The Absurd History of Level 8-2

Kosmic
11 May 202434:44

Summary

TLDRThe video script narrates the intricate history and evolution of level 8-2 in Super Mario Brothers, a game renowned for its challenging speedrun dynamics. Once deemed impossible for a perfect run, the level saw a transformation within a year, shifting from an unattainable feat to a prime target for record-breaking attempts. The narrative unfolds through a series of peculiar events, including a 20-minute title screen wait, millions of simulations, and even a solution inspired by a dream. The story highlights the dedication and ingenuity of the speedrunning community as they tackle frame-perfect tricks, phantom bullet bills, and the infamous coin toss mechanic. Despite the complexity and the numerous strategies explored, including a rare plant despawn and a double Bullet Bill jump, the essence of the narrative lies in the pursuit of simplicity amidst absurdity. The journey from an initial time-consuming and complex approach to a more streamlined and efficient strategy is a testament to the continuous innovation and exploration within the speedrunning community.

Takeaways

  • 🎮 The history of level 8-2 in Super Mario Brothers is filled with surprising developments and strategies that have evolved over time.
  • 🚀 At one point, achieving a perfect run in level 8-2 was considered impossible, but within a year, it became a key area for improving world records.
  • 💡 The evolution of strategies involved odd sequences, such as waiting on the title screen and running millions of simulations to find solutions.
  • 🕒 A significant change involved a discovery that allowed for more precise control over the game's frame rules by manipulating power-ups and taking damage.
  • 🌟 The 'Double Bullet Bill' strategy was developed, which potentially improved the speedrun time but required a lengthy wait on the title screen.
  • ⏱️ Despite the potential of the Double Bullet Bill strategy, it was not widely adopted due to the initial long wait time and slight increases in difficulty in other parts of the level.
  • 🔄 Kriller 37's innovative thinking led to the realization that the fast acceleration at the start of the level (fast Excel) might not be necessary, which simplified the strategy.
  • 🎉 The culmination of these strategies and insights led to a new world record time for Super Mario Brothers speedrunning, achieving the long-awaited time of 45:45.
  • 🧠 The story of level 8-2 showcases the dedication and creativity of the speedrunning community, as they continuously push the boundaries of what's thought possible in a game.
  • 📉 The process of discovering new strategies often involves complex and sometimes convoluted methods before arriving at simpler and more efficient solutions.
  • 📈 The constant refinement of strategies and the willingness to challenge established methods are what make speedrunning an engaging and dynamic competitive scene.

Q & A

  • What is the significance of level 8-2 in Super Mario Brothers?

    -Level 8-2 is significant because it is one of the hardest levels in the game, especially for speedrunners. It has a history of being considered impossible to complete with a perfect run, but over time, strategies were developed to achieve this.

  • What is the 'coin toss' phenomenon in Super Mario Brothers?

    -The 'coin toss' phenomenon refers to the game mechanic where Mario can only interact with enemies every other frame. On one frame, he can stomp enemies or take damage, but on the next frame, he will pass through them without interaction until the second frame of overlap.

  • How did the initial strategy for a perfect run of level 8-2 change over a year?

    -The initial strategy evolved from being considered impossible to becoming the best place to improve the world record. This change was due to a sequence of odd events, including waiting on the title screen, running simulations, and discovering new tricks like the fast acceleration and the Bullet Bill glitch.

  • What is a 'Phantom bullet bill' in the context of Super Mario Brothers speedrunning?

    -A 'Phantom bullet bill' is a bullet bill that never appears on screen but shows up in memory for one frame. This phenomenon can affect gameplay, and it is used in the strategy to despawn the piranha plant in level 8-2.

  • Why was the Double Bullet Bill strategy not widely adopted by speedrunners?

    -The Double Bullet Bill strategy was not widely adopted because it made early parts of the level slightly harder and required waiting on the title screen for an extended period. Speedrunners preferred the three-frame jump setup, which was more consistent and less time-consuming.

  • How did kriller 37 contribute to improving the strategy for level 8-2?

    -Kriller 37 discovered that a precise jump from the top of the staircase could achieve the necessary height for the Bullet Bill glitch without the need for a fast acceleration at the start of the level. This simplified the strategy and improved the success rate of achieving a perfect run.

  • What is the 'fast excel' at the start of level 8-2, and why was it initially thought to be necessary?

    -The 'fast excel' is a technique where Mario accelerates faster by jumping backwards in the air than running forward on the ground. It was initially thought to be necessary because it allowed for a slight speed increase at the start of the level, which was crucial for achieving the perfect run.

  • Why did the initial strategy for level 8-2 require waiting on the title screen?

    -Waiting on the title screen was a method to manipulate the frame rule timer, allowing access to more patterns that could potentially lead to the despawning of the piranha plant and other advantageous outcomes.

  • How did the discovery of the 'Phantom bullet bills' impact the strategy for level 8-2?

    -The discovery of 'Phantom bullet bills' led to the realization that they could be used to despawn the piranha plant, which was a significant obstacle. However, the conditions required for this to happen were extremely rare and difficult to replicate consistently.

  • What is the frame rule in Super Mario Brothers speedrunning, and how does it affect the game?

    -The frame rule in Super Mario Brothers speedrunning refers to the specific frame on which a player can arrive at a certain point in the game. It affects the game by determining the enemy patterns and other in-game events, which can significantly impact the strategies used by speedrunners.

