Smudging the game disc to make speedrunning 'SpongeBob' faster (inverse.com)
25 points by pncnmnp 15 hours ago
Dwedit an hour ago
If you put tape on cartridge pin #14 of NES Platoon (or other bad connection), the game will boot to a glitched version of the ending, thus making it a zero-second speedrun.
Pin #14 is the CPU R/W pin, and if it's not properly connected, the game will be unable to write to the MMC1 mapper to perform bank switching. Platoon happens to be programmed in a way that address 0x8000 of every bank is an entry point that will run a particular level from the game. So you boot up the game, and it tries to switch to the Title Screen bank, then jumps to 0x8000. But the bank switch fails, and instead it runs code from the first bank. It just so happens that the first bank contains the program for the ending.
If the cartridge connection improves and mapper writes start to succeed, the graphics will return to normal as it continues to run the ending.
brayhite 22 minutes ago
I love little facts like these. Thanks for sharing (and sounding convincing enough for me to trust it lol).
loganc2342 an hour ago
I’ve been following this game’s speedrun for years; I never expected to see it on the front page of HN! This post could use a (2021), because this trick was discovered years ago. For anyone interested in speedrunning, this game has some of the most insane tech I’ve seen in any game and is definitely worth checking out.
PaulStatezny an hour ago
> this game has some of the most insane tech I’ve seen in any game and is definitely worth checking out
Given the context of this forum, I'd be interested to hear more about what's so interesting about the technology!
lesam 38 minutes ago
'tech' in speed running is a reference to "technique" rather than "technology". https://glossary.infil.net/?t=Tech
glouwbug 36 minutes ago
How close was it technically to Jak2? I consider that the defining technical mastery of that generation
autoexec an hour ago
> While SHiFT insists that the method of smudging your disc will give you enough time in a lag to beat the SpongeBob game, he adds a clear caveat that it's not worth the risk of permanently damaging your game or original Xbox console
How would reading a scratched/dirty disc permanently damage a console? That seems like a very bad issue for a device expected to read frequently swapped discs.
postexitus 2 minutes ago
Well - ketchup on your disc may drip on the the laser diode - don't you think it's hard to defend against? maybe they need lens wipers against ketchup on the disc issue.
wildzzz 18 minutes ago
This article is hard to read, it seems to repeat itself constantly and expands on nothing. The main point is that smudging the disc can help with performing certain glitches while the console is trying to run error correction but you could potentially scratch your disc to an unusable state if you are too liberal with the smudging. I'm pretty sure I've seen this same topic on HN before so this article isn't exactly reporting on anything new.
bitwize 2 hours ago
I was telling a friend about a game I'm working on which has "hacking mechanics".
Him: So, have you ever thought about basing the hacking mechanics on Hyrum's Law?
Me: ...No, but I'm sure that if it ever develops a speedrunning community, they will do just that!
rtkwe an hour ago
I'm not clear on what that would even look like as a mechanic related to hacking?