The Absurd History of Level 8-2

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Bismuth's bullet bill glitch explanation: • Why 4:54 is the perfec...
Flag Despawn explained: • How Speedrunners Delet...
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Maps used:
nesmaps.com/maps/SuperMarioBr...
Music used:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Q...
Footage used:
docs.google.com/document/d/1Q...
#Kosmic #Mario #Breakdown

[@Kosmicd12]

Go to buyraycon.com/kosmic for 20% off your order, plus free shipping! Brought to you by Raycon.

[@H3n7yx76]

Not betterhelp, at least.

[@Monnn_007]

Finally.

[@RFGSwiss]

@@H3n7yx76 yeah,. that was rough. lets get over it now.

[@Forest2TS]

thank God it's the ron jons the better help was no help at all

[@H3n7yx76]

@@RFGSwissagreed

[@knghtbrd]

Imagine a bus that arrives every 21 frames. Except you've been waiting for this bus for over 24 minutes, so you run over the bus with a giant steamroller. That's 8-2.

[@JediSteve-J3-]

Finally

[@LadyHawke78]

…I see what you did there.

[@yeshevishman]

Ok. As soon as I saw the bus my immediate thought was " 🙄we get it...the meme is a meme you don't have to....OH. OOOOOH!" You sir, win the internet for today.

[@duelmasteryuya1205]

I don't get the reference.

[@yeshevishman]

@@duelmasteryuya1205 Then you must be new to the SMB speed running community. Look up the frame rule/bus comparison.

[@LendriMujina]

The idea of speedruns that involve an absurd amount of waiting is hilarious to me. Mario standing on the title screen for 24 minutes... Link staring at a blue rupee for 17 hours...

[@E.EE.]

Frisk being unconscious on th bed of flowers for 300 years

[@Kyouto_Clips]

​@@E.EE. wait whats the context for that one?

[@pageofvoid6881]

Madeline waiting 118 hrs in Celeste to turn off spinner collision...

[@wompastompa3692]

Multiple blue rupees. There are multiple clips that total to around 17 hours.

[@JediSteve-J3-]

Exterminating Bees for about 40+ hours just to extract some dream essence.

[@GTAce99]

Hopefully my comment doesn't despawn.

[@SuperDorrie994]

@GTAce99

[@NullScar]

That never happens to historical persons.

[@ChromaCoolman]

fr

[@8BitPlumber1]

Quick, pin it before it despawns!

[@personthatexists92]

It will not despawn.

[@milesmartin9624]

Between fast acceleration and BLJ, "goes faster if he jumps backwards" should be one of Mario's canonical powers.

[@NinetyLegos]

That would actually be so cool

[@AROAH]

I can see it in Mario Movie 2 We see Mario kneeling down, preparing himself, checking his footing. Cut to a closeup of his eyes, an intense look on his face. “Let’s-a go.” We cut to a wide shot showing Mario is actually facing away from Bowser’s castle as he starts jumping backwards, faster and faster, until he starts bouncing at supersonic speeds. Freebird fades in at the part just before the solo starts. We intercut shots of Mario’s bouncing with a gag of the wind from his movement causing humorous moments like flying koopas being blown about or a Toad’s item stand being knocked down. “BING BING WAHOO”

[@PSNProperty_Damage]

4:17 WTF was that! Omfg! hahaha

[@Mario-im1rk]

"DON'T YOU SEE!? THE PLANT DESPAWNED." I didn't see, and I was shocked when he said that

[@laytonjr6601]

Every single pipe (except in 1-1) has a plant in it. The only reason there wouldn't be one is if it despawned

[@ProHakerGaming]

I just looked at world 8-E lol

[@pkmntrainermark8881]

​@@laytonjr6601 Really? Wow.

[@Mario-im1rk]

@@laytonjr6601 Yea, I'm aware. He said it in the video. I was just really surprised when he showed that the plant was gone.

