How Speedrunners Delete the Flag to Save Time

[@Kosmicd12]

Going to be working hard to put out more videos and stream more. Subscribe! And follow on Twitch! www.twitch.tv/kosmic

[@Vinylicc]

So happy for new videos

[@WhatDeyKno24]

Hope to see the return of Romhack Wednesdays, btw watching Kosmic play super Mario bros deluxe was hilarious in the speed running 10 different versions of smb1 video. Those 8-3 hammer bros don’t play around in that version lol

[@chrisjagon]

Thanks! Always putting out great content!

[@JokeURL]

ok

[@keiharris332]

Oops! No Flags% when?

[@Bismuth9]

Great video! I particularly enjoyed the sprite icons next to their RAM values.

[@reshia]

hi bismuth

[@Kosmicd12]

Thanks! Even though I didn't do it all the time haha. Probably should've for all the despawns at the end. Oh well Also the HappyLee clip they're a little innaccurate, but they flip around so much I did what made it the easiest to follow I think

[@Filiaris1]

Hi bismuth I love your videos

[@ericeaton2386]

@@Kosmicd12 I actually think the way you did it at the end works well, with the arrows on screen counting out the sprites, it made the ram values window unnecessary since throughout the video the viewer had been building the intuition for how it worked.

[@ExtremeBirdTypography]

I love that even with no possible time saves, you went looking for more places to despawn the flagpole just to style on the game. Even without any practical use, these tricks can just be fun!

[@Sixfortyfive]

I've only been aware of this phenomenon on a surface level because there are at least a few places in Lost Levels where crucial trampolines will despawn if too many enemies are present. World C-3 is a big one; if you don't kill the Lakitu right away there's a good chance that he'll toss a Spiny while multiple enemies are already present, and the trampolines will just start disappearing, leaving you with literally no way to cross all the huge gaps. Something similar will happen in World D-2 if you don't use fire to kill a few Piranha Plants. On some level I've always been curious if the designers were aware of this and arranged things like this intentionally; D-2 does actually provide the player with the means to loop through the first part of the stage a few times to collect a Fire Flower if needed, which makes it always possible to clear even if you started out small. So, this has always blurred the line between "glitch" and "intended play" to me.

[@Kosmicd12]

Killing piranha plants actually doesn't reduce the sprite count, they just hide dead inside their pipe

[@Sixfortyfive]

@@Kosmicd12 Ah yeah, that's right. Then it has to be either the paratroopas or the vine that's messing with something there.

[@EebstertheGreat]

Despawning platforms can also be a major pain. In some places, it makes the level unbeatable when it happens, just like despawning springboards. Sometimes I feel like there was probably a better way to design some levels to avoid that, but the sprite limit is so restrictive that it's hard to do so without compromising elsewhere.

[@Mercerenies]

The OG 5-3 platform has fooled me a few times, but the springs on C-3 are absolutely sadistic. Even if you kill Lakitu, if the game is in a bad mood he just respawns too soon and ruins your day anyway.

[@renakunisaki]

@@EebstertheGreat an ideal solution would have been for platforms and springs to have priority - nothing is allowed to replace them. So you might see an enemy disappear or fail to spawn, but the level is still beatable.

[@otakubullfrog1665]

I never realized just how many piranha plants I had been despawning all these years. They must have known about that happening and probably didn't care because a missing plant never breaks the game in any way.

[@Kosmicd12]

you're despawning all sorts of goombas and koopas etc. too

[@MikoLotte]

This happened to me in 2-1 once: I hit the block with the vine in it, but then I realized I had 00 coins, so instead of climbing I decided to keep going to try for the Flagpole 1UP. I accidentally kicked a Koopa shell and stopped it in front of the end stairs before the three Goombas made it down. I did NOT get the Flagpole 1UP because of the missing flag, even though I kept my coins at 00 and finished at 170 time!

[@WaluTime]

SMB1 doesn't have 1-ups for flag pole tops. that started with NSMB.

[@MikoLotte]

​@@WaluTime I meant 2-1 in The Lost Levels. When you hit the Flagpole in that game while both digits of the coins match the last digit of the timer, you get the 1UP regardless of how high up the Flagpole you got... if the flag is still there, of course

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

@@WaluTime The Japanese SMB2 (for the FDS) was the first game that featured that. So too did All Night Nippon SMB.

