How Super Mario 64 was beaten without the A button

Bismuth
26 May 202424:12

Summary

TLDRThe script details the monumental feat of completing Super Mario 64 without pressing the jump button, a challenge known as the A Button Challenge (ABC). Over the years, the game has been optimized for this task, reducing A presses to 13 for all 120 stars. Recently, Marbler achieved the incredible by beating the game in 0 A presses, using real-time strategies on a console. The summary highlights the complexity of maneuvers like hyperspeed twirling, framewalking, and precise HOLP setups, showcasing the skill and community effort behind this remarkable gaming accomplishment.

Takeaways

  • đŸ•č The A Button Challenge (ABC) in Super Mario 64 is an advanced playstyle where players complete the game without using the A button, which is typically used for jumping.
  • 🔍 Starting around 2007, the ABC gained popularity, primarily played on emulators with savestates to create tool-assisted speedruns (TASes), allowing for solutions that are technically possible but not feasible in real-time.
  • 🔄 Over two decades, the game has been refined to reduce A button presses to a minimum, with the current record being 13 presses for all 120 stars.
  • 📈 There has been a resurgence in playing the ABC in real-time on consoles, with the community making significant progress in a short span of time.
  • 🎼 A remarkable achievement occurred when Marbler completed Super Mario 64 in 0 A presses on a real console in 86 hours from May 17th to May 21st, 2024.
  • đŸ› ïž The challenge requires intricate knowledge of game mechanics, such as hyperspeed twirling, framewalking, and straining, to perform actions that are not possible with standard controller inputs.
  • đŸ‘Ÿ The use of glitches like the hat in hand, cloning, and held object's last position (HOLP) are essential for completing the game without the A button.
  • đŸŽ–ïž Marbler's accomplishment is a result of years of community effort, with contributions from various skilled players who developed strategies and techniques to make the impossible possible.
  • 🏆 The final stages of the game, including Bowser in the Fire Sea and Bowser in the Sky, involve complex setups and precise movements that push the limits of player skill and game mechanics.
  • 🎉 Marbler's success in completing Super Mario 64 with 0 A presses is considered one of the most impressive achievements in video gaming, showcasing dedication, skill, and the power of community effort.

Q & A

  • What is the A Button Challenge (ABC) in Super Mario 64?

    -The A Button Challenge in Super Mario 64 is an endeavor where players attempt to complete the game without using the A button, which is the jump button traditionally central to Mario games.

  • How did the A Button Challenge evolve over time?

    -The A Button Challenge started as a fun way to play the game but quickly became an intricate puzzle. It was initially played almost exclusively on emulators using savestates for tool-assisted speedruns (TASes), finding technically possible solutions within the game's bounds but not feasible in real-time with a controller. Over two decades, the game was refined and optimized this way, reducing the number of A presses to as low as 13 for all 120 stars.

  • What is the significance of Marbler's achievement in the A Button Challenge?

    -Marbler's achievement is significant because he completed Super Mario 64 in 0 presses of the A button in real-time, on a real console, with a real controller, in 86 hours. This was a culmination of community effort and marked the first time the game was completed without using the A button in such conditions.

  • What is CTRL and how does it relate to the video?

    -CTRL is a brand that offers meal replacement shakes and high protein snacks. It is related to the video as it sponsored the content, providing an advertisement break where the host discusses the benefits of CTRL products and offers a discount code for viewers.

  • How did the community approach the challenge of collecting 70 stars without using the A button?

    -The community worked together to discover simpler methods and invent setups that made it possible to collect 70 stars without using the A button. This involved years of practice, strategy development, and pushing the limits of what was considered achievable in the game.

  • What is the role of 'pause buffering' in the A Button Challenge?

    -Pause buffering is a technique used extensively in the run to hit precise tricks, which results in mild flashing that can be uncomfortable to watch. It allows for more precise control over Mario's movements and actions, which is crucial for executing complex strategies without using the A button.

  • Can you explain the 'hyperspeed twirling' trick used by Marbler?

    -Hyperspeed twirling is a trick where a player alternates forwards and neutral on the control stick every couple of frames to walk up steep slopes, allowing the character to slide down unto the spindrift with nearly double the speed they otherwise could have. This technique was used by Marbler to reach the 'Wall Kicks Won’t Work' star.

  • What is the 'HOLP' and how is it used in the A Button Challenge?

    -The 'HOLP' stands for 'held object's last position'. It is a mechanism in the game that updates when the game has to draw the object Mario is holding. With certain glitches, like 'hat in hand', the HOLP can become disjointed from the object being held, leading to glitches like remote release, which is crucial for certain strategies in the A Button Challenge.

  • What is the significance of the 'Bowser in the Fire Sea' level in Marbler's run?

    -The 'Bowser in the Fire Sea' level is significant because it is the reason why Marbler's run is the first ever completion of Super Mario 64 in 0 A presses on a console. The level has a unique bug in the Wii VC version where sinking platforms rise very slowly due to a number format conversion error, allowing Marbler to eventually bypass a pole after waiting for over 72 hours.

  • How did Marbler manage to get past the pole in 'Bowser in the Fire Sea'?

