Thanks to the following people for help with research! Be sure to check out their channels: Kosmic: https://www.twitch.tv/kosmic Niftski: https://www.twitch.tv/niftski Bismuth: https://www.youtube.com/@Bismuth9/featured Andrewg: https://www.twitch.tv/andrewg darbian: https://www.twitch.tv/darbian Eden_GT: https://www.youtube.com/@Eden_GT/featured GTAce99: https://www.twitch.tv/gtace99

First reply

Home - We’re Finally Landing

ok

fill me up daddy🥰🥰

@suprsoniku No thanks! ❤

Between this and the recent Wave Race 64 discoveries I wonder how many records and techniques that we never realized were / are being used abroad without us knowing.

BRKsEDU here, nice!

What are you doing here? 😂

caraio é o edu

Eduuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Oii edu

Summoning Salt the type of guy to make 1 framerule of timesave seem like the culmination of everything humans have achieved throughout our millions of years of history

and you think that isn't the case

Dude did you even see how insane that is to hit? The practice and patience, mental resilience to literally imitate a machine at whatever frames per second SMB2 runs at? I'm so glad to be able to share this planet with such absolute beasts as niftski and all the other giants he stood on to get to where he is (Andrew G, Darbian, kosmic). NOTHING BUT MAD FUCKING RESPECT

@Doge How impressive it is isn't the same as height of accomplishment... if joking sorry and if not pick up a history book

Millions? More like 6000

I can’t believe this story has the three greatest speedrunners of the game in the world encountering a mysterious man named Eden who bestows upon them the Ancient Scrolls, revealing the forbidden Devil’s Spell technique.

Speedrunning has some wild lore

Knowledge isn't buried, it's just overlooked.

hahaha fr

"Why yall runnin so slow?"

Dude if you're THE @Eden GT then you're a legend! How did you even find it?

The whole "Devil's Spell" thing is a good example of how a lot of things aren’t known to Western players because of the language barrier with Japanese communities. Now there is some more collaboration but in general, it still happens quite often.

Reminds me of the Nero family from Final Fantasy IX that was hidden in a Japanese guidebook for 13 years.

FUN IS INFINITE

Niftski's excitement is why i love watching these videos. These guys work for years on these runs and yo see a guy nail it is just impressive. Good work Salt. You have yet to disappoint us with a video.

It is impressive but at the end of the day it's just sad.

@Comment-sw5rz  You must be fun at parties

@Online 😂

190 bpm, baby!!!! Mans is a monster and I'm here for it!

watching his hands is like looking at a robot playing the piano

Niftski is literally unbelievable. I’m so glad that when I started watching SMB1 speedruns he just entered the scene with his first WR and since then I’ve witnessed greatness firsthand

His runs don’t count for me since he is cheesing with keyboard but whatever

Yeah…forget being greatness

@Tim F Well show me another person who can “cheese” it with a keyboard like him and I’ll agree with you

@Tim F xD he also took part in live races where he played on the original hardware using a controller, and he achieved very good results on the same level as when playing on the keyboard. some people's takes are... something.

@Tim Fif it’s so easy on keyboard than go ahead and do it yourself

I really like how he realized that a lot of his viewers know whats a framerule is and was just, "Let's have a little bit of fun."

Going in I was like "If I hear about a motherfucking bus one more time I swear to god..." but he made it entertaining so it works.

"Let's have a little bit of waiting at a bus stop"

Notice this however: it's a bit of breaking the 4th wall, or self awareness, but every time creators that didn't do it started doing it, it was because they started to get bored and was the beginning of a decline in quality. So I'm hoping this will stay as a small joke, but it raises a small red flag for me.

It's not like the bus analogy is all over the comments anytime Summoning Salt mentions it

How you can make an incredible video about a 30 second level in a game that 99% of people haven’t played and it still be amazing is incredible in itself, congrats.

A concept: TAS2MIDI, a tool that converts the button presses to MIDI drum sounds as an artistic aural understanding of what's happening during the run. You can compare the sounds of a true TAS against the world records over time to see the complexity in timing needed as progress was made.

Make it a reality!

Make this.