[@laytonjr6601]

@@pkmntrainermark8881 Well, the warp zones obviously don't have plants but there is an (invisible) plant in the water section of 8-4

[@BookwormKevin]

9:34 "This is MASSIVE, don't you see??" me: oh yeah it says 8-E thats weird kosmic: "the plant despawned!" me: oh

[@dudical111]

SAME

[@maximk9964]

Why did it say 8-E?

[@circleo1992]

The number of times that people have said a trick is impossible only for someone to do it in SMB1 is absolutely insane. It happens all of the time in speedruning, but I've never seen it happen nearly as many times as in SMB1.

[@DONKEYKONG260]

I feel like it's people who vastly underestimate others and just because they can't do it ever it's a 'never gonna happen' thing.

[@CosmicPlatonix]

Also, SMB1 is a perfect example of a speedrun that's so thoroughly optimized that the only time saves left are the "impossible" ones.

[@Kirkonator5000]

ERM rightwarping into the flag immediately is so impossible (joke I'm not being a dirt bag)

[@whazzup_teacup]

Speedrunning is the epitome of "never say never"

[@yyoshman]

always impossible until someone does it

[@MYFAVORITES5]

"Let's take a trip back to 2019" 2019 was last year, right? Right?!

[@PigeonofTheFrogs]

....it was 5 years ago...

[@tairhan52]

@@PigeonofTheFrogsoh god..

[@paris-1911]

@@PigeonofTheFrogs … the fog.

[@whazzup_teacup]

I wish. I had to waste my mid-20s into the pandemic years.

[@Kirkonator5000]

SAAAAME. I wish I was there on my teens, dude. Atleast I would be able to UNDERSTAND people my age. Now it's all just brainrot humor.

[@wraithofaces]

me watching a man repeatedly throw himself into walls and obstacles for 24 minutes in order to manipulate the universe so that a random cannon miles away fires at a slightly different time

[@murilo_the_lilo9947]

1-1 goomba:

[@AdaptiveApeHybrid]

So it goes. Life in the big city.

[@kriller3771]

Really glad this story is able to be shared, I am super proud of all the work that I and the community have put into this level

[@daveyjones7391]

Well done! 🫡

[@Demoncradle]

Legend

[@yoguyslookatmypetlightsabe8211]

It’s ironic. Compared to other games super Mario bros is definitely the least flashy, but is arguably the most complicated since parallel universes.

[@seangiglio]

That’s probably in part to the fact that it’s such a short speedrun, so all of this crazy tech is the only way to improve times

[@CatgirlExplise6039]

@@seangiglio Yea, theyre billions of bugs in every game, but they simply arent ever going to be known, but when a game is so simplistic and straight-foward, it can be picked apart easier.

[@enderkatze6129]

Pretty Sure the parallel universes Came after, since Mario64 was released later

[@Bismuth9]

Incredible video, I'm really impressed by how much the quality of your explanations and editing has improved in such a short time!

[@Kosmicd12]

Thanks! I still spend half the video just showing a lot of the same clips of mario in slow motion, haha. But I guess that's not so bad, and there's definitely some bigger moments

[@javen9693]

Things that have happened since SMB1 was released: - the Soviet Union fell - digital cameras were invented - the world population increased by 3 billion - Eisenhower was elected - Niel Armstrong landed on the moon - the entire Tang dynasty

[@sourandbitter3062]

You're going to confuse youngsters

[@kab43]

you forgot at least 1 dollar being made

[@ulysses5439]

the moon is not solid, it can't be landed on

[@piyo744]

@@ulysses5439 the moon is solid it's just really really really shy and we respect its privacy so that's why we faked the moon landing

[@Pinkcircleguy]

​@@ulysses5439yeah, the creator didn't intend players to land there so they simply didn't put collision to save precious ram

[@WikiHL]

Jesus, that intro threw my brain off for a second

[@yoshyfoods]

8-2 haunted me for non-speedrunner reasons… I played SMB1 for the first time as SMB deluxe on the gbc. The screen was crunched and the lakitu was agressive. The horrors of my first SMB playthrough mostly stem from retrying this one level due to gameboy related issues

[@ProHakerGaming]

Same. SMB Deluxe is absolutely merciless. EDIT: The whole world 8 was brutal, actually.

