Pannenkoek2012 Cuts Mario 64 Star Run to 0.5 A Presses via Glitch Grid

pannenkoek2012

Entering a level with the A button held allows players to navigate parallel universes and execute elevator kicks without triggering a fresh jump input.

AI-assisted summary of SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED] — original source. Check the original for full context.

Source published: 2016-01-12

Key ideas

• pannenkoek2012 collects the 'Watch for Rolling Rocks' star in Hazy Maze Cave using only 0.5 A presses, optimizing down from a previous 1 A press route via parallel universe movement and scuttlebug raising. (0:05)
• A half A press is defined as entering the level with the A button already held down from an earlier action, allowing mid-air flutter kicks and slow-falling without adding a new physical press input. (0:05)
• To traverse parallel universes (PUs) without falling into the void, Mario must accumulate de facto speed across four quarter steps per frame (1 QPU), requiring roughly 12 hours of in-place hyper speed walking on an underwater slope. (10:46)
• The solitary half A press is strictly utilized to execute mid-air AB kicks while riding rising elevators, preventing Mario's hyper velocity from phasing straight through the moving platforms. (22:38)

Detailed notes

## Background Published on YouTube by pannenkoek2012 on January 12, 2016, this video documents a tool-assisted speedrun (TAS) collecting the 'Watch for Rolling Rocks' star in Super Mario 64's Hazy Maze Cave using only 0.5 A presses. The video description explains the technical concepts explored—including Scuttlebug transportation, Scuttlebug raising, hyper speed walking, and parallel universe movement—which cut down a previous 1 A press record.

## TL;DR pannenkoek2012 details the mechanics and execution behind collecting the 'Watch for Rolling Rocks' star with only half an A press, beginning with an explanation of why an A press can be split into discrete press, hold, and release phases. To reach the elevated star without jumping, he uses Scuttlebug transportation and room deactivation cycling to elevate an enemy in midair beneath a geometric floor-wall misalignment. He then utilizes hyper speed walking on an underwater slope, accumulating massive negative velocity out of bounds over a 12-hour period to access parallel universes. Navigating through blind PU space across a specific chain of floor triangles, Mario uses continuous mid-air kicks on a rising elevator before executing a precise vector launch to bounce off the suspended Scuttlebug and clip onto the star platform.

## Atmosphere & style The video carries the feel of a meticulous, deadpan academic lecture dissecting the arcane mathematical limits of the game's physics engine. Delivered with steady, calm narration and clear diagrammatic overlays, the presentation blends dense technical rigor with understated, dry humor when addressing viewer skepticism or casually detailing twelve-hour speed-charging routines. Watching it feels like witnessing an impossibly convoluted, highly cerebral puzzle unravel, creating a sense of quiet fascination as invisible coordinates and bizarre engine quirks align into a singular, flawless execution.

## Bulletin - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=5s) pannenkoek2012 collects the 'Watch for Rolling Rocks' star in Hazy Maze Cave using only 0.5 A presses, optimizing down from a previous 1 A press route via parallel universe movement and scuttlebug raising. - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=5s) A half A press is defined as entering the level with the A button already held down from an earlier action, allowing mid-air flutter kicks and slow-falling without adding a new physical press input. - [10:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=646s) To traverse parallel universes (PUs) without falling into the void, Mario must accumulate de facto speed across four quarter steps per frame (1 QPU), requiring roughly 12 hours of in-place hyper speed walking on an underwater slope. - [22:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1358s) The solitary half A press is strictly utilized to execute mid-air AB kicks while riding rising elevators, preventing Mario's hyper velocity from phasing straight through the moving platforms.