That would be awesome to hear. There is definitely overlap between performing rhythmically complex music and performing precise inputs in a game. Over time speedrunners develop an internal clock, and end up “feeling” the timing of inputs similar to how a musician would feel an odd time sig. I wonder if we’ll ever see people running games to a metronome.

​@B MoneyObviously, having made this suggestion, I'm a little musically inclined. I'm come to believe that a human being tends to feel their natural rhythm in the range of 100-150, with energetic dance music feeling best in the 120-180 bpm range. If we want to translate that down to beats per second, we're looking at 2-3 beats per second. And musically, that would be for a quarter note, with music commonly breaking that down into two eighth notes, and at a more complex layer, four sixteenth notes. Only the most articulate of artistic endeavors would consider using a thirty second note or further, and only then for a deeper reason than a performance would ever present. So, that was a long winded way of saying that humans feel good processing things musically around 2-3 beats per second, and those beats can be broken down into 2 or 4 times by most people as dense bits of data our mind is processing. If you multiply all these options together, you get 4, 6, 8, and 12 "frames" of data for the everyman, and maybe some extension for people with good rhythm. So now lets think about what video games are asking of us. Most video game engines are processing input from the user/player/speedrunner anywhere from 30 to 60 times a second most commonly, with some going further, but sticking to the norm is best here. This means that based on the range of "frames" per second and the range of frames per second we get from video games, can we find some reasonable comparisons to make? While our numbers are a bit conservative for the everyman, we can still see that at the highest frame processing rate theorized still has 2.5 frames of video data happen for the lowest input rate of most games. That's why it's a learned skill. If you're not musically inclined, you may miss a lot of detail from a performed piece. Likewise, if you're not practiced with video game inputs, you may miss a lot a jumps in a Mario game. So let's think about this the other way around. What does it take to keep up with a video game if defined by beats per minute or music? EDIT: All the math after here is bad, I'm wrong by a factor of 10. Should be 3600 times a minute. If you're playing a 60 inputs per second game, you're requesting data to be processed and acted on 360 times a minute. I just so happen to have a way to break that into something I can have you listen to. For my own amusement I've been working on taking the song Chattermax from the album Bluey: Dance Mode! and turning it into a "Max 300" styled step chart, calling my chart "Chatter(Max 360)", as nods to both the proper title Joff Bush gave to the track, as well as the lineage of the song charts that inspired the work. But that title I gave should have brought up a flag. The "Max" series of songs are titled From the original Max 300, a 300 bpm song, set up the be the end boss for anyone wild enough to play of song on the hardest difficulty, and get a full combo, but on top of that, have less then like 16% of the steps be below the Perfect rating. The song regularly had you hit runs of eighth notes at a blazing 300 bpm, but there's a secret behind that. Conceptually, 300 bpm can also be done at 150 bpm, but instead of eighth notes being the smallest note, it would be a sixteenth note. Compare that with what we said the everyman could commonly process. The everyman simply needs to learn to process one more division of beat further to be capable of processing something like Max 300. That's still a lot to ask, but now you have context. But now, Chatter(Max 360). Yes, it plays on the screen at 360 bpm, but I was only able to set it there because Chattermax was written as a 180 bpm song and I doubled it for the game. And again, with eighth notes being the deepest it goes. BTW, if you listen to the song the rhythm of the words "Chattermax" is on the eighth notes. Chat-ter-max, one-and-two. If you can process the individual beats at that speed ad nauseum, you can be a speedrunner. Okay, where did I go? Anyway, yes, a metronome at 180 bpm with you processing each input as a sixteenth note is what Niftski is doing speedruns of SMB1, and he should use a tool like my silly idea for practice. Now to copy paste this out, and start recording a really badly presented video essay.