  • How did the speedrunning community react to the various strategies developed for level 8-2?

    -The community showed a mix of fascination, experimentation, and skepticism. While some runners tried out the new strategies, others stuck with the more established methods. The pursuit of a perfect run in level 8-2 led to significant innovations and a deeper understanding of the game's mechanics.

Outlines

00:00

🎮 The History of Level 8-2 in Super Mario Bros

The paragraph introduces the history of Super Mario Bros' level 8-2, which is considered one of the hardest levels in the game. It discusses how a year of change transformed the level from an impossible perfect run to a record-breaking one. The story involves odd strategies, simulations, and even a solution found in a dream, highlighting the absurdity of the level's history.

05:02

🏎️ Perfecting Level 8-2: The Three-Step Challenge

This paragraph breaks down the three parts of achieving a perfect run of level 8-2. It details the fast acceleration start, the precise jump over the piranha plant and pipe, and the Bullet Bill glitch. The paragraph also explains how a runner named Tav managed to combine these elements to achieve a near-perfect run, with the only issue being the plant despawning glitch.

10:03

🌱 Despawning the Piranha Plant: A Rare Glitch

The focus is on the unusual phenomenon of the piranha plant despawning in level 8-2. The paragraph explores why this happens and how it's related to the game's sprite management. It also discusses the concept of phantom bullet bills and how they contribute to the plant despawning at a specific time, adding a layer of complexity to the level's strategy.

15:03

🔍 The Search for the Perfect Pattern

This section delves into the effort to find a pattern that allows for the plant despawn and a perfect Bullet Bill shot. It explains the use of scripts to test millions of combinations and the rarity of the successful outcome. Despite the difficulty, the search continues, highlighting the dedication of the speedrunning community to mastering the game.

20:05

🕒 The Time-Consuming Strategy and Its Drawbacks

The paragraph discusses the impracticality of the plant despawn strategy due to the extensive waiting time on the title screen. It also mentions the discovery of a more consistent method to start the game at the right time using power-ups and taking damage. However, the method's inconsistency and the high chance of failure make it unsuitable for top-level speedruns.

25:09

💡 Innovations in Level Strategy: Simplified Solutions

This section describes how Kriller 37 questioned the existing strategies and found simpler solutions to the level's challenges. It covers the discovery of a new Bullet Bill jump technique and the realization that the fast acceleration at the start of the level could be skipped without losing the frame rule. The paragraph concludes with the current strategy for achieving a perfect run of level 8-2.

30:11

📈 The Evolution of Level 8-2 Strategies

The final paragraph recaps the evolution of strategies for level 8-2, from the initial complex and time-consuming methods to the more straightforward and consistent approaches discovered later. It emphasizes the journey of speedrunners from finding a possible method to refining it into a practical strategy and the excitement in witnessing their innovative solutions.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Super Mario Brothers

Super Mario Brothers is a classic platform video game developed and published by Nintendo. In the context of this video, it is the central theme as the script discusses the history and strategies related to speedrunning this game, particularly focusing on level 8-2.

💡Speedrun

A speedrun refers to playing through a video game quickly, often with the goal of completing it as fast as possible. In this video, speedrunning is the main activity being discussed, with a focus on achieving a perfect run through level 8-2 of Super Mario Brothers.

💡Level 8-2

Level 8-2 is a specific stage in Super Mario Brothers that is highlighted in the video as one of the hardest levels in the game. The video script delves into the history and strategies developed to complete this level efficiently in a speedrun.

💡Frame Rule

The frame rule is a technique used in speedrunning where players manipulate the game's frame-by-frame mechanics to achieve optimal results. In the video, it is mentioned that a perfect run of level 8-2 requires adherence to a strict frame rule to save time.

💡Bullet Bill Glitch

The Bullet Bill Glitch is a specific trick used in Super Mario Brothers speedruns where players interact with Bullet Bills in a certain way to gain an advantage. The video discusses the importance of performing this glitch perfectly in level 8-2 to achieve a faster time.

💡Phantom Bullet Bills

Phantom Bullet Bills are an unusual quirk in the game's programming where Bullet Bills can affect gameplay without actually appearing on the screen. This concept is central to the video as it is used to explain a rare despawning phenomenon of a Piranha Plant in level 8-2.

💡TAS (Tool-Assisted Speedrun)

TAS stands for Tool-Assisted Speedrun, which is a method of speedrunning where players use emulator tools to achieve frame-perfect play that would be nearly impossible for a human player. The video discusses the TAS 8-2 frame rule, which is a reference point for human speedrunners to match or improve upon.

💡Power-Up Animation

The Power-Up Animation refers to the visual effect that occurs when Mario collects a power-up, such as a mushroom, in the game. In the context of the video, manipulating the timing of this animation is explored as a method to affect the frame rule timer and achieve specific patterns in the level.

💡Title Screen Demo

The Title Screen Demo is the introductory sequence that plays on the game's title screen before starting a run. The video mentions that the frame rule timer can be manipulated during this demo, which can affect the patterns and enemy behavior in the game.

💡Piranha Plant Despawn

The term 'Piranha Plant Despawn' refers to an instance where a Piranha Plant enemy in level 8-2 disappears due to specific game mechanics. The video discusses this phenomenon in detail as it provides a significant advantage in speedrunning the level.