    -Marbler took advantage of a bug specific to the Wii VC version of the game. He stored a large vertical speed from a lava boost and waited for over 72 hours for the sinking platforms to rise due to a rounding error in the emulator. Once high enough, he reactivated the speed and dived to the elevator, bypassing the pole.

  • What is the 'Chuckya Drop' maneuver and why is it significant?

    -The 'Chuckya Drop' is an extremely complex and precise maneuver where Marbler manipulates the enemy Chuckya to run off its platform and fall. The aim is to get Chuckya to throw Mario onto a seesaw platform after a random throw. This maneuver is significant because it showcases the level of precision and strategy required in the A Button Challenge and took Marbler 42 attempts to succeed.

Outlines

00:00

đŸ•č The A Button Challenge Evolution

The A Button Challenge (ABC) in Super Mario 64 is an intriguing gameplay modification where players attempt to complete the game without using the jump button, A. Originating as a fun twist, it evolved into a complex puzzle, especially when tackled through emulators and tool-assisted speedruns (TASes). Since 2007, players have been refining strategies to minimize A button presses, reaching an optimized count of 13 presses for all 120 stars. Recently, there's been a resurgence in real-time console play, culminating in a remarkable achievement: Marbler completed the game in 0 A presses, an 86-hour feat on a real console using a real controller. This section also includes a sponsorship mention for CTRL, a brand offering meal replacement shakes and high-protein snacks.

05:02

🎼 Mastering the Art of No A Presses

This section delves into the intricacies of achieving 0 A presses in Super Mario 64. It starts by explaining the necessity of collecting 70 stars without using the A button for actions like backward long jumps. The community's collaborative efforts led to the discovery of simpler methods and innovative setups that pushed the boundaries of in-game possibilities. Notable contributors like Marbler, Pannenkoek2012, and others played pivotal roles. The paragraph highlights the selection of 70 specific stars and the challenges of using modern strategies to overcome them, including Wall Kicks Won’t Work and Bowser in the Dark World with red coins, which require advanced techniques like hyperspeed twirling, framewalking, and vertical speed conservation.

10:04

đŸ€č‍♂ Advanced Techniques and Glitches

The narrative continues with an exploration of advanced gameplay techniques and glitches utilized in the A Button Challenge. This includes strategies for Bob-omb Battlefield, which heavily relies on cloning and the held object's last position (HOLP). The difficulty of performing these actions in real-time is contrasted with their frequent use in TASes. Marbler's approach to various stars, such as those requiring precise HOLP settings, object slot manipulation, and innovative uses of in-game mechanics, is detailed. The paragraph also covers challenges like the Shifting Sand Land 100-coin star and the Stand Tall on Four Pillars star, where precise movements and understanding of game physics are crucial.

15:04

đŸ”„ Conquering Difficult Levels and Stars

This part of the script describes the process of conquering particularly challenging levels and stars in Super Mario 64. It covers strategies for levels like Big Boo's Haunt, Hazy Maze Cave, and Jolly Roger Bay, where unique tricks like scuttlebug raising, wall collision exploits, and the .99 trick for speed optimization are employed. Each level presents a unique set of difficulties, from the precise execution of the book puzzle in Big Boo's Haunt to the demanding dive recover in Hazy Maze Cave, and the intricate timing required in Jolly Roger Bay.

20:05

🌋 The Wii VC Exploit and Final Challenges

The script explains a critical exploit used in the Wii Virtual Console version of Super Mario 64, which allows sinking platforms to rise due to a floating-point conversion bug. This exploit was vital for Marbler to progress in levels like Bowser in the Fire Sea, where he had to wait for platforms to rise over the course of a real-time 72-hour period. The narrative also details the final challenges Marbler faced, including difficult stars in Wet-Dry World, Tall, Tall Mountain, and Snowman's Land, where he had to master framewalking, ghost rollouts, and other precise mechanics to succeed.

🏆 The Unthinkable Achievement

The finale of the script recounts the climactic moments of Marbler's record-breaking run, where he attempts the final Bowser battle in the Sky without using the A button. The paragraph describes the elaborate setup and execution of the 'Chuckya Drop,' a complex and risky maneuver that involves manipulating the game's AI and camera mechanics. Despite the high stakes and numerous attempts required, Marbler successfully completes this challenge and proceeds to defeat Bowser, marking the first-ever completion of Super Mario 64 in 0 A presses on console. The script concludes by acknowledging the magnitude of this achievement and the incredible skill and perseverance it took to accomplish it.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡A Button Challenge (ABC)

The A Button Challenge, or ABC, refers to a specific gameplay challenge in Super Mario 64 where players attempt to complete the game without using the A button, which is typically the jump button. This concept is central to the video's theme, showcasing an alternative and highly complex way to engage with the game. The script describes how this challenge started as a fun way to play but evolved into a complex puzzle, with players using emulators and savestates to achieve seemingly impossible feats.

💡Tool-assisted speedruns (TASes)

Tool-assisted speedruns, or TASes, are a type of speedrun where players use emulators and various tools to manipulate game mechanics and create runs that are technically possible within the game's rules but are not feasible in real-time play. The video discusses how TASes have been used to optimize the A Button Challenge, reducing the number of A presses required to complete the game to as low as 13 for all 120 stars.

