Super Mario Bros. 3 in 3 minutes - World Record Speedrun Explained

Watch the unedited run here: / 697843359
Watch the latest WR here (3;02.383): / 968510773
Explanation by KabAudio: pastebin.com/mPYVMA56
Patreon: / bismuth9
Twitch: / bismuth9
Twitter: / bismuthi
Discord: / discord
Thank you to Retro Game Mechanics Explained! • Super Mario Bros. 3 - ...
Any% No Wrong Warp: • Super Mario Bros. 3 Sp...
Warpless: • [WR] Super Mario Bros....
100%: • Super Mario Bros. 3 10...
Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
00:37 - 1-1, Hammer Bros.
02:08 - 1-2
02:43 - 1-3 to World 7
03:51 - Credits Warp
04:48 - Pipe clip, out of bounds
07:04 - Note block crash
08:02 - Stack underflow, RAM as code
10:39 - Shell manipulation
12:25 - What can go wrong?
13:39 - Recap, Conclusion
Thanks to Patreon subscribers:
Mittenz
rictic
Sam Rose
Kosmic
Znernicus
Tuo Padre
NOtoHOUtoSEAtoDENtoPA
vivas5
Kevin Nix
MackinawPeach
Jacher
KingIceCream
Punchmaster
Skyehoppers
Alan Finck
Billy Hansen
Veegie
Tungul
MrValdez
Martin Berrum
Billy Floyd
Francisco Beltran
Nikolai
Drew
CatCube
Alexander Roper
Mark S.
GTAce99
Dylan Sinnott
Curtis Fraley
Riku Rajaniemi
Jeremy Marquis
William Tryon
Shaheen Ghiassy
Robert Smith
Amanda Knipfing
Cosmicabuse
Nylaryx
Sophia Blue

[@Bismuth9]

This video was meant to be watched after having already seen the video explaining the Any% No Wrong Warp run. This is why a lot of the early stuff is glossed over. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aojSfp9jm6qDqsU Explanation by KabAudio: pastebin.com/mPYVMA56 Also, I forgot to mention OrangeExpo in the credits. He helped me figure out all the hammer bro stuff!

[@LackOfO2]

E

[@Xnoob545]

PASTEBIN????

[@johnelway76]

Now do the .73 second tas explanation

[@Tinbeef22]

Quality assurance my ass

[@AaAa-xk9mc]

8:24 An in-depth explanation of what the Stack is and its uses can be found here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4i0aGecZ9Snbac

[@youtubeneedstochange4414]

Bismuth in 2023: "To better understand the run, I decided to get the world record myself to figure out what was going on."

[@thisisasupersayin376]

Oh great, so videos will take even longer to get out while he's on that grind

[@youtubeneedstochange4414]

@@thisisasupersayin376 Quality over Quantity

[@jotarandom]

Doesn't Bismuth already have a WR in one game?

[@Electro69420]

@@jotarandom what game?

[@swagar]

@@Electro69420 I don't know what he has currently standing, but he once got a WR at GDQ which is crazy. Look up his run of Minecraft at AGDQ 2014.

[@galacticgamer6635]

Mario breaking through the fabric of reality to rescue princess peach.

[@allthingsgaming6]

Hmmm... Where have I heard that before? 🤔

[@PaperCrane78]

Simp

[@jessicalaplant9306]

Hes gotta travel through parallel universes in 64 so no surprise

[@TinNovaKiin]

- Look at-a the pipe - Yes Mario? *_Proceeds to enter it backwards and everything gets garbled_* - You see, there is-a no pipe

[@RealChairNotFake]

what a simp

[@LMMotoss]

“So the garbage on the screen is different than the garbage that is actually there” This line is great, you got me right there

[@tapatorta]

And its not even a joke

[@xxgioxx7688]

speedruns of fairly recent games: play well and learn all the strats speedruns of really old games: *proceeds to break the fabric of reality*

[@Tuberex]

Except the original SMB which was so not-complicated that ACE doesnt work

[@rhyshain7629]

@@Tuberex at least for now...

[@dvdside]

@@Tuberex lmao if ace was possible I would piss my pants laughing

[@phillipbotter6470]

Have you seen an any % run of elden ring?