💡World Record

A World Record in the context of this video refers to the fastest known time to complete Super Mario Brothers, particularly using the strategies discussed for level 8-2. The pursuit of setting or beating the world record is a key motivating factor for the speedrunners mentioned in the script.

Highlights

Summoning Salt's video on the history of level 42 in Super Mario Brothers is well-known, but level 8-2 has an equally fascinating and absurd history.

Level 8-2 was once considered impossible to complete with a perfect run, but within a year, it became the key to improving the world record.

Glitch Hunter, known as 'nobody calls me tubby,' demonstrated a perfect run of level 8-2 in three segments, showing each part of the puzzle could be done.

The 'fast acceleration' at the start of level 8-2 is critical and can be achieved by Mario jumping backwards in the air.

To clear the piranha plant without frames to spare, runners must land on the edge of the pipe and time their jump and acceleration perfectly.

The Bullet Bill glitch on level 8-2 requires landing on the very front of the bill for maximum speed, which was achieved through a unique jump method.

Tav Webb managed to combine the fast acceleration, perfect pipe jump, and Bullet Bill glitch in a single run, marking a significant advancement.

GT, while attempting a perfect 8-2, accidentally caused a piranha plant to despawn, which was later understood to be due to 'phantom bullet bills'.

Phantom bullet bills are a quirk where bullet bills show up in memory for a frame without appearing on screen, affecting gameplay.

The plant despawn strategy requires an incredibly rare pattern involving two phantom bullet bills and the plant spawn frame.

Mr. Tubby discovered a method to break the 21-frame rule by pausing the game before the run starts, allowing access to more patterns.

Threecrepio found a way to start the run on different frame rules using power-ups and taking damage on the title screen.

Kriller 37 improved the Bullet Bill glitch by finding a method that didn't require the complex three-frame jump, simplifying the strategy.

Kriller also discovered that the fast acceleration at the start of the level could be skipped by timing a jump through the piranha plant.

These innovations led to the first world record using the TAS 8-2 frame rule, and eventually, the long-awaited 4:54 completion time.

The evolution of level 8-2 strategies showcases how complex and sometimes less efficient methods can precede simpler solutions in speedrunning.

The story of level 8-2 is a testament to the creativity and persistence of the speedrunning community, always seeking the most efficient paths.

Transcripts

00:00

summoning salt ever heard of him of course  you have and if you're watching this you've  

00:05

probably seen his video about the history of 42  in the original Super Mario Brothers that level  

00:11

has quite the history and has continued to have  interesting developments even after that video  

00:15

was made you may be familiar with all of that but  there's another level in this game which has its  

00:21

own storyed history an absolutely absurd history  that level is 8-2 one of the hardest levels in the  

00:30

the game in general and especially in speeduns  if we go back in time just a few years it was  

00:36

considered impossible to do a perfect run through  this level the strategy we were doing which was a  

00:41

third of a second away from perfect was the  agreed upon limit and that was as good as it  

00:45

was going to get but over the course of just  one year everything changed this level went  

00:51

from impossible to improve upon absolutely never  happening to instead being the obvious best place  

00:58

to improve the world record how did that happen  well it was through a very odd sequence of events  

01:05

today you'll learn why someone waited 20 minutes  on the title screen before starting a run how  

01:10

people were running millions of simulations  to try and find a solution potential ideas  

01:15

coming to one runner in a dream we'll talk about  frame perfect tricks on the title screen Phantom  

01:22

bullet bills and more if all of that seems  a little absurd and way too involved for one  

01:30

level in a 40-year-old video game you're exactly  right stick around this is the story of level

01:37

82 before we move on I have to take one minute to  tell you about this video sponsor rayon they just  

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02:40

shipping all right let's take a trip back in time  to the year 2019 the world record speedrun of this  

02:48

game is 45.7 n by some West this is what 82 looks  like in his run he clears this piranha plant Waits  

02:57

on the stairs for a Bullet Bill and then performs  the Bullet Bill glitch I keep re-explaining this  

03:02

flag pole glitch every video so I'm going to have  to skip it this time if you're not familiar with  

03:07

this trick I recommend this video by bismuth for  the best explanation one crucial detail of it that  

03:12

you must understand for this video though is that  it's only possible because of a specific quirk in  

03:18

this game you can only interact with enemies every  other frame half the time you'll stomp enemies or  

03:24

take damage from them on the first frame you touch  them but the other half of the time you'll just go  

03:29

through them on that frame and nothing will happen  until the second frame you overlap with them we  

03:35

call this coin toss because there's a 50% chance  each frame that you'll interact with an enemy or  

03:41

not anyway in this run by some West his 82 was one  frame rule slower than the perfect tool assisted  

03:48

run this was one of just a few areas in the run  where we knew you could go faster but at the time  

03:54

it was considered totally unrealistic impossible  and why was that I don't know I really don't  

04:03

know why that was the consensus back then I think  those who were familiar with the requirements just  

04:08

decided they were probably too hard they relayed  that message to everyone else and we took their  

04:13

word for it after all we were having a hard enough  time getting past the stage without making things  

04:18

even harder on ourselves so looking into this  wasn't really a priority but around the middle  