[@ElizabethClements-np7gc]

This was a super great video! Part of the reason I love Speedrunning so much is finding about the ways runners take advantage of the code to cut time. Excited to see more content like this from you

[@Cabarkin]

Kosmic is such a wholesome... ehm... content creator? There's a word for it. Anyway, Kosmic is always a mood lifter with his content and personality. Like I can temporarily forget about my troubles thanks to Kosmic. I'm just watching videos, but this honestly is one of the few positive constants in my life and I'm very appreciative for it. Hopefully it'll last for a while, but a thank you is in place either way.

[@n646n]

No.

[@narnianninja4964]

​@@n646n Yes.

[@pherlong7]

Ah, those speedrunners, doing anything in their ability to go fast! edit: hate to be *that* guy, but this is the most likes I've gotten, thanks

[@Dunhaibee]

I was thinking about why so many in the radical left participate in "speedrunning" The reason is the left's lack of work ethic ('go fast' rather than 'do it right') and, in a Petersonian sense, to elevate alternative sexual archetypes in the marketplace ('fastest mario'), obviously, there are exceptions to this and some people more in the center or right also "speedrun". However, they more than sufficient to prove the rule, rather than contrast it. Consider how woke GDQ has been, almost since the very beginning. Your eyes will start to open. Returning to the topic of the work ethic: a "speedrunner" may well spend hours a day at their craft, but this is ultimately a meaningless exercise, since they will ultimately accomplish exactly that which is done in less collective time by a casual player. This is thus a waste of effort on the behalf of the "speedrunner". Put more simply, they are spending their work effort on something that someone else has already done (and done in a way deemed 'correct' by the creator of the artwork). Why do they do this? The answer is quite obvious if you think about it. The goal is the illusion of speed and the desire (SUBCONSCIOUS) to promote radical leftist, borderline Communist ideals of how easy work is. Everyone always says that "speedruns" look easy. That is part of the aesthetic. Think about the phrase "fully automated luxury Communism" in the context of "speedrunning" and I strongly suspect that things will start to 'click' in your mind. What happens to the individual in this? Individual accomplishment in "speedrunning" is simply waiting for another person to steal your techniques in order to defeat you. Where is something like "intellectual property" or "patent" in this necessarily communitarian process? Now, as to the sexual archetype model and 'speedrunning' generally...

[@goldencheeze]

looks like Shadow was right

[@ZarkWiffle]

Gotta Go Fast! -Pope John XXIII

[@EuphoricPentagram]

Gotta go fast

[@adamPhoebe]

👴

[@jeltemreal]

Hmm, I wonder why 1:45 is the most replayed part of this video?

[@TheCasualMark]

There’s something so fascinating about such a simple game with SO MUCH working under the hood at times. It’s always a pleasure watching your videos :)

[@radiak55]

I find learning the intricacies of the exploits in speedrunkig to be very entertaining. The kind of fun you can only get online with user content. Even though I'm a casual player, I now get what speed runners get out of playing a single game more than average on a lifetime. It becomes its own meta game by that poimt

[@KOrgan0414]

The gif of Y really came out of left field for me, I nearly spat out my drink. Hilarious.

[@trayson]

Even if flag-despawning only ends up being feasible for speedrunning a few levels in SMB2J, the thought process required here still adds such a fresh new feeling to speedrunning these games. I love all the new discoveries and oddities people keep finding here.

[@Userminusone]

This gives me an idea for a new speedrun category: min flags, where you beat the game while encountering as little flags as possible. It would work a lot like any% but would also allow for the use of flag despawning in levels where it doesn't save any time...

[@evervirescent]

or maybe like low%? i don’t know how to explain it that well, i recommend looking it up if you don’t know how it works

[@seanbrockest3888]

Speedrunners should be hired to beta test new games. Something a lot of people don't realize is that "playtesters" are people who are really good at noticing patterns, figuring out mechanics, and seeing if they break a game for better or for worse. One of the best "found a bug" stories I know if was a guy who left a car running full speed at a wall while he went for lunch. He came back and found the car roaming around out of bounds. It led to a game-saving bug being discovered. Speedrunners do that kind of thing for fun/discovery, and are invaluable to game dev teams.