@Clifton Church for POTUS I understand the logic, but don’t know how to program the software. If you do end up creating a piece of music where each input of the SM1 TAS run = a note in the arrangement, you have to upload it!! It doesn’t even need to be made using a program that translates the controller inputs into midi. It could theoretically be made by painstakingly writing all of the audio / midi entirely in the timeline of your DAW, where 0:00 in-game is of course 0:00 in the track. Would be even better if multiple instruments were used to make it musical, rather than just a sort of timing-map-that-uses-audio. Reaper will let you use a gamepad as a midi controller. If someone were to have both the emulator and reaper running simultaneously, they could both play and record the midi at the same time. Would love to hear that

I feel like the production really stepped up a level in this video. There was a lot more comedic edge. If this is a sign of the direction of the channel, I’m on board. Great work as always

Jon Bois has always been a big, obvious influence on Summoning Salt but I really do think this was the first time he (or anybody really) managed to *perfectly* replicate that intangible paradox of myth and humanity that Bois so effortlessly injects into his stuff. This story is ultimately just a silly little thing that some dudes did in a videogame but tracing every step and highlighting all of the human faces behind it and making it sound as important as the moon landing while never losing sight of the fact that this is still just some fun silly thing that fans of a game put a lot of work into really elevates it. In short, it's Pretty Good

Crazy how close we have become to TAS levels of runs. Great video. Very entertaining as usual.

I just have no idea about any of this but gosh, you really do make some art with these videos. The way that you build up the story and explain all the pieces in parts without it being boring and then that final run at the end just hits home. I’ve got goosebumps.

As Kosmic once said "It came about the same way new tricks usually do in these games: one day we just decided we're gonna do what the TAS does"

That’s such a fire line, what a legend

When I first discovered speed running I didn't understand what TAS was, I thought it was people pulling that stuff off in real time. I guess now they actually are.

​@Jimwhat is TAS?

​@Danneoit's a program playing a game as fast as it could, employing various game breaking strategies. Full form is Tool Assisted Speedrun.

​@DanneoA TAS run allows things like using save states and using a program to automatically press buttons in order to get a frame perfect run. They're meant to show the theoretical best speedrun. Often they become a blueprint for world record players as seen here.

Summoning Salt usually takes a while to release new videos, but in return, his new videos are always masterpieces. It's odd to see him release a new video less than a month after his previous one, but I'm not complaining.

It’s also weird to see him release such a quick video and it’s not about the recent SMB1 WR, but I assume he will get to it. It certainly deserves a video, because now, we have reached a point where RTA and TAS is dead even until the very last level, which is frankly insane.

And its quality!

It’s lacks the usual intro music 😢

Still love to see runner reactions to a sick run. Reminds me of being a kid again and finally beating a boss you’ve been grinding.

This is easily one of your best videos. The way you play on channel tropes to the Bismuth reference makes it feel like one of your normal professional videos with your own personality spin on it, and I adore it.

Bismuth was throwing shade, I just started watching his vids recently you can't disrespect salt like that man, not cool. Salt is an absolute legend, and extremely humble.

Always love when andrewG gets the ball rolling in these Mario runs. You are SUCH a good storyteller, thank-you for another great video..

TOTALLY original first half of the comment

I love your videos! Before, I never would have dreamed this level could have such a nuanced history.

It is crazy. it makes you wonder the amount of depth that goes into other games and levels we havent even though about

Two videos in less than a month is an unbalievable gift we will gladly appreciate

Truly unbeleighvablle

meow

yes i feel blessed

He's speed running content

I just wanted to say I watch every one of your videos that comes out. I don't speed run personally, but the videos you make are always so intresting and keep me engaged the entire video. Thank you for the many years of great videos, you deserve everything you have worked so hard for!

I enjoyed how light tbis episode felt! I could hear the enjoyment / amusement in your voice during the frame rule explaination

you're so valuable to the speedrun community, thank you for what you do

i love how you're saving 'we're finally landing' for the end again. i love when it's only at the end

That's awesome! Massive Gratz to everyone involved in making this happen and especially Niftski! All you guys are awesome and so entertaining to watch what you do best. And no one does these videos better than you do them SummoningSalt.

