Niftski clearly has an advantage because he plays on emulator with a keyboard. Oh, wait, what's this? a 4:54.93 on console? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lnZLC1W6yTc.html
As someone who sees just a little glimpse behind the scenes of Bismuth's creation process, the passion and stringent commitment to detail is incredible. He goes to great lengths to research the mechanics and create visuals, and the result is often beyond the level of understanding of even top level runners of the game. He dives into code and documentation and comes out with an explanation for something we had only speculated about in the past. These are my favorite videos on youtube.
it was awesome , cleared a lot of doubt I had. Still needs a full explanation why double accel on the 8-4 is tas only tho (the sixth frame). or did I miss it
Speedrunners' dedication to their craft is mindblowing to me. At 14:35 "Niftski realized he only slowed down by 1 subpixel instead of 2 and fixed it frame-perfectly on the next pillar" Really? He could tell that he was one SIXTEENTH of a pixel off and adjusted for it in a few tenths of a second? That's actually insane. That level of mastery is crazy.
@@AnonymOus-ss9jj he wouldn't actually see it, but after doing it so many thousands of times he would've felt the amount of time he was on the ledge for
@@taylorskidmore2760 it probably is, but this kind of diminishes the sheer amount of time and effort needed to get something so precise as a reflex. That you can tell when a sub pixel, something you cannot see in the game because it is so small, is off. That shit is wild
How humans can figure this shit out is almost as impressive as the speed run. Im sure some people outside the speed run community may taking a glancing look at this is and think it’s dumb, but as someone who’s outside the speed run community let me say, this is probably the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen someone do in a video game. Insane achievement, I’m sure after thousands of hours of grinding. Congrats to the player.
At face value it seems stupid and a waste of time. However, people who can figure this stuff out are mastering a skill called reverse engineering. At the last, it's a workout for your brain.
Some stuff you'll discover accidentally while playing the game multiple times. Especially when you try to rush through the game. Like i learned most of these secret rooms , reverse run speeds and the hit box region of plants just by accident.
Thank you for being the first RU-vidr to ever explain *why* framerules exist. That global timer stuff was the first time I'd ever understood what the point of them was.
22:57 Guess you're right. It's too bad, I thought I got my info from reliable sources, such as this video - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_FQJEzJ_cQw.html
At 15:46, I'm honestly amazed that no one pointed out that I said the level ending sequence has three parts, and then I listed four. Well, I'm pointing it out then.
@@vincent_lvl1 i dont wanna be that guy, but thats wrong. tas is not a computer. tool assisted speedrun, is where a human can play a part of the level over and over again till he gets it perfectly, and then puts it together to create the theoreticaly perfect speedrun.
@@coengrutterThey also write down the inputs to be executed for each frame. It's a bit like a routine, like an algorithm without branches. Might as well be a computer.
This deserves praise if nothing else than the fact that this is a Super Mario Bros speedrunning breakdown video that doesn't mention a bus in it's 30+ minute runtime
@@ThinkAboutVic Not sure parrallel universes is the best comparison. It got memed due to how absurd it sounds to someone without tas knowledge. The bus metaphor got memed because a lot of speedrun content creators make content for beginners and so needed to explain it each time. In short one got memed because of the community and the other got memed because of the creators.
"To achieve this time, Nifski stood on the shoulders of the giants that came before him." And the records shown after that line were enough for me to get really emotional. So many people have worked incredibly hard to achieve perfection and to see the previous world records that contributed to the community has almost literally led up to this point. It's the most inspirational thing I can ever hope to see and find.
Yup, the music got me in the feels too. It's incredible that this is the last time we'll ever see a second barrier broken in this game, barring a huge groundbreaking discovery which is unlikely at best. However, there are SO many other amazing games out there just begging to be optimized to this level. Speedrunners will never run out of things to break crazy records with!
31:11 “while on paper it could be humanly possible, it’s doubtful anyone would be able to pull it off” and now, 2 years later, it’s been done in the world record run. only 8-4 remains
I know what you mean, 8-4 in a full run. For individual levels, two players tied the TAS on 8-4, LeKukie and Niftski. The perfect run can now be combined from 2 segments. Maybe one day the run will be perfect in RTA...
@@recmonika9751 Yeah, I didn't say that and I'm sorry you had to wait for your pay this month but it got confused with the 13th month which somehow glitched onto the next framerule, so we had to adjust it a couple of subpixels and only got one. Being only a god and not a wizard, so I didn't notice or correct it in time. It's fixed now so you'll have this month's and the 13th month paid eh... yesterday. December's pay will be exactly on the solstice. Happy solstice everyone! :D Oh, and don't mind the beheaded angel; he got the blame for the mix up. Don't worry about it, it's a god thing.