04:23

of 2019 it started to make more sense to look into  it multiple people were getting runs with all the  

04:29

wellest Lish tricks and it was time to push the  game further we knew we could save time in 81 but  

04:35

that alone wasn't going to be enough to get the  record down to 454 it was time to find out if 82  

04:41

was possible even if just hypothetically in July  of that year the runner and glitch Hunter nobody  

04:48

calls me tubby you may know him by another name  comes out of nowhere with this video a perfect  

04:55

82 in three segments it's not a perfect run of  the ENT high level but it does show each piece  

05:01

of the puzzle can be done let's go ahead and  break down exactly what a perfect 82 is there  

05:08

are three parts to it hence the three segments in  his video he tried each part a bunch individually  

05:14

until he got it and then put them all together  to show what the whole level would look like  

05:18

step number one of a perfect 82 comes immediately  at the start of the level you need to do a fast  

05:24

acceleration Mario accelerates faster jumping  backwards in the air than he does running forward  

05:29

on the ground doing a perfect turnaround and jump  at the start of the stage you can accelerate just  

05:35

a tiny 1 to two frames faster depending on the  level but that extra bit of speed is going to  

05:41

make all the difference here once you get the  perfect acceleration to start the level it's  

05:45

smooth sailing for a bit until we reach this big  gap now we have the next obstacle this big pipe  

05:52

is in the way normally you could jump clean over  the pipe and the piranha plant but not with the  

05:57

giant pit that comes just before this one there's  not enough space to gain height before slamming  

06:02

into the pipe to get past here we're going to  have to slow down at least a little bit this is  

06:08

the main reason doing the level perfectly is  hard it's easy enough for skilled Runners of  

06:13

this game to maneuver Mario around the pipe and  over the plant but doing it absolutely as fast  

06:19

as possible it requires a different approach you  can't just wait until Mario is above the piranha  

06:25

and then speed back up you have to land on the  edge of the pipe and do another jump so you can  

06:30

clear the plant while speeding up earlier there  are absolutely no frames to spare on the frame  

06:36

rule here normally it wouldn't be a big deal  if you jump a little bit after you land or  

06:42

don't land right at the very edge or slow down  slightly more than absolutely necessary but to  

06:48

get a perfect 82 there are absolutely no frames  to spare on the frame rule here you have to land  

06:55

on the very edge jump as soon as possible slow  down as as little as possible to avoid bonking  

07:01

the pipe release your jump at the perfect time  so you land on the pipe as soon as you can and  

07:07

jump off the pipe as soon as you land on it  it's a harder thing to do a whole series of  

07:12

inputs like this than it is to just hold right  and time some frame perfect jumps like with most  

07:17

other tricks this whole sequence is pretty tough  but by spamming attempts at it tubby was able to  

07:24

get past the pipe two steps down one to go the  final step was of course course the Bullet Bill  

07:30

glitch but again we have to do it perfectly we  can't just land anywhere on the bullet we have  

07:36

to land on the very front in order to be fast  enough the usual approach is doing a big jump  

07:42

off of the staircase to land on the bill but for  some reason tubby was always one frame too slow to  

07:47

get the frame rule he started messing around with  other ways to jump on the bill to see if it made  

07:52

any difference and he figured out that doing this  really weird jump onto it it came out fast enough  

07:59

so that that was it he had demonstrated that each  of the three difficult parts of a perfect 82 could  

08:06

theoretically be performed now if something has  proven possible at all in this game you know it's  

08:12

bound to happen sooner or later within one week of  this video being posted Tav web is already getting  

08:18

close he got the % world record of 45.74 a few  days after Tubby's video and now he's messing  

08:26

with 82 first he posts this video showing him  due the fast acceleration and the perfect pipe  

08:33

jump he stumbles a bit with the weird Bullet Bill  glitch method but this was really close he got the  

08:39

first and second steps right at least a few weeks  later he posts another video where he starts from  

08:45

a Save State before the pipe jump and nails that  and the perfect Bullet Bill glitch now he's gotten  

08:51

part two and part three together he just needs to  add the fast excel at the start and one week later  

08:57

he did exactly that fast Excel pipe jump Bullet  Bill glitch I got it I think I got it we did it we  

09:07

got it that's it it's been done 454 is officially  on its way not really I mean it's been done once  

09:17

but we're going to need to put in some more work  before we can pretend this strategy is ready for  

09:22

use in runs another Runner GT starts trying it out  he's just tinkering with it seeing what he can do  

09:31

and then he posts this on Discord this is massive  don't you see the plant despawned it's gone Mia a  

09:43

pced out on vacation this plant being gone for  runs would be massively useful as long as this  

09:50

isn't some weird one-off glitch that can never be  replicated with the plant out of the way you could  

09:56

get past this section so much easier is it real  though no one has ever seen this before why did  

10:02

it happen when GT was trying to do a perfect 82 he  actually messed up a little bit on the first step  

10:10

the inputs weren't quite what they needed to be to  get a perfect fast acceleration normally you just  

10:16

restart after this and keep loading save states  until you get the perfect start but again he was  

10:21

just kind of messing around so he kept running  he was now moving through the stage at a slightly  

10:26

different speed than anyone normally would he's is  going to get different enemy patterns than anyone  

10:31

normally would and this plant despawned which  normally would not should not ever it doesn't  