💡Emulators

An emulator is a software that simulates the functionality of one computer system on another, allowing games from older systems like Nintendo 64 to be played on modern hardware. In the context of the video, emulators are used to facilitate the A Button Challenge by providing features such as savestates, which are crucial for creating tool-assisted speedruns.

💡Marbler

Marbler is a player and a significant figure within the A Button Challenge community. The video highlights his achievement of being the first to complete Super Mario 64 in zero A presses in real-time on a console, which is a monumental accomplishment in the context of the challenge. His name is repeatedly mentioned throughout the script as the player who executed this incredible feat.

💡Pause buffering

Pause buffering is a technique used in both tool-assisted speedruns and real-time gameplay to achieve precise movements and hit specific game mechanics. The video mentions that Marbler's run features an 'ungodly amount of pause buffering' to hit precise tricks, which results in mild flashing that can be uncomfortable to watch but is necessary for completing the challenge.

💡Framewalking

Framewalking is a specific trick in Super Mario 64 where a player alternates between moving forward and neutral on the control stick every few frames to walk up steep slopes. This technique allows the character to slide down onto a surface with increased speed, as demonstrated by Marbler when he uses framewalking to achieve hyperspeed for a particular part of the challenge.

💡Slide grinding

Slide grinding is a technique used in Super Mario 64 where a player makes Mario slide up a slope and then holds a direction to continue sliding up the slope. This technique is used in the video to describe how Marbler climbs a slope using this method, which is a part of the complex strategies needed to complete the game without pressing the A button.

💡Straining

Straining is an in-game mechanic where a player can manipulate the character's sideways movement in the air to achieve greater horizontal distance. The video explains that Marbler uses straining to move up a slope and to perform various other precise movements that are essential for completing the challenge.

💡Cloning

Cloning, in the context of Super Mario 64 and the A Button Challenge, refers to a glitch that allows Mario to create a duplicate of an object he is holding. This is a crucial technique for completing the challenge, as it enables players to bypass certain obstacles and access areas that would otherwise be unreachable. The script describes how Marbler uses cloning in various stages, such as Bob-omb Battlefield, to collect stars.

💡Hat in hand glitch

The 'hat in hand glitch' is a specific game mechanic glitch used in Super Mario 64 that prevents an object Mario is holding from being drawn, which can lead to various cloning and other glitches. The video mentions this glitch in the context of Marbler's run, where it is used to facilitate cloning and other advanced techniques.

💡Chuckya Drop

The 'Chuckya Drop' is a complex and precise strategy used by Marbler in his run to manipulate the enemy character Chuckya to fall from a platform and land on a seesaw platform below. This strategy is highlighted in the video as particularly challenging and impressive, requiring a combination of precise movement and luck to execute successfully.

Highlights

Introduction of the A Button Challenge (ABC) in Super Mario 64, a playthrough without using the jump button.

Evolution of ABC from a fun way to play into an intricate puzzle.

Use of emulators and savestates for tool-assisted speedruns (TASes).

Optimization of the game to a minimum of 13 A presses for all 120 stars.

Resurgence of real-time console play and community achievements.

Marbler's record-breaking 0 A presses completion in 86 hours.

Explanation of CTRL meal replacement shakes and their benefits.

The challenge of collecting 70 stars in no A presses without skipping any star doors.

Community effort in simplifying TAS ABC strategies for human performance.

Marbler's role in pioneering real-time ABC and his relentless practice.

Detailed explanation of complex strategies and tricks used in the run.

The use of framewalking and hyperspeed twirling for Wall Kicks Won’t Work star.

Innovative use of cloning and the held object’s last position (HOLP) for Bob-omb Battlefield.

Marbler's precise execution of the Shifting Sand Land 100-coin star strategy.

The extremely difficult task of collecting the red coin star in Big Boo’s Haunt.

Marbler's utilization of the Wii VC version's unique bug for the platforms in Bowser in the Fire Sea.

The final and most impressive achievement of beating Super Mario 64 without using the A button.

Transcripts

00:00

The A Button Challenge in Super Mario 64 consists  of trying to complete the game without using the  

00:05

A button. For the uninitiated, that’s the jump  button, which is kind of a pillar of Mario games.  

00:10

What began as a new fun way to play the game,  the A Button Challenge, or ABC for short, quickly  

00:15

turned into more of an infinitely intricate puzzle  rather than a test of skill. Starting around 2007,  

00:21

it was almost exclusively played on emulator using  savestates to create tool-assisted speedruns,  

00:26

or TASes, and found solutions that were  technically possible within the bounds of  

00:29

the game but wouldn’t be feasible in real time  with a controller. Over the past twenty years,  

00:34

the game has been tirelessly refined and optimized  this way, all the way down to 13 A presses for  

00:40

all 120 stars. For more information, check out  this short summary video I made on the topic.

00:46

But in the past few years, there’s been a  resurgence of playing the ABC in real time,  

00:50

on console, and what the community accomplished  in that time is nothing short of incredible.  

00:54

What just happened last week is the culmination  of this amazing community effort. From May 17th  

01:00

to May 21st, 2024, Super Mario 64 was beaten  in 0 presses of the A button by Marbler.