## Key takeaways - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=5s) An A press consists of three physical phases—pressing, holding, and releasing—and holding A provides distinct utility like kicks, swimming, and slow-falling without initiating a jump. - [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=5s) In a full A-Button Challenge run, carrying a held A press across level transitions rounds down to zero additional presses for actions that only require holding the button. - [03:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=220s) Scuttlebugs dynamically update their home coordinate to their exact position whenever they collide with Mario, allowing players to transport them across a room. - [05:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=301s) Leaving room activation boundaries freezes contained entities, allowing a Scuttlebug to be lunged upward repeatedly and locked in midair to gain height without falling. - [05:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=301s) A 1x1 unit floor-wall collision misalignment on the star platform corner allows Mario to snap upward onto the platform surface if he enters within 79 units below the floor. - [08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=480s) Running uphill on submerged steep slopes induces hyper speed walking, causing Mario to accelerate backward downhill with unbounded negative speed. - [09:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=599s) Redirecting Mario into low gate ceiling collision and subsequently into out-of-bounds space cancels displacement, allowing infinite speed accumulation in place. - [10:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=646s) Converting 32-bit floating-point coordinates to 16-bit signed shorts for floor checks creates a repeating modulo grid of virtual floor geometry known as parallel universes (PUs). - [10:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=646s) Parallel universes lack dynamic objects, elevators, enemies, stars, and wall collision, and entering them requires locking the camera in the main map to prevent console crashes. - [13:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=783s) Because physics calculations divide each frame into four quarter steps, Mario must move at least four PUs per frame (1 QPU) so every step lands on valid terrain. - [13:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=783s) A slope's 'sinking speed' is the exact raw speed required to yield a de facto ground displacement matching an integer multiple of a QPU. - [17:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1068s) Routing through six specific floor triangles with strictly decreasing steepnesses allowed the cavern ascent to rely entirely on the first sinking speed, saving 12 hours of speed charging. - [17:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1068s) Deviating slightly above or below a slope's sinking speed allows controlled relative forward or backward drift on the destination map, while angle offsets enable lateral steering. - [19:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1191s) Hitting ceilings, out of bounds, or changing slopes mid-frame stops Mario on an intermediate quarter step, causing him to become misaligned from the 4-PU grid. - [22:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1358s) Mid-air AB kicks executed by holding A and tapping B repeatedly recalculate vertical platform interactions, allowing Mario to ride rising elevators without phasing through them. - [23:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1390s) Mario concludes the run by offsetting his position by negative 10 PUs laterally and positive 3 PUs vertically, launching into the main map to bounce on the raised Scuttlebug and ground pound into the corner misalignment.

## Detailed walkthrough ### [00:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=5s) The Concept of the Half A Press