These videos always make me nostalgic for the old internet, when there were entire websites dedicated to discovering and explaining arcane stuff like this about games. What a special thing for someone to take it upon themselves not just to preserve that wacky world, but to make it so much more approachable for so many people who would never otherwise be able to enjoy it. Thanks for all you do, Bismuth.
I'm a month late to this, but after Miniland beat this record with a 4:54.914 (yes, on an actual NES this time), Niftski took it back with a 4:54.881 on December 2nd, 2021! Watch the run here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aukKeS8LdDI.html
also Niftski has gotten 50+ Lightning 4-2 framerule saves, including one in a run -- he said that he can get it roughly 8% of the time, so he'll be trying repeated runs with it soon
The final minutes, with that gorgeous piano piece and the world record holders' times and celebrations, the final scene with toadstool, it all adds up so much, Bismuth. The way it closes out without a word, just piano and the text "Thank you Mario! Your quest is over." It feels like you're being told that your hardship is over. It's enough to bring anybody to tears, your worn down and tired, you've grinded away at a possible best time for months, if not years, at a goal. Watching a group of people finally break down a barrier so small yet so important actually broke me down, I cried at the end, but it was without a doubt the perfect ending to something like this.
13:15 The fact that you included that on screen description of why B or something else needs to be held during fast accel because of the “insta stop when speed is in between -10 and 10” mechanic blows my mind, and makes me so happy to see. As of like a year ago, little to no RTA players knew that, and still now very few people know of mechanics like that. It’s ridiculously impressive that you put in effort to learn small details like that, and it’s just as impressive that your able to work in those minor details into a video without it getting too lengthy and over complicated. Amazing work bismuth, this level of detail is seriously ridiculous.
Check out this bit of code, it's the function that checks if Mario should stop quickly. This was done intentionally to make directional changes quicker and feel more responsive. i.imgur.com/dlq1Xyg.png The highlighted line is where the bug is. The game masks out the A button, but reads every other button, and then checks if the result is 0 (i.e. if no buttons are being pressed except for A). If it's 0, Mario decelerates slowly to a stop, and if it's not zero (i.e. if any button is being pressed), it checks if he should be stopping instantly. When it checks if he should be stopping, it masks every button except left and right (03 = 00000011, 1 is right and 10 is left). Then it compares the resulting value with the moving direction (again, 1 is right and 10 is left). If it's the same, that means you're pressing the same direction that you're moving, so you should not be stopping. If it's not the same, that means you're pressing the opposide direction that you're moving, so you should be stopping. But here's the catch! If you were not holding left nor right, but you were holding some other button, the and #$03 returns 0. When it compares against your moving direction, 0 is not equal to right (1) and it's also not equal to left (10). So no matter which direction you're moving, it's not equal to your button presses, and it stops you instantly. This is why it works when you're not holding left/right but you're holding any combination of B, up, down, and select. Technically it should work for start as well, but in practice I haven't found that to work, so maybe something else happens here.
The mechanics of mario are so fun and interesting. I've had some stuff happen before while playing through that seemed crazy and impossible at least for my knowledge, I wish I had recorded them. Probably from that every other frame hit detection thing I learned about in this vid, can make bouncing off some enemies work in strange ways sometimes.
@@Bismuth9 There’s so much stuff I know about for Smb1 that I am almost certain is true and accurate, but never looked at the code to be certain (for example, I have known about this speed between -10 and 10 thing for a long time, but only because I figured it out when TASing and eventually understood how it worked). It would be really cool to be able to check the code to confirm all the stuff I know and understand it all better.
As of September 7th, 2023, nearly 5 years after Kosmic set the first 4:55 run, Niftski, who first broke the 4:54 barrier, has completed a run tied the TAS going into 8-4.
The current world record is 4:54.631 by Niftski. He has tied the TAS to 8-4 and is now 22 frames off perfection. Watch it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Khu9BB2g4Ks.html
I bet in 10 or 20 years the best time will be 4:37.769 because it will never be perfect so some one will eventually be like omg something new and beat the game a lot faster
@@nintendolegend5344 no matter what people find, the time will never go down THAT much. At most, it could hit 4:50s if some crazy discoveries happened.
3:20 "When Mario runs into the wall, for one frame he actually runs into the wall." I would assume he does at one point run into the wall when he runs into the wall. Otherwise, he wouldn't be running into the wall and therefore couldn't be running into the wall.
