![[Epilepsy Warning] Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y99Wj-NStok/hq2.jpg)
![SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kpk2tdsPh0A/hq2.jpg)
12 videos · 9 hr 40 minSpeedrunners Are Reverse Engineers
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.
Play all on YouTube- 129:54
[Epilepsy Warning] Choco Mountain: The History of Mario Kart 64's Most Infamous Track
Summoning Salt · Picked by 3 · 2018The opener: one HN commenter says this is the video that made them care about speedrunning, told as a story of record holders and discoveries.
- 237:23
Walls, Floors, & Ceilings
UncommentatedPannen · Picked by 3 · 2017–2018Before breaking a game you need its rules, and this walkthrough of Mario 64's triangle collision code is the textbook for that.
- 324:39
SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED]
pannenkoek2012 · Picked by 13 · 2016–2024The famous 'half an A press' video, which HN describes as insanely complicated and surprisingly lucid, built on those collision rules.
- 411:55
Super Mario World Credits Warp Explained
Frieze · Picked by 2 · 2015–2025Moving from physics to memory: an animated, assembly-level explanation of how an item glitch makes the SNES jump to the ending.
- 5
9:01Super Mario World -- Credits Warp in 5:59.6 (First Time Ever on Console)
SethBling · Picked by 2 · 2015–2022The same exploit done by a human on a real console, a moment HN remembers as a trick escaping tool-assisted runs.
- 6
6:31SNES Code Injection -- Flappy Bird in SMW
SethBling · Picked by 9 · 2016–2025SethBling types an entire new game into memory with a controller, HN's go-to example of arbitrary code execution through gameplay.
- 7
![Video frame: [TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vjm8P8utT5g/hq2.jpg)
7:45[TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution
MrWint · Picked by 4 · 2020–2025The Game Boy version of the idea, taken so far that Pokemon Yellow ends up running other programs.
- 8
58:44TasBlock at AGDQ 2017: TASBot
TASVideosChannel · Picked by 3 · 2019–2025An hour of a robot at a live event pushing video and chat through controller ports, which HN calls a reliably great GDQ watch.
- 9
24:32How We Solved the Worst Minigame in Zelda's History
Linkus7 · Picked by 3 · 2020–2024A turn to randomness: a community reverse engineers Wind Waker's RNG to win the Sploosh Kaboom minigame every time.
- 10
8:24How the Minecraft Title Screen Seed was Found
SalC1 · Picked by 1 · 2020–2024RNG cracking on a larger scale, a distributed search through world seeds that one HN commenter promises will blow your mind.
- 11
39:47How lucky is too lucky?: The Minecraft Speedrunning Dream Controversy Explained
Stand-up Maths · Picked by 5 · 2021–2025The same probability math pointed at a cheater, which Matt Parker turns into a lesson HN liked on negligible probabilities.
- 12
5:22:14The Complete History of the A Button Challenge
Bismuth · Picked by 3 · 2023–2024The five-hour finale for those now hooked, chronicling years of SM64 exploit discovery that HN calls an insane amount of knowledge.