Way cool: Mario World code injection w/ SNES controller

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

slag

Lifer
Dec 14, 2000
10,473
81
101
My geek level must not be high enough to appreciate how awesome this really is.

oh well.
 

baydude

Senior member
Sep 13, 2011
814
80
91
This is confusing even to casual gamers and I would have no idea how this benefits future gaming
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
This is confusing even to casual gamers and I would have no idea how this benefits future gaming

It's a lot harder these days with NX bit and code that needs to be signed, but just imagine hacking your XBOX One or PlayStation 4 to run homebrew (and anything else that entails) by plugging something in to the controller port and launching your favorite game.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,699
13,847
126
www.anyf.ca
That is insanely awesome lol. Wonder how they even figured that out.

Which actually makes me wonder, is this kinda the technique they used to actually code the games? Basically a special device that plugs into the controller port, you insert a cartridge that just has a base boot loader and it loads the game in. Interesting stuff that's for sure. Though I guess for mass manufacturer it was probably flash or something that was preloaded.
 
Last edited:

TestKing123

Senior member
Sep 9, 2007
204
15
81
What boring drivel. I actually forced myself to watch a few minutes but my interest meter fell by the nanosecond. I see no value in this whatsoever, and I'm a complete nerd myself that works for NASA. And I get laid alot.....by my wife.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
What boring drivel. I actually forced myself to watch a few minutes but my interest meter fell by the nanosecond. I see no value in this whatsoever, and I'm a complete nerd myself that works for NASA. And I get laid alot.....by my wife.


You don't think it's cool to glitch a game by playing it with a controller and programming your own game WITH THE CONTROLLER? Wow. You are hard to impress.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
What boring drivel. I actually forced myself to watch a few minutes but my interest meter fell by the nanosecond. I see no value in this whatsoever, and I'm a complete nerd myself that works for NASA. And I get laid alot.....by my wife.

Your projects have all exploded on the launch pad, haven't they...
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
Even if they were just glitching the game out to glitch the game it would've been cool. What they did with their glitches was orders of magnitude more impressive.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
70,699
13,847
126
www.anyf.ca
On similar subject, people have programmed micro controllers manually. That takes serious dedication. Guess it's a good skill to have if you are stuck in the woods and happen to have a micro controller you need to program. :p

This kinda reminds me of that. Essentially what they're doing with the Nintendo but it's either through an exploit or hidden design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJHeDvr_doM Programming AVR manually.
 

SlitheryDee

Lifer
Feb 2, 2005
17,252
19
81
Even if they were just glitching the game out to glitch the game it would've been cool. What they did with their glitches was orders of magnitude more impressive.

Yeah I think you've kind of hit on what I find cool about it. The fact that using nothing but the controller, pressing the very same limited set of buttons that the game designers intend for you to press just to play the game, you can cause the game to do things radically different from anything the game designers intended is neat. Going beyond that to using the same controller to write your own program inside the game, actually tricking it into interpreting the button presses in a way it was never designed to do without ever resorting to another form of input or doing anything that the game doesn't technically allow you to do, is frankly mind boggling to me.
 

SSSnail

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
17,458
83
86
Let's see if I get this right.

Someone exploited something that no one cared to prevent the exploit in the first place because if you did, nothing is gained except for much wasted time?

While they're at it, why don't they exploit Donkey Kong?

Do something constructive, would ya? And get off my lawn!
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,991
1,184
126
You don't think it's cool to glitch a game by playing it with a controller and programming your own game WITH THE CONTROLLER? Wow. You are hard to impress.

I watched a few minutes and FF'ed thru the rest, "programming your own game" is quite a stretch. I mean it's not like he turned the game into Sonic. You can alter some sprites or something pretty basic. And as already mentioned anyone who is that wow'ed by this probably doesn't know what sex feels like.

ZZZZOMG GLITCHED TEH GAME AND MADE BOWSERS EYES A DIFFERENT COLOR!

It probably took them like a long as time to figure all this out, which makes it even less impressive imho lol
 

Ichinisan

Lifer
Oct 9, 2002
28,298
1,235
136
I watched a few minutes and FF'ed thru the rest, "programming your own game" is quite a stretch. I mean it's not like he turned the game into Sonic. You can alter some sprites or something pretty basic. And as already mentioned anyone who is that wow'ed by this probably doesn't know what sex feels like.

ZZZZOMG GLITCHED TEH GAME AND MADE BOWSERS EYES A DIFFERENT COLOR!

It probably took them like a long as time to figure all this out, which makes it even less impressive imho lol

:rolleyes:

It *is* like inserting an entirely different game. It *isn't* like "changing Bowser's eye color."

They inserted the original Super Mario Bros. with pixel-perfect graphics and play control using only button input events.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,991
1,184
126
:rolleyes:

It *is* like inserting an entirely different game. It *isn't* like "changing Bowser's eye color."

They inserted the original Super Mario Bros. with pixel-perfect graphics and play control using only button input events.

So they inserted a Mario game in another Mario game? Well shit, I'm speechless.

no really...
 

SSSnail

Lifer
Nov 29, 2006
17,458
83
86
So they inserted a Mario game in another Mario game? Well shit, I'm speechless.

no really...

Template_picture_-_Xzibit.jpg
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
So they inserted a Mario game in another Mario game? Well shit, I'm speechless.



no really...


They actually could have inserted a Sonic Master System or Game Gear game, but no one cares about those enough to analyze the play control and recreate them perfectly. I've seen people like TheSonicRetard explain the reverse-engineered play control of MegaDrive/Genesis Sonic 2 though with pre-calculated lookup tables to simplify the calculations for jumping on slopes and such but you can't fit all that into memory. It may be possible to fit one level and stream additional levels with ongoing controller input, but it would take much longer.
 

CZroe

Lifer
Jun 24, 2001
24,195
857
126
Let's see if I get this right.

Someone exploited something that no one cared to prevent the exploit in the first place because if you did, nothing is gained except for much wasted time?

While they're at it, why don't they exploit Donkey Kong?

Do something constructive, would ya? And get off my lawn!
They do care. Because you can't update an old cartridge game, they extensively play test them to find and fix glitches but they do miss some and that is what made this possible. Every now and then they release a second version of a game to fix glitches that were discovered. This is unquestionably a game-breaking glitch. I've found many that they missed in that same game.
 

Rakehellion

Lifer
Jan 15, 2013
12,181
35
91
:rolleyes:

It *is* like inserting an entirely different game. It *isn't* like "changing Bowser's eye color."

They inserted the original Super Mario Bros. with pixel-perfect graphics and play control using only button input events.

No Custer's Revenge no care.
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,991
1,184
126
They actually could have inserted a Sonic Master System or Game Gear game, but no one cares about those enough to analyze the play control and recreate them perfectly. I've seen people like TheSonicRetard explain the reverse-engineered play control of MegaDrive/Genesis Sonic 2 though with pre-calculated lookup tables to simplify the calculations for jumping on slopes and such but you can't fit all that into memory. It may be possible to fit one level and stream additional levels with ongoing controller input, but it would take much longer.

He didn't even have to blow in the cartridge to play it, some perfect recreation.