01:05

[Marbler: It’s done! Guys it is done!]

01:09

In real time, on a real console, with a real  controller, in 86 hours. So how did he do it?

01:17

Before we go on, I want to talk to you  about CTRL. When I wake up in the morning,  

01:21

I always wanna start recording right away,  and I can never take the time to make a  

01:24

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01:29

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01:33

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01:37

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01:53

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01:58

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02:01

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02:11

First of all, although the game can be  beaten in fewer than the required 70 stars,  

02:15

doing so inevitably makes use of the A  button, usually to do backwards long jumps,  

02:19

so that’s off the table right away. This would  have to be done by collecting 70 stars in no A  

02:24

presses, and reaching Bowser in the Sky without  skipping any star doors. So which 70 stars do you  

02:30

choose? As it turns out, even  if you only pick the easiest,  

02:33

you quickly run into very slippery territory  after just a couple dozen, let alone 70.

02:38

The TAS ABC is infamous for displaying the most  extreme strategies to save one A press, things  

02:43

that are so far removed from something remotely  achievable by a human that I can’t even begin  

02:47

to describe it. The task of taking dozens of  these and turn them into something that could  

02:52

actually be performed was the first step  of this process, and it took the community  

02:55

years to pull it off. Through the combined  work of Marbler himself, Pannenkoek2012,  

03:00

Ivan178, BillyWAR, dabs, ex320kyt, zyon134,  blobfish_times, saplingdatree and ds273,  

03:08

simpler methods were discovered, setups were  invented, the limits of what’s achievable were  

03:13

shattered, and it ever so slowly became less  and less unthinkable. Marbler, one of the most  

03:18

influential figures of the TAS ABC of the past  five years, set out to become a pioneer in the  

03:23

real time ABC. He practiced relentlessly for  months, came up with several strategies of his  

03:28

own, and set out to be the first person to  complete Super Mario 64 in zero A presses.

03:33

These are the 70 stars he chose to collect.  Among those, using modern strategies,  

03:38

most of them are relatively trivial with enough  practice. Let’s go through the ones that aren’t.

03:44

Four stars in, we have Wall Kicks Won’t Work,  so Marbler used hyperspeed twirling to reach the  

03:49

star. Quick heads up, the whole run features an  ungodly amount of pause buffering to hit precise  

03:53

tricks, which results in mild flashing  that can be uncomfortable to watch. So,  

03:57

to get hyperspeed, Marbler used framewalking, a  trick where you alternate forwards and neutral  

04:02

on the control stick every couple of frames to  walk up steep slopes, so he could slide down  

04:06

unto the spindrift and hit it with nearly  double the speed he otherwise could have.

04:11

Next is Bowser in the Dark World with red  coins, and already, this is one of the  

04:14

hardest parts of the run. There are five  main challenges to overcome here. First,  

04:19

Marbler uses an open corner in the wall hitboxes  to set up vertical speed conservation, or VSC,  

04:24

and store the vertical speed of a dive recover,  which he reactivates to grab this ledge. Then, he  

04:29

lures a goomba down to come back from the 6th red  coin and framewalks up the seesaw platform, then  

04:34

uses it to slidekick bounce across. He climbs this  slope using slide grinding. The angle Mario is  

04:41

facing makes it so as soon as he’s on the slope,  he slides off and enters freefall without having  

04:46

any time to start turning, then immediately falls  back on it because Marbler is holding up right.  

04:50

But because he’s actually holding ever so slightly  more up than right, Mario ends up moving sideways  

04:56

up the slope by a tiny amount every time. Sideways  movement while in the air is called straining.  

05:01

Finally, he dive recovers onto the pipe using a  precise setup that makes him land on a 1x1 unit  

05:06

bit of floor that isn’t covered by any wall  hitbox. This quirk of some platform corners  

05:11

is called a misalignment and is caused by the game  rounding down Mario’s position do an integer value  

05:15

for the purpose of floor detection, but not wall  detection. Bowser himself is trivial afterwards.

05:21

Next up is Bob-omb Battlefield. Three  stars require going on the floating island:  

05:26

Shoot to the Island in the Sky, red coins  and 100 coins. This level makes extensive  

05:30

use of cloning and the HOLP: the held object’s  last position. The HOLP only gets updated when  

05:36

the game has to draw the object Mario is  holding. With a glitch called hat in hand,  

05:40

Mario’s hat can prevent an object  Mario is holding from ever being drawn,  

05:44

meaning that the HOLP becomes disjointed from  the object being held, leading to glitches  

05:47

like remote release. Cloning is the bread and  butter of the TAS ABC, but it’s monstrously  

05:53

difficult to do in real time because it hinges  on the exact way every object in the level is  

05:56

loaded and deloaded. Coming up with viable real  time strategies for cloning is nothing short of  

06:01

miraculous. The full ABC video has a complete  breakdown of how the HOLP and cloning work.