pannenkoek2012 introduces his run to collect the star "Watch for Rolling Rocks" in Hazy Maze Cave using only 0.5 A presses. Before showing the run, he addresses the repeated confusion across his comment sections whenever he posts a video involving half A presses, despite having an explanatory note pinned in his video descriptions. To clarify the mechanic once and for all, he uses the course Wing Mario Over the Rainbow—specifically the task of reaching the first cannon platform—as an illustrative example. Reaching that cannon is impossible in zero A presses because Mario cannot travel far enough, and while one press is sufficient, it can actually be accomplished in half an A press by entering the course already holding the A button down.

```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: The Three Phases of an A Press accDescr: Diagram showing the three sequential phases that comprise a single full A press. subgraph APress["Anatomy of an A Press"] direction LR P["Press A\n(Triggers jumps)"] --> H["Hold A\n(Slow falls, kicks, swimming)"] H --> R["Release A\n(No current utility)"] end ```

Anticipating skepticism from viewers, he responds directly to a common objection: “Now hold on, I know what you're thinking: 'An A press is an A press. You can't say it's only a half.' Well, TJ 'Henry' Yoshi, hear me out.” He breaks down an A press into three discrete physical phases: the press, the hold, and the release. While pressing the button is typically the only part that makes Mario jump, holding A provides substantial utility on its own, allowing Mario to perform flutter kicks, swim, slow-fall while twirling, and slow-fall using the Wing Cap. The release phase currently has no mechanical application in the challenge.

When looking at Wing Mario Over the Rainbow in isolation, the sequence requires holding A to float to the cannon platform, pressing A to fire from the first cannon, and pressing A again to launch from the second cannon, totaling three distinct interactions. In a complete A-Button Challenge (ABC) run, however, an earlier A press is already required to enter the level. Rather than naively counting four presses (one to enter plus three inside), the runner can simply keep the entry A press held as the stage loads, fulfilling the requirement for the floating section without pressing the button again. In this broader context, the level only adds two new presses to the overall run tally.

- **Terminology and Rounding:** On an isolated single-star basis, a 2.5 A press run rounds up to 3. In a full-game run, because the initial press leeches off a prior action and adds no new inputs, it effectively rounds down to 2. - **Visual Display:** As the gameplay begins in Hazy Maze Cave, an input display in the bottom-left corner confirms that the run starts with the A button already held down.

---

[03:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=220s) Scuttlebug Transportation

pannenkoek2012 transitions into the first primary gameplay technique of the run: Scuttlebug transportation. In *Super Mario 64*, most enemies possess a defined home coordinate in 3D space and patrol a set radius around that point. When Mario steps within that patrol radius, the enemy lunges toward him. Scuttlebugs, however, possess a unique property where their home position is dynamic: whenever a Scuttlebug collides with Mario, its home updates immediately to its exact coordinate at the moment of impact. By intentionally luring a Scuttlebug to the outer perimeter of its detection boundary and letting it bump Mario, the player can steadily relocate the Scuttlebug and its home across the room.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Scuttlebug Transportation Loop accDescr: Step-by-step cycle used to relocate a Scuttlebug across a room. subgraph TransportLoop["Transportation Loop"] direction TB A["Lure Scuttlebug to edge of patrol radius"] --> B["Allow Scuttlebug to collide with Mario"] B --> C["Scuttlebug home updates to collision coordinate"] C --> D["Step back and repeat to shift home further"] end ```

This method has rigid environmental limitations. Scuttlebugs cannot be brought outside of their native room because they get caught on door boundaries. As pannenkoek2012 jokes, “So if your dream was to bring all the Scuttlebugs together for one big jamboree, I'm sorry, but it's not going to happen.” Furthermore, Scuttlebugs will spontaneously despawn if they collide with a wall while positioned too far below the vertical elevation of their current home—a failsafe programmed to prevent them from wandering after falling into pits. Navigating carefully around these constraints, pannenkoek2012 transports a Scuttlebug directly to the corner floor beneath the high Watch for Rolling Rocks star platform.

---

[05:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=301s) Scuttlebug Raising and Corner Misalignment

With the Scuttlebug in position, pannenkoek2012 demonstrates Scuttlebug raising. Rooms in *Super Mario 64* deactivate when Mario leaves them; the Rolling Rocks room only renders and updates when Mario is physically inside it or standing within a small trigger zone outside the door, highlighted in yellow on his screen overlay. When Mario leaves this activation boundary, the entire room goes pitch black, and all contained entities freeze in place and become invisible. This room deactivation mechanic can be exploited to move the Scuttlebug vertically without allowing gravity to pull it back down:

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Scuttlebug Raising Cycle accDescr: Procedure for raising a frozen Scuttlebug vertically using room activation triggers. subgraph RaisingCycle["Vertical Raising Loop"] direction TB S1["Mario enters Scuttlebug radius while room is deactivated;\nScuttlebug turns and begins lunge"] --> S2["Mario steps out of radius;\nScuttlebug faces its home coordinate"] S2 --> S3["Mario enters yellow door zone;\nScuttlebug executes upward lunge"] S3 --> S4["Mario leaves yellow zone at trajectory peak;\nScuttlebug freezes in midair"] S4 --> S5["Scuttlebug turns back toward home;\nRepeat cycle to gain height"] end ```