[@crazyluigi6664]

@@ProHakerGaming Can relate with me playing Super Mario Bros. on the Game Boy Advance myself.

[@endymallorn]

No kidding, SMB Deluxe was the first time I played Mario on Nintendo hardware. 8-2 is evil.

[@lasagnahog7695]

I love that Summoning Salt and Bismuth both get early shout outs. Together with Kosmic they are three of the channels I get most excited to see uploads from.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

It's always funny when royalty free music gets so associated with one creator that it becomes as if it were their trademark... except that they can't trademark it because they don't own it. So anyone can use it, but if they do, everyone knows where they got the idea. The TYT theme song is also royalty free. Anyone who pays for the service TYT uses can get the same song and use it also. But it is so clearly their theme song.

[@kepeli14]

man kosmic, jobst, and pannen all dropping within a day or two has been epic

[@jackringel485]

hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby vs hydrogen bomb

[@rwcreation2831]

​@@jackringel485 i snorted

[@solidpandacka5544]

@@jackringel485 legit everyone in jobst's comment section has been disappointed by it

[@johannhowitzer]

But first, you legends, we need to talk about parallel bullet phantom universe bills.

[@Bowshewicz]

13:00 My guess for the Piranha Plants is that they can't move horizontally. A Goomba or something might walk back onscreen if Mario stops, but once a Piranha is off screen, it's gone.

[@JoeDan54]

Seeing a Kosmic thumbnail without context as someone with mid level knowledge of the SMB NES trilogy is funny because you have to always guess if it's SMB1 or SMB2J

[@Dimitri_gdr]

You can definitely know it's SMB1 just with the thumbnail + title

[@JoeDan54]

​@@Dimitri_gdrReally the only dead giveaway in any given thumbnail is the ground tiles, which aren't present in this thumbnail

[@Dimitri_gdr]

@@JoeDan54 That's true, I think I guessed it was SMB1 after reading the title and I immediately know he was gonna tell us about blant

[@Kosmicd12]

@@JoeDan54 The brick tiles are different in 2j as well, so that can help. 2j's 8-2 isn't a super interesting level, and the only right-side-up piranha plant is in an orange pipe, haha. So it can't be that in this case. Biggest thing is just if you know relevant things about the categories- on one of my past videos a bunch of people were like "I thought this would be about smb1 any%!" when the thumbnail had big fire mario jumping through a long firebar. Like where would that fit into smb1 any%?? haha

[@Ilyena]

10:51 I absolutely love his reaction.

[@Nieveria]

i think it's hilarious that lost levels is so poorly designed that despawns happen a lot even _casually_, namely with one of the firebars in one of the castles

[@Kosmicd12]

despawns happen constantly in smb1 as well, that's not really a 2j thing. If we want to talk about bad despawns in 2j it's when springs despawn in c-3 or d-2. 2j is great though, I think you throw around "poorly designed" way too easily. SMB1's castle stages are more boring trying to avoid despawns, since they basically never put enemies in those levels. 2j got a lot more interesting, not a big deal that something despawns here or there; Piranha plants do it constantly in both games.

[@tyrionstrongjaw7729]

Man - I was just thinking I was bored and needed something to do for 30 minutes before I had things to do. Click on YT and what do I see?! A new Kosmic video!!!! Perfect timing!

[@reshpeck]

13:10 I would have guessed the hammer bros despawn sooner because their hammers also take up sprite slots. Then again, when Bowser throws hammers there's a lot more than just five. But they also flicker so maybe they are constantly swapping out slots... Someone knows the answer to this.

[@circleo1992]

We've got 4-2 in SMB-1, 5-2 in SMB2-J, and, now, 8-2 in SMB2. When are we getting the other -2 levels? I'd like to see 1-2 in SMB1.