06:07

Marbler begins with red coins and 100  coins by setting a HOLP just off this  

06:11

ledge and sending a goomba clone to  it using the hat in hand glitch. He  

06:15

uses that clone to set another HOLP closer to  the island, sends another goomba clone to it,  

06:19

does a hands free teleport with a bob-omb to store  it for Mario to retrieve later, and takes a shell  

06:24

all the way up the mountain. Once up there, he  does a slide kick off the shell to land on the  

06:28

second goomba clone with a ton of speed and makes  his way to the island. He regrabs the bob-omb,  

06:33

which was invisible in front of Mario this  whole time, and that allows him to set the  

06:37

HOLP near the star box for Shoot to the Island in  the Sky. He finishes the red coins and 100 coins,  

06:42

then reenters the level and sends a goomba  clone to the HOLP before redoing a similar  

06:46

setup to reach the island. This time, he can  use the goomba clone to bounce to the star.

06:51

Another star in Bob-omb Battlefield is  particularly challenging: Behind Chain  

06:54

Chomp’s Gate. The star is too high to dive  recover to, and the gate can’t be destroyed  

06:59

without ground pounding this post three times,  so he uses a cork box to clip inside the gate  

07:03

and set the HOLP under the star. Then, he uses  a very specific cloning setup to send two goomba  

07:09

clones to the same HOLP. With a precisely  engineered object slot manipulation setup,  

07:13

he’s able to place the goomba that’s earlier  in the processing order lower, and the one  

07:17

that’s later higher. When he comes back into  the gate, he bounces on the low goomba first,  

07:21

then the high goomba second, high enough  to reach the star with a single HOLP.

07:26

Before he leaves Bob-omb Battlefield, Marbler has  one final task: to set an extremely precise HOLP  

07:31

to help him get the Shifting Sand Land 100-coin  star. He heads over there, collects some coins,  

07:36

and remote drops a cork box using the hat in hand  glitch. Thanks to the perfectly accurate HOLP,  

07:41

the box slides down and breaks on  the very last frame of its lifetime,  

07:44

allowing it to be duplicated for infinite coins.

07:47

Stand Tall on Four Pillars is one of the hardest  stars in the run. The crux of the issue is getting  

07:52

this goomba to chase Mario outside of its home  and get in the perfect position. From there,  

07:56

a precise setup lets Marbler bounce on the goomba  and end up inside this pillar in such a way that  

08:01

he gets pushed out onto this platform. Once  that’s done, a slidekick gets him on this  

08:05

narrow ledge from where he can take the warp  up. This warp is meant to be one way only, but  

08:09

there’s a very small section where it’s possible  to activate it the other way around. Finally,  

08:14

Marbler makes his way across to the Eyerok  fight, making sure to never fall into the sand,  

08:18

because there’s no way out of it if he does.  Collecting the star is tricky, but doable.

08:32

For Vanish Cap Under the Moat, Marbler can crawl  up the entire first slope, then slidekick bounce  

08:37

over the wall to clear the first half of the  stage. The second half is hard but doable in  

08:41

no A presses until you reach the switch. Here,  Marbler needs to make it on not one, but two  

08:46

misalignments to reach the top. Thankfully,  setups exist to make it less excruciating.

08:52

Next up, in Big Boo’s Haunt, the Merry-go-round  star. This would be a trivial star, if not for  

08:57

the fact that the star is barely too high to  collect with a dive recover. Instead, Marbler has  

09:02

to resort to scuttlebug raising from inside this  room. He sets up the scuttlebug near the door,  

09:07

then carefully runs over the area where the  scuttlebug and the room get loaded for just a few  

09:11

frames, in such a way that makes the scuttlebug  repeatedly lunge upwards and gain height. Then,  

09:16

he sets up the hat in hand glitch so he can  perform remote dropping, and picks up a cork  

09:20

box. He bounces with the cork box and bumps into  the scuttlebug, dropping the box at the HOLP,  

09:25

which he previously set to a specific location in  Cool, Cool, Mountain. With that setup complete,  

09:30

he drops to the Merry-go-round, has to be  extremely careful not to load the cork box  

09:34

early while he fights all the Boos, and  regrabs the box to bounce into the star.

09:38

The red coin star is one of the  hardest in the run. This red coin  

09:42

requires a chain of bounces on these two  Boos that is extremely difficult mostly  

09:46

because it’s just really precise and it  involves manipulating two Boos at once.

09:51

The Haunted Books star is also relatively  simple but difficult to execute. As with  

09:55

every star that involves going upstairs,  it starts with selecting Go on a Ghost  

09:59

Hunt so that the staircase starts lowered.  After getting rid of all the Boos, Marbler  

10:03

dive recovers on the stairs as they’re raising,  storing vertical speed. He then reactivates it  

10:09

to enter freefall with positive speed, letting  him grab the ledge on the upper floor. Then,  

10:13

he does the book puzzle and reaches the star with  a very precise dive recover onto the railing,  

10:18

followed by a ground pound. This strategy only  works because of wall collision shenanigans  

10:22

and runs the risk of falling off, in which  case you need to pause exit and start over.

