4 ms·

Essentially, someone wrote a game that allows you to play randomly generated Super Mario levels of arbitrary difficulty, and the contest was to write an AI that

by jcl 17y ago

Essentially, someone wrote a game that allows you to play randomly generated Super Mario levels of arbitrary difficulty, and the contest was to write an AI that gets as far as possible on those levels, in real time. This is the winning entry. (They actually ran two separate contests, but the videos of this agent were released around the time of the first contest, which I think would have discouraged new entrants for the second. Independently, the video went viral in Japan and picked up half a million views.)

DarkShikari 17y ago
Independently, the video went viral in Japan This doesn't surprise me; Japan has a long internet tradition of Mario-related hacks. One example is the "automatic Mario" videos, specially-crafted Mario levels that are set up such that they will complete automatically if Mario moves continually to the right, and the sounds created will match the background music. A particularly impressive example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw
- harpastum 17y ago
  That video of "automatic mario" is absolutely amazing. It boggles my mind just thinking about how much time that must have taken. And to anyone who didn't check out that link, it's definitely worth watching. If you're not interested in the whole thing (eleven minutes) I recommend starting right at 8:00.
  - DarkShikari 17y ago
    And if you like that one, just check the related videos tab for more, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8upKaWzy0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8upKaWzy0 and so forth.
- req2 17y ago
  The N game has similar creations, but none approach this level of artistry. Mario seems like a good target for 'variant' games. http://kotaku.com/5161778/japanese-gamers-invent-new-way-to-play-super-mario-64 http://kotaku.com/5161778/japanese-gamers-invent-new-way-to-... has been a favorite of mine.

by jcl 17y ago

DarkShikari 17y ago

Independently, the video went viral in Japan This doesn't surprise me; Japan has a long internet tradition of Mario-related hacks. One example is the "automatic Mario" videos, specially-crafted Mario levels that are set up such that they will complete automatically if Mario moves continually to the right, and the sounds created will match the background music. A particularly impressive example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw

harpastum 17y ago
That video of "automatic mario" is absolutely amazing. It boggles my mind just thinking about how much time that must have taken. And to anyone who didn't check out that link, it's definitely worth watching. If you're not interested in the whole thing (eleven minutes) I recommend starting right at 8:00.
- DarkShikari 17y ago
  And if you like that one, just check the related videos tab for more, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8upKaWzy0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8upKaWzy0 and so forth.
req2 17y ago
The N game has similar creations, but none approach this level of artistry. Mario seems like a good target for 'variant' games. http://kotaku.com/5161778/japanese-gamers-invent-new-way-to-play-super-mario-64 http://kotaku.com/5161778/japanese-gamers-invent-new-way-to-... has been a favorite of mine.