[@Rainbow-Dash]

Games don't do QA these days thou, it's all release first fix later

[@milesd0texe385]

Awesome ! was curious about this the other day after seeing it in lost levels speedruns, but couldnt find an explanation anywhere easily for how it happens

[@doge-pal]

It's amazing how speedrunners can find new things about Super Mario Bros. over 35 years after its release

[@whee2390]

I'm loving these video essay-style videos!

[@rhinuu045]

same

[@madezio2]

This is really cool. These are my favourite videos of your channel.

[@GTAce99]

The Flag Despawn Revolution

[@ChanceSMBX]

love the new style man

[@nicholasiverson9784]

Went ahead and signed up for that meals looking forward to trying it out :) First meals arrive on the 19th. Hope it gives you continued support through future ad deals

[@mattguy1773]

Super Mario Bros speedrunning has evolved into something amazing

[@sillymel]

(3:53) That's not really the relevant code here. Instead, you want the code where the star flag is spawned by the castle object, on lines 3749-3762. This code calls FindEmptyEnemySlot (on lines 3896-3904), which counts up to try to find an empty slot in the normal enemy slot region. SInce the code to spawn the star flag doesn't check if FindEmptyEnemySlor actually found an empty slot, if all of the normal enemy slots are all full, the star flag will instead spawn in the next slot *after* the normal enemy slots, i.e. slot 6, the slot normally reserved for items.

[@tttITA10]

5:14 - Speedrunner: "flag despawn" KZbin Autosubtitles: "Flagdy Spawn"

[@BobTheAnimator101]

Damn next step will be : how erasing the background helps saving 2 milliseconds

[@JAllen01]

lols

[@varietychan]

Interesting video format, I like this explanation

[@buttecake]

Great video! I love how you break down the mechanic then use it in some new ways!

[@staudinga]

Interesting. I've watched a lot of your content, and also some other people speedrunning, playing or discussing Super Mario, but somehow I made it until today without ever seeing Mario jump off the flagpole.

[@TheCasualSubculturist]

5:06 at this moment, I felt your inner Summoning Salt

[@morchela]

Nice, it's always fun to learn new things about this classic

[@jadenpadin4707]

I love these type of videos pls do more

[@rajkanishu]

Love these new videos, you explain things really well and the editing is super chill and easy to follow, the sprites next to the ram slots are a genius idea!

[@Schlimtor]

I still remember where I was when GTAce first despawned the flag

[@Kosmicd12]

If I had to guess, it'd be twitch.tv/GTAce99

[@go_gazelle]

I used to be addicted to speed running the Nes Remix challenges. Many were traditional speed running, but some were like "defeat x number of enemies with star or fire power." A fun speed running strat was to actually slow down because it allowed more enemies to spawn, enabling you to complete the challenge quicker. It was also fun searching for new places to make more enemies spawn. Now that I understand what's going on behind the scenes with sprite slots, I can basically do the opposite of the strat in the video: free up instead of fill up the slots. With your knowledge of the levels (lost levels included), you might already know many places where slowing down to free up sprite slots will enable additional enemies to spawn.

[@Hyper_Slade]

Kosmic out here sending these glitch hunters to the Shadow Realm

[@SilverVayne]

I hovered the video and the first bit of captions read like narration and I was like "Wait... Kosmic's doing a narration style video? I wonder how he sounds, I don't think I've heard him do that before." Wasn't disappointed, it's still Kosmic, but you did well with this style. I may not watch every Romhack Wednesday, but I think I'd have to keep up on anything you do in this format.

[@4the0cean]

I really enjoy these types of videos Kosmic. Long time fan of the game, but it’s sometimes intimidating going into a twitch chat with all of these terms flying around that I’ve never heard. I hope these become more successful and fruitful for you.

[@eriks2962]

Hello Ophelia, I have found that cosmic and his chat are very friendly and answer all kinds of questions about the game. That's not your typical (toxic) twitch channel. Come and stop by!

[@izzieb]

New category: Quickest flagless all levels

[@Opanker_]

It's impossible to despawn the flag in levels like 1-1, 1-2, 2-2 etc.

[@jeremysmith7176]

@@Opanker_ so minimum flag%

[@SOTP.]

@@Opanker_ cant u turn buzzy beatles (dont judge how i wrote it) into red koopas to do it? You can also turn goombas into koopas but they die anyways so yeah

[@TheNetflixGamer]

This is sweet, the just for fun stuff is my favorite

[@SA77888]

3:00 aAAaaaAah I wondered why this platform only SOMETIMES spawned. Now I can do the level with confidence. Thanks Kosmic :)

[@csucskos]

Great, I love these! First because I just like knowing these fringe details that I'll probably never in my life use, second showing this to a bigger audience may result in breakthroughs in speedrunning and I can always be hiped for that. Thanks Kosmic!

