I dislike the "half a-press" term of art because it creates the question: If I release the a-press within the level to access his non-a-pressed abilities, would that count still as half-an-a-press? It seems to me that "half" an a-press should represent an edge (going up or down), and starting out holding "a" should count as like 0.1.
Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
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Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#52I kind of lost it at the point where he "builds up speed for 12 hours". AHAHA https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?t=640 His mind is so clear. I love how there's so many super super smart people on the internet! :)
On the other hand... I mean, doesn't it feel like a bit of a waste? I mean his mind is free to use however he likes but it seems absolutely crazy to dedicate yourself to this extreme level of obscure bugs in a 30ish-year-old game in order to prove some crazy feat is technically possible although not actually possible to execute in a tool-unassisted fashion.
The explaining video is great, but the underlying goal just seems absurd to me.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#53Going to go on a semi-related rant. The youtuber does a bit of complaining about how people keep asking something he's ostensibly answered. Even does that "well, akshyually, I said that right here in the man page (comments section) if only you would RTFM". This is important: if the user (customer, patron, etc.) is repeatedly doing something "wrong", then it's not they who are wrong, it's you , your design, your inade…
I appreciate where you are coming from here, but I think your rant is misplaced. This is a video about a rather technical, very niche topic. The whole concept of a "half press" is a particular bit of jargon with a particular meaning in this field. The onus is on the reader to learn.
There is nothing quite so irritating as someone who confidently criticizes you out of ignorance. You see this all the time when professionals showcase their work on video sharing sites, the comments will be filled with people who pipe up insisting that the creator is doing something wrong rather than asking questions or seeking to understand. "There is no such thing as a half press" as popularized by TJ "Henry" Yoshi is a case of the former, an ignorant outsider lecturing the person who demonstrably knows what they are doing.
Empathy and humility are two way streets. In the comments section, you are a guest and should behave as such.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#54I kind of lost it at the point where he "builds up speed for 12 hours". AHAHA https://youtu.be/kpk2tdsPh0A?t=640 His mind is so clear. I love how there's so many super super smart people on the internet! :)
On the other hand... I mean, doesn't it feel like a bit of a waste? I mean his mind is free to use however he likes but it seems absolutely crazy to dedicate yourself to this extreme level of obscure bugs in a 30ish-year-old game in order to prove some crazy feat is technically possible although not actually possible to execute in a tool-unassisted fashion. The explaining video is great, but the underlying goal just…
Through this pursuit, he has learned and honed problem solving, computer science, mathematics, and communication skills.
I think you could argue that the "underlying goal" for most people's hobbies are pointless.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#55"we need to talk about parallel universes" always gets me
TJ "henry" yoshi
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#56Going to go on a semi-related rant. The youtuber does a bit of complaining about how people keep asking something he's ostensibly answered. Even does that "well, akshyually, I said that right here in the man page (comments section) if only you would RTFM". This is important: if the user (customer, patron, etc.) is repeatedly doing something "wrong", then it's not they who are wrong, it's you , your design, your inade…
The user in this case though is getting free content in a very niche area. I don’t think this is a reasonable criticism here, though your overall point is valid.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#57I dislike the "half a-press" term of art because it creates the question: If I release the a-press within the level to access his non-a-pressed abilities, would that count still as half-an-a-press? It seems to me that "half" an a-press should represent an edge (going up or down), and starting out holding "a" should count as like 0.1.
Or simply don't count A-button phases that aren't press events/keydowns as "half presses". That's what's always bugged me about it; if press, hold, and release are different actions, and those are meaningful to the speedrun, and you care about what a general audience thinks about it, then just count them separately. Don't use a misnomer to suggest something that doesn't exist. It's obtuse jargon for the sake of it.
It rubs up wrongly against common sense, which is why people call it out; when you press a digital button with only two states, you'd refer to that action as a button press in any other context. General game logic refers to a digital button press as a button press/keydown event or state/key press; there's no "half", it's Boolean. And it's doubly confusing if you don't know that the N64 doesn't have pressure sensitive buttons, in which the term "half-press" would make more sense.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#58Going to go on a semi-related rant. The youtuber does a bit of complaining about how people keep asking something he's ostensibly answered. Even does that "well, akshyually, I said that right here in the man page (comments section) if only you would RTFM". This is important: if the user (customer, patron, etc.) is repeatedly doing something "wrong", then it's not they who are wrong, it's you , your design, your inade…
To be fair to the author (and I know this is by no means obvious context coming into the video), his channel blew up shortly before this video. His previous audience consisted of people in the Super Mario 64 speedrun/challenge community who would need less explanation.
The thoroughness of this video seems to me to be proof that he wanted to get these newer viewers up to speed. In fact it's basically a love letter to the uninformed viewer. The "complaining" at the start is just lightly poking fun at these newer people while also serving the double purpose of informing them about the explanations in his description boxes. Given the lasting popularity of this video, I don't think too many people took offense.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#59Every time someone posts this I have to listen to the "Space Oddity" parody song based on it.
Re: Super Mario 64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x a Presses [video]
#60The sheer depth of knowledge and analytical ability pannenkoek has is honestly quite amazing. I've become quite spoiled watching their SM64 videos, it's been incredibly hard to find something of similar rigor and production value for other games. The closest I've found so far has been a video on how a group of speed runners were able to conquer RNG for a puzzle in Wind waker[0]. [0]: https://youtu.be/1hs451PfFzQ
"Retro Game Mechanics Explained" is exactly what you're looking for for retro games. They talk about things like memory layout, how unintended bugs work, the cpu instruction set, how things happen on the hardware level, etc etc. Highly recommended.
https://www.youtube.com/@RGMechEx