Softlock from Repeatedly Ledge Grabbing with a Star

I show a particular softlock that occurs when Mario repeatedly ledge grabs after having collected a star.
This softlock became extra popular due to SM64 Randomizer, which places stars at random locations. With enough people playing it over a long enough time, people eventually stumbled upon this softlock:
/ alluringuninterestedan...
/ inventivetiredwatercre...
That's how I originally found out about this softlock. From there, I did more investigation into where it could occur and how, and then I made this video documenting it all.

[@emmbeesea]

This is the real reason we need a ledge grab limit.

[@noobiesensei6281]

Oh crap I almost updated the number of likes to 0 (256) Edit : I guess someone did it anyway

[@KyvannShrike]

Melee memes

[@nothankyou4859]

bwahahahaa

[@pandakekok7319]

Damn Jigglypuff mains

[@groszak1]

"You are banned from ledge grabbing"

[@sobari745]

Speedrunner: "Why did my game soft lock?" Pannen: *breaks out surgical gloves*

[@abie6539]

lmao

[@heisenmountainb6854]

*sm64 file selection music plays*

[@onlookerofthings6029]

he can probably do a better Mario 64 autopsy than the crash handler

[@TorutheRedFox]

@@onlookerofthings6029 I mean, the crash handler that later versions of SM64 have only tells you what instruction the crash happened at as a memory address, and what was currently in the stack when it happened

[@RichConnerGMN]

softspacelock

[@Buick_GSX]

When you take the term “edge case” too literally

[@PhoenixClank]

This is more of a ledge case tho.

[@ddnava96]

Realedge case

[@galenmarek4528]

Mario learns Double Team at the end

[@jongameaddict]

Too bad the Quicksand used Swift right afterwards, Mario can't avoid it no matter how good his evasion is.

[@epapoulia]

no my fam. Mario didnt actuall learn double team.mario used a really clever ninja trick. it is now confirmed that he is a ninja. see if you pause and rapidly depause and pause multiple times you will see that on one frame the right mario is missing. on the very next frame the left one is missing. that means he is actually rapidly teleporting between the two posisions. LIKE A NINJA.

[@zegirdor]

I think it is clone jutsu

[@MiguelDiaz_]

It was today, because of this video, that I learned the crazy box goes over lava without burning you

[@heisenmountainb6854]

That was the first thing I found out using this thing

[@aioia3885]

If you do a dive kick you can also bounce on lava without getting burned

[@MiguelDiaz_]

MrM 388 I knew about the dive kick for a while, but I had no clue about the crazy box. I thought it was just there to troll the player by making them go into the lava or something like that

[@craftlofer9974]

same lol

[@volt7958]

I didn't even know it was called a crazy box and I have been speedrunning this game for half an year

[@neoman289151]

"Huh, that's a weird tangebility sphere. I wonder what would happen if Mario collected a star while falling into it" ~Pannenkoek, probably

[@roshibomb4247]

@The Random House "''Huh, that’s a weird tangebility sphere. I wonder what would happen if Mario collected a star while falling into it' ~Pannenkoek, probably' ~Victor Viridian, probably" ~The Random House, probably

[@zegirdor]

"""Huh, tangebility weird a sphere that's. I wonder what happen would if Mario collected a falling while star into it""" ~Probably, Pannenkoek ~Viktor Viridian, probably ~Random The Probably, House ~Probably, Roshibomb

[@FFKonoko]

@@zegirdor good thing everyone only said probably. The Random House changed their name, so it's now probably not.

[@skitten4671]

@@zegirdor I had a hurt brain while sentence that reading

[@qsyki]

"""""'Huh, that’s a weird tangebility sphere. I wonder what would happen if Mario collected a star while falling into it' ~Pannenkoek, probably' ~Victor Viridian, probably' ~The Random House, probably' ~Roshibomb, probably' ~Zegirdor, probably"

[@L3X1N]

It's quick, it's easy, and it's free: Trap yourself in a permanent state of plummeting towards your doom *_today!_*

[@juliuskulla2097]

Get it now, and we'll give you one unobtainable star as a *_free bonus!_*

[@jongyon7192p]

This comment is basically pre-2014 pannenkoek humor

[@elliswrong]

But doctor, I'm _already_ in a permanent state of plummeting towards my doom

[@venmon9613]

This man tells lies, it cost me 100 coins to do this

[@JollyPower69]

DeRockProject & the Attack of the Really Long Channel Name, yeah, actual creative humor and not the same comment that everyone else has done far past death

[@SuperMarioMinecrafter321]

Oh so *that's* why platforms become non-solid when Mario is far away.