10:27

In Hazy Maze Cave, Marbler needs to go to the  Cavern of the Metal Cap, not just for its star,  

10:31

but also because the metal cap itself unlocks  3 more stars afterwards. There are two methods  

10:36

to get across, both of which absolutely suck  to do in real time. You can dive recover from  

10:41

Dorrie’s head, but that’s insanely precise and  there’s no way to do a normalized position setup  

10:46

because you’re doing it from a moving object.  Marbler tries his hand at that for a while,  

10:49

but doesn’t get it. Instead, he uses this  slope to do hyperspeed walking and store  

10:54

a large amount of sliding speed. He reactivates  that speed with a frame perfect crouch and C-up  

10:59

as he gets out of the water to shoot to the ledge  and grab it. Once inside, the main challenge is  

11:03

to get this precise dive rollout onto the  crystal, then another one onto the switch.

11:09

Next up is Jolly Roger Bay. Here, the sunken  ship star can be collected by crawling and  

11:13

framewalking up the slippery slope, all the way  up to above the star. And now’s the hard part.  

11:19

Marbler stops walking and Mario gets what’s  called a steep floor push, which pushes him  

11:23

off the slope into a backwards freefall. From  there, he’s too far from the box to reach it,  

11:27

so he has to use perfectly angled straining  to keep Mario’s speed as close as possible  

11:31

to -16 without reaching -16. Mario’s speed has a  soft cap at -16 and at 32, above which a sharper  

11:39

deceleration is applied to him. By staying  under that cap using a lot of straining,  

11:43

Marbler is able to keep his speed while adding  on a lot of sideways movement, maximizing how  

11:48

much he’s able to move Mario in a single frame.  This is often used in TASes to optimize Mario’s  

11:53

speed to 31.99, so it’s usually called the .99  trick. Performing it in real time in any capacity  

11:59

is ridiculously hard, because there’s  basically no way to tell what the decimal  

12:03

portion of Mario’s speed is and how to  get it as close to -15.99 as possible.

12:08

Through the Jet Stream is equally difficult. This  time, it’s mostly because Marbler needs to get  

12:13

Mario into a unit precise spot under the star that  will get the stream to push him upwards into it,  

12:17

while under the time limit of the metal cap.  Thankfully, a setup exists to make his life a  

12:22

bit easier here. Actually getting the metal cap is  no easy task either, with this crazy dive recover.

12:28

Next is Whomp’s Fortress. First, the HOLP is  set in a far corner at the very bottom of the  

12:33

map in Cool, Cool Mountain using the baby penguin.  Then, Marbler fights King Whomp using the elevator  

12:38

platforms. After spawning the star, he uses  a cork box to clone a piece of the collapsing  

12:43

bridge and the hat in hand glitch to throw it  to the HOLP while he’s standing on it. As the  

12:47

piece is rotating, it applies a displacement  to Mario because he’s standing on it, and  

12:51

this displacement is still applied on the frame  where the platform warps to the HOLP. Except now,  

12:55

the rotational displacement is applied over a  much larger distance, so it moves Mario a lot  

13:00

more. Object slots were carefully manipulated  and the HOLP was carefully placed to send Mario  

13:05

directly to the star. To the Top of the Fortress  is done the same way to get onto the fortress.

13:10

Before leaving Whomp’s Fortress, Marbler sets up  a HOLP to help him get another Shifting Sand Land  

13:15

star, the red coins. Again, this star involves a  ton of object slot manipulation. Three airborne  

13:20

red coins are collected using fly guys and a  tornado, but the fourth one is more complicated.  

13:24

The extra tornado here can’t be used because it  only spawns after getting the first three stars,  

13:29

and Into the Ancient Pyramid can’t be collected in  0 A presses. Marbler has to clone a body part of  

13:34

this pokey and send it to the HOLP, then take  a cork box to the pillar to place the HOLP in  

13:38

a new location, and clone another pokey body  part and send it there. He now has two pokey  

13:43

balls to bounce on, and he does so with a  dive recover. They’re not perfectly aligned,  

13:47

so he has to strain left, then right to barely  reach the red coin, all while dealing with this  

13:51

awful camera angle. Finally, the star  is cloned so that Mario can reach it.

13:57

Marbler moves on to Dire Dire Docks.  To get on Bowser’s sub, he has to grab  

14:01

onto these cork boxes, but they’re normally  too high to do it. Using a position setup,  

14:05

he falls off the side and does a glitchy ledge  grab. For Mario to ledge grab, the game has to  

14:10

detect a wall near Mario’s feet, no wall hear  his head, and a floor in front of him. When  

14:14

Mario is in a very precise location, the game  detects the lower box’s wall near Mario’s feet,  

14:19

but just barely misses the wall of the upper  box by less than one unit. The floor at the  

14:24

top sticks out by one unit, so it is detected and  Mario grabs the ledge of the upper cork box. This  

14:29

has to be done under the tight timer of the purple  switch not once, not twice, but three times.

14:34

The Manta Ray star is mostly difficult because  Mario’s swimming using only the B button is  

14:39

really slow. While the first 4 rings stay out  for quite some time, once you go through 4 rings,  

14:44

the last one is a special one that spawns the  star, and for some reason it lasts for a much  

14:48

shorter time than the others. His swimming has  to be perfect in order to go through it in time.

