Watch an NES Complete Super Mario Bros. All By Itself
Posted by James Newton
Like a robot
Over the years we've seen people play Super Mario Bros. in some crazy ways: you can play Mario with Kinect, play Mario with your eyes and even, believe it or not, play Mario with your hands, like a baby's toy. They've all required some sort of human interaction, but not this latest Mario-related chicanery, which uses a robot to replace the fleshbags in charge of the controller.
Granted, it's not a mechanical robot, as the video shows just a flashing LED on a circuitboard rather than the giant steel contraption we'd create to play Mario perfectly, but as a tool-assisted speedrun running on the original hardware, this is still pretty cool, and shows off some Mario glitches you may not have known about.
[via instructables.com]
User Comments (48)
#1
VintageBoy said:
With skills like that, that innocent-looking board is certain to take over the world.
**hides in nuclear bunker**
#2
eddypikachu said:
Did anyone else see him wall jump, and jump on the lava, and double jump like their is no tomorrow?
#3
L4DYK0M1C said:
Did not know you can ACTUALLY wall jump- at least that many times (only did it once but was not successful).
#4
theblackdragon said:
that was pretty slick, haha... nice with the wall jumps toward the end there :3
#5
motang said:
Wow that's pretty cool!
#6
moosa said:
So... Mario did it way before Megaman. It's not as if Mario needed any +respect.
#7
Muis said:
It's funny to see how a computer takes the perfect route. Great stuff! Thanks for sharing, NL!
#8
DrCruse said:
So does it contain a prerecorded set of inputs or something?
#9
Robo-goose said:
Having computers kick your butt in Smash Bros is one thing, but this is insane.
#10
zranoll said:
I knew that you could wall jump in this game, but it is near impossible to pull off once. and this comp can do it that many times in a row?
#11
Kidtendo said:
So thats the origin of the wall jump, simply amazing
#12
Ren said:
Wow. That's crazy. Part of my angry adult life is thanks to my formative years spent trying to pass those bastard hammer throwing turtles. Seeing this hits me where I live.
Ahh, but points wise it never gets much on the flagpole! Us humans might have a fighting chance after all( if bonus points count when robots decide to overthrow us one day in a bloody human vs. robot apocalypse)
#13
Demonic said:
I didn't even know you could do wall jumps in Super Mario Bros... wtf?
#14
Willtard said:
Someone call John Connor.
#15
ColorsOfSonic said:
Wait, the lava didn't kill him, when the blooper touched him he didn't die, he was hit with a bullt bil;l and wasn't injured and walked through a wall instead of using the actual pipe...possibly fake!
#16
DannyBoyTheDude said:
Play it with your hands? That'd be like a baby's toy!
#17
MasterGraveheart said:
I've seen this exact play somewhere else before... if it's real, cool, but I'm calling shinanigans.
#18
SanderEvers said:
@15: Those are the glitches
#19
theblackdragon said:
@TheColorsOfSonic: we've all had close encounters with pirahna plants, bloobers, and the like, and some of us have even experienced the walking through walls and wall-jumping glitches first-hand. it's just that the computer is far more skilled at executing these moves than the rest of us. doesn't look fake to me at all :3
#20
VintageBoy said:
@15: They're all legitimate glitches
#21
Greenalink said:
@ JesusSaves
"So does it contain a prerecorded set of inputs or something?"
Yep it uses a .fm2 input file that was made by using FCEUX http://tasvideos.org/1715M.html
@ TheColorsOfSonic
Bad hit decection, not fake at all
Here is a list of Mario glitches:
http://tasvideos.org/GameResources/NES/SuperMarioBros.html
#22
Mikau94 said:
In world 1-2, if you go through the wall like he did, you would be taken to pipes that lead to the negative zone, not a warp area.
#23
Pastry said:
Don't forget playing Mario with a Dance Pad.
#24
SilverBaretta said:
Gotta love these tool-assisted speedruns.
#25
Jnes4 said:
I would imagine this is how the "super guide" would look like if it was made back in the 80's
#26
grumblebuzzz said:
I just don't get how a tangled up mass of wires and a Christmas light can play Mario like that. scratches head
#27
bezerker99 said:
Do this with the Lost Levels then we'll talk.
#28
FluttershyGuy said:
Between this and Watson, the Jeopardy-playing computer, apparently we humans are on the verge of becoming obsolete. I expect Skynet to open it's doors any day now. Hasta la vista, baby!
On a side note, that's one damn good looking cake! Forget my usual pineapple upside down cake. Next year for my birthday, I want a Super NES birthday cake, since it'll be close to my 20th anniversary of getting it (plus Super Mario World and Drakkhen
). That is if humanity hasn't been wiped out by Judgment Day, of course! 
#29
yoyogamer said:
I wanna see this done with the original Zelda.
#30
AirCop said:
An NES + an copy of Mario Bros = an really good video!
#31
CaptainRandom said:
I only came to this article because of the BttF reference...
#32
Wamtu said:
Yipe.
#33
FluttershyGuy said:
@Aiko
I thought of that too. Love me some Wild Gunman!
#34
M00se said:
damn AVGN already sold his "Beat a Game Button"??? lol
#35
Blaketoberfest said:
I knew robots would take over the world!!!
#36
PunnyGuy said:
I wonder if it can work with Gyromite...
#37
kurtasbestos said:
Has any other game in history been as thoroughly torn apart by so many different people as much as Super Mario Bros.? It's kind of amazing, if not really weird.
#38
ShadowSniper7 said:
@22: Nope, that is when you go through the wall and enter the pipe before the numbers show up. Notice how he waits for the number 4 to pop up before going down.
#39
aaronsullivan said:
So... it plays back a speed run that somebody did painstakingly with their meat paws in essentially slow motion with undo (tool-assisted) taking advantage of all the glitches. It plays it in real time however which is very cool because only a computer could send the signals that fast. The geek factor is ultra-high here, but rumors of AI are greatly exaggerated.
#40
quazzaazazazaazaza said:
Gee, what can robots NOT do?
#41
Deviant_Mugen said:
Cool video...
@40: Robots can't have feelings, and that makes them very sad...
#42
Eureka said:
Wanna see more games now, lol...
#43
Mikau94 said:
@38 I thought about that right after I posted. I came back to see if anyone noticed my mistake.
#44
NintyFan said:
A simple robot that looks like a bundle of wires and a christmas light can master Super Mario Bros?! I want to see it master Kid Icarus!
#45
Zach said:
That robot is my hero
#46
danschemen said:
i wouldn't be able to do that in a million years
#47
Benja_Mii_n said:
Did you notice the computer didn't beat the worlds fastest Super Mario Bros. Completion which was 5:00.
#48
GeminiSaint said:
It looks like a lot of people here think that this device thingie is playing the game using some sort of artificial intelligence or something. That's not the case, at all. What that machine is really doing is playing back a pre-recorded input sequence made on an emulator by a human player with tools such as slow down and state-saving/loading at his disposal.