4 ms·

In case my server gets too sluggish, here's the important youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IINwTFVw&t=16m2s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IIN

by jal278 13y ago

In case my server gets too sluggish, here's the important youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IINwTFVw&t=16m2s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7IINwTFVw&t=16m2s Basically there's a speedrunner who is technically adept at the game, is a good communicator, and explains as he plays a complex exploit that facilitates skipping a large part of the game

Kronopath 13y ago
Here's a cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.joellehman.com%2Findex.php%2F2013%2F10%2Fincredible-discoveries-ten-years-later-in-zelda-speedrun%2F&rlz=1C1AFAB_enCA543CA543&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.joellehman.com%2Findex.php%2F2013%2F10%2Fincredible-discoveries-ten-years-later-in-zelda-speedrun%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%... The video is a clip from the Awesome Games Done Quick 2013 charity marathon[0]. It's fun to watch, and Cosmo in particular typically goes into detail on how the weird tricks and hacks he performs work. I love looking at glitches in older games that had so little memory protection. You can learn a good deal about how a computer operates by dissecting them. [0] http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/ http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/
JonSkeptic 13y ago
I was watching that video and expecting an explanation along the lines of "If I tap the c-pad, then b really fast at just the right time" and being met with an explanation that shows an intricate working knowledge of the game....it was impressive to say the least. Wow. That guy is a hacker. Maybe he is only a hacker of this one game, I don't know. But, this is a video that deserves to be linked by HackerNews.
- duskwuff 13y ago
  I'm also really impressed that he managed to explain everything while still playing the game!
- droopybuns 13y ago
  I agree that this guy is a hacker, however I just want to share what a hacker on steroids playing a game looks like. Have you seen bortreb's pokemon hack? http://hackaday.com/2012/11/24/programming-a-game-boy-while-playing-pokemon/ http://hackaday.com/2012/11/24/programming-a-game-boy-while-... "Realizing this ROM hack is able to control the CPU with only the player’s inventory, [bortreb] wanted to see how far he could push this hack. He ended up writing a bootstrapping program by depositing and discarding items from the in-game PC, and was then able to reprogram the Game Boy with a number of button presses on the D-pad, select, start, A and B buttons."
  - Lapbunny 13y ago
    I prefer the Pi Day celebration hack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNPisyK43Lc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNPisyK43Lc
- dfbrown 13y ago
  Not to diminish Cosmo's skills or his excellent explanations, but the tricks used in these speed runs were discovered and improved upon over many years by many different members of the speed running community who all deserve some credit. [1] has a list of techniques and usually notes who originally discovered them. There are some speed runners who are very good at discovering these kinds of techniques but they are not always the ones who are the fastest at running the game. 1: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/oot/ http://zeldaspeedruns.com/oot/
  - gknoy 13y ago
    While the exploit itself was very impressive, I was also very impressed by how clearly he explained it, and how he was able to do it without stumbling, and generally was able to keep playing while explaining. Great communication skills.
lcampbell 13y ago
This run doesn't even use the latest tech (or he might intentionally be playing a slower-but-safer route to facilitate commentary); I think he shaved another three minutes off by -- * tightening up the run to the village (by supersliding sooner) * not needing to die on Gohma (you can glitch through the dungeon door that closes) * skipping the tower collapse entirely (by falling through the map, which he discusses briefly as "impossible for a human to do" in the parent's video). Here's a link to his best run ever: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/speedruns/4514 http://zeldaspeedruns.com/speedruns/4514
- ufo 13y ago
  The video is from January. He used those tricks in the most recent marathon.
- mackal 13y ago
  The current WR doesn't use the TAS method he describes in the video, it is similar through, but only requires getting hit by 1 rock, not 2. And doesn't require the slingshot. The "TAS-only" trick skips loading the inside of the tower and basically ends up at the bottom or something. The trick in the WR gets hit by the rock and you end up in the tower but skip to the end of the inside part.
  - sysop073 13y ago
    I think you're confusing the glitches a bit (or I am). Long-winded explanations of both, assuming I understand them correctly: The TAS version does a trick in the Deku Tree that results in the one set of bars in the tower escape being up. There's a bitmask in memory that dungeons can use to store flags about whatever they want. One of those flags in the Deku Tree dungeon is whether the ladder in the slingshot room has been shot down. That same flag in the dungeon escape indicates that Zelda has already raised a particular set of bars at one of the tower entrances. Because you warp straight from the tree to the tower, it keeps the flags set, so if the ladder was shot down in the tree the one set of bars is already up in the tower and you don't need to wait for Zelda to open them. This saves some time because she's slow, but in theory you'd still need to run all the way to the door. Luckily, there's a second glitch that involves falling off the edge of the tower. Normally the game detects when you fall too far and warps you back to the top. If you hit a boulder in mid-air, it resets the fall counter, and you can manage to fall off one bridge and land on the bridge below. The TAS does this twice to fall down to the bridge that has the open gate, so Link can then run right through the entrance without waiting for Zelda (she catches up when you enter a new area). This is the part that Cosmo was describing as impossible for a human, because the boulders are random so you can't really time it such that you hit one in mid-air at the right spot to reset the counter. The void warp (the new trick used in the WW) is kind of related in that it involves falling off the tower, but that's about it. The entire setup is such that the game detects that you've fallen off the bridge at the exact moment that you hit the loading zone for the inside of the tower. The game tries to reset your position back to the bridge you fell off of, and tries to put you inside the tower, so you end up in the tower but outside the normal rooms, so you just fall all the way to ground level (which is where you wanted to be anyway) and walk to the next loading zone
fsckin 13y ago
Same guy, faster run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HT0--ieUY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HT0--ieUY
Serentiynow 13y ago
The guy playing, Cosmo, is also the creator of http://speedrunslive.com http://speedrunslive.com A website for streaming speedruns.