The Scuttlebug's detection radius is not a spherical boundary, but an infinite vertical cylinder. This geometry means that no matter how high the Scuttlebug climbs, Mario can endlessly trigger lunges from the ground level below. pannenkoek2012 purposefully activates the lunges only while Mario is outside the cylinder, forcing the Scuttlebug to lunge directly toward its home coordinate beneath it, producing a perfectly vertical ascent. Activating the Scuttlebug from inside the radius would make it track toward Mario at the door—which is faster, but ruins the required alignment beneath the star platform.

The objective is to raise the Scuttlebug directly adjacent to the platform's corner, taking advantage of a geometric floor-wall misalignment. Because the game engine computes collision checks for floors and walls using disparate mathematical logic, a tiny 1×1 unit seam exists at the edge where Mario can penetrate the area beneath the floor without being pushed outward by the adjacent wall. If Mario's position is less than 79 units beneath a floor inside this gap, the engine automatically snaps him upward onto the top surface.

---

[08:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=480s) Hyper Speed Walking (HSWing)

To navigate the level and reach the elevated Scuttlebug, Mario must generate an immense amount of velocity via hyper speed walking (HSWing). Certain steep slopes in *Super Mario 64* are completely unstandable under normal conditions, causing Mario to slide down immediately. However, if those steep inclines are submerged beneath shallow water, Mario can walk upon them. Running uphill on an underwater steep slope causes an engine quirk: Mario runs backward downhill with exponentially increasing negative speed that possesses no theoretical upper bound.

Under standard conditions, this reverse acceleration quickly dumps Mario into deeper water, ending the glitch. Running almost parallel to the slope gradient preserves the speed briefly, but the geometry quickly terminates. Trapping Mario against a standard wall to build speed in place is also ineffective unless the wall is exactly perpendicular to the slope. Because walls act as rectangular pushboxes that eject Mario perpendicularly to their surface, moving into an angled wall causes the game to push Mario outward, resulting in net lateral movement that slides him straight into the pool.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Ceiling Collision Prevention in HSW accDescr: How the gate ceiling collision prevents Mario from sliding into water during HSW. subgraph GateMechanic["Gate Ceiling Lock"] direction TB M1["Mario builds reverse speed on underwater slope"] --> M2["Mario moves backward into gate underside"] M2 --> M3["Engine detects insufficient vertical clearance under ceiling"] M3 --> M4["Collision check cancels Mario's displacement;\nSpeed accumulates in place"] end ```

This limitation is solved by a routing discovery from community member Tyler Kehne: - **Ceiling Collision Exploitation:** The bottom edge of the nearby metal gate is coded as a low ceiling. Because the game engine prevents Mario from moving into spaces where his vertical hitbox does not fit, backing Mario into the underside of the gate causes the engine to cancel his displacement entirely, locking him in place while his speed continues to scale upward. - **Speed Redirection:** Mario cannot remain pinned under the gate indefinitely; exceeding a threshold velocity will cause his displacement per frame to surpass the collision check, causing him to break free and shoot into the water. To prevent this, Mario must turn to redirect his accumulated speed before breaking out.

[09:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=599s) Building Infinite Speed Out of Bounds

Mario’s intended next position reaches past the wall and into out-of-bounds space once he builds up sufficient speed. Because Super Mario 64 refuses to place Mario out of bounds, the game cancels his translation entirely and leaves him standing in place. While ceiling collision functions similarly by holding Mario stationary, out-of-bounds space provides a critical structural advantage: unlike ceilings, out of bounds extends infinitely. Consequently, a player can accumulate unlimited velocity without risking breaking free from the geometry.

To execute this setup, pannenkoek2012 opens the gate, utilizes the gate's ceiling collision to generate an initial burst of velocity, and then redirects Mario’s angle directly toward out of bounds to farm the remainder of the required speed. Recognizing that spending half a day charging movement might seem completely absurd to a casual viewer, pannenkoek2012 prefaces the explanation with dry anticipation: “Now you're probably wondering what I'm going to need all this speed for after all I do build up speed for 12 hours but to answer that we need to talk about parallel universes and if you thought my other tangents were complicated just you wait.”

[10:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=646s) Collision Math and the Parallel Universe Grid

While the game stores Mario’s exact position internally as a 32-bit floating-point number, it converts those coordinates into 16-bit signed shorts whenever evaluating floor triangle collisions. This conversion truncates any fractional portion of his coordinates and restricts the collision detection values to an integer range between -32,768 and +32,767 inclusive. Any positional values that exceed or fall below this boundary are mapped back inside via the modulo operator. Visually, the collision engine restricts its checks to a rigid, cubic bounding box centered on the main stage.