[@kingboop1060]

“We need to talk about parallel universes” yeah old games speedruns were insane

[@samuelthecamel]

You know it's going to be good when the video is 5x longer than the run

[@seefnawar1202]

😂😂

[@B3Band]

I'd hate to see a "good" GTA V speedrun video, then...

[@GoblinsOfFarmington]

The real question is a bad speedrun video longer than a good one or shorter

[@timwangdev]

A CS degree is required for speedrunners nowadays.

[@AnnoyedArt1256]

No. You just need to know 6502 assembly for the NES and even the SNES

[@vamp97]

Me: may I do cs masters degree My mom: for job? Me: yes Me: hehe speedrun

[@Blernster]

Csgo is a bad game

[@sambradley9091]

@@Blernster Ah yes, a Counterstrike degree, the most esteemed college degree

[@vincevvn]

Goose r/whoosh

[@cowspawnerthecringeworthy7815]

So in order to speed run this game you have to LITERALLY REPROGRAM THE GAME USING RED KOOPA SHELLS?

[@brodude7194]

Well reprogram is a bit much, you still use what is there, but how you get there is nuts. Re-instructing or "brainwashing" hits better I guess?

[@dinosore_rs]

I think a SMW wrong warp is done similarly if I'm not mistaken? Might have to go back and check on the progress myself since I haven't watched Mario speedrunning for a while.

[@swissboy362]

@@micktaylor9332 that is why there are categories. they beat the game by by operating in the bounds of its coding, thats Any%.

[@blakem2902]

@@micktaylor9332 kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZSVhn2qr95rgs0

[@chuuexloona]

It's like pokemon lol

[@WipZedKay]

''Yeah I got a PhD in Super Mariology, how could you tell?''

[@youtubeneedstochange4414]

Because of your massive, swollen brain.

[@the.192]

It probably is red because you think of Mario too much

[@Azzaroth]

Like number 200

[@bane2201]

I've dealt with a lot of stack overflows, but this is one of the first times I've heard the term "stack underflow".

[@sr.metang8193]

When you want to fix your code by Googleing it but you accidentally searched up with your deep web browser.

[@WillowEpp]

Its use is a malapropism, here. Underflow refers to a floating-point phenomenon where a result requires precision greater than the type can represent. Mitigating underflow is why denormals exist.

[@JobvanderZwan]

Clearly you've never programmed in Forth - "stack hygiene" is a pretty important thing there

[@tianwang]

You trace back everything to god and ask who's making him do all these god stuff and you got an answer.

[@kami-kun_va]

you talking about the software forum?

[@patrckhh20]

I understood precisely none of that, but still found it fascinating.

[@anagoth9]

RAM go brrrrrrrrrr

[@kev_whatev]

Glad I’m not the only one

[@onijester56]

The runner got the game drunk and then gave it a brain-freeze. The resulting escapade somehow got the game to get safely into its bed instead of being murdered.

[@jasonpowell291]

Amen!

[@johnelway76]

I guess im a nerd then

[@DorkmasterFlek]

The fact that this wrong warp is actually doable by a human continues to astound me. Fantastic video!

[@manopeace9175]

Game: your princess is in another castle Mario: I AM the other castle Game: sounds good to me

[@apotheosis1660]

*wink wink*

[@cobalt7248]

Well you see Luigi, when a man puts his spaghetti noodle in a mama's ravioli, a little bambino covered in prosciutto comes nine months later!

[@fatemeraId]

@@cobalt7248 tf

[@cobalt7248]

@@fatemeraId Mario explains childbirth

[@misharatkevich9808]

Bowser: NOT YET Mario: ... it's speedrun, then.

[@DarkMatterKid]

The fact this doesn’t just hard crash almost immediately is by itself crazy, let alone the fact that it takes you to the end screen

[@Mainyehc]

If you think this is crazy, wait until you see what can be achieved with SMB code manipulation xD (if you didn’t already, that is ;) )

[@zk0rned]

@@Mainyehc or the fact that heating up a famicom can help you use ace to beat a game faster or using oot ace and cartridge swapping to beat paper mario on the n64 faster

[@1990erre]

Sweet, another speedrun PhD completed.