[@drprofwallaby]

> named NobodyCallsMeTubby >Continuously gets called Tubby thats rough dude

[@Disgustedorite]

It's kinda wild how often you have an assumption that something is impossible when it very much isn't just going uncontested for years in a given community. Not just in speedrunning, but I've also seen it in game modding and even worldbuilding.

[@LugborG]

They say FTL travel is impossible. Just tell an SMB1 speedrunner it’ll save half a frame on their run and we’ll be colonizing other planets in a month.

[@Rhannmah]

You can see it in real life too. Science is FILLED with moments like these. Here's one of the most famous : Ernest Rutherford, father of nuclear physics, talking on nuclear energy : “We might in these processes obtain very much more energy than the proton supplied, but on the average we could not expect to obtain energy in this way. It was a very poor and inefficient way of producing energy, and anyone who looked for a source of power in the transformation of the atoms was talking moonshine. But the subject was scientifically interesting because it gave insight into the atoms." Leo Szilard was so annoyed by what he said that on the same day he learned of Rutherford's speech, came up with the idea that if neutrons could initiate nuclear fission and if that reaction produced more neutrons than it consumed, you would have an incredible energy source. We all know how that one turned out.

[@WingedEspeon]

@@LugborG New rule for the SMB1 leaderboard:anyone who contributes to the development of a working FTL drive gets an entire 21 frames off of all current and future smb1 runs.

[@xdkristofsaltacc]

you explaining the huge pit huge pipe thing like 29 times over and making each one more dramatic is so funny to me

[@13Graham]

27:08 haha I always wondered why Niftski does this, I thought is was for swag! thx for a great video 👍

[@houraisheperd9721]

Thank you for including the list of music used in the description - the track at 15:26 was so familiar but I couldn’t place it, and it would’ve driven me mad if you didn’t include that list.

[@petrie911]

LLL 0 A press no longer requires you to spend 20 hours building a quantum accelerator to send Mario flying into parallel universes at 1% of the speed of light? Aw...

[@madeformario]

The ABC challenge currently doesn't even require you to visit PUs at all if you use the fastest strats for each star.

[@juanmanuelgarcia4605]

Thumbnail 1/1000 shiny hunters "I like those odds"

[@pkmntrainermark8881]

I love all the bizarre specifics and technicalities that go into speedrunning this simple game.

[@Krmpfpks]

I love this, thank you Kosmic. Your deep dives are second to none. You have deep knowledge of the game, practical experience as a runner and great story telling skills. Thank you so much for sharing, these videos will stay relevant for a long time to come.

[@8BitPlumber1]

Amazing video! I did not know that stuff about phantom bullet bills

[@TheSaxRunner05]

40yr old video game, that hit me right in the chest

[@mestrealvarensis]

yeah, sometimes I stare at my white hairs and cry a little, lol

[@Dark_Jaguar]

Phantom bullet bills are virtual particles spawning off the black hole horizon that is the edge of the screen. Left long enough, the off-screen sections will decay and explode violently. Be careful Mario!

[@Zethoro]

28:50, "you'd think everyone would jump on this cool new double bullet bill strategy" No, if anything I know just how stuck in their ways runners tend to be, anything that isn't a huge objective improvement is going to take ages to catch on. Good video!

[@lofoten2223]

When a game is 40 years old, these are the strategies you have to use to make progress.

[@user-hm6kl4mr1o]

To save the 24 minutes on the title screen, have 24 games running at the same time, 1 minute apart. Came to me in a dream lol.

[@MichielBruijn]

In engineering I often experience easier solutions over time. A difficult solution is much easier to start working on. I always say "an easy solution is the hardest". Thanks for the video.

