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    12 videos · 9 hr 41 min
    Playlists

    Speedrunners Are Reverse Engineers

    Curated by HackerTube · 12 videos · 9 hr 41 min

    HN likes speedrunning less as a sport than as people reverse engineering a game in public. This list starts with an easy way into speedrunning history, then moves to collision physics, then to arbitrary code execution done with controller inputs, then to cracking random number generators. It ends with a five-hour history for anyone who has stopped resisting.

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    1. 1
      29:54

      [Epilepsy Warning] Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track

      Summoning Salt · 5.4M views · 8 years ago

      The opener: one HN commenter says this is the video that made them care about speedrunning, told as a story of record holders and discoveries.

    2. 2
      37:23

      Walls, Floors, & Ceilings

      UncommentatedPannen · 386K views · 9 years ago

      Before breaking a game you need its rules, and this walkthrough of Mario 64's triangle collision code is the textbook for that.

    3. 3
      24:39

      SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED]

      pannenkoek2012 · 5.5M views · 10 years ago

      The famous 'half an A press' video, which HN describes as insanely complicated and surprisingly lucid, built on those collision rules.

    4. 4
      11:55

      Super Mario World Credits Warp Explained

      Frieze · 638K views · 11 years ago

      Moving from physics to memory: an animated, assembly-level explanation of how an item glitch makes the SNES jump to the ending.

    5. 5
      9:01

      Super Mario World -- Credits Warp in 5:59.6 (First Time Ever on Console)

      SethBling · 4.3M views · 11 years ago

      The same exploit done by a human on a real console, a moment HN remembers as a trick escaping tool-assisted runs.

    6. 6
      6:31

      SNES Code Injection -- Flappy Bird in SMW

      SethBling · 3M views · 10 years ago

      SethBling types an entire new game into memory with a controller, HN's go-to example of arbitrary code execution through gameplay.

    7. 7
      7:45

      [TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution

      MrWint · 598K views · 9 years ago

      The Game Boy version of the idea, taken so far that Pokemon Yellow ends up running other programs.

    8. 8
      58:44

      TasBlock at AGDQ 2017: TASBot

      TASVideosChannel · 398K views · 9 years ago

      An hour of a robot at a live event pushing video and chat through controller ports, which HN calls a reliably great GDQ watch.

    9. 9
      24:32

      How We Solved the Worst Minigame in Zelda's History

      Linkus7 · 1.1M views · 6 years ago

      A turn to randomness: a community reverse engineers Wind Waker's RNG to win the Sploosh Kaboom minigame every time.

    10. 10
      8:24

      How the Minecraft Title Screen Seed was Found

      SalC1 · 11M views · 6 years ago

      RNG cracking on a larger scale, a distributed search through world seeds that one HN commenter promises will blow your mind.

    11. 11
      39:47

      How lucky is too lucky?: The Minecraft Speedrunning Dream Controversy Explained

      Stand-up Maths · 8.4M views · 5 years ago

      The same probability math pointed at a cheater, which Matt Parker turns into a lesson HN liked on negligible probabilities.

    12. 12
      5:22:14

      The Complete History of the A Button Challenge

      Bismuth · 2.4M views · 3 years ago

      The five-hour finale for those now hooked, chronicling years of SM64 exploit discovery that HN calls an insane amount of knowledge.