10:40

make any sense I'll explain why in just a second  but let's take a minute to appreciate that this  

10:46

is the same guy who was doing runs of Mario the  Lost Levels when something very similar happened  

10:52

uh uh uhuhuh what he accidentally jumped into this  block that has a Vine in it then he tried to swag  

10:59

on these Koopas with this fun stomp plus Fireball  combo but he missed fireballing the second one  

11:06

and somehow all of that accidentally despawned  the flag at the end of the level this guy is the  

11:12

king of accidentally despawning stuff shout outs  to GTA for finding these things for giving me two  

11:18

video topics to talk about and for helping a lot  with the research for this video anyway despawning  

11:25

is actually extremely common in this game but  it's very rare to despawn something completely  

11:30

brand new we already regularly despawn certain  enemies to speed up the Run we hit the vine in  

11:36

42 to make sure that no plant appears in this  pipe we stomp on these Koopas in 81 to despawn  

11:42

one of these three Goombas and make this section  A lot easier and in 84 we make sure not to stomp  

11:47

on this Buzzy Beetle otherwise there will be  a plant in the way in this pipe all of those  

11:52

examples work because there's so many Sprites on  the screen already all the available Sprite slots  

11:57

are full and there's nowhere for the next enemy  to spawn into so it just doesn't spawn at all but  

12:02

look at this example in 82 where GTA managed to  despawn the piranha plant there's hardly anything  

12:08

on the screen there is one piranha plant here and  if we rewind a little there's also a parupa that's  

12:15

two Sprites but we need five one important thing  to note here is that things try to load in a lot  

12:21

earlier than when they come on screen and they  Stay Loaded in even after they go off the screen  

12:26

a bit to the left so if we rewind a a little  bit more we can see this Bullet Bill shoot out  

12:31

of the cannon and it's following us just off the  screen still loaded in at this point okay that  

12:37

makes three Sprites but what else maybe this plant  is loaded nope fun fact piranha plants and Hammer  

12:44

Brothers actually have specific checks in place  to delete them sooner after going off screen than  

12:50

every other enemy I'm not positive why this is the  case but if I had to guess maybe because there's  

12:56

just so many piranha plants in all the pipes in  this game and they don't want them hogging all the  

13:00

Sprite slots as much and Hammer Bros I guess they  probably don't want them chucking hammers at you  

13:05

from off screen or something but yeah this piranha  plant in 82 is not going to help us because it  

13:11

despawns nine frames too early as far as I can see  there's only three Sprites out of the five we need  

13:17

here but let's go to the exact moment the plant in  the tall pipe tries to spawn in and take a look at  

13:22

what's loaded into each Sprite slot we've got this  piranha plant we've got the parupa we've got the  

13:29

Bullet Bill we've got two other bullet bills what  all right my fellow Mario speedrun enjoyers let me  

13:39

introduce you to Phantom bullet bills there's a  really odd Quirk with the Bullet Bill cannons in  

13:46

this game here's how they work as you go through  a level once you see one of these launchers it  

13:51

initializes a timer the timer starts at 14 and  ticks Down based on the random number generator  

13:57

so once this timer exists the game is constantly  doing dice rolls to decide when to decrement the  

14:02

timer once it takes down all the way it Loops back  to 14 and a Bullet Bill shoots each Cannon has its  

14:09

own timer and they're all waiting independently  for their chance to shoot in the case of 82 there  

14:14

is a lot of bullet launchers so we can get the  maximum of six timers going at once here's the  

14:20

goofy part though the timers stay in memory and  keep working even after the cannon has gone off  

14:26

screen as soon as you encounter a bullet launcher  the the game will continue trying to fire bullet  

14:30

bills for the rest of the level even after you're  well past it whenever it's time for a Bullet Bill  

14:36

to shoot the game will first check to see if that  particular Cannon is still on screen if it is then  

14:42

a bullet will of course fire from it but if it's  not the bullet just gets deleted instead there  

14:49

is however one frame where the Bullet Bill exists  the Bullet Bill ID will show up in the Sprite slot  

14:56

list for a single frame before being deleted the  value for bullet bills is 33 and even though there  

15:03

are no bullet launchers on screen right now you  can see the number 33 popping up very briefly here  

15:08

and there this is what we call a phantom Bullet  Bill a Bullet Bill which never really exists on  

15:15

screen but does show up in memory for one frame  at a time a Bullet Bill which though invisible can  

15:22

affect gam playay now that you get the basic idea  of phantom bullets you probably understand what  

15:28

has just happened here in 82 with the plant  despawning and if you start to put together  

15:33

the finer details you'll realize just how insane  this all is let's review we need five Sprites to  

15:40

fill up all the Sprite slots so the plant doesn't  spawn we get two for free the piranha plant in the  

15:45

little pipe and the parupa we need three bullet  bills to fill in the rest and three is actually  

15:51

the maximum number of bullet bills that's possible  at a time so this works out perfectly in our plant  

15:57

despawn example we have one bullet build that shot  out of a cannon and is following behind us still  

16:02

barely loaded and not even visible on screen at  this point we need two more bullet bills to fill  

16:07

the remaining Sprite slots and the only way we're  going to get them is through the Phantom Bullet  

16:12

Bill phenomenon let's take a second to think  about what we're really asking for here we need  

