It’s ok, this is not one of those thoughts with a controversial title in which we tell you that Paper Mario sucks and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is much better. No, the title is literally what we mean is a speedrunning tactic called Arbitrary Code Execution and it’s absolutely bullshit.
We’ve previously discussed Arbitrary Code Execution or ACE – it’s a speedrunning trick that allows players to manipulate the game’s code and therefore complete the game faster than ever – or just produce a bunch of Arwings in the village of Kakariko.
The last game to fall prey to the ACE technique is Paper Mario, which JCog streamer defeated in 54:22 – a new world record for Paper Mario Any% run, which is almost twice as fast as the next finalist.
“For anyone wondering, no, most likely it will not be the new Any% route, because it requires memory manipulation with OoT, but there is a good chance we will add it to the category extension board.
Anyway, technically, the fastest Paper Mario was ever beaten by a man using only the official Nintendo hardware. “
– JCog
This Paper Mario run is unusual, however, not because of its speed, but because 30 of the 54 minutes are actually spent playing Ocarina of Time. JCog’s speedrun of Paper Mario takes place mainly in the world of Hyrule for one reason – as WarChamp7 says, “OoT is so f ***** g of open people, break other games with him now.”
To put this in simple terms: the speedrunner can use Ocarina of Time to write code using ACE which will turn them directly into Paper Mario credits, but to perform this elegant trick, they will have to change the game cartridges at middle speed timed fraction of a second.
Ocarina of Time clears the Expansion Pak memory when it starts, but Paper Mario does not, so if speedrunner can turn off the console and change the two cartridges during the 1 or 2 seconds that Nintendo 64 still has residual power, then the code they have written in Ocarina of Time will be loaded into Paper Mario, and the speedrunner will be taken directly to the credits after making a lot of precise movements, including knocking the ground a lot.
However, there is a problem – JCog did not blow on the cartridge before inserting it. He may have set a new world record, but does it really matter if he didn’t take out all the gunk first?