14:54

And now, Marbler enters Bowser in the Fire Sea,  4 and a half hours in, with 49 stars. To get past  

14:59

the pole, he has a special trick up his sleeve.  When I said that Marbler was playing on console,  

15:04

I didn’t specify which console. He is on the  Wii VC version of the game. The Wii emulates  

15:09

Nintendo 64 games to play them on the Virtual  Console, and there’s a bug with the emulator and  

15:13

a number format conversion. Whenever the game  converts a number from a 64-bit floating point  

15:18

number to a 32-bit float, the resulting number  usually doesn’t lie exactly on a 32-bit floating  

15:24

point value. If it doesn’t, the Nintendo 64  simply rounds it to the nearest available float,  

15:29

but the Wii VC version rounds it towards zero  instead. This conversion is made every time  

15:33

these sinking platforms move, so every single  time they move, they inch a tiny little bit  

15:38

towards Y position 0. At the bottom of the stage,  vertical position is negative, so going towards 0  

15:43

means going upwards. This means that over time,  the sinking platforms rise up into the air, very  

15:49

very slowly. How slowly? Well, every time there’s  a rounding error, they move up by approximately  

15:55

one 8000th of a unit [Note: should be 16000th].  The time it takes for that error to compound  

15:59

so much that the platforms rise up closer  to where the elevator is over three days.

16:04

After 6 hours have passed, Marbler drops  to the lava and bounces onto the platform,  

16:09

which stores the huge vertical speed of a  lava boost. From here, he punches forward to  

16:13

preserve that speed, and waits near the edge  of the platforms for 72 more hours. Finally,  

16:19

the platforms are now high enough that he can  reactivate that speed and dive to the elevator.  

16:23

The walls are only solid in one direction,  so he gets pushed in and he makes it past  

16:27

the pole. Note that to avoid having to wait  several more hours, he had to time this right  

16:32

at the peak of the platform’s movement, and  in the moment, he completely forgot to do it.

16:36

[Marbler: Oh no
 I wasn’t watching
  the height of the platform
]

16:43

By a stroke of luck, he just happened to do it at  the perfect time and he had the height to make it.

16:47

Bowser in the Fire Sea is the reason why  this is the first ever completion of Super  

16:51

Mario 64 in 0 A presses on console, even  including TASes. The platforms do not rise  

16:57

on the Nintendo 64 or any other rerelease,  and a Wii VC TAS being played back on console  

17:02

would desynchronize because the Wii has  occasional issues with input polling.

17:07

Now 82 hours in, Marbler makes it to Wet-Dry  World. The first star he goes for is Top  

17:12

o’ the Town. He needs to carry Chuckya  close to where the star is. To do that,  

17:16

he interrupts a punch grab by falling and diving,  which triggers a glitch where Chuckya is treated  

17:21

as a light object instead of a heavy object.  This lets him fall off the ledge holding it,  

17:25

and ledge grab, dropping Chuckya on the plank  and getting grabbed at the same time. Here,  

17:29

it’s a 50/50 chance that Chuckya will throw  him off the plank. That did not go so well  

17:34

in this run. After opening the box, he catches  Chuckya as a light object again, throws it and  

17:40

instantly regrabs it, and finally, gets thrown  into the star. This also is a 50/50 chance,  

17:47

and if that fails, that attempt is ruined. He  reset the star three times to get it to work.

17:52

Express Elevator - Hurry Up! is one of the  hardest stars in the run. To get on the elevator,  

17:57

you can’t swim, because B swimming is too  slow, so Marbler has to use Chuckya instead.  

18:02

Grabbing Chuckya as a light object has the  side effect of locking Chuckya’s anchor,  

18:05

essentially its own HOLP: the position where Mario  would be at if it was holding him. Marbler carries  

18:10

Chuckya down here, where he sets up another glitch  to preserve the anchor: Behind Camera Anywhere,  

18:15

or BCA. The camera’s focus point is usually  a little bit in front of Mario, and using  

18:19

the fixed camera, it’s possible for Mario to be  behind the camera but the focus to be in front,  

18:24

leading to Mario not even being on screen, and  therefore not rendered. Remember how the HOLP only  

18:29

gets updated when the object needs to be drawn?  Well, Chuckya’s anchor doesn’t get updated when  

18:33

it doesn’t need to be drawn. Marbler gets caught  by Chuckya and thrown where the anchor still is,  

18:38

up on the plank. Now, he just needs to hope he  gets thrown in the right direction again. This  

18:42

lets him reach the elevator, but he still  needs Chuckya. He grabs it light again,  

18:46

this time using water, and quickly takes it to  push him through the wall and get on the elevator.

18:51

Marbler makes it to Tall, Tall, Mountain,  where the hardest star is Scale the Mountain.  

18:55

Actually scaling the mountain isn’t hard, it  simply involves a lot of framewalking. The  

19:00

problem is the star is barely too high  for a dive recover from the flat top,  

19:03

and you can’t roll out from a steep slippery  surface. Instead, Marbler uses what’s called  

19:08

a ghost rollout. He gathers a ton of backwards  speed and gets into a position where a combination  

19:13

of floor and wall hitbox mechanics ends up pushing  Mario off the slope right at the start of a frame,  

19:18

before the game has time to snap Mario down to the  floor. For a fraction of a frame, he’s slightly  

19:22

above the flat surface, which means he can rollout  from ever so slightly higher and reach the star.

