mccJun 27, 2023

Speedrunning is kinda cursed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEQWT9rSkfM

Did you know this? Apparently if you bought a copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 in the US, depending on when you bought it the "bros" in the logo is either aligned left on the label or right.

*If the logo on your cart is aligned right, you can't get a world record under current strategies.*

And until *last year*, nobody realized this was a problem. It was believed the versions were functionally identical.

(image source reddit user stang189)

Mario 3 Version Difference Is Faster VS Slower!?

YouTube
Show threadmccJun 27, 2023

If this video confuses/bores you: Read this post then jump to 10:19.

In warpless SMB3 runs, there's an early (second world) instance of randomness where a hammer brother can run either right or left, and if it runs left you can skip three entire levels and save an entire minute:

https://smb3.bf0.org/smb3mechanics/2018-08-22-early-hammer/

Getting this randomness is important, so players use a "manipulation"– they play in a very precise way (in Mitch's case, literally miming along to a video of a TAS) to get exact random numbers.

Early Hammer

An in-depth description of Early Hammer and Hammer Brother movement

SMB3 0r4ng3
Show threadmccJun 27, 2023
Infosec-minded people watching this video will have a slow-dawning realization that what this speedrunner is haltingly describing is a timing attack performed on the video game. The version difference would not have been a problem if Nintendo had used constant-time algorithms in their end-of-level score check arithmetic. There's some DJB shit going on here.
Show threadGlyphJun 28, 2023
@mcc @mikeymikey earlier today, without having seen this toot, I was struck by the fact that speedrunning is effectively security research where the researchers get annoyed and think the target is cheating when patches are issued to fix vulns. I wonder if there’s a future where it’s a more typical vulndev endeavor, where glitches are bountied, the runners get *credit* (and maybe money) but the credit is not expressed as WRs, and glitchless runs become the standard.
Show threadSaagar Jha
@glyph @mcc @mikeymikey They have their own terms for a lot of the same things too
Jun 28, 2023 at 6:40amWeb