[@7411y]

Extreme E-sport: finding the most obscure places you can to ledge-grab softlock Mario with

[@piotrmarczynski8613]

Imagine having written a video game with a play time of a couple dozen of hours in assembly for proprietary software with no IDEs and only very basic world building tools and then there's a guy pointing out your bugs 15 years later for 9 years straight

[@Arthurtilly]

Piotr Marczyński Imagine thinking SM64 was written in assembly

[@shadoxfm8822]

@@Arthurtilly ok nerd

[@want-diversecontent3887]

@@Arthurtilly What is it coded in then?

[@missingno_fgc]

@@want-diversecontent3887 C

[@Syntherios]

@@want-diversecontent3887 JavaScript

[@JWhitePWC]

I never thought I would click so fast on a video regarding Mario grabbing a ledge

[@E4439Qv5]

120 likes. Absolutely perfect.

[@verygenericname]

E4439qv5 haha no more

[@JWhitePWC]

you monster

[@Xhepyxopila]

@@JWhitePWC but WHY

[@Superdavo0001]

Lmao nice! Shoutouts to Homerfunky for accidentally hitting a setup like that at 5:40 in a hack a long time ago. Great uses of the new STROOP map tech as well - it works well for visualisation!

[@canttellyousorryaboutthat716]

Link?

[@girthymilk]

Roan Copeland Richards no this is mario idiot

[@homerfunky]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqGkd6yXd8mlg6M

[@JesusMeza3]

@@girthymilk lol this is the first thing that has made me genuinely laugh in a while

[@Lance0]

Hi random person who go 4:20.77 lol

[@bbdracula]

In this episode of Pancake Man does the thing: Pancake man is trapped for eternity for collecting illegal stars.

[@FigureFarter]

Keep it at 64 likes

[@Rahat-tw8vg]

gbj

[@DiosBabilonia]

You could say he was thrown into gay baby jail, even.

[@Komali09]

I hate those references

[@Haights]

"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of falling away, you're coming right to me?" "I can't ledgegrab the s*** out of you without getting closer."

[@MrJonton01]

6:09 Mario: *picks up a star that involuntarily puts him into the inescapable state of constant fear, uncertainty and paralysis forever* SM64: *Happy music :)*

[@Azumarill]

Would you say this is one of the easiest, console- and casual-friendly ways to softlock? With regards to creating a hundred coin star near a ledge.

[@poudink5791]

I'd say getting the chain chomp in BoB caught in a cork box is easier.

[@MikeOShay]

@@poudink5791 I'm having trouble finding that one. Did Pannen do a video on it?

[@poudink5791]

look up "finding new softlocks in 2016" from Kaze Emanuar

[@MikeOShay]

@@poudink5791 Thank you! Hot dang that's a fun one.

[@EighteenCharacters]

I love how you've always done these absolutely casual movements into exact TAS movements...

[@SuperAWaC]

i experienced that intangibility glitch when i was a kid and remember messing around with it thinking "that's weird"

[@renakunisaki]

7:24 here we go indeed, where the heck did he go?

[@matthew12343211]

Most likely a down warp to the death barrier, or one to the floor just out of sight.

[@Clawdragoons]

Literally first sentence, "Using an Intangibility Sphere That's Too Small", I'm already totally lost and I love it. Can already tell this will be a good one.

[@colonthree]

I prefer collision detection radius. ;w;

[@somelass133]

It’s weird, I guess I just assumed if you could see something it was solid, but finding out that “no, not necessarily” isn’t a big revelation for me. It just makes sense from a dev perspective.

[@MrOmegatronic]

Best thing is that it technically _is_ still solid, @@somelass133, it's just that the engine _forgets_ it's solid to save on processing power, because it thinks Mario's too far away. xD That's kinda like, say, reality forgetting how your front door works because you're in the washroom. xD

[@iosefka7774]

@@MrOmegatronic It doesn't 'forget' anything. If I choose to open a door, I'm not 'forgetting' to have it closed.

[@MrOmegatronic]

The engine removes the information from its "mind" because it's not useful to it at the moment, @@iosefka7774, so yes, the forgetting metaphor is appropriate. Remember that the engine is responsible for the game's physics, and you'll see that your metaphor isn't really appropriate unless your door only has a concept of "closed" when you want it to, and is impossible to close whenever you don't want it to be closeable.