[@SUPERFunStick]

This is absolutely unimaginably complex for a game that is exactly as old as I am, and I'm old. It's also the first game i ever played or seen played, and struck up a lifelong deep love and appreciation for gaming in general. But while i respect and enjoy watching speed running, you guys are a totally different breed of gamer than me. I would lose all love for games if i took it this far beyond competitive play and into real hard work and mathematics like you do. You guys are literally geniuses and if anybody ever thought otherwise, this video is what I'll show them.

[@lucasbernard5304]

this video is a masterpiece. It's entertaining, informative, and very well made. Quality work!

[@stormlord1984]

Excellent and fascinating video! Thank you, Kosmic!

[@CristianConsonni]

The video on the history of 4-2 by SummoningSalt got me into watching speed runners and following your channel.

[@RealAbrahamLincolnNotAStatue]

This video was AMAZING I haven't been doing smb Speedruns in a while and this video made me wanna go back and try this trick

[@Papamanual]

Very cool video. I cant believe 8-2 had this much research put into it, finding and eliminating so many dead ends in order to save 1 frame rule.

[@rubengoldman5830]

Why do you call him "Tubby"? Nobody calls him that.

[@borandiUK]

Because saying 420 blaze it every 5 seconds would demonetize the video

[@whatsbehindu]

i call him tubby are you calling me nobody,

[@hp8167]

I applaud the people who look into speedrunning from a technical aspect. That's what draws me to speedruns of older games as well, they aren't as flashy or technically impressive as the games of today but all of the speedruns require insane tech to cut time and you end up learning a lot about the programming in order to figure how the games work.

[@camspianosink]

Really enjoy these breakdowns. Thank you

[@Macc_]

I knew we were in for a wild ride of astronomically low odds when I saw the word "segmented" in a *TAS* run.

[@BoBoN4Uto]

All of that shenanigans with waiting on a title screen, phantom bullet bills, etc. didn't sound absurd for me. After sm64 speedruns, nothing seems impossible😂

[@beenard3247]

Kosmic, youre videos continue to improve from an already really high level. Keep impressing me!

[@iamdarkyoshi]

I find it funny how often the run-breaking levels are at the end of a game. It's almost like the game devs can see into speedrunning future

[@andrewaldridge1413]

SummoningSalt's "Human Limit" Mario video was inspiring, very well put together... and now this. It's incredible just how much deconstructing is still going on around SMB. Really amazing this long after release.

[@osukarui]

Really enjoyed this one, great work!

[@thesupervideogamenerdmore3171]

Imagine if the new standard would be waiting for 20 minutes. It might shatter the speedrun community and separate the casual speedrunners and competitive speedrunners.

[@modrozelenaalga9607]

Wow these deep analyses really give a new dimension to the game and the effort behind it!

[@SIDEWAYS255]

ANOTHER BANGER WORTH THE WAIT. LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE~

[@choco1101]

Absolutely absolutely absolutely absolutely amazing video

[@seraphmiii]

Awesome video regarding the history of 8-2, it’s really cool to see it all documented including all the weird oddities such as framerule offsets, plant despawn and HitzCritz meme 4:54 attempt by doing the framerule rollover (which he didn’t do right cause he offset the rng and framerule number during the delay!!!).

[@Kosmicd12]

Yeah lol, it's extra funny in hindsight because he/we didn't think about title screen powerups

[@MrOnosa]

Great pacing on this video. This kept my attention the entire thirty-four minutes. I was surprised when we were already at the summary, because time went by so fast.

[@FloydMaxwell]

Absolutely great video

[@DeadChanneI]

Amazing video dude, i love these

[@mrlucasftw42]

Great music use and really cool video!

[@ChicDead26]

Always dropping great video essays, boy

[@CeilingPanda]

This is actually insane very well produced as always!

[@Gordidian4910]

Good quality video, keep up the good work!

[@kimrogers9315]

You’re sense of humor is great!

[@daviddavidson7747]

Ur*

[@Opry99er]

❤️ thanks for the vid!! Great content!

[@realleonardgibson]

Yayyyy! I love it when this man uploads!!!

