Infinite Super Mario AI Source Code | Hacker News Reader

Infinite Super Mario AI Source Code

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117 pointsfogus10 comments

Essentially, someone wrote a game that allows you to play randomly generated Super Mario levels of arbitrary difficulty, and the contest was to write an AI that gets as far as possible on those levels, in real time. This is the winning entry.

(They actually ran two separate contests, but the videos of this agent were released around the time of the first contest, which I think would have discouraged new entrants for the second. Independently, the video went viral in Japan and picked up half a million views.)

Independently, the video went viral in Japan

This doesn't surprise me; Japan has a long internet tradition of Mario-related hacks. One example is the "automatic Mario" videos, specially-crafted Mario levels that are set up such that they will complete automatically if Mario moves continually to the right, and the sounds created will match the background music. A particularly impressive example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM0ib4GxLPw

That video of "automatic mario" is absolutely amazing. It boggles my mind just thinking about how much time that must have taken.

And to anyone who didn't check out that link, it's definitely worth watching. If you're not interested in the whole thing (eleven minutes) I recommend starting right at 8:00.

And if you like that one, just check the related videos tab for more, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8upKaWzy0 and so forth.

The N game has similar creations, but none approach this level of artistry.

Mario seems like a good target for 'variant' games. http://kotaku.com/5161778/japanese-gamers-invent-new-way-to-... has been a favorite of mine.

The highlight of this post was discovering the WTFPL, although the videos in slow motion of mario following the mouse were pretty incredible.

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There's something fishy about that. It seems unlikely that even a perfectly intelligent bot could, for instance, never have to wait for the flying turtles to line up (as when bouncing across a chasm). They're just always there in the perfect arrangement when mario gets to them.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying, but it's worth mentioning that the levels generated by the engine are rather simple. For example, there are never any gaps so wide that they can't be jumped across easily, so no fancy bouncing needed.

The AI adapts to the current situation, making any position of the turtles perfect...

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