Mario 64’s Optimization Paradox

EDIT: It looks like this post might have originally gone up without content! Evidently I didn’t publish it with text before its publish date, or maybe my login cookie expired in the meantime. Hopefully it’s up now!

Kaze Emanuar, an expert on Super Mario 64’s code who I’ve linked multiple times before, tends to bang on this drum, but they’ve now done a 20-minute video that treats the issue with detail. They tell us that the Ninendo 64 is a rendering monster, and Nintendo’s use of it isn’t really optimal, especially in the subject of his fixation.

The problem, they say, isn’t triangle count, but cache misses. The N64, we’re told, can really motor (“vroom vroom” is the phrase they use), but fetching code and data tends to bog down the system while the data bus gets the necessary data. If that information is already in the cache, then access is much faster, as in, it directly affects the frame rate.

According to his data, unrolled loops, a traditional optimization measure, are actually bad, because all those extra instructions cause extra data fetches to read them. It’s better to use the loop instructions to run through the same code repeatedly, because it can run completely from the processor’s internal memory. Nintendo’s culling system actually hurts performance in most areas, because the extra data needed to implement their system results in more cache misses. And their culling system only considers data that’s out of sight horizontally, which is such a big problem on the vertical area Tick Tock Clock that there’s a kludge in the engine to reduce draw distance on that one level to make up for it.

I know! I link a lot of technical stuff here. It’s of interest to my diseased brain! But it’s got to be interesting to some of you, right? Well for those readers to whom it is of interest, here it is:

Gamefinds: Blob the Klex

We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.

The title is a little mysterious. What is a Klex, and why is it named Blob? Or is Blobbing something that one does to a Klex?

As it turns out, Klex is a kittycat! A black cat, that looks, a bit, like a black blob that moves around. Klex is the name, Blob is what it is. I can ignore the order of the nouns in the title for cuteness factor.

Cat games are springing up in greater numbers. All spiritual descendants of their great ancestor Neko, more lately you play as the cat. Maybe Stray was what kicked them off, but more recently there was the wonderful Little Kitty, Big City. (I interviewed its creators over on Game Developer!)

Blog the Klex is a demo for another cat game, currently being worked on by Sigma Unit. It’s free at itch.io. It’s being worked on by a much smaller team, and there isn’t a lot to do in the demo, but it shows a terrific sense of whimsy. Klex is adorable, and plays differently from the unnamed kitty in LKBC. LKBC is quite a vertical game, with a lot of climbing around, but Klex mostly runs on the ground with some jumping.

Klex’s animation is “procedural,” meaning in this case that the game figures out where their front paws go, and the rest of the cat follows from that. As Klex runs, there’s a jingling, like of a jingle ball rolling along, that perfectly follows their foorsteps. It’s a case where the sum is greater than the parts: the cat’s head, eyes huge, staying perfectly level, while their paws move in a flurry beneath them, jingling away. It’s very cute. Then you hold the Dash button down, and it gets cuter. You have to experience it to understand. You should. Also, Klex is more apt to squeeze themselves into narrow spaces than the cat in KLBC, and has a very cat-like ability to walk on narrow ledges. They also have an uncat-like ability to turn themself into a bouncy ball. Maybe Klex is part Samus.

The game itself, as it currently is, is brief, a sequence of areas where it’s left to you to figure out how to progress. Like LKBC there is nothing that can harm the cat. The worst that can happen is you fall off of a roof, and the game voids you out and puts you back on the rooftop. (I don’t know why you can even fall off; there’s a lot of invisible walls around to keep you on track. Maybe they have later plans for those street areas.)

Most of it is straightforward, but there are a couple of places where you might get stuck, until you realize you can grab some moving objects by holding down the Interact button. Once you know that you shouldn’t have much trouble. You’ll know the demo is over because you’ll get a screen of credits.

Please give Blob the Klex a try! And enjoy a few screenshots:

Blob the Klex Demo (itch.io, $0)

Indie Showcase for 9/17/2024

The weