull off, as distinct from TAS). Off the top of my head I can think of such routes for Pokemon Red/Blue, Ocarina of Time, and Super Mario World. To answer your question of "how likely is one to pull this off" for those three, the Pokemon one requires no almost advanced execution, other than turning off the console at a precise point to corrupt the save data you otherwise just need to follow a simple (though long) series of steps. The Mario one requires some pixel-perfect precision, and runners often used hacked ROMs that display coordinates in order to train. The Zelda one requires exact angles to be held on the analog stick, and I've heard of people creating guides out of cardboard and rubber bands in order to help them achieve the angles more reliably. Sorry that I don't have any video links on hand, but you could almost certainly find examples of these in the GDQ archives. EDIT: Found a good video for the SMW example, by SethBling, which actually goes a step further and manually reprograms SMW into Flappy Bird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6eY73sLV0 EDIT 2: Here's an excellent explanation of the Zelda ACE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRJWDKb5Bo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdRJWDKb5Bo
- Hamuko 6y ago
  GTA Vice City and San Andreas Any% are also memory manipulation. World record for Vice City is 8.5 minutes and 15 minutes for San Andreas. I think both are very precise but very much doable by speedrunners, although not consistently.
- lillesvin 6y ago
  One of the Castlevania games (maybe Symphony of Darkness?) achieves ACE by inventory manipulation. Mega Man 1 has an ACE category as well which is really interesting. I think Nudua explained it somewhere. (On my phone, but a quick googling should help you.)

leshokunin 6y ago

Excellent video. I'm impressed the author went to recreate the run frame by frame, and then used those findings to analyze what was happening. Never expected this video to turn into a full on reverse engineering explanation. As a side note, this kind of speed run has become more popular in the recent years for a combination of reasons: - First, it's difficult to improve on the regular world records since they're so optimized (just have a look at Quake Done Quick and its sequels). - Second, the emulators available to the speed running community have evolved. They now include better ways to track what's happening in memory. - Third, the games themselves are understood better (as recently exemplified by the Super Mario 64 full reverse engineering). So it's creating a whole new genre of runs that simply isn't about execution anymore. If you're interested in the topic, you might like the Super Mario World speed run that uses a similar technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gECESOoU8Es https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gECESOoU8Es), or the recent work on removing randomness from Wind Waker runs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hs451PfFzQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hs451PfFzQ).

ehsankia 6y ago
I'd argue that many frame perfect moves used to setting up the memory is very much execution. Maybe a different kind of execution, but still very much skill based.
- hosh 6y ago
  In this video, the speedrunner made a mistake and had to compensate on the fly to get the enemy into the exact position when he hit the pipe. I think that is more impressive than a perfect run.
  - hbogert 6y ago
    Yes, mind was blown when he explained this. The executioner had the intrinsic knowledge of the inner workings to cope with this. Just wow.
Bnshsysjab 6y ago
Also be sure to check out the super Mario world flappy bird code injection: https://youtu.be/hB6eY73sLV0 https://youtu.be/hB6eY73sLV0

vga805 6y ago

I love the speedrunning and ROM hacking communities. Speedrunning has become my sports entertainment. And I finally learned Assembly by messing around hacking Super Mario World. All I can say is that I wish I combined my passions for programming and gaming much earlier in life. If you like this kind of video, I highly recommend Summoning Salt's World Record Progression videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtUbO6rBht0daVIOGML3c8w They don't always dig deep as the original video post, but the discovery of glitches comes up often and the videos are incredibly well done.

xiaodai 6y ago

one of the best nerd food of all time. reminds of this keynote on how to get the best pokemon and cheat in pokemon blue! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsEsZbXE-4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNsEsZbXE-4

racl101 6y ago

This guy makes such good videos. I mean, I marginally gave a shit about a lot of these games now that I'm old (even though I owned all of them as a kid), much less about speed runs, but after watching his videos by chance, I suddenly care again ... and maybe even a lot more for the endeavour of speed runs. And that's the hallmark of a good documentary.