[@noahmichaels4999]

It's honestly a bachelor or even associate degree level. It's pretty basic systems programming course material.

[@TaylorThomasVideo]

@@noahmichaels4999 AND explain it well through some of the best video editing I've seen clearly. This man is on another level.

[@noahmichaels4999]

@@TaylorThomasVideo bismuth is obviously very talented and plenty intelligent. He simplifies some topics so that people that haven't exactly studied programming can grasp what is happening. I can't tell if you're insinuating that the concept of a stack and code execution is incredibly difficult or not, but I do agree that Bismuth deserves recognition for his hard work and thorough explanations.

[@letsnotgothere6242]

Seems like I recently watched a video that said something about getting a degree in mario kart speedruns

[@saucesaucesaucesauce1380]

​@@noahmichaels4999 i have slightly studied programming and have no idea what he's talking about is that normal

[@eggstatus5824]

The fact that the whole reason this skip is possible goes beyond the games code itself and all the way to manipulating the NES's CPU is just so goddamn cool I can't stop rewatching this, its so fascinating how old tech works

[@user-zb9iu5mf8p]

Yeah if windows (the most popular operating system) would give that power of control over your hardware but even in 2023 it's still in our dreams and imagination...

[@nickvolpe3347]

Mario's like "ive had enough" and just *breaks the fucking universe*

[@--_--_--_--_]

The stack: "do a barrel roll" The Processor: "yeah, ok" *the NES does a flip and the game crashes*

[@MC_Papphead]

Not to be confused with the "I tripped over the controller wire" flip! That one looks rather wild xD

[@ferociousfeind8538]

unrelated code not relevant not the ending bad code what is this? wrong code

[@cst1229]

The dreaded words: 72 88 68

[@SuperballsSupervidsOnYT]

@@MC_Papphead Here's a thought for you, in a generation, nobody will understand the concept of tripping over a controller wire or accidentally unplugging a controller.

[@exxor9108]

@@cst1229 What is up with those particular bytes? Does it actually damage the hardware if its executed?

[@polarbits]

I guess you could say we execute literal shellcode in this run

[@MarkPentler]

ground floor for this *excellent* joke

[@philiphunt-bull5817]

Can I get an explanation of what shell code means outside of this context?

[@dieyoung]

Carlos!

[@MarkPentler]

@@philiphunt-bull5817 Essentially a payload in a vulnerability, to put it in layman's terms. Your payload may want to connect back to a control machine, or spread its legs, or manipulate a function or memory, whatever you want. Presumably it refers to the process of getting a shell/CLI access on a system but other things can be done with payloads too. Can I suggest www.microcorruption.com :D

[@deathtoll2001]

Damn that's a good pun! I think it actually hurt me!

[@silverflight01]

Super Mario Bros 1: Clipping into blocks and manipulating x-position to skip an animation Super Mario Bros 2: Getting items stuck in heads, layering carpets, jumping in mid-air just to reach an earlier egg framerule Super Mario Bros 3: Rewriting the laws of reality with Koopa shells to warp straight to Peach from a world earlier

[@martiddy]

Now I understand the Terminal Montage animation better haha

[@reubenhealey5861]

Same here. I watched this and all I saw when the red pipe appeared was: is he gonna play the terminal montage clip or no

[@G102Y5568]

small brain: I learned to code by taking programming courses in University. Big Brain: I learned to code by watching speedrun explained videos on KZbin.

[@jholotanbest2688]

Well I am currently doing the both to get the maximum giga brain.

[@GoblinsOfFarmington]

Universal ultra giga brain: I read the source code of every single program ever made

[@martiddy]

Me: I learned to code by making a 8 bit computer with redstone in Minecraft.

[@theolodger]

so i am smbig brain?

[@mmmm768]

We call people like you psycopaths

[@1996Pinocchio]

Oh wow, you put in so much work into this video. What a masterpiece

[@chigychanga8546]

Every Bismuth video is a masterpiece

[@alisiaale565]

I love how Mario breaks the laws of physics in his game just to resque Peach!

[@alisiaale565]

@@svpermari0, lol.

[@Gauss247]

This is one of the most impressive KZbin videos I've ever seen. I wasn't expecting such a detailed explanation of the bug. Kudos to you sir, please keep the videos coming!

[@YellowBunny]

This is a great explanation of what is going on. I especially liked the various visualizations you showed throughout the video!

[@zxcvbnm2491]

you never know when your assembly skills are gonna come in handy ;P

[@xt1988]

especially if you code with koopa shells

[@lonesup5326]

Or when dealing with IKEA furniture

[@alisiaale565]

6:59 "On the right edge is the culprit for the whole game crash: an invisible note block." *Ad pops up!*

[@CommanderCH]

The small little "rip" was a nice touch lol. Very well explained! I love such deep-dive explanations.

[@gregblessing7036]

Thank you for teaching me about speedrunning. I never knew how much math and precision went into it. I used to think it was just running from one side of the screen to the next as quickly as possible, but nope, nah, now I know otherwise. I didn't know that you basically needed to be a math wiz as well as an amazing gamer to pull off these world records. I really respect speedrunning now because of your videos and I'll never think of it as running from one side to the other again. You and Karl Jobst and Summoning Salt are some my favorite video makers now.

[@exxor9108]

13:38 The hardware literally crapped itself. lol

[@rhebucks_zh]

that was funny

[@MarkPentler]

passing function parameters to the stack by killing enemies in a certain order is not a thing I thought I'd see

[@NotaSkeleton]

Always happy to see another of your videos pop up in the sub feed. It's obvious you put in a lot of effort into these and you deserve a lot of credit for that. Keep it up!

[@nor6it907]

I love hearing him explain it makes so much sense

[@alisiaale565]

Me too!

[@manolgeorgiev9664]

"Sub 3 minutes seems humanly impossible." If I've learned anything from watching speedruns explained is that nothing is humanly impossible!

[@hellcopterts8895]

Quote from GDQ: "How good are you imputing commands on both controllers 1 and 2 at the same time with frame perfect precision" Not saying its impossible, but some things aren't time worth it.

[@manolgeorgiev9664]

@@hellcopterts8895 sure, it's not worth for you or for me, but speedrunners have been improving and perfecting strategies for more than 20 years now.

[@taiyoqun]

Speedruning experts: "It's humanly impossible to improve, or at least not worth spending literal thousands of hours to do it, and even then you would only gain a few hundreds of a second!" Speedruners: "We did it faster. We still need more speed." Speedruning experts: "What?" Speedruners: "Yeah, two minutes faster. We need more speed." Speedruning experts: "WHAT?"

[@einsteinyh]

@@taiyoqun 2 seconds, not 2 minutes *

[@Sqidzies]

When you’re so famous they name an element after you

[@javaguru7141]

This is the best speedrun technical breakdown video ever made. The descriptions are easy to understand but technically accurate without resorting to tortured metaphors, which is an incredible feat. Thank you so much for your work.

[@LackOfO2]

3:10 The music syncs with mario moving

[@ImXyper]

3:12

[@leaffinite3828]

Same at 2:45

[@alisiaale565]

I used to do this a lot in my childhood! I found it really fun!

[@lukasturci436]

Just, how was that glitch ever found out ??????

[@TompaA]

You can read about it following this thread: tasvideos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=368735#368735

[@nikhilkumarav3021]

@@TompaA thanks a lot

[@ferociousfeind8538]

"What if we just... destroyed all of the NES's reality, and let koopas determine the code that it reads?" "Yes, let us derail everything and force it to read the wrong instructions until it has to jump to the end credits."

[@Apalapan97]

People find these glitches by trying random shit, stick with the shit that results in crazy bullshit happening, and then try to find out WHAT part of the random shit causes the crazy bullshit, and WHY. For instance, people knew about clipping through walls since SMB1 released. Then, someone tried going down the pipe instead of up, while clipping through the pipe. They found out that crazy bullshit happens (Mario gets warped to Crazy Bullshitland). Old and popular games like this have been dissasembled to hell and back, so, using a debugger (reading memory addresses and stuff), people can find out what exactly causes the crazy bullshit to happen, and how they can exploit it.

[@MrSolomonGaming]

The discovery could've also been inspired by a Super Mario World glitch of a similar nature that occurs in one of the first levels of the game and the end result is an End Credits Warp. Both glitches were discovered close to each other.

[@sambreaze1115]

Thanks Bismuth. I have watched a number of your videos and this one really helped me to understand just what the code does that allows glitches like this to be possible and discovered. Kudos and look forward to another video.

[@PutTheSuitOn]

This is an amazingly clear, and beautifully edited video. Thank you!

[@Fadeddreams5]

I just came here to see how accurate TerminalMontage's video was. The interdimensional toilet does exist...

[@SynnekoNya]

I never thought of looking for all the crazy deep hidden secrets in classic games i used to play, but my mind never seizes to get blown away, man im so thankful for speedrunning XD

[@onesixski]

I know you and summoningsalt shouldn’t be used interchangeably, but videos like this make it clear that you have such unique strengths yourself. The knowledge it takes, and then the video editing chops, and then the ability to recreate the scenario in an emulator, and script it all into a video, is just beautiful.

[@koalapaint]

I just wanted to say I really like your videos, dude. You inspired me to start speedrunning and I love learning how these runs work

[@SpringDavid]

4:20 Mario: *_*proceeds to eat rice cake_**

[@blackimpostor5324]

No. Mario : **proceeds to go into the inter-dimensional toilet**

[@Dekko-chan]

Community: “where are you going” Bismuth: “im takin the back route”

[@onarass6321]

Thanks for the upload man. I'm loving the stuff you and summoning salt put out. Really keeps me interested in the speed running scene.

[@derekschoonover4454]

I'm glad you added links to a more detailed description. Throughout this video I was wishing for more details.

[@Sonicfan2474]

4:20 “BEHOLD, THE INTERDIMENSIONAL TOILET!”

[@nerdmetall]

Funny number go brrrr

[@ThaAwesome10]

Coincidence? I think not

[@Sonicfan2474]

@@ThaAwesome10 Honestly I just noticed that haha funny number.

[@Kayotesden]

This guy is a genius, seriously, the explanation & research done themselves merit so much respect. Well done sir!

[@briansmith7525]

I watched the entire Retro Game Mechanics video on this glitch a while back, and while it was fascinating, I was completely lost for most of it. Then Bismuth comes along and, as always, manages to put it in terms I suddenly understand. Your videos are always fantastic.

[@AlanZucconi]

Thank you for making this video! It's a really cool explanation, and it's amazing to see how committed some people are!

[@acebharath]

Was waiting for your video the whole day. This video has a huge problem though It ends.

[@nojot0]

KZbin has a loop function:)

[@alexchanwaihang]

parpare to get tons of like,this comment makes my day.

[@barosl]

The efforts poured into this video of masterpiece just makes me overwhelmed. Well done, sir, and take my upvote

[@dsuess]

Holy crap, Bismuth, this just blew my mind!! Great breakdown! Love the mathematical explanation and the debugger breakdown. Keep them coming

[@TheSTeWMaN29]

Super awsome work to figure out this. Great job on this very informative video

[@aa_davi5410]

Nobody Mario breaking the space time continuum to get the girl

[@blackimpostor5324]

I saw him go into the toilet

[@hoffedemann5370]

"Buckle Shoe" and "Do a Barrel Roll" Aww, yes! My favourite types of things The Stack does

[@noahburton2729]

Thanks for making these videos! I find them very fun to watch :)

[@raymondrufa971]

I am very impressed with this explanation & speed run! Thank you for the video! :)

[@henrygraham65]

Watching these make me feel smart even though I have no idea what’s going on

[@lawsonian3858]

This is so good I should not be able to watch it for free

[@francedube1889]

Very good work, awesome explanations. I look forward for your next masterpiece

[@scratchy523]

Hats off to you for recreating the entire speedrun pixel-perfectly and frame-perfectly!! I could NEVER do that in a million years!

[@B3Band]

Even though I've seen this explained so many times before, I love hearing it again and again. If you make a video about stuff like this, no matter who you are or how small your channel is, I will watch the shit out of it.

[@codysimon1724]

Bruh 🤯 I remember seeing this speed run method and just saw it as some glitch, but to be explained it in such laymen's terms blows me away, I didn't know how this stuff works, thought it was all flukes, I need to call a cleaning crew to wipe my brains off the wall, this is mind blowing man

[@YoshisaurUnderscore]

Dang, this was really interesting! I had no idea that so much went into a wrong warp like that. Thanks for making the video!