This video is amazing. The "shoulders of giants" section was genius and moving. The whole thing is explained so well, and the visuals are top notch and super clear. Fantastic work as always and well worth the wait.
7:04 I still remember when I found that pipe clip thing. When I first went through that pipe, I felt top of the world. It was like....I found some hidden treasure. One sunday afternoon I called all of my friends and showed them. We spent hours doing that and for a brief period, I was the coolest dude in my circle Lol Good old days!
@@iluvdawubz no real beef I assume just playful jabs. Edit: crap... I just whoooosh myself. I was half asleep when I replied, i totally didn't see the playful sarcasm 😂🤣😂🤣😂
When you said he stood on the shoulders of the giants and showed the previous world record beating moments, that was truly inspirational! Amazing what humans can achieve when they set their minds to something - just incredible!
I just want to say that the animations comparing two different ways of doing things (EG: grabbing flag VS glitching into the block) really makes the small differences very apparent. I likes 'em.
I've seen enough videos on Niftski's record where I thought I could really skip this one, but the impeccable visuals with counters and overlayed comparisons are just so thorough that I learned way more from this video than I would have expected. Amazing vid
Bismuth, the segment at the end where you show all the ghosts of previous runs with the previous WR holder reactions brought tears to my eyes. So well done! It really goes to show that for a game like this, every new achievement really does build on all the history that has come before
26:30 this section seriously made me well up. To see so much hard work finally pay off as each of these players takes their moment in the spotlight as the greatest player in the world, and their sheer joy and excitement. It's beautiful.
I’m super pumped to sit down and watch this. I feel like it’s going to be a good conclusion for me. I love this community, it’s runners, creators, and watchers. Thanks for all your work, bismuth. You’ve helped bring so many people into our little community
People claiming Niftski has some advantage with emulator ignore two important things: 1) the techniques for allowing humans to setup tricks like FPG were developed around using a NES controller. Niftski has to finagle his own input method to make these techniques similarly convenient. 2) he's using an LCD, as opposed to a lagless CRT. Having to compensate for both input lag and response times when performing frame-perfect inputs is unquestionably more difficult on Niftski's setup. Of course, take any top level runner using a console/CRT combo and they'll be terrible on Niftski's setup, and vice versa. But all things being equal, Niftski's approach is harder -- that's why the vast majority of runners take the much less convenient route of using original hardware.
Not really accurate. Digital encoding is always slower but lowest latency monitors make that pretty irrelevant. Learning on keyboard might be a bit harder/less intuitive, but you can practice faster on emu anyway so kind of irrelevant again. And once you're at high level keyboard is objectively better
@@Kosmicd12 All fair points. Particularly, the difference between a d-pad and discrete keyboard keys might be especially good for avoiding accidental inputs. I'm not sure the difference between a 'good' modern LCD and a CRT is irrelevant at this level of play, but I'm not an expert, and you definitely are.
The production quality of this video is stunning, and the explanations of what is happening are the clearest I've heard. Nevertheless, I continue to be amazed that human hands can execute such feats of precision, and it's a testament to the dedication of players themselves and collective accumulated knowledge of the speedrunning community. It's amusing that a new generation remains so interested in keeping this classic game alive. Perhaps it is because, despite its simple appearance, the game's mechanics are relatively complex. I have fond memories of playing Super Mario Bros. with my best friend all night during sleepovers. Three decades later, we're still good friends, and the game still makes me nostalgic for those simpler times. P.S. As a pianist, I would pay good money for the score to the background theme music.
Making sheet music is quite time consuming, and so I don't do it unless I played it a tempo closely enough to be able to convert it into a readable sheet music in a few hours. I would have to either make it from scratch, or somehow turn this into a readable score. i.imgur.com/MyKBTwO.png
I was born way after SMB1 but it's one of my favorite Mario games because like you said, even though it's a simple game there's also a lot of complexity if you dig deeper.
Man this video is so good, the amount of info in this is insane and we thought the old videos were already well in depth. But like you said this is probably not getting outdated unless a miracle happens and a completely new timesave is found but... That's just not a thing right now.
@@cranberrysprite3704 The timed splits on the left side of the screen are done manually, so that's an unofficial time. The top SMB runners have studied the patterns of what Bowser does depending on what frame the room is entered on, so that's how he immediately knew it was a record. I think that's also why he was confused by Bowser, I guess he thought he was a frame ahead of where he actually was.