[@Reikotsu]

Dude, crazy how an old game like this still has stuff to discover.

[@sandradiego5652]

I love that You use music from Summoning Salt, thanks for video❤❤❤

[@Lord_SpaceCadet]

Thank you Kosmic! Im making a video on Mario bros any% records and this video will be very helpful with explaining the perfect 8-2 framerule!

[@Medabg88]

As someone who has the urge to get to the bottom of something when im invested enough, i can 100% understand the dedication of these people and respect them for it. Also, that is probably the reason i love this content. Keep improving it guys, cant wait to see what you come up with next.

[@dragonexpert8323]

I'm surprised it wasn't Matt Turk that implemented the strategy.

[@TenshiKasaiVT]

The fact saving one frame early was the problem… I lost it 🤣

[@user-ye4kg3xe5h]

New Kosmic upload, let’s go!!!!

[@KaiiLikeHawaii]

had a chuckle to myself thinking about how at 25:00 you are literally describing sm64 speedruns :p

[@ooogyman]

Y'all speedrunners breakdown games to a level of detail that would make NASA scientists blush. Bravo!

[@nixneato]

A Kosmic video with the Summoning Salt video. My life is complete.

[@xdkristofsaltacc]

*THANK YOU* for not being sponsored by BetterHelp.

[@xdkristofsaltacc]

@@callumcolquhoun8501 bro be quiet you don't know the betterhelp controveries

[@billpozniakas1699]

Amazing video!!!

[@Sixth_Beatle]

It was nice to have great memories of watching somewes streams come flooding back during this video, but wow time has flown by

[@Andross1]

Dude 6:38 Kosmic going from beard to no beard de-ages him by like 10 years! :0

[@JeanOJesus]

Thank you so much for leaving the songs in the discription. I can't express how i apreciate that! Everyone should do the same!

[@89qwyg9yqa34t]

Could you imagine the first official playtest of Mario Bros 1 being one of these speed runs? Developers would be watching in awe like "none of this should be possible."

[@BlueBisharp28]

thank you, this video is so good

[@vitanpatel2061]

Love these!

[@tom7]

Great one!

[@ItsMeYourRealDad]

It was the recent solar storm that caused the plant to despawn. It was Kosmic rays

[@Zer0InfinityLIVE]

Awesome Work Brother!!!😺💖👍

[@aireyroblox]

Ngl I'm enjoying theses commentated videos

[@CocoonMasterBrendan-wh3sd]

I know this has been said before, but it's crazy how we think we know everything about a game, only to uncover so many secrets and glitches years later. And if so many exploits can be found in something like SMB, imagine how much can be found in longer, more sprawling games

[@Ryixxx]

when i clicked on this video i thought "its going to be the average speedrun update where you do this glitch to save some time, here is this insane way someone found it"... then you just straight hit me in the face with the most random, crazy stuff. like solutions in a DREAM??? PHANTOM BULLET BILLS? LIKE WHATTTTT?!?

[@S1lv3r1]

Man....Salt is uploading this hour too. Well played, Kosmic. Played the algorithm by knowing your shared audience. Update: jinxed it. Mb guys

[@alext6933]

He is?

[@stellaanderson570]

he is?

[@BabyCurry5]

​@@stellaanderson570ye he said on twitter

[@S1lv3r1]

@@alext6933 he said so on Twitter

[@awsomebot1]

he is?

[@kingk3245]

I love how often we get speedrun content. I hope the years continue to drag on and it just keeps happening my friends.

[@JumboJosh-lv3mo]

I remember when cosmic said “Back then, it was word on the says…” like it’s not like that still. According to my great grandmothers cousin, twice removed on her dad’s pet goldfish’s roommates left cousin’s said “Matching the taste in 8-2 is impossible, then there’s a faster strategy, that has multiple tame perfect inputs.

[@YourIdeologyIsDelusional]

Today I learned that the bullet bill cannons *do* try to shoot you when you're right next to them, but the game deletes it before it's even visible. That is weird.