19:28

Marbler makes his way to Snowman’s Land. Into  the igloo is the final hard star to get. He  

19:33

enters the igloo using the shell and a dive  recover. Then, he runs into this corner at  

19:38

the right angle to do a dive recover into  an unreferenced wall. Mario can only keep  

19:42

track of one wall that he’s pushing against at  one time, so in any corner between two walls,  

19:46

the one that’s earlier in the processing  order will be unreferenced, or in other words,  

19:50

Mario won’t push against it or bonk on it. His  angle with the referenced wall is too shallow,  

19:55

so he doesn’t bonk and can dive recover on  the spindrift and reach the vanish cap. Then,  

20:00

he lures another spindrift under the limited  cap timer and rolls out on it to reach the star.

20:04

Now only missing a Toad  star, Marbler heads to Cool,  

20:07

Cool Mountain to set a HOLP in a precise spot  that’s totally not gonna be relevant later,  

20:11

and goes to Lethal Lava Land to farm lives up  to a hundred in order to go attempt Bowser in  

20:15

the Sky. Reaching Bowser in the Sky is a huge  pain with glitchy ledge grabs, misalignmnents  

20:21

and sliding on the railing, so once he gets up  there, he never wants to have to do it again.

20:26

And now, Bowser in the Sky. The first couple  platforms are reached using misalignments,  

20:31

with a setup to get into them. Then, Marbler pulls  off something that is actually batshit insane:  

20:37

the Chuckya Drop. I’m gonna be real here: I can’t  begin to describe this in a way that would do it  

20:43

justice. To better show it, here’s a TAS that  does the exact same strategy Marbler did in his  

20:49

run. While on this moving platform, he dances  around the edge of Chuckya’s activation range  

20:53

in an extremely precise and deliberate way to  manipulate it to run off its platform and fall  

20:58

all the way down here. While Marbler is busy  pause buffering his way through a ton of frame  

21:02

perfect movement, several glitchy ledge grabs,  and doing this manipulation completely blind,  

21:06

he gets Chuckya to chase Mario, get into the right  spot, turn it repeatedly just the right amount,  

21:11

slowly inch to the perfect spot, and fall off the  platform. Finally, he gets grabbed and randomly  

21:17

thrown, hoping to land on the seesaw platform.  Let me repeat this. After this completely insane  

21:24

10-minute setup, he gets thrown in a random  direction and hopes that he survives. Thankfully,  

21:30

he actually has a 56% chance of making it,  and he does on his first successful attempt  

21:35

at the Chuckya Drop. This took him 42 attempts.  Every time anything went wrong, he had to reset  

21:41

the level by dying. However, he’s not out of the  woods yet. He still has the entire stage to climb.

21:47

Fortunately, the HOLP he set earlier comes  to the rescue. Marbler grabs the Chuckya  

21:52

using Behind Camera Anywhere and throws  it to the HOLP. This sounds very simple,  

21:56

but it’s actually unbelievably nervewracking.  BCA is a very precise trick made harder by the  

22:02

fact that you can’t see much of anything, and in  this case, Chuckya makes sure that Marbler can’t  

22:06

see anything at all. On top of that, he needs to  grab it as a light object, which means he needs  

22:11

to do the frame perfect punch cancel pause  buffered dive method with the perfect angle,  

22:15

without having any idea of what he’s doing. If  he messes up, he needs to die to reset the stage,  

22:20

or worse, be expelled to Cool, Cool Mountain to  reset the HOLP. He gets it after a few attempts.

22:26

Next, he runs up the disjointed, misplaced  hitbox of the axle. Again, needless to say,  

22:31

this is extremely precise. Mario gets squished and  pushed out at the end and grabs the ledge. After  

22:36

angling the camera to briefly render Chuckya and  set its anchor by the HOLP further up the level,  

22:40

Marbler positions Mario in a precise spot with  the right camera angle to set up BCA again while  

22:45

Chuckya is falling off screen until it grabs  Mario. Because Chuckya is never rendered and  

22:50

its anchor never updated, Mario is warped  up to the HOLP, near the top of the stage.

22:54

The very last hurdle is this ledge, and he  needs to lure a goomba to bounce on it with  

22:59

a dive recover. The goombas aren’t infinite here.  If he messes up, he has to redo the entire stage.  

23:05

He lures the goomba down. He bounces on it, and  misses. But there is another goomba. The third one  

23:12

is too far though, so if he messes up this one,  it’s really over. He lures it down, and this time,  

23:18

it’s good. A bit of trivial movement and a  misalignment with a position setup get him  

23:23

in the pipe, and he fights Bowser. Again, Bowser  doesn’t require A, so he cruises to the finish.

23:29

There are simply no words that can do justice  to Marbler’s achievement. This was unthinkable  

23:35

just two years ago. Super Mario 64 has  been beaten without using the A button  

23:40

for the first time in history. This is  one of the most impressive video game  

23:44

achievements ever. It simply doesn’t  get any better than this. I hope this  

23:50

video shed a bit of light on how incredible  this really is, and thank you for watching!

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Tags associés
Super Mario 64A Button ChallengeGaming AchievementMarblerTASSpeedrunEmulatorReal TimeConsole PlayGlitches
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