drewboo 6y ago
I've always found the any% categories of speed running to be the most interesting, since it often works by manipulating the code of a game to work in really inventive ways. if you like videos like this, pannenkeok2012 does super in depth analysis of everything Super Mario 64 https://www.youtube.com/user/pannenkeok2012 https://www.youtube.com/user/pannenkeok2012
- racl101 6y ago
  Will check that out! Thanks!

wodenokoto 6y ago

Here is Mitch Flower Power performing the glitch on live TV in 2016 with Stephen Colbert: https://youtu.be/jvLwpnn1F4Y https://youtu.be/jvLwpnn1F4Y I believe Mitch was the first person to do this trick in RTA.

ehsankia 6y ago
What the hell, he just pulled that off with all the distraction and people yelling, with all the stress, on a single try? How is that even possible, don't speedrunners do thousands of runs to get a win like this? Was it a real run? And Colbert was speaking and distracting him during some of the most important part of the run and cut off before even really showing his win. What a shame.
- Gaelan 6y ago
  In many cases, there are "marathon safe" methods that are slower but much easier to get on first try and/or recover from on failure. (The "marathon" refers to live speedrunning marathon events like Games Done Quick.) Presumably, he used this.
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  He also did it at GDQ. Which really speaks to how good Mitch is. But once you are at this level, it is the other details that requires grinding: The thing that sets the run from TFA apart from this run is the hammer bro manipulation that easily fails AND the luck of having good hammer bro movement (6% chance) after the manipulation is done. Getting those two things on top of good execution is what requires thousands of tries for these top players.
vga805 6y ago
In addition to how good Mitch is, he's also one of the nicest people around. I recommend his twitch if you wanna watch him speedrun, these days he's grinding SMB 3 10% with a crazy hammer bros. manipulation.

thornjm 6y ago

Related CTF challenge you can undertake yourself: https://gitlab.com/cybears/fall-of-cybeartron/-/tree/master/challenges/pwn/block_dude https://gitlab.com/cybears/fall-of-cybeartron/-/tree/master/... Write-up of solution: https://greenbender.github.io/ctf-writeup/post-cybearsctf-2019-writeup-blockdude/ https://greenbender.github.io/ctf-writeup/post-cybearsctf-20...

bottled_poe 6y ago
Thanks for this, looks interesting

Sniffnoy 6y ago

It really bugs me that people refer to this glitch as a wrongwarp even though it's ACE, not a wrongwarp...

gfaure 6y ago

EDIT: I mixed up two retro gaming YouTubers. The below refers to Bisqwit, not Bismuth. His personal views aside, I hope you find Bisqwit's other videos interesting. I really respect this guy as an engineer and a retro gaming enthusiast, but he has some videos explaining his personal irrational Islamophobia that really make me wonder about him as a person -- here's one of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxSAi4sueQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxSAi4sueQ

ddlsmurf 6y ago
Relevance ?
esaym 6y ago
Say what? Watched the video and it did not even mention Islam?
- ddlsmurf 6y ago
  It's a great video, that must have taken hundreds of hours just to animate, not to mention the research. That the author has opinions I don't agree with or are unpopular is another matter. I can have more than one thought because I'm not 4 anymore. This reflex to stigmatise and virtue signal annoys the freak out of me. Just enjoy the video.
- moozilla 6y ago
  He's probably referring to this comment Bisqwit posted in the comments on that video: > I believe there is an incredible number of counterfeit doctrines and antichrists (Greek word that literally means counterfeit messiah), some more obvious and some more subtle. Islam being one of the most obvious ones. (It's a reference to Islam at least. Not sure how calling it a false doctrine is Islamophobic; seems like a pretty standard Christian take.)
sparky_z 6y ago
You appear to be mistaken. The video we're discussing is by someone called "Bismuth", but you've linked to a completely different person called "Bisqwit".

jaysonqpt 6y ago

One interesting aspect of modern technology is that there are huge inefficiencies everywhere. It is also an opportunity since anyone can jump in and create/improve something a lot better. This video is an interesting demonstration of 2 things - human ingenuity and the scope of improvement even when it is not obvious!