“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” - Raymond Teller

This is just speedrunning defined. The recent Hades full heat run they said has a 0.0069% chance of completion so is impossible. When I saw that I just thought given enough people and enough time it will get done. A week later it was haha

What a quote.

also autism

Lmao@Victor

It's how the Allies cracked the Enigma code in WW2. The Germans knew it was breakable in theory. They just reasoned that the sheer time and effort it'd take would make it implausible anyone would.

every time you upload something, i'm way more invested than i should, i'm not very familiar with most of the speedruns you present but you still manage to keep me interested and i trully thank you for making such awesome content

These videos shape me as a whole

Ye they are nice. illeyez505 is a good youtuberrr.,,.

This was so well written, developed, and presented. Imagine a SMB video having me on the edge of my seat, but it did! Thank you for such a great video, and congrats to all the brilliant players who figured this stuff out.

Great video and a great story! It's amazing the fun, challenge and interesting discoveries still being made these older games provide.

I absolutely love how crazy dedicated they are and how much work goes into saving a second on a speedrun..... much respect to you absolute mad lads!!!!

I like this more casual, humorous approach in the video. Don't get me wrong, a full-on 1 1/2hr SS production is always great. But the relaxed, light hearted feeling of this video was just as good and fun to watch. Thanks for making this, SS!

It's like an appetizer before the entree. I'm happy with the appy, but I sure love an entree.

* AMAZING!!!

I second this. I love this more casual type of video while still having the topic being interesting and having recurring characters. I also love how there’s a little bit more energy than the standard long form videos. I think whenever he does short videos like this he should have this type of energy and have the longer videos like usual for the hardcore viewers.

I would probably refrain from calling him "SS"

Love the idea of specific level improvements in speedeuns! Hope to see more of this in the future!

I appreciate the less seriousness and more fun you had in this video. I do think that your longer videos having a more serious (and typically extremely emotionally engrossing) touch are better for those videos. But for this video where it is less about the fight between people I think that this more humour filled style plays really well!! Keep on going the going! :)

This is a big difference from your usual style of video but still as informative and great to listen to as ever. I really enjoy this format while still loving the long full game historys more I hope You continue with this style sprinkled in. Always happy to see an additional video or yours within a couple of months. They're always worth the wait. Thanks for the great content!

From 420 Blazit's strats to Niftsky's pop off. I will admit... I cried a little. Thanks for summoning the salt in my eyes.

One of your best videos! Congrats to all of the involved on this amazing journey!

23:30 Using the channel’s unofficial theme for a comedic bit is brilliant, you can tell he had so much fun making this one.

Fiddingly insteado fa record screech it's simply 'the audio buffer constant looping.' Same as what happens when you bump the NES and knock the cart loose.

@Andrew Singleton That's only partially correct. What actually happened is for each N samples of audio, repeat that group a certain amount of times. It's basically an easy way to slow audio down without changing the pitch, but it causes the sound to take on a signature metallic aspect. The NES also did not have an audio buffer. When the cart gets knocked loose, the sound synthesizer just continues whatever notes it was already playing, which is why it doesn't take on a specific tone. GBA and Wii crashes do what you described.

HUH@CreatorJo Today I learned. Thank you.

truly amazing gameplay, proven dedication by all... all i care about is that wall jump tho, i don't care if it saves no time, the way you introduced us to it was so cool to see, well done

4:24 The sudden change from the usual synthwave to Hall Of the Mountain King just feels surreal

When you explained how precise the TAS setup had to be, I knew that only Niftski had the power to pull it off. Sure enough, he did. Great video!

Important moments in gaming history preserved and documented. Thank you for sharing this with the world.

Had chills at one point. Crazy to have that sort of reaction.

Salt was SUPER self-aware in this episode and I AM HERE FOR IT

The use of In the Hall of the Mountain King was pretty funny, to me.

you think he's not self-aware in other episodes?

loved the little forshadowing part - it just took him 10+ years :D

what do you le' mean?

@Caesar no.

Dude that's so cool that the original SMB and it's lost levels are still being played to this day by so many. The original game is what got me into gaming at around 3 or 4 years of age. I'll be 30 early October so it's wild to have seen everything evolve so rapidly.

It pleases me that there are levels unique enough to get their own dedicated history videos

thank you for always having the chillest vids. It's like Christmas when I see your name in my feed. Your vids are definitely one of the reasons I love speedrunning so much.

That must have been so exciting. Learning about an optimization like that while they are together at AGDQ. How fun. They must have been flipping out.

Love these videos! Great runners and great video editing and commentary

Several years ago, we got the history of 4-2. Now, we get 5-2. This is truly an outstanding journey we’ve been on!

Thar vidros out of date. Niftski just set the WR with the first ever tas tie to 8-4 and the final framerule was lightning 4-2

@Ilect Ofc its out of date, most of the videos on this channel are probably out of date, its just the nature of speedrunning

​@EatingYoshiyou are right. illeyezcobra is a good youtuberrr.,..,

bro i remember finding your channel when you had like 10k subscribers and your vids were 'episodes'. you take a while between uploads but its totally worth the wait. every video is such good quality and interesting, even for games i don't play. keep doing what you been doing good work

I love this series - thanks for making these. I didn't have the Lost Levels, but NES Mario games were all sorts of fun.

Bruh, seeing your content flourish is great! Keep being an advocate for the stories of unrelenting tenacity and dedication. They say once an artist creates a piece of art, it then belongs to the public. As they are the ones to decide how its ultimately interpreted. So to all the gamers out there, play how y'all want, and keep elevating the art of gaming to new levels.

The dedication of these people is absolutely mind boggling

Incredible video and editing! The hype I got from that falling wall-jump was amazing!

Ten minutes in and salt clearly had a lot of fun with this one. Probably the funniest one hes made in a long time

There was a very brief funny moment early in the vid when he showed the comments on Andrew's speedrun. One of them mentioned Salt would make a video on 5-2. I love it

​@Mindtrait0r Ωspecifically said lost levels wr progression but yeah pretty much

But...Jimmypoopins!

And then the bus came in.

it is wild how close to perfection you can get with enough time dedication and skill.

You rock SS!! Every video you make is leveled up from the last one. This is such a fun and easy watch! Thank you!!

I’ve played a LOT of SMB1 in my Younger Days, but I’ve never really been into speedrunning. And yet, you really have a knack for presenting these stories in a manner that is fascinating and compelling, even though it wouldn’t typically be my kind of thing. 👍

same here. It would be fun to try speedrunning one day but it would take so much hard work and dedication for sure

damn the dedication some guys put into a decades old game, kudo !!

This topic selection is a great change of pace for your channel. It was also very well executed.

A whole episode on a single level!? This is about to be way to complicated for me🤣

Eh, he's done it before.

Remember, though: his episode on 4-2 totally slaps. One of his best.

You say that while only watching the first minute of the video

He's an essay expert

46 likes in 4 minutes is crazy

Congrats on an earlier release than usual; lots of work and time go in to these videos so, sincere appreciation for the effort of you and your team.

I agree the production quality it great

Summoning Salt’s videos somehow transport you to another dimension. Brilliant as always. 👍

This feels genuinely inspirational, thanks for putting stuff like this into the universe summoningsalt

I completely agree.

That was a FANTASTIC episode, LOVE it!

I am honestly convinced this is one of your best works yet, and man, that is truly saying something.

Big fan of these smaller-in-scope videos. Spending more time on one trick makes the run easier to follow and the history more appreciable

It's what Summoning Salt is best at. I adore his long form documentary of entire games but I think a video like the 4-2 is still his best because of that.

This video has such a finality to it, with the runner literally achieving TAS level perfection. Barring a new discovery, the WR on this level will never change.

Thanks for putting the amount of work this community does into fun, digestible bits for the casual gamers.

Some of my favorite videos of yours are where you focus on the evolution of one trick, keep it up! ❤

The joy I experience seeing a new Summoning Salt upload can't compare to much.

These videos are so cool because I've never watched any content on the lost levels before and by the end I'm not even watching NIftski's final run I'm just staring at the clock looking for the 368. These videos are so informative but so accessible

“Bismuth’s got nothing on me” has to be my favorite Summoning Salt quote

Bismuth commented on this vid a few hours ago but nobody saw it. go upvote it please.

Their rivalry is what we didn't know we needed

​@Leo Staleywhich hours exactly? I scrolled through the entire 9 hours since the video was uploaded today and I cannot find Bismuth's comment.