```mermaid flowchart LR accTitle: Parallel Universe Collision Modulo accDescr: Diagram showing how Mario's float position wraps into the original map box for collision. subgraph ActualSpace["Actual Space (Float)"] Pos["Mario's True Position<br/>Extends infinitely"] end subgraph ShortConversion["Collision Math"] Mod["Modulo & Truncation<br/>-32768 to +32767"] end subgraph CollisionBox["Floor Detection Box (Short)"] Floor["Original Map Box<br/>Floor Check Evaluated"] end Pos --> Mod Mod --> Floor ```

As long as Mario remains within this box, his actual floating-point coordinates and his floor detection coordinates align aside from fractional rounding errors. However, once Mario crosses the boundary of the box, his real position separates from his floor check position: his actual coordinates continue moving outward, while the collision engine loops back around inside the base box. If Mario stands far out in the void where no tangible geometry exists, but his floor check coordinates loop around to land on valid terrain in the base map, the game treats Mario as standing on solid ground.

As pannenkoek2012 summarizes the strange mechanics of this phenomenon: “So for all intents and purposes there is essentially land over here a copy of the original map and this is what we call a parallel universe or a pu and this applies to every one of these boxes so there's actually a grid of nearly infinite pus.”

- Parallel universes (PUs) repeat across a vast, near-infinite spatial grid, spaced roughly 65,536 units apart. - PUs contain purely virtual floor collision; they are visually invisible because graphics are rendered only within the original base map. - PUs contain no dynamic objects, no elevators, no item blocks, no enemies, no collectible items such as coins or stars, and no wall collision. - The Nintendo 64 hardware will hard-crash if Mario enters a PU while the camera is set to track him; players prevent crashes by locking the camera in place on the base map before departure, which renders PU navigation entirely blind.

[13:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=783s) Quarter Steps, De Facto Speed, and Sinking Speeds

Reaching a neighboring parallel universe requires more than simply accumulating the gross spatial distance of a single PU. The Super Mario 64 physics engine subdivides every single frame of movement into four distinct quarter steps, checking for valid floor collision under Mario at every single step. If a quarter step lands in out-of-bounds void, the movement aborts. Consequently, the minimum viable displacement requires clearing four full parallel universes in a single frame so that every individual quarter step lands safely on valid terrain. The community designates this four-PU movement unit as a single "qpu" (quadruple parallel universe).

Furthermore, the actual distance Mario travels horizontally across the ground rarely equals his raw speed value. On sloped surfaces, Mario's displacement represents only a fractional portion of his speed, with steeper inclines reducing his ground movement significantly regardless of whether he faces uphill, downhill, or sideways. The true movement distance along the ground is termed Mario's "de facto speed." To clear one qpu of distance, the player cannot merely hold one qpu of raw speed; the de facto speed must match one qpu, meaning the raw speed must scale upward to compensate for the incline.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Sinking Speed Multiples accDescr: Flowchart illustrating how raw speed converts to de facto speed across slope angles to hit QPU intervals. subgraph SpeedConversion["Speed Conversion"] Raw["Raw Speed<br/>(Blue Vector)"] --> Slope["Floor Slope Factor<br/>(Steepness Scaling)"] Slope --> DeFacto["De Facto Speed<br/>(Green Vector)"] end subgraph SyncLogic["PU Synchronization"] DeFacto -->|"Matches 1 QPU Distance"| Sync1["1st Sinking Speed<br/>(Clears 1 QPU / frame)"] DeFacto -->|"Matches 2 QPU Distance"| Sync2["2nd Sinking Speed<br/>(Clears 2 QPU / frame)"] DeFacto -->|"Matches N QPU Distance"| SyncN["Nth Sinking Speed<br/>(Clears N QPU / frame)"] end ```

The specific raw speed value that causes Mario's de facto speed to land perfectly on an integer multiple of a qpu is called the "sinking speed." Because raw speed can only be accumulated while remaining on a hyper speed walking slope, any speed Mario carries upon leaving that slope will steadily degrade. Navigating a route across multiple surfaces requires planning around each slope's unique set of sinking speeds. Demonstrating this with his past run to the Secret Aquarium, pannenkoek2012 illustrates how stepping onto a steeper surface demands a higher sinking speed, creating points of failure if Mario's speed drops below the threshold. Rather than giving up, routes can step up to higher harmonic multiples: “These speeds allow Mario to move two qpu at once instead of one so now if I instead build up enough speed to reach the second sinking speed of that first slope then I'll actually have enough speed to meet each sinking speed in turn and complete the route.”