16:17

the cannon timers of previous offscreen cannons  to expire so they try and shoot a Bullet Bill and  

16:23

it fills up a Sprite slot we need two Phantom  bullet bills here remember Phantom bills only  

16:29

exist for one frame so we need two Canon timers  to expire on the same frame but they'll also only  

16:36

remain in the sprit lless for one frame so we  need two Phantom bullet bills we need them to  

16:42

appear on the same frame and we need both of them  on the same frame that the plant tries to spawn in  

16:50

it all sounds crazy and bizarre but that's what  we're dealing with here we need a pattern where  

16:55

one Bullet Bill shoots to the right and two more  try to shoot at this exact moment from offscreen  

17:01

launchers I did say that there are six timers  available though they're going ham trying to  

17:06

spawn bullet bills constantly so how rare could  it really be to get two of them to shoot on this

17:11

Frame oh some West wrote a script to go through  every frame rule you could arrive on 82 and check  

17:34

for plant despawns he factored in things like  stomping certain enemies which changes what  

17:39

pattern you'll get his script tested millions  of combinations and in the end it found 13 out  

17:47

of all of them he found 13 frame rules you  can get the plant to despawn on that's not  

17:53

a lot and it shows just how rare this is  but it's enough we only need one after all  

17:59

so that's it problem solved we can despawn  this plant and make this part of the level  

18:04

easier let's go to the leaderboard now and  see how many runs on there make use of this

18:08

strategy that one all of that work and the only  person using this is in 334th place shout out to  

18:35

yzr by the way legendary NES speedrunner but  why is he the only one using this the issue  

18:42

is that when we're trying to match the task and  do a perfect 82 there's already a somewhat rare  

18:47

pattern in place that we have to manipulate all  of this plant despawn stuff has been focused on  

18:52

part two of the level getting past the pipe but  part three the Bullet Bill glitch also requires  

18:57

a Bullet Bill shot and not just a shot not even a  fast shot you need the fastest shot once again we  

19:07

have no time to spare when trying to perfect this  level we need this Bullet Bill to shoot as soon as  

19:12

possible and if you're too close to the launcher  when it's timer expires this is another case where  

19:16

the Bullet Bill will just be deleted instead  of shooting it seems they didn't want them to  

19:20

shoot you when you're standing right next to them  which is fair so the earliest this Bullet Bill can  

19:25

shoot is right here we need this Cannon's timer  to expire at this exact moment so we can use it  

19:32

for the Bullet Bill glitch as soon as possible and  that's the bad news of the 13 plant despawn setups  

19:39

that some West found none of them also gave a  perfect Bullet Bill shot that's really unfortunate  

19:46

but it was really unlikely with how many bullet  timers we need to line up here I guess this Strat  

19:52

is dead we weren't able to find anything even  though we searched through literally every pattern  

20:00

wait what if we didn't search through every  pattern the script ran tests on every frame rule  

20:05

you can arrive in 82 but frame rules only allow  you to arrive every 21 frames the random patterns  

20:11

we get in the level are based on how much time has  passed if all of our tests are arriving 21 frames  

20:16

apart that means in theory we're really only  testing about 5% of all of the possible patterns  

20:21

out there if we're going to make this happen  we need a way to make more patterns possible  

20:26

we need a way to break the 20 1 frame Rule and  this is when Mr tubby had a dream his brain is  

20:36

working on this problem he wants to despawn this  piranha plant and his mind solves it in his sleep  

20:44

he wakes up hurries to the NES to test out his  idea this gift that his dreaming brain gave him he  

20:50

loads into Super Mario Brothers and it works but  it's kind of a huge meme the idea is simple just  

20:59

pause the game before the Run starts the frame  rule timer pauses but time in general doesn't  

21:05

you can wait any number of frames like this then  unpause and play out the rest of the run like  

21:10

normal you can still only arrive at each level  21 frames apart but you can start on any frame  

21:16

you want meaning you get access to any of the  other 20 sets of frame rules this Strat works  

21:23

we have millions more patterns we can search  through using it but again it's kind of dumb  

21:29

you would have to unpause the game with frame  perfect timing to get the right pattern you  

21:33

want in 82 and you wouldn't even know if  you did it right until you got to 82 and  

21:39

this is all just a big technicality in  the rule set anyway the rules say that  

21:43

time starts when 400 appears on the timer in  the top right corner because that's when you  

21:48

gain control of Mario you can pause a couple  frames before that happens and wait around but  

21:53

it's pretty silly it probably wouldn't fly on the  leaderboards even if it was a good option for runs  

22:00

okay back to the drawing board this was a good  start at least now let's jump over to Legendary  

22:06

Mario scientist three creepio he's also working on  this problem he knows if you can pause the frame  

22:12

rule timer you can gain access to more patterns  but how can we pause the frame rule timer without  

22:19

pausing oh wait powerups whenever you get a power  up the frame rule timer freezes and this actually  

22:27

holds true even when Mario grabs the mushroom  during the title screen demo in regular gameplay  

22:33

this can offset the frame rule timer by 59 frames  but on the title screen you can interrupt the  

22:39

PowerUp animation at any point by pressing start  meaning you can use this to freeze the frame rule  

22:44

timer for anywhere from 1 to 59 frames this is  yet another way to start the run on a different  