[@smithsmithenson9536]

Huge fan of these game analysis videos, they remind me of the ones Decino does for Doom. Keep up the great work!

[@siraxlrose5659]

I love these technical explanations

[@vonmatrices]

This is how speedrunners play Capture the Flag

[@aradgouklani2239]

5:15 It's probably just me but that font just instantly remindes me of a summoning salt vid

[@sholmes3654]

Wow, this was really fascinating!! I think it'd be fun just to see a whole playthrough where the goal is to beat the game without flags (or minimum flags), thank you for sharing!

[@butcherkevin]

what a great video, well written and really enjoyable!

[@henryfleischer404]

It's interesting seeing how much more primitive sprite management is in early nes games like this, than in later games like RECCA. I can actually understand it! There's no constant shuffling or reloading everything, they just stay put!

[@MoreInsane96]

New speedrun category? Most Flagpool Despawn%

[@blakeblockblook5522]

now my friend Joyful Li can pass super mario brothers in less than 4:54 minutes

[@JordanICM]

Seems like having a vine permanently occupy a spot can be useful for despawing other stuff throughout the level to same time too.

[@archivewarrior8535]

The thing that stood out to me most in this video was not anything weird with flags or whatever, but that there are sequels to SMB on the same engine!?

[@geeshta]

great video, I really like this explainer format. Can't wait for the NoFlag% TAS 😆

[@Kurzov]

"our first suspect in this murder mystery are those wretched speedrunners... there's nothing they love more than ruining your childhood to save a fraction of a second" LOL

[@PierceArner]

I really loved the opening editing in this presentation, and I'm glad you're gonna be doing more videos like this!

[@TYNEPUNK]

these people are insane, each time i put out a game i wonder if in 20 yrs some kids will be totally cracking it in ways i neverr considered. and giving it respect that i never thought possible. good vids mate thanks i like speed running.

[@warmCabin]

6:32 I'd recognize the gui.text font anywhere. That's awesome!

[@luciaaiculluciaaicul]

great video Kosmic! I love these types of videos, so keep 'em coming :)

[@copperymarrow1583]

It's hard to believe new tricks are still being found in these games.

[@noir66146]

pristine breakdown. i really wish nintendo would reinvent it's console to house more sprites. i tried making my own mario levels before, and never understood why the screen would slow down and crash when i flooded the map with monsters.... it's all so clear now.

[@letcreate123]

SMB2J programmer: *accidentally deletes a line of code* The game:

[@WolfAeterni]

Actually, they didn't delete a line, they added 35 of them lmao

[@RF_dhdahngtj99]

LOL. Great video Kosmic!

[@jasonrowe3847]

Do ya'll realize how awesome this is for someone who played these games back in the day? Very awesome. It's also very awesome for people who played these games back in the night. That's a grandpa joke glitch. It works, but nobody knows why it works, not even grandpa. See, we KNEW the games were awesome. We didn't know how much MORE awesome they would get almost 40 years later. That. Much. MORE.

[@arixraven]

I loved this type of analysis, keep up the great stuff!

[@noyz-anything]

* casually confesses to killing the flagpole in the midst of his own investigation

[@jarrod752]

_those wretched speed runners will ruin your childhood to save a fraction of a second._ And they'll happily figure out ways to ruin your childhood faster, if it would save them another fraction of a second.

[@antthegord9411]

Not gonna lie, that Factor 75 food looks like a tv dinner and a fancy dinner had a baby and the result looks delicious.

[@mygills3050]

The year is 2030. The fastest SMB speedrun known to man is in the flagless category and it’s 3 minutes

[@TokraRoch]

5:08.....Kosmic doing his best Karl Jobst impression!!! :)

[@SuperYoonHo]

wow awesome! thanks a lot bro

[@PSCuber]

The Flag on the Pole was sent to the Backrooms

[@kev_whatev]

New category: SMB1 Flagless

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

0:00 The flagpole has appeared in only 9 Mario games (Super Mario Bros, Lost Levels, New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros Wii, New Super Mario Bros 2, New Super Mario Bros U, New Super Luigi U, Super Mario 3D Land, and Super Mario 3D World)

[@ant2902]

There are more Mario games with flagpoles!