- Reaching the first sinking speed requires approximately 12 real-time hours of continuous speed accumulation on the slope. - Reaching the second sinking speed roughly doubles the setup time to around 25 hours. - Bypassing the second sinking speed represents a massive real-world optimization, as shaving off the higher tier is an immediate 12-hour time save.

[17:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1068s) Routing Hazy Maze Cave and Triangle Optimization

Executing the Watch for Rolling Rocks star with parallel universes poses a severe vertical constraint: while horizontal speed is effectively infinite, vertical mobility remains completely unchanged. To reach the star at the top of the cavern, Mario must physically climb terrain and ride moving platforms. The planned route begins on the hyper speed walking slope, travels up the incline leading away from the underground lake, ascends two separate moving elevators, advances onto the Amazing Emergency Exit platform at the peak of the cavern, and finally launches across to the star platform to bounce off the pre-positioned Scuttlebug.

The primary obstacle on this climb lies along the pathway leading up from the subterranean lake, a ramp constructed from dozens of small floor triangles, each with varying surface steepnesses. Confronted with a chaotic patchwork of sinking speed requirements, pannenkoek2012 surveyed the mesh geometry to find a viable path: “After careful observation and scrutiny I isolated six triangles which I named T1 through T6 these triangles have strictly decreasing steepnesses so we can meet each of their sinking speeds in turn.”

Because the six chosen triangles span the entire vertical rise without gaps and feature monotonically decreasing slope angles, Mario can step between them continuously as his speed degrades, allowing the entire route to function on the very first sinking speed rather than requiring a 25-hour hyper speed walking charge.

Finally, navigating parallel universes does not demand a mathematical lock on the exact sinking speed integer. Small deviations create controlled relative movement across the base map: - Moving with slightly less than the ideal sinking speed drifts Mario relatively forward on the destination map. - Moving with slightly more than the sinking speed drifts Mario relatively backward. - Greater deviations from the exact sinking speed magnify this relative drift. - Deflecting Mario's travel angle slightly away from pure cardinal axes allows relative lateral steering across the terrain.

[19:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1191s) QPU Alignment and Non-Four-PU Movement

While an intuitive reading of parallel universe travel suggests that Mario can only move in multiples of four PUs at once—since each frame consists of four quarter steps that must individually resolve—pannenkoek2012 points out that this is not strictly true. Mario can stop prematurely at an intermediate quarter step if a quarter step attempts to move out of bounds or underneath a ceiling. Because the game evaluates quarter steps sequentially and advances Mario only up to, but not including, the first invalid quarter step, hitting an invalid floor or ceiling halts the movement mid-frame.