[@TheMaster627]

Just spotted another interesting side note for this intangibility box, the coins from the Chuckya at 5:33 fall through the box due to it being intangible, then get pushed on to it when Mario enters the sphere to make it tangible again. That explains why I've sometimes seen coins go through boxes!

[@Medlek]

Ah yes, otherwise officially known as GBJ

[@dorukayhanwastaken]

One way to get out is putting down your controller, finding a staircase to go down, and BLJing your way back to the controller with a mouth stuffed with oats.

[@TheThursty100]

Pancakeman: *jumping* Me: Wait, that's illegal!

[@SkillUpMobileGaming]

Hey, as the Coronavirus rages on, at least we'll have the comfort of our own home and an increase in Pannen videos to greet us warmly with. Now this is my kind of pandemic!

[@Komali09]

Panndemic

[@gigaslave]

@@Komali09 Confound you, I wanted to type that

[@Komali09]

Chris Goh ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@BAVBAVBAV]

Komali HAH

[@E-102_Gamma]

@@Komali09 *Pannendemic

[@elainexe]

There was a certain softlock I encountered years ago. I'm not sure if it's been explored by anyone. In Wet Dry World, if you shoot with the cannon towards the fenced-off area where you can swim to the town, but shoot too high, there's a small slope you can land on. Normally Mario would just slide off, but if you get in just the right angle in the corner, Mario will infinitely slide. Not sure why. Maybe the invisible wall around the course pushes him in such a way he slides further up the slope, in an infinite loop? I dunno, I'm not an expert on all these glitches--I just like to watch your videos!

[@Croissant90_]

Me: *Casually browsing KZbin* Pannen: Uh, so I made a new video if you’re interested- Me: *TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP*

[@ninja_raven256]

CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK

[@GewelReal]

rap tap tap

[@InviZ.]

FAPFAPFAP

[@Quintratix]

@@ninja_raven256 yeah

[@ninja_raven256]

@@Quintratix can you stop stalking me pls, thanks in advance

[@superWTF64lol]

Hearing that star dance jingle slowed down at 1:50 unraveled a shocking revelation for me, I've been misinterpreting it! *The jingle isn't from Mario 1 on the NES!* *It's actually Bob-Omb Battlefield!* I've been hearing it wrong for years, because they sound so similar when speeded up! This changes the entire song for me now, the Mario 1 jingle even works when substituted into the song! I wonder if Bob-Omb Battlefield's melody was the result of these first few notes?

[@Sorrelhas]

Seeing the star dance after witnessing the game softlock multiple times was a relief

[@WaluigiisthekingASmith]

Imagine if this happened to a kid. Ooh a star, can I collect it now, Please?

[@televisionandcheese]

That's what the reset button is for

[@KuraIthys]

Yeah, I've done similar things with games that have 'endless' end screens that require a reset to get out of. You always end up feeling like MAYBE something will happen...

[@internetmovieguy]

“Collecting a Star crashes -paper- Mario 64”

[@ronamadeo]

"Every object has a tangibility sphere." ...What? Why? Is there a tangibility video? Why is tangibility separate from object loading, which is already based on Mario's location? How does tangibility work when throwing an object? Glad you're back, Pannen.

[@davidmcgill1000]

Guess it's to reduce complexity of collision detection. No reason to check if Mario is touching something if the distance is not close enough.

[@ronamadeo]

​@@davidmcgill1000 Surely the game checks "is Mario touching something" and not "is something touching Mario," right? The first approach would scale with game complexity, and the second would not. Even if it works the way you are suggesting it does, wouldn't that just change the collision check from an object to an object's tangibility sphere, resulting in the same amount of checks? Plus enemies are objects and need to constantly calculate collision with the ground whenever they are loaded anyway. It seems like you would only be able to "cheat" a small amount of objects.

[@ukyoize]

@@Guedez1 tangability box would be arguably easier, as you don't need sqare root/power for this.

[@iosefka7774]

@@ronamadeo There's literally no difference between "X touching Y" and "Y touching X". You have to do the exact same collision calculations.

[@nmotschidontwannagivemyrea8932]

I like the rotating 3D views with the hitboxes and simplified textures like what you used at 0:25. And the moving camera at 2:53ish. Those make it much more clear to see exactly what piece of geometry you're referring to.

[@Qbe_Root]

7:42 Mario used Double Team!

[@tbtb66]

This game is so fascinating, I feel like even with the decomp and all of this we've barely scratched the surface of what all this game holds

[@poudink5791]

on the contrary. pannen and others seem to be posting less and less videos, and I feel we're close to having reached the bottom of the barrel.

[@grieferjones2237]

Ledge Grabbing with a Star Softlocks Super Mario 64? it’s not as good as crashing paper mario, but i’ll take what i can get

[@supershadow5082]

Its the garage sale version

[@Lance0]

Lol

[@jellyjackcheese]

Nobody: Mario in a star ledge grab softlock: *BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB*

[@j.hawkins8779]

Mario: *seizure mode activated*

[@DDjivan]

Pannen: uploads *Everyone liked that*

[@figboot]

haha peak comedy

[@DDjivan]

funi meme haha now gib me upvotes

[@Quintratix]

damn bro you got the whole squad laughing

[@sagacious03]

6:49 Those butterflies are surprisingly high up. Pretty interesting! Thanks for uploading! I bet there's plenty of people (speedrunners or otherwise!- who are happy to know about this) Poor Mario, though....

[@azaza1018]

The classic backflip into ground pound into 𝗼 𝗯 𝗹 𝗶 𝘃 𝗶 𝗼 𝗻

[@MisterSpeedStacking]

the bullet bill blaster is a masterpiece in cubic art

[@shuttlecrossing1433]

Interesting how these subtle things have direct implications to speedrunning thanks to randomizer. What would an ideal fix be? Setting star spawners away from certain ledges?

[@renakunisaki]

During an animation where Mario should be moving, if he hasn't left a certain radius within a few seconds, just skip the animation.

[@CreeperAssassins1]

They can also make it so all stars have the underwater star grab which doesn't require mario to be on the ground

[@thekillerfroggy]

Thank you pannenkoek. Best of luck to you in these difficult times.

[@snanta]

I really liked how at the end when you were demonstrating cases of this happening, most were framed in a a way that shows how a regular player would accidentally encounter the glitch.

[@wingedcatgirl]

🤔So is this why Sunshine changed 100-coin Shines to spawn in a fixed location?

[@iosefka7774]

No

[@TeraV]

Mario: I'm-a super star! I now have the invincibility from this power star! Also Mario: better grab onto a ledge, just in case

The scenes where Mario stands in front of the bullet bill block have a weird vibrating sound in them that apparently have exactly the perfect wavelength/cycle time for the distance between the two speakers in my laptop and my relative position to them to make it appear as if the sound was actually coming from my right side instead of from the laptop. It's very distracting, but also interesting.

[@FalloutsTehevilone]

I love checking my sub box to see a Pannen video even though I don't even play SM64

[@Davtwan]

3:42 - And now the Piranha Plant has a sleep paralysis demon when they wake up.

[@stupidAgeverificatio]

For me this raises a stupid question: how fast can a tas softlock the game? same question for how fast can a tas crash the game?

[@xavierwilson7605]

Noromdiputs as fast as a dead rat can say the n word

[@heisenmountainb6854]

Less than a minute. If you ledgegrab at a specific place behind the castle, you die. Wait, thats just death. well idk.

[@stupidAgeverificatio]

@@heisenmountainb6854 this answers a question I didn't know I had.

[@luphoria]

Well a TAS can PU in castle grounds very quickly using a BLJ, which would crash the game. Not sure how fast a softlock would be.

[@stupidAgeverificatio]

@@luphoria oh yeah good point. Game crashes really easily if you enter pu without locked camera or something.

[@lily_skye]

Imagine being a dev and having pannenkoek on your QA team

[@WillToWinvlog]

the video started to get REALLY mind blowing after 6:38!!!!!

[@ComradeSeanski]

please do more voiced commentary, it's lowkey relaxing hearing about mario 64 tech in the background while working

[@no-no-noku]

everyone talking about the showcased glitch while I'm here with the satisfaction of knowing why the bullet bill launcher behaved so weirdly

[@omarasfari4974]

So this is why that ledge stutter thing happens...

[@elianewinter2638]

Amazing discovery and explanation !

[@TheRealSarceus]

Super Mario 64 Science: Unending Seizure Edition.

[@maxilz9447]

this is the content i like to see while sick.

[@SSM24_]

>"softlock" It's okay, Pannen, you're allowed to say "GBJ".

[@antoniojoaquinruizalfonso4232]

Maybe they're not exactly the same. Softlocks are unintended by the creators, but GBJs are intended.

[@disappointedcucumber]

@@antoniojoaquinruizalfonso4232 Not all gay baby jails are intended. The key distinction between a softlock and a GBJ is that a GBJ is gay.

[@BAVBAVBAV]

Pickle Gamer // Disappointed Cucumber I like how technical we get over a meme

[@WaluTime]

i think the bit in here thats more amazing to me is the slowdown for the first demo star grab showing the Doo Doos do the star grab theme too. Never noticed that

[@cirlu_bd]

yoo that bonus clip was nut !

[@vavassor]

Thank you for the bonus clip!

[@JoroJojoro]

When that File Select Theme hits, you know it's time to pull out the notebook and take some notes.

[@TARINunit9]

In this episode of Pancake Man Does The Thing, Pancake Man crashes the flow of time by violating the Pauli exclusion principle

[@Xenthio]

Where is piplup man for these gbjs?

[@max_harwell]

Oh pannen is back, always nice to see!

[@Crabmaster]

Besides the softlock, the info about the odd hitbox issues alone is very interesting just because it feels like it explains why some collisions in the game are pretty wacky, especially in romhacks.

[@warmCabin]

These would be really swaggy endings to a freerun!

[@juanwique]

I wish this was commentated. I love this content so much.

[@friedchickenUSA]

this channel is so good

[@planetearth2249]

The overlapping wall hitboxes at the end satisfied me :3

[@vinesthemonkey]

sm64 randomizer = distributed bug finder

[@mathphysicsnerd]

My mood swung from "this is the most pointless thing I've ever seen on Pancake Man's channel" to "oh that's weird" to "LOL GOTTA SEE THIS DONE LIVE"

[@AbandonedVoid]

This used to happen to me all the time while trying to collect 100 coin stars. Thank you for bringing back my childhood frustration.

[@Lugmillord]

Very pleasant to the eye.

[@Spoocecow]

These 3d views of the world geometry are really slick

[@remryukcreepy]

7:42 you just gave that man insane superpowers

[@RadiantSharaShaymin]

Gotta admit, this cheered me up because I love anything the developer didn't intend. The bonus clip was hilarious to me :D

[@wintyrbarnes8533]

They might not have *intended* it, but the real question is whether they *Nintended* it.

[@SazLowify]

The owl dropping you off at an offset angle and the buggy bullet bill launchers always bothered me as a kid. Thanks for explaining why they are the way they are!

[@Yayonzo]

Piplup guy is CREAMING, dude

[@six_buck_dlc]

i find it interesting how when they make polygons they don’t automatically have collision it has to be a separate block

[@magmivire]

The one that goes to the inside of the volcano looks like a sick ending for a freerun

[@cyreni9756]

Oh, that's why that blaster is so weird. Even when I was six I knew something wasn't right about it.

[@marlee_goat]

this guy is in 2020 and still using 4:3 aspect for his videos I appreciate that

[@austinpoznoski3083]

i will use my time locked down in San Francisco to master every technique pannen has ever devised

[@ianmoore5502]

1:51 when i try to be excited about 2 weeks quarantine inside

[@garnet1918]

1:46 The cut to the music makes me wheeze 4:46 He is just He is just lying there

[@siinistar7953]

He's back!

[@gamersdecision8687]

4:23 I got curious! What would happen if you spawned the star above the volcano warp? Would the warp not work, would the star dance not happen or would Mario hit a death barrier? So many options, what would happen? 😯

[@galoomba5559]

The warp would not work.

[@aaronstephen3058]

Th return of the star dance clip

[@yogg-saron]

that TTC one from 7:28 looked insanely cool

[@LoohHoo]

I was watching this and remembered that I have experienced this in a stream and lo and behold I am in the description. LMAO

[@zegreatpumpkinani9161]

How many uploads in this week's Pancake Man delivery? We've got one!

[@Sky_Firez]

Had this exact thing happen to me in a SM64 Randomizer Speedrun. Happened with one of those boxes on WDW.😭😂

[@craigcooper1967]

This is some next level shiz right here !!

[@daniellittlewood8471]

I would love to see a rom hack called "Super Mario SoftLoxtyFour" where all the stars are moved to these locations

[@thewhitefalcon8539]

7:26 - whoa, why did Mario become invisible? Did he just fall?

[@MarlowPreston]

Just for anybody curious about the cute demon girl as the background of Puncayshun 's Everdrive 64 in his clip (the second one, InventiveTiredWatercressDoggo): She's Mofetousu Furuna drawn by Saru, who you might know as an official artist for Azur Lane who's done a lot of characters like Akashi, Yuudachi, and Vampire who might look rather similar to her since they share a lot of traits.

[@drdca8263]

I like the bonus clip

[@plantelo]

I like how the bonus clip is a wall clip

[@elliswrong]

I always wondered why Mario would sometimes bounce off edges of objects like that. Huh!