22:50

set of frame rules and it also doesn't land in  a weird gray area with the rule set like pausing  

22:56

after booting into one one does but it still  has one of the same problems as that Strat to  

23:02

get the exact pattern you want an 82 you'd have  to press start with frame perfect timing during  

23:07

the PowerUp animation and you wouldn't know if you  got it until 82 we're so close back to the drawing  

23:15

board again is there any other way to freeze the  frame rule timer I guess there actually is one  

23:21

more option taking damage in exactly the same way  that powerups can offset the timer by 59 frames  

23:28

taking damage offsets it by 55 frames in addition  to getting a mushroom Mario also takes damage on  

23:34

the title screen creepio realized we can use  any combination of the power up and power down  

23:40

animation that we want to start the game on  all sorts of intervals this is it finally the  

23:46

solution to our problem a very consistent way  to start the game at the right time except it's  

23:53

still not entirely consistent I've mentioned in  a previous video video how the title screen demo  

23:59

can desync because of the way enemy Collision  Works this is that coin toss phenomenon at  

24:05

Play Again check that previous video for a full  explanation but yeah this means he doesn't make  

24:10

it over here to take damage every time the first  time through he never makes it to the glomba and  

24:16

each time after that there's a 50% chance that he  does depending on which frame you interrupted the  

24:21

previous demo on with that headache in mind  creepio has found a setup using this he made  

24:28

his own tools to search through all the different  patterns and combinations in 82 and found a pretty  

24:33

good setup All Things Considered but you may have  realized by now that using this strategy is going  

24:39

to mean spending quite a while waiting on the  title screen the best currently known solution  

24:45

that gets a plant despawn and perfect Bullet Bill  shot requires spending 40 seconds on the title  

24:50

screen to let Mario get two mushrooms and take  damage once that's not going to cut it this would  

24:58

make the Run Easier by getting the plant out of  the way but to put things in perspective you'd  

25:03

spend 11 hours on the title screen every 1,000  attempts top level runs of this game are going  

25:09

to require hundreds or thousands of attempts  and you're probably just going to reset one or  

25:13

2 minutes in it's just not worth it this is the  real reason that yzr is the only one using this  

25:19

strategy he was just aiming for sub five not world  record Pace he could make it here a lot more often  

25:26

and when he did he didn't need to go for a perfect  2 or bullet B glitch or anything like that he just  

25:31

did it to make the jump past this pipe easier  in general and because it's awesome all right  

25:37

at some point we have to admit defeat at least  for now maybe in the future some setup will be  

25:43

found which doesn't require waiting forever on the  title screen and this plant despawn can be useful  

25:48

in world record level runs even though we weren't  successful at making part two of the level easier  

25:54

maybe there's still something we can do maybe  we can improve one of the other other parts of  

25:58

the level enter kriller 37 you'll hear killer's  name coming up in a lot of my videos at this point  

26:06

he's helped find setups and improve the quality of  life for a lot of tricks in this game and in 2020  

26:12

he set out to do exactly that in 82 he took a look  at the current strategy for the level and wondered  

26:19

why do you have to do the Bullet Bill glitch so  weirdly what magic is going on here that let you  

26:25

save the frame rule when doing it like this but  not when you do it the regular way kriller figured  

26:31

out that the core of this issue is Mario's height  when doing it the normal way if you stomp on the  

26:37

Bullet Bill from this distance Mario will be too  high when he reaches the pole and you won't get  

26:42

a full flag pole glitch but if you have a precise  height value before stomping the Bullet Bill Mario  

26:48

will stay a bit lower and he'll be low enough to  trigger it essentially this lets you stomp the  

26:53

Bullet Bill from farther away while still getting  the glitch that means slightly less time is spent  

26:58

waiting for the bullet to get close to the pole so  if the key here is Mario having a specific height  

27:03

is there any other way to make that happen ker  did some searching and figured out that if you  

27:08

press jump for exactly three frames When jumping  from the top of the staircase that gives the magic  

27:13

height value you would still need to do a perfect  jump height and time things frame perfectly to  

27:19

land on the very front of the bill so doing  this isn't like free or anything but at least  

27:24

it's not all Wiggly weird that begs the question  are there any other ways to get the magic height  

27:29

value kriller kept messing around with things and  then This brilliant idea hits him maybe the best  

27:36

solution isn't a specific jump height maybe it's  not a jump at all maybe we can use a second Bullet  

27:44

Bill to bounce on he tests this crazy idea and it  just so happens that you can get the specific jump  

27:51

iine needed by running off the steps and bouncing  on two bullet bills in a row just a frame Perfect  

27:56

Right press to run off and get the glitch as  soon as possible this is awesome I don't think  

28:01

an optimal Bullet Bill glitch can get easier  than this this is it 454 is happening let's  

28:08

go now to speedrunner hits crits who is about to  do the first ever official 454 attempt using this

28:14

strategy yeah so the setup for the Double Bullet  Bill shop pattern has us waiting 24 minutes on  

28:24

the title screen hey but once he waits this out  he's got a better shot at 454 than anyone else  

28:30

ever has ah so close Okay that was of course  a little silly but the first setup for this  

28:39

really did require waiting around for 24 minutes  no worries though just one day later more setups  

28:45

were found that only involved a few seconds of  waiting you'd think at this point everyone would  