Furthermore, shifting slopes during a quarter step fundamentally disrupts this math. Stepping onto a different incline alters Mario's de facto speed and recalculates the spatial displacement of subsequent quarter steps. As a result, the next quarter step will almost certainly fail to synchronize with the exact distance needed to land on an equivalent PU coordinate, forcing Mario to drop out of hyper speed walking and halt directly on the new slope.

```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Quarter-step Validation and QPU Alignment accDescr: Diagram showing how Mario's four quarter steps evaluate floor conditions to maintain or break QPU alignment.

subgraph Evaluation ["Per-Frame Movement Engine"] QS1["Quarter Step 1"] --> QS2["Quarter Step 2"] QS2 --> QS3["Quarter Step 3"] QS3 --> QS4["Quarter Step 4"] end

Evaluation -->|"Normal 4-step execution"| Aligned["Lands on QPU Grid<br>(Multiples of 4 PUs)"] Evaluation -->|"Step hits OOB, ceiling, or slope change"| Truncated["Halts at invalid quarter step"] Truncated --> Misaligned["QPU Misalignment<br>(Must correct before return)"] ```

To categorize these states, the set of parallel universes separated from the origin by exact multiples of four is designated the "QPU grid." When Mario rests on this grid, he is considered "QPU aligned." pannenkoek2012 explains that maintaining alignment or staying misaligned is relatively straightforward, but transitioning between the two requires deliberate environmental disruptions:

> “Remember moving a multiple of four PUs is easy, but moving a different amount requires special conditions like out of bounds or changing slopes, so if you're QPU aligned, it's easy to stay that way, and if you're QPU misaligned, it's easy to stay that way as well.”

If Mario becomes misaligned while traveling across the outer void, returning to the main course requires deliberate correction. Without nearby out-of-bounds geometry, and with slope transitions constrained to predetermined sequences, calculating the exact route to re-align with the origin map constitutes one of the steepest challenges in PU path planning.

- Moving multiples of four PUs is standard; moving non-multiples requires an invalid quarter step (out of bounds or ceilings) or a mid-frame slope change. - A slope change alters de facto speed, desynchronizing subsequent quarter steps from matching PU intervals. - The QPU grid comprises all PUs that sit at spatial coordinates in exact multiples of 4 PU distances from the main map. - Recovering QPU alignment to re-enter the main stage is mandatory, as interactive game objects exist only on the origin map.

---

[21:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1278s) Multi-Screen Setup and the Six-Triangle Ascent

Before diving into the synchronized gameplay, pannenkoek2012 pauses with a comedic fake-out: “Okay, so now we're finally ready to resume the main video and watch the PU movement. Just kidding! First I need to explain what these screens are.” Because tracking an invisible character across billions of coordinate units is impossible on a standard camera view, a four-panel composite display is used to visualize the run:

- **Standard View**: Shows what the game engine renders on-screen. Because the camera is permanently anchored on the main map to prevent console rendering overflows and crashes, this window remains largely static. - **Relative View**: Demonstrates how the environment would appear if the camera were allowed to follow Mario directly and if PU terrain were rendered visible. - **Relative Map**: An overhead bird's-eye schematic showing Mario's exact relative position on the local floor geometry within whatever PU he currently occupies. - **PU Map**: A macro-level coordinate grid showing Mario’s location relative to the infinite matrix of PUs across the entire coordinate plane.

With the display explained, Mario begins his ascent out of the subterranean lake area across the six isolated floor triangles mapped out earlier. The technique requires boarding a designated triangle, throttling hyper speed down until it matches the triangle’s specific sinking speed, ascending along the incline, and then launching onto the next triangle.

Relative backwards movement is achieved by retaining slightly more speed than the slope's exact sinking speed, while lateral motion is driven by holding an angle slightly offset from cardinal directions. Because each transfer between differing floor slopes shifts Mario's QPU alignment, the path had to be mathematically engineered so that every fractional misalignment cancelled out:

> “And every time I move from triangle to triangle, my QPU alignment changes, but cleverly, I planned it in such a way that they'd all cancel out by the end, and I'd end up QPU aligned.”

Upon conquering the sixth triangle, Mario performs a rapid zigzag sequence across the PU map to race back toward the coordinate origin.

---

[22:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1358s) The 0.5 A Press: AB Kicks on the Rising Elevator

Re-entering the origin map is an absolute necessity because dynamic objects—including platforms, enemies, and elevators—do not populate parallel universes. Upon returning to the main stage, Mario approaches the rising elevator. If he stood passively on the lift, the immense speed checks and collision updates would cause him to phase straight through the floor and plummet into the abyss.

This specific hurdle is the sole justification for the half A press that defines the run:

> “By holding A, I can press B to do these little kicks; without these kicks, I go through the elevator, but with the kicks, I can ride it up to gain precious height.”