Amazingly done video! The detail, the editing and the music! And I actually never even thought about Speedruns ever. Still this video to me is truly one of the most memorable ones on this platform
I'm so impressed by this video, your attention to detail, great explanations and incredible "on shoulder of giants sequence", it all just blow my mind. I didn't known anything up to this point about Mario speedrunning and I understood everything you said, which just goes to show how good this video is. On the last note you're voice is perfect for this kind of video
There are multiple reasons it's not possible. Notably the fact that you can't manipulate the RAM significantly without being able to move objects on both axis. In SMB1, the only way to do that is either Mario himself, or having an enemy or object walk off an object. This doesn't allow movement up though. This also implies that there is a way to warp to the Peach animation
I know it's been researched to death and found its almost impossible already, but I really wish it's not possible. I don't dislike the speedruns that make use of it, but I think one of the beauties this run is that despite using a bunch of glitches, it plays out the game almost just as intended. Ofcourse I know there will be a no credits warp category if it's found and is also likely to be the more popular one.
But- but these buses leave every third of a second, they must be fast... Why not take one directly to 8-4? Why walk all the way? Man, these speedrunners need less brawn and more brains. I mean Mario should really get hooked with a bus pass.
"A number of fireworks equal to the final digit of the timer go off when the final digit at the end of the level is 1, 3, 6, or of course 0" You are technically correct. The best kind of correct
Caution, pixel perfect is actually no. Frame perfect is true in most cases. For any random wall jump, 2/5 chance to be impossible, 2/5 chance to be frame perfect, 1/5 chance to be 2 frames. For every wall jump discussed in this video, they are all frame perfect.
This was an epic breakdown! Well done! When I was playing this back in the 80s I would have never guessed it would ever have been analyzed like a physics proof 35 years later. 🤣
Thanks for breaking this down and explaining it so thoroughly. I loved the montage of happy footage of each person who broke a big record along the way.
I’m in utter awe at how amazing all of your visuals and investment to explaining things is such depth and simplicity thank you for the absolute service you’re doing (also for the beautiful piano renditions you play)
It's pretty crazy how it works. His popoff is a good 10 or 12 dB lower than the peaks of my voiceover and about 6-8 dB lower than my average volume and yet it still sounds louder somehow
Niftski said it's unlikely anyone will ever get a sub 4:54.3, unless we find easier ways to get lightning 4-2 and save time on 8-4. But I think both of these will happen. Remember, we thought 8-2 was impossible, but that's because we didn't know as much about it as we do now. And people will just get better at the fast accels needed for 8-4.
@@ThaAwesome10 4:54.282 is theoretically possible, and people are figuring out how to do the first room falling fast acceleration. This makes 4:54.265 theoretically possible, but it may take millions of attempts across many speedrunners.
I’ve watched this run a dozen or so times and I’ve watched a lot of breakdowns, and I still learned new and interesting things about the game and this run from this video. Kudos for that.
This is literally the best video in youtube. You explain all of the tricks down to the tiniest details and in the perfect way for everyone to understand. Thank you very much for this master piece!!
The golden rule of speedrunning is to never say something is impossible - but with literal decades of examination, I'm tempted to really believe that this is the last second milestone. I suspect even a fuzzer wouldn't find any new glitches. It's kind of astounding the game has been reverse engineered to this degree. Unless cosmic ray bit flips (or holding a radioactive source next to your ram) becomes a standard speedrunning tactic, I think this is it.
Although, if some sort of hardware deficiency is responsible for future time savings, it would be very interesting to see how that situation would be handled on emulator. Theoretically, the emulator perfectly emulates the behavior of the hardware in something approaching a genuine physical simulation. But I doubt emulators simulate the exact details of, idk, RAM timing, or if they do, in enough detail to actually capture bugs found with real hardware.
I thought it was the background music used in most speedrunner videos that gave them the edge-of-your-seat feel, but you nailed it without any music at all! I love this video, thank you for providing such detailed info on how Super Mario works and the steps used by Niftski. Awesome!
This is by far the best video I've seen explaining the tricks of these top tier speed runs. I've known about the FPG and frame rules but never understood exactly WHY they worked until now. This video is so awesome.
I have never been into speedruns but this was a great video, it's fascinating how truly skilled the competitors are to pull these insane runs off. Thank you for the detailed explanation of each step of the run 👍
Bismuth: "Why is this speedrun perfect?" Me: "Well, Niftski made several precise movements while having extremely compr--" Bismith: "IT'S NOT." Me: Visible dread.
20:44 I'm so happy that you included 0 as the fireworks number after so many people have oh so cleverly pointed out that 1, 3 and 6 aren't all the numbers.