Bismuth would make a 7 part video series about frame rules and we would love it. That's a bit slower than SummoningSalt's strat, but Bismuth can just take the next bus.

@SushiElemental because he doesn't need to play perfectly to get a good time, one bus later is still a damn good time

Your videos never disappoint, my dude.

This is the best framerule explanation speedrun ever. Genuinely impressed.

Hall of the mountain King being choice as always 😆 *edit* Having now finished this, I so enjoy the fact that these videos are so expertly crafted that I feel all the emotions and the sense of exhilaration.

This guy doesn’t miss. Great videos!

Niftski's reaction at the end was absolute golden. "I imagine myself getting in". haha

How many things have people done that are ACTUALLY TAS level perfection? Extremely impressive.

Well, Todd Togers once beat the TAS in Dragster by starting in second gear. No word on if pizza and Coke were involved.

The fastest TAS for Mario party advance cloud climb is a 19.05 but I got a 18’93 by using a different Strat and someone else got a 18’90 but never recorded it so idk how it’s possible lol but remember TAS are made by humans and are limited to strats known to the TASer.

just note that the super mario bros world record is now completely TAS frame rule perfect until 8-4. Speedrunners are insane

@The best worstif speedrunners are insane Nifski is downright psychotic. I don't see anyone else pulling it off in the near future, and certainly not in as few attempts as he managed. Dude has the throne on lockdown

Most top level mario speedeunnwea. The og game I mean. Like we’ve approached the mechanical human limit

Absolutely love every Summoning Salt video. They're comfort food for the soul.

He reached perfection. Absolute legend

On the one hand, I must be aware that on the scale of real world priorities, speed running video games rates below 0. But I can't help but admire the sheer dedication, focus and determination these guys put into it and that guy's excitement when he nailed it was really satisfying.

I CANT BELIEVE THIS GUY WAS ABLE TO MAKE A 30 MINUTE VIDEO ABOUT 1 LEVEL. YOU LEGEND

Love this style of your videos (analyzing a single level's play-style progression)

10:07 that speedrun timer explaining the 21 framerule is genius 😂

Bro the call-out at 10:54 felt personal lmao

Education% 39.39 (WR)

and is the same explanation for the bus on processors. Yes, its a real thing, does the same thing with data instead of mario, and has existed for decades.

And poor Bismuth got a brutal drive-by

​@Hakageryuso that's why it's called a bus!

Hello, SummoningSalt! First of all, thank you. I'm sure you hear this a lot by now, but your content is a relaxing escape into the games of my past. I have a question for you: How would a typical nobody get into speedrunning? I don't intend on trying to top any charts or climb to a ranking where I'm featured in one of your videos, but I enjoy the concept of jumping into the frey to add to the chaos and see where I match up. Would you consider making a video that briefly teaches people like me how to take a step further into your world? You know the old thing teachers used to say: If one kid raises their hand, there are a bunch of others that are just as curious but didn't themselves ask, so I'm asking for not just myself, but all the others as well that might join me. Rock on!

I love the way Summoning Salt makes jokes (often about speedrunning or even himself) while sounding unpretentious and natural!

Thank you summoning salt for single handedly making me a big fan of speed runs of games

I did not expect Salt to just casually get a world record in this video. Bravo.

Lovin' the "shorter" video. Well researched and constructed, thank you!

I absolutely love you for doing these you are the best for archiving video game history my man keep up fighting the good fight brother

The bismuth VS salt rivalry is something I never thought I'd see on YouTube, but I'm glad I did.

The absolute artistry at 6:01..... the music, the build up, Andrew G's refusal to do things the normal way....... Incredible(tm)

When I first saw the thumbnail I though it was going to be a video on Niftski’s new Any% world record where he was frame perfect for almost the entire run

Always love when andrewG gets the ball rolling in these Mario runs

ok

I think salt is more self aware in this episode other than previous ones

it's amazing that you see andrewg in every speedrun video.. in different years and dates.. he's my hero

This was nice and different. Instead of a whole game, it was just a tough level. I liked it. :)

The 4-2 video is what got me to the channel and into speed running. Another great video.