By keeping the A button held down continuously from an action initiated prior to the level entry, pressing B executes mid-air AB kicks. These rapid kicking animations repeatedly recalculate Mario's vertical platform interaction without triggering a fresh jump input, allowing him to securely adhere to the moving lift and ascend out of the lower cavern into the upper facilities.

---

[23:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A&t=1390s) The Final Launch, Scuttlebug Bounce, and Misalignment Clip

Reaching the top level initiates the climactic routing calculation. Mario executes a kick onto the Amazing Emergency Exit platform, realigns his angle, and readies a hyper-speed launch targeting the Scuttlebug suspended over the rolling rocks pit. The vector required to traverse from this platform to the Scuttlebug displaces Mario precisely 10 PUs rightward and 3 PUs downward on the PU grid.

To land squarely on the Scuttlebug in the physical, object-loaded main map rather than in an empty PU, pannenkoek2012 mirrors the final vector: he navigates Mario 10 PUs to the left and 3 PUs upward beforehand, while simultaneously fine-tuning Mario's sub-pixel position on the relative map so that the exit velocity hits the precise intercept coordinates.

After a brief “now, don't blink,” Mario flashes instantaneously across the void, bounces off the raised Scuttlebug to gain upward lift, and executes a ground pound directly into the geometry misalignment on the corner of the Watch for Rolling Rocks platform. The ground pound cancels his downward momentum at the apex and pulls him upward through the seam, placing him safely on the platform to collect the Power Star.

The video concludes with two visual breakdowns: 1. **Abridged Scuttlebug Raising**: A sped-up recap of the Scuttlebug’s ascent above its home boundary, showing the back-and-forth lunges, capped off with two final raising steps used exclusively to translate the enemy horizontally closer to the cliff edge so Mario could reach it. 2. **The Final PU Launch**: An alternate camera angle illustrating that once Mario crossed into the PU version of the rolling rock room, the Scuttlebug became active and began falling. Mario had only a razor-thin window of a few frames to bridge the vast multi-PU distance before the bug dropped too low for the bounce to work.

Reflecting on the final product, pannenkoek2012 expresses surprise at the sheer scope of the project:

> “Man, I did not expect this video to become 25 minutes long when I started commentating, but I guess there was just that much to explain.”

## Mentioned pannenkoek2012, Super Mario 64, Hazy Maze Cave, Watch for Rolling Rocks, Wing Mario Over the Rainbow, TJ 'Henry' Yoshi, Tyler Kehne, Nintendo 64, The Secret Aquarium

## Video description THIS VIDEO IS OUTDATED - SEE A BETTER VERSION OF THIS VIDEO HERE: https://youtu.be/aFx7woWkZbc

I collect the star Watch for Rolling Rocks in Hazy Maze Cave using 0.5 A presses. The A press is to perform AB kicks on the rising elevators. Without doing these kicks, Mario would go through the elevator, and so there'd be no way to navigate out of the lake area with QPU speed. For the record, this is TAS.

This video is an improvement from my previous video in which I collected this star in 1 A press. You can find that video here: https://youtu.be/yGic8wwhm6g. Since then, we discovered PU movement and scuttlebug raising, which made this strat possible.

For convenience, here are the informative parts of the video: 0:35 for half A presses 3:44 for scuttlebug transportation 5:01 for scuttlebug raising 8:07 for hyper speed walking (HSWing) 10:40 for parallel universes (PUs)

Here is a play by play of what I do. First, I use scuttlebug transportation to move a scuttlebug to the corner of the Watch for Rolling Rocks platform. Then, I use scuttlebug raising to raise him to about the height of the platform. Next, I use hyper speed walking to generate massive speed. Finally, I use PU movement to navigate to the top of the course, launch to the scuttlebug to bounce on him, and ground pound in the misalignment of the platform to get onto it. And from there, I collect the star.

If you want to see my workspace/calculations and read about the process of TASing this, I've chronicled it here: http://imgur.com/gallery/rK24p

.m64 stats: Length: 13 hours and 49.5 minutes Re-records: 6824 Frames: 2986271 (1493100 input)

This video is without a doubt the one that I've put the most time into out of all my videos. I knew this going in, and so I decided to keep a log of how much time I spent on each aspect of it (note: if my computer was doing work like compiling/recording and I could let it be, I didn't count that time). Here are the stats: Time to TAS: 12 hours Time to record/manage raw avis: 9 hours Time to create uncommentated version: 31 hours Time to add visuals/commentary: 75 hours

Update: The PU route used in this video actually crashes on console, as it turns out PU crashes can still occur even when locking the camera in the main map. Nevertheless, an alternate route has been found that avoids these PU crashes and has been console verified: https://youtu.be/T-G4ymVwajw

Commentated video playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2ftzAeEpTaI7eS6b4nPN3ji Uncommentated Version: https://youtu.be/X-zAWbM50JM ABC Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmvvhlevqC2d6vis077yFHuLJHYtTtqe_ ABC Routes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypRVVRyf4x-v8GqCSmKYnicrfKSIjao3Y1ZVl52RIyM/edit

[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpk2tdsPh0A)