[@glowstonelovepad9294]

@@ant2902 Super Mario Bros 2 uses the bird gate thing at the end. Super Mario Bros 3 uses the "power up roulette" end card. Super Mario Land and Land 2 use just walking into a door. Super Mario World uses the goal tape thing. Super Mario 64, Galaxy, and Galaxy 2 use stars. Super Mario Sunshine and Bowser's Fury use shines, and Super Mario Odyysey uses moons.

[@lennyface5314]

0:39 yeah that's an efficient description

[@Nob1ej0n]

Fascinating as always. Love these technical breakdowns. Also, that snark and self-deprecation at 0:36. :-)

[@litelbrown]

I flagged this video as one of my favorites. Pls do not despawn it. Thank you.

[@vidvad]

Shoutout to Goofy! Very interesting video. It's crazy to me that we still find new optimizations in these games after all those years!

[@C.Dankertsen]

going from the flagpole glitch, to just despawning the flag is definitely something

[@smd91xx]

I always wondered why the flag despawned when a 1up spawned next to it in my hack, makes sense now

[@flibidydibidy]

Awesome job!

[@ClassicTVMan1981X]

In World 5-3 (and 1-3 in second quest mode), they were supposed to have canceled the Bullet Bill frenzy right before the two back-and-forth platforms, but the programmers mistakenly added a second Bullet Bill frenzy (enemy ID $57, instead of the intended $58 for no frenzy). However, this is not an issue in Super Mario All-Stars since the number of enemy slots was increased by three (from six to nine).

[@rokko4047]

"f**k it, *deletes your flag*"

[@hillrp1]

And now we wait for the inevitable flagless% category extension

[@roberitonium]

There should be a "minimal flags" speedrunning category now. One where you attempt to beat the game with the least amount of flags.

[@EyebrowsMahoney]

3:00 I HAD THIS HAPPEN TO ME. I kept getting screwed and didn't know why until one play through the platform showed. I thought the game just took pity on me. Little did I know I just had to stomp the Goomba. Thanks for the explanation!

[@mikuenjoyerXD]

There's so many times that i feel like a game has pitied me and has gotten a bit easier lol PAIN

[@nathanisbored]

its funny watching these smb1 videos knowing how smw works. theres a lot of similarities: - in smb, there are 5 main slots and one reserved for items from blocks. in smw, theres 10 main slots and 2 reserved for items from blocks (or the item box). - in both smb and smw, the reserved slots replace each other if all slots are full, whereas the normal slots just fail to spawn. in smb, slot 6 is always replaced. in smw, it toggles back and forth between replacing reserve slot 1 (slot 10) and reserve slot 2 (slot 11), so the same slot wont get replaced twice in a row. - in smb, there a special exception for spawning the castle flag. in smw, theres a similar special exception for the goal tape itself. in smb, this is because certain important functions depend on the castle flag. in smw, its because the goal trigger and the goal tape are part of the same sprite, so the goal tape needs to load for the level to be complete-able. in smb, the extra code for this first checks for an empty slot, and then replaces slot 6 if it cant find one. in smw, the code for this first checks for an empty slot and then does a second pass checking for a specific bit flag certain sprites have that allows the goal tape to replace them (if it cant find one, only then does it fail to spawn).

[@lafcursiax]

Ha ha, that intro was flaggone funny!

[@Harrun]

I love this kind of videos.

[@eggimage]

damn it’s 2022 and new stuff is still being discovered about this game. amazing

[@gazeboist4535]

Minimum flag speedrun when?

[@kphoenix137]

For factor 75, how does the food not go bad in the mail if it's not frozen?

[@michaelsegal3558]

I actually heard that the only pipes that aren’t supposed to have piranha plants are the pipes in 1-1

[@paul_warner]

flagpole glitch 2 is finally here

[@cir0plus]

Game: "You can lose time just by watching the flag go down" Speed Runners: "What flag?"

[@andersmmvfc.8376]

Awsome things you didn't know you wanted to know, brilliant contents!!

[@luke6784]

I really loved this video! Informative and funny

[@justanobody0]

I found your flag deload glitches at the end interesting, especially the level where you had to get the red koopas to skywalk on the ground in that last level

[@chris9716]

love the tropical freeze music, great taste!