28:50

jump on this cool new Double Bullet Bill strategy  but surprisingly that never really happened all of  

28:56

the setups for it seemed to make earli parts of  the level slightly harder and people had gotten  

29:01

comfortable with the three-frame jump setup in the  meantime so they just stuck with that this is a  

29:06

really cool strategy though that people could use  instead if they really wanted to up to this point  

29:11

kriller has been quite successful at improving  the success rate of Tas 8 2 but he's actually  

29:17

not done yet so far we've only looked at attempts  to try and improve part two of the level and part  

29:22

three but what about part one kriller was once  again thinking about this level and why it all  

29:28

works why each piece is necessary we have to do a  super precise Bullet Bill glitch because there's  

29:35

zero frames to spare to get the perfect 82 frame  rule we have to do a super precise jump past this  

29:41

plant because there's zero frames to spare on the  frame Rule and we obviously have to do this fast  

29:46

excel at the start of the level because there  are zero frames to spare on the frame rule it's  

29:51

not even a question of course we have to do the  fast Exel there's zero frames to spare of course  

29:57

we have to do the fast Excel wait do we have to do  it it's a crazy idea that doesn't even make sense  

30:04

to consider or at least it didn't make sense until  kriller came along if we combine all of our Super  

30:10

Mario Bros knowledge it may actually be possible  to skip this fast Excel just as a quick recap  

30:17

doing this exact movement from a standstill makes  Mario accelerate faster and generally allows him  

30:22

to move enough extra distance to save two frames  so if this saves two frames we definitely need it  

30:28

to save the frame rule in 82 but that's the thing  it doesn't always save two frames it kind of saves  

30:34

1.8 frames it can often let you reach somewhere  in a level two frames earlier like entering a  

30:40

pipe or stomping an enemy but sometimes the extra  distance only gets you there one frame earlier it  

30:46

just depends on exactly which part of the level is  significant for example it only lets you reach the  

30:51

axe in the final room of 84 one frame sooner the  significant point that we need to reach in 82 is  

30:57

this ground right here the limiting factor for  getting past this pipe is how soon you can land  

31:02

on this bit of ground and start your jump to get  over the plant as it turns out fast acceleration  

31:08

at the start of the level only lets you land here  one frame sooner he's really close to getting  

31:13

there two frames sooner but doesn't quite make it  all right big deal this fast Excel only saves one  

31:20

frame there's zero frames to spare on the frame  rule we obviously still need it ho not so fast  

31:26

that's where kriller had a light bulb moment once  again we have coin toss Shenanigans at play this  

31:32

piranha plant can only hurt Mario on every other  frame even though we got here a frame slower we  

31:38

can get past the plant a frame Faster by going  through it on the frame it can't hurt us it turned  

31:44

out that all this time you didn't need the fast  excel at all you could just skip it and still get  

31:49

past the plant at the same speed kriller didn't  just improve part one of the level he removed it  

31:56

thanks to his efforts now Runners just needed to  do the fast pipe jump and then use his much more  

32:00

straightforward jump onto the bullet pill this  is the current strategy for matching the Tas in  

32:05

82 just a few months after these Innovations nify  got the first world record with the Tas 82 frame  

32:11

Rule and 5 months later he managed to include a  perfect 81 as well resulting in the legendary and  

32:18

long awaited 454 yes it's crazy how much this  level changed in just one year it went from  

32:28

impossible to a really hard strategy done one time  in practice to a pretty consistent strategy that  

32:36

was implemented into runs before other known time  saves even were let's recap everything it took to  

32:42

get here we looked into an exceedingly rare  plant despawn something that works because of  

32:48

phantom bullet bills these Phantom bullet bills  have to appear on the same frame as each other  

32:54

and the same frame that the plant tries to spawn  in we searched through millions of combinations  

32:59

to try and make this a useful strategy and in  the end the only person to use it is in 334th  

33:05

place the strategy requires waiting 40 seconds  on the title screen there's a 50% chance it  

33:11

doesn't even work after waiting all that time  at top level you cannot afford to deal with  

33:16

all of that so we try something else this other  very rare Double Bullet Bill strategy turns out  

33:22

we're not happy with that solution turns out you  just need a particular jump onto the bullet pill  

33:28

turns out you don't even need to do a fast  excel at the beginning of the level at all  

33:32

you can just jump through the piranha plant  it's all just so ridiculous all of these  

33:39

things combined together for what I consider to  be the most absurd strategy in Super Mario Bros  

33:44

speedrunning this is the Absurd history of level  82 it's amazing how often a simple solution is  

33:52

not the first one found people find a method that  could be possible and work really hard to make it  

33:58

happen until it becomes real and then somewhere  down the road a much easier simpler approach  

34:04

is discovered I don't know why this happens  but it really keeps things interesting it's  

34:11

always amazing and entertaining to watch Brilliant  Minds at work as they push into unknown territory  

34:17

and fascinating to see what trinkets they bring  back from their voyages there that's all for now  

34:24

thanks for watching And subscribe if you enjoyed  I've got a lot more videos like like this coming

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Super MarioSpeedrunningLevel 8-2Gaming HistoryTAS StrategiesFrame PerfectGlitch HuntingMario PhysicsSpeedrun RecordGame Mechanics
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