by jal278 13y ago

Kronopath 13y ago

Here's a cached version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.joellehman.com%2Findex.php%2F2013%2F10%2Fincredible-discoveries-ten-years-later-in-zelda-speedrun%2F&rlz=1C1AFAB_enCA543CA543&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.joellehman.com%2Findex.php%2F2013%2F10%2Fincredible-discoveries-ten-years-later-in-zelda-speedrun%2F http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Ahttp%... The video is a clip from the Awesome Games Done Quick 2013 charity marathon[0]. It's fun to watch, and Cosmo in particular typically goes into detail on how the weird tricks and hacks he performs work. I love looking at glitches in older games that had so little memory protection. You can learn a good deal about how a computer operates by dissecting them. [0] http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/ http://marathon.speeddemosarchive.com/

JonSkeptic 13y ago

I was watching that video and expecting an explanation along the lines of "If I tap the c-pad, then b really fast at just the right time" and being met with an explanation that shows an intricate working knowledge of the game....it was impressive to say the least. Wow. That guy is a hacker. Maybe he is only a hacker of this one game, I don't know. But, this is a video that deserves to be linked by HackerNews.

duskwuff 13y ago
I'm also really impressed that he managed to explain everything while still playing the game!
droopybuns 13y ago
I agree that this guy is a hacker, however I just want to share what a hacker on steroids playing a game looks like. Have you seen bortreb's pokemon hack? http://hackaday.com/2012/11/24/programming-a-game-boy-while-playing-pokemon/ http://hackaday.com/2012/11/24/programming-a-game-boy-while-... "Realizing this ROM hack is able to control the CPU with only the player’s inventory, [bortreb] wanted to see how far he could push this hack. He ended up writing a bootstrapping program by depositing and discarding items from the in-game PC, and was then able to reprogram the Game Boy with a number of button presses on the D-pad, select, start, A and B buttons."
- Lapbunny 13y ago
  I prefer the Pi Day celebration hack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNPisyK43Lc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNPisyK43Lc
dfbrown 13y ago
Not to diminish Cosmo's skills or his excellent explanations, but the tricks used in these speed runs were discovered and improved upon over many years by many different members of the speed running community who all deserve some credit. [1] has a list of techniques and usually notes who originally discovered them. There are some speed runners who are very good at discovering these kinds of techniques but they are not always the ones who are the fastest at running the game. 1: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/oot/ http://zeldaspeedruns.com/oot/
- gknoy 13y ago
  While the exploit itself was very impressive, I was also very impressed by how clearly he explained it, and how he was able to do it without stumbling, and generally was able to keep playing while explaining. Great communication skills.

lcampbell 13y ago

This run doesn't even use the latest tech (or he might intentionally be playing a slower-but-safer route to facilitate commentary); I think he shaved another three minutes off by -- * tightening up the run to the village (by supersliding sooner) * not needing to die on Gohma (you can glitch through the dungeon door that closes) * skipping the tower collapse entirely (by falling through the map, which he discusses briefly as "impossible for a human to do" in the parent's video). Here's a link to his best run ever: http://zeldaspeedruns.com/speedruns/4514 http://zeldaspeedruns.com/speedruns/4514

ufo 13y ago
The video is from January. He used those tricks in the most recent marathon.
mackal 13y ago
The current WR doesn't use the TAS method he describes in the video, it is similar through, but only requires getting hit by 1 rock, not 2. And doesn't require the slingshot. The "TAS-only" trick skips loading the inside of the tower and basically ends up at the bottom or something. The trick in the WR gets hit by the rock and you end up in the tower but skip to the end of the inside part.
- sysop073 13y ago
  I think you're confusing the glitches a bit (or I am). Long-winded explanations of both, assuming I understand them correctly: The TAS version does a trick in the Deku Tree that results in the one set of bars in the tower escape being up. There's a bitmask in memory that dungeons can use to store flags about whatever they want. One of those flags in the Deku Tree dungeon is whether the ladder in the slingshot room has been shot down. That same flag in the dungeon escape indicates that Zelda has already raised a particular set of bars at one of the tower entrances. Because you warp straight from the tree to the tower, it keeps the flags set, so if the ladder was shot down in the tree the one set of bars is already up in the tower and you don't need to wait for Zelda to open them. This saves some time because she's slow, but in theory you'd still need to run all the way to the door. Luckily, there's a second glitch that involves falling off the edge of the tower. Normally the game detects when you fall too far and warps you back to the top. If you hit a boulder in mid-air, it resets the fall counter, and you can manage to fall off one bridge and land on the bridge below. The TAS does this twice to fall down to the bridge that has the open gate, so Link can then run right through the entrance without waiting for Zelda (she catches up when you enter a new area). This is the part that Cosmo was describing as impossible for a human, because the boulders are random so you can't really time it such that you hit one in mid-air at the right spot to reset the counter. The void warp (the new trick used in the WW) is kind of related in that it involves falling off the tower, but that's about it. The entire setup is such that the game detects that you've fallen off the bridge at the exact moment that you hit the loading zone for the inside of the tower. The game tries to reset your position back to the bridge you fell off of, and tries to put you inside the tower, so you end up in the tower but outside the normal rooms, so you just fall all the way to ground level (which is where you wanted to be anyway) and walk to the next loading zone

fsckin 13y ago

Same guy, faster run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HT0--ieUY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3HT0--ieUY

Serentiynow 13y ago

The guy playing, Cosmo, is also the creator of http://speedrunslive.com http://speedrunslive.com A website for streaming speedruns.