Speedrunners Are Reverse Engineers
Curated by Claude · 12 videos · 9 hr 40 min
HN likes speedrunning less as a sport than as people reverse engineering a game in public. This list starts with an easy way into speedrunning history, then moves to collision physics, then to arbitrary code execution done with controller inputs, then to cracking random number generators. It ends with a five-hour history for anyone who has stopped resisting.
Play all on YouTube- 129:54
[Epilepsy Warning] Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track
5.4M views • 8 years agoSummoning SaltSummoning Salt traces the speedrunning history of Mario Kart 64's Choco Mountain track and its famous shortcut, through the successive record holders and discoveries. It carries an epilepsy warning for flickering lights.The opener: one HN commenter says this is the video that made them care about speedrunning, told as a story of record holders and discoveries.
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Walls, Floors, & Ceilings
385K views • 9 years agoUncommentatedPannenPannenkoek explains how Super Mario 64 handles wall, floor and ceiling collisions, including triangles, normal vectors, quarter steps and out of bounds. It is a detailed 37-minute technical walkthrough of the game's physics.Before breaking a game you need its rules, and this walkthrough of Mario 64's triangle collision code is the textbook for that.
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SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED]
5.5M views • 10 years agopannenkoek2012Pannenkoek2012's commentated tool-assisted Super Mario 64 run collecting the Watch for Rolling Rocks star with half an A press, using parallel universes and QPU movement. The video is marked outdated in favor of a newer version.The famous 'half an A press' video, which HN describes as insanely complicated and surprisingly lucid, built on those collision rules.
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Super Mario World Credits Warp Explained
638K views • 11 years agoFriezeA speedrunner-made explanation of the Super Mario World credits warp, an arbitrary code execution glitch that jumps the game straight to the ending. It simplifies the underlying assembly and memory behavior with animations so non-experts can follow.Moving from physics to memory: an animated, assembly-level explanation of how an item glitch makes the SNES jump to the ending.
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9:01Super Mario World -- Credits Warp in 5:59.6 (First Time Ever on Console)
4.3M views • 11 years agoSethBlingSethBling performs the first credits warp in Super Mario World on a real SNES console, a glitch that plays the ending without beating Bowser. The run relies on pixel-perfect positioning and tools such as a helper ROM hack.The same exploit done by a human on a real console, a moment HN remembers as a trick escaping tool-assisted runs.
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6:31SNES Code Injection -- Flappy Bird in SMW
3M views • 10 years agoSethBlingSethBling uses Super Mario World glitches to inject and run Flappy Bird code on an unmodified SNES, entering it purely with controller inputs. It was the first time a human completed this kind of exploit by hand.SethBling types an entire new game into memory with a controller, HN's go-to example of arbitrary code execution through gameplay.
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![[TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vjm8P8utT5g/hq2.jpg)
7:45[TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution
598K views • 9 years agoMrWintA tool-assisted speedrun of Pokemon Yellow by MrWint that uses arbitrary code execution to push Game Boy hardware to its limits. Through crafted inputs it injects code and ends up running other programs, such as Tetris, inside the game.The Game Boy version of the idea, taken so far that Pokemon Yellow ends up running other programs.
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58:44TasBlock at AGDQ 2017: TASBot
398K views • 9 years agoTASVideosChannelA recording of the TASBot block at Awesome Games Done Quick 2017, where a robot plays games via tool-assisted speedruns, including Super Mario 64 and Portal on an SNES via arbitrary code execution, and ending with a Twitch Plays segment. It showcases console exploits and creative hardware hacking.An hour of a robot at a live event pushing video and chat through controller ports, which HN calls a reliably great GDQ watch.
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24:32How We Solved the Worst Minigame in Zelda's History
1.1M views • 6 years agoLinkus7Linkus7 explains how a community reverse-engineered The Wind Waker to predict its random number generator and beat the Sploosh Kaboom battleship minigame consistently. It includes d3 animations by Peter Schmidt-Nielsen.A turn to randomness: a community reverse engineers Wind Waker's RNG to win the Sploosh Kaboom minigame every time.
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8:24How the Minecraft Title Screen Seed was Found
10.8M views • 6 years agoSalC1SalC1 explains how the seed behind the Minecraft title screen panorama was found, using community effort and the Minecraft@Home project. It covers the search through Beta 1.7.3 world seeds.RNG cracking on a larger scale, a distributed search through world seeds that one HN commenter promises will blow your mind.
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39:47How lucky is too lucky?: The Minecraft Speedrunning Dream Controversy Explained
8.4M views • 5 years agoStand-up MathsMatt Parker analyzes the Minecraft speedrunning controversy in which Dream was accused of cheating via improbably lucky drops. He walks through the probability and the statistical arguments in the original accusation and the reply.The same probability math pointed at a cheater, which Matt Parker turns into a lesson HN liked on negligible probabilities.
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5:22:14The Complete History of the A Button Challenge
2.4M views • 3 years agoBismuthA five-hour documentary history of the Super Mario 64 A button challenge, which aims to beat the game with as few A presses as possible. It covers the bugs and exploits discovered over the years.The five-hour finale for those now hooked, chronicling years of SM64 exploit discovery that HN calls an insane amount of knowledge.