[@johnathanthiele5319]

Hope you can keep up making videos like these bismuth. Super cool and interesting to watch. Thank you

[@legoboy7107]

Imagine if the Mario 64 file select theme started playing while he was explaining this stuff.

[@DanielPinel]

Maybe Hyper Potions' "File Select"? Yeah, Hyper Potions's doesn't have the Pannen Touch™️

[@bsharpmajorscale]

Hmm. It's a coincidence, but the green coins make the Super Mario RPG music nicely relevant. :P

[@GringoEtEva]

Bismuth, I love your videos so god damn much, please dont stop, for as long as it takes, I really love the effort you put into!

[@GreenEggAndSAM2]

I love all of your videos, thanks for making them!!

[@thegavinjackson]

Wasnt expecting a review on an assembly language today

[@lukehassler8764]

I had no idea that there was that much going on in Super Mario Bros. 3’s code. I couldn’t even imagine how much is going on in recent games such as Super Mario Odyssey and Mariokart 8.

[@wariolandgoldpiramid]

Difference is - games aren't programmed in Assembly anymore. So I can't imagine this sort of stuff happening much.

[@Toksyuryel]

@@wariolandgoldpiramid The human programmer doesn't generally write assembly anymore, but that's still what the compiler turns it into because it's the only thing the processor is able to understand. So you can absolutely still do this kind of thing with modern games, and always will be until someone figures out how to make a CPU directly run high-level code without it being horrendously slow.

[@personator]

at a base level, the compiled code is doing the exact same things, but there are probably far more subroutines among all the different mechanisms in play.

[@jeanlouis5221]

Amazing work for explaining this speedrun Thanks a lot !

[@droneandoporlabaja6692]

Incredible explanation thanks for taking the time to make this video I can not sleep thinking about what's going on with that glitch 🙏🏻

[@Kosmicd12]

lets goooo

[@ultra_exists]

indeed

[@justincepeda7027]

I saw terminal montage do an animation on this and i didnt expect the interdimensional toilet to be real

[@MrDolphinDiver]

What a fascinating way to beat a game, great video/explanation too. I have heard credit warps explained before but they never made any sense until now.

[@mattsephton]

Thanks for this! Very well put together.

[@synoxsis24]

You made it more confusing somehow, in a good way

[@srna4881]

*happy bismuth fan noises*

[@MrLuigiBean1]

This video is fantastic! Great visualisations!👌

[@Caspppui]

glad I understand some of those things! Love your videos! total underrated channel!

[@Mekwek]

Now I'm in on the TerminalMontage joke

[@cat_clan_leader]

I was wondering if people used the frame RNG to manipulate objects in the game. Seems like it would take such extreme precision, but that's the dedication of speedrunners I suppose.

[@Jeremy-ns7xr]

I really appreciate the in depth explanation. A brilliant video my friend. Got yourself a sub

[@Sir_Leelord]

i love this SM3 content in detail thx bismuth

[@orthoplex64]

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Thank you for sharing.

[@swagar]

Wow, I follow Zikubi for their EarthBound runs and I had no idea they had the SMB3 Any% record.

[@cyrus2395]

This is one of the most amazing things I've learned all year, and it was put simply enough that I actually understand it

[@KrystalCroft]

Extremely educational video. Thank you so much for explaining it!

[@alisiaale565]

13:04 *Plot twist:* That's the SMB 3 underground music.

[@jbsaber9502]

4:19 - BEHOLD! *The Interdimensional TOILET!*

[@Ripurlife]

As he enters, even a demon like him had to scream because of agony

[@mikecook6104]

Just wow. The way its performed, figured out and then explained its amazing. This is another level of breaking a game. Love it

[@sal_8]

Knowing how a game works at this depth to know how to break it seems fascinating to me, thanks for the explanation.

[@punk_poet1373]

4:42 so that's where the Frog Coins from Super Mario RPG come from

[@angelescalquin753]

6:39 frog coin confirmed in super mario 3

[@thecentralscrutinizer304]

Speed running is some fascinating stuff. The things they can figure out is mind blowing. Cool video.