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

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

#71

Post by lillesvin »

kibwen wrote: post #24
crazygringo wrote: post #18

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?

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 Poke…

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.)

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

#73

Post by fortyseven »

berbec wrote: post #65
fortyseven wrote: post #63

UPDATE: They do! 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 q…

It is it's own category. 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…

Indeed!

When I got back to my desk I looked into a bit and was happy to see it all categorized nicely.

I withdraw my questioning, and am quite happy everyone's represented. ;D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Mario_speedrunni...

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

#74

Post by madeofpalk »

tetrisgm wrote: post #19

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 o…

> So it's creating a whole new genre of runs that simply isn't about execution anymore.

Did we watch the same video?

It was completely about execution. You still need to be exceptionally good at the game to get those frame-perfect setups.

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

#75

Post by xg15 »

kibwen wrote: post #24
crazygringo wrote: post #18

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?

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 Poke…

Even then, some of the timing accuracy required still mystifies me. E.g., if I got it right then, for the RNG manipulation to work, you have to press "A" on the menu screen in one particular frame, counted from when the console was switched on. At the standard PAL framerate of 50 FPS, this gives you 1/50th of a second to react, with no visual indicator that the frame you're looking for is about to come up. I have no idea how to even begin training this.

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

#76

Post by fortyseven »

chki wrote: post #64
fortyseven wrote: post #63

UPDATE: They do! 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 q…

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.

They work fast, eh? (Speed... run.. er, never mind. ;D)

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

#77

Post by marvin »

xg15 wrote: post #75
kibwen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Poke…

Even then, some of the timing accuracy required still mystifies me. E.g., if I got it right then, for the RNG manipulation to work, you have to press "A" on the menu screen in one particular frame , counted from when the console was switched on. At the standard PAL framerate of 50 FPS, this gives you 1/50th of a second to react, with no visual indicator that the frame you're looking for is about to come up. I have no…

There are some cues you could use to get very close, particularly the rhythm of the music.

I've heard that a decent drummer can hit a note within 15 milliseconds of the mathematically correct point on average, and that makes it plausible that you could use rhythm as a cue to hit within the 20 milliseconds that this would require.

But obviously this would become less likely to succeed as the length of the game continues and timing errors that affect the soundtrack compound.

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

#78

Post by thret »

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.

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

#79

Post by kibwen »

andrepd wrote: post #67
tetrisgm wrote: post #19

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 o…

Bismuth and Summoning Salt are two excellent channels about speedrunning.

I can recommend Karl Jobst as well.

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

#80

Post by unimportant2117 »

thret wrote: post #78

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.…

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/

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