CyberRabbi 6y ago

Ropping to victory would have been impossible if Nintendo didn’t constantly cut corners and implemented stack canaries like they should have.

kohtatsu 6y ago
This comment is indistinguishable from sarcasm.

sgrove 6y ago

For those of you who (like me) are curious to see what it’s like to have your product broken in ways unforeseen but people unimaginably motivated, check out the IGN speed run series - I love hearing every time the team watching a world-record speed run for the first time says, “whoa, how did that happen? Tim, didn’t you handle that kind of physics bug?!” It’s absolutely gold: https://youtu.be/2sGN3peODwY https://youtu.be/2sGN3peODwY It’s fantasy, but I’d love to see a “miyamoto-and-team watch five classic games be hyper-optimized speed-run“, although the distance may be too great. Part of what makes the ign series enjoyable is that the programmers have intimate knowledge of two worlds: the code, and the gameplay

sam_lynx 6y ago

Watched that guy heavily a few months ago. He makes great explanations, really breaks things down so laymen can understand it.

toastal 6y ago
Summoning Salt & Bismuth do great videos about speed running

lnyan 6y ago

That's quite interesting. The visualization and explanation are awesome. Besides, I have learned stack exploits, but I had never expected they could also be used in an NES game.

fortyseven 6y ago

UPDATE: They do! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Mario_speedrunning_records#Super_Mario_Bros._3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Mario_speedrunni... (see also, replies) ---- I'm not saying this kind of thing isn't impressive -- because, duh, it's amazing! I just don't think it should count as a record. Or at least it should have it's own category. For me it just crosses a line between exploiting a side effect or minor bug, and... well, this. If I could somehow glitch physics at the quantum level in real life, to instantly warp me to the finish line of a race, is it fair? Is it in the _spirit_ of the race? It'd be incredible, sure, and on paper, yes, you went from point A to B faster than a cheetah. But it's no longer a race concerning the physical fitness of the contestants. It's about systemic exploitation. I guess this question bleeds into the idea of physical augmentation and enhancement, and quickly into some Deus Ex stuff, if you push it enough. Love the hack, just pondering the ethics of it being a record.

chki 6y ago
I'm not a speedrunning expert but I think that there are usually subcategories for "glitchless" runs, where you can only use the intended game mechanics. So your suggestion has already been approved by the speedrunning community.
- fortyseven 6y ago
  They work fast, eh? (Speed... run.. er, never mind. ;D)
berbec 6y ago
It is it's own category. https://www.speedrun.com/smb3 https://www.speedrun.com/smb3 has the following: 100%: "Beat the game, entering and completing every stage and Hammer Bros. fight" Any %, warpless: "Beat the game as quickly as possible without using any wrong warps or warp whistles. Warp whistles may be collected but not used." Any %, no wrong warp: "Beat the game as quickly as possible without using any wrong warps." Any %: “Time starts on pressing Start on the title screen. Time ends when Mario is visible in the princess' chamber. If the game crashes, the run is invalid." The run shows is an Any% run.

Regenschirm 6y ago

Whenever i see stuff like this (youtube recommends speedruns + indepth speedruns videos on and off over the last few years), i imagine something like game of life where a ton of pixels are getting smaller and more refined. The thought behind it is, that we as brains churn through everything and as we are that many and we are connected so well, we just churn through games which have been released 32 years ago by doing everything you can do with it. Just a few days ago i saw a video where they used debug code to manipulate the game state and one of those things was a sprite fix, as there is a bug in super mario bros. 2 where the last frame was skipped and the memory fix fixes that. The same happens with more complex 3d games as well, like thx to nvidia tools frame analysis of games exist on yt. Nice to see all the render pathes explained step by step.

ducktective 6y ago

ahhmm clears throat This wouldn't have happened if they used Rust ;)

ddingus 6y ago
Seems like a challenge as some would say the game would not have happened, on an NES, in Rust. :D
chrismorgan 6y ago
The reason you get these sorts of bugs is not because of the languages used, but because of the tight constraints, most notably the limited amounts of ROM and RAM available. You simply couldn’t code such a thing in safe Rust. If you wanted to make cartridges like this with Rust, there would be a lot of unsafe code, and you’d get just the same bugs. Put another way: if you said, “you wouldn’t get this if you wrote it in Java”—well, sure, but that’s because you wouldn’t get anything, because the JVM wouldn’t fit and couldn’t run on the target platform.
- ducktective 6y ago
  yeah I was joking :D...Designers had to use assembly...
  - chrismorgan 6y ago
    One of life’s pleasures is taking jokes seriously.
kibwen 6y ago
If there's one thing that makes me regret pushing Rust, it's this. :P Although fortunately, physics engines in any language will always have exploitable, memory-safe bugs that make for great speedruns.

thret 6y ago

I was thinking someone should write a story on the premise that we are living in a simulation, where 'glitches in the matrix' like déjà vu, coincidences, freak accidents, etc., are due to accidental arrangements of people corrupting the program... but then I realised someone already had. In El ángel exterminador (1962) a group of people are trapped in a single room (level) due to their accidental seating arrangement. They are freed when they unlock the same sequence. In Groundhog Day a similar thing happens where the protagonist is trapped replaying the same level, until he figures out the correct sequence of actions to pass it. I am sure there are others.

unimportant2117 6y ago
If you want a story that handles this scenario pretty much exactly, you might want to check out “Unsong” [0] by the excellent Scott Alexander. That world is basically a biblically-inspired computer simulation which gets corrupted when Apollo 8 crashes into the celestial sphere. Also boiling a goat in its mother’s milk causes a segfault for some reason the developer can’t quite explain. [0] http://unsongbook.com/chapter-1-dark-satanic-mills/ http://unsongbook.com/chapter-1-dark-satanic-mills/
- schoen 6y ago
  You might want to link to the prologue rather than chapter 1: https://unsongbook.com/prologue-2/ https://unsongbook.com/prologue-2/
- thret 6y ago
  The payoff is real: “So the whole universe runs on this system of sapphires connected by paths?” “MOST OF IT RUNS ON SAPPHIRES ON PATHS, BUT I USE RUBY ON RAILS FOR THE DATABASES.” I quite enjoyed this story, thank you for sharing it.
ani-ani 6y ago
I saw El ángel exterminador and it was great, but I don't think it hints at any simulation. The phenomenon does not really need any literal explanation, but if I had to provide one, I would rather suggest a mystical occurrence or entity such as the "angel" hinted by the title, somehow triggered by the characters, and the seating solution may be a way of telling the humans to stay in their place.

womitt 6y ago

Bunnyhop was my favourite glitch. The phoon too much for zblock bunnyhop fragmovie video [0] still makes me laugh even like 10 years later [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvDUO42Hys&t=370s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvDUO42Hys&t=370s

red_admiral 6y ago

Gives the term _shellcode_ a whole new meaning!

fortyseven 6y ago
I snorted. ;)

runnr_az 6y ago

Really interesting... love it when talented people apply their considerable skills to something ridiculous.

segfaultbuserr 6y ago
It's one definition of hacking.

syspec 6y ago

Inked in this YouTube video description, is another channel https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroGameMechanicsExplained https://www.youtube.com/c/RetroGameMechanicsExplained Just spent an hour watching, great stuff on both channels

carolipirjapa 6y ago

Here's a video of moving arbitrary code from Pokemon Red to SML2 on original GameBoy. https://youtu.be/SL_Zuc0tlvo https://youtu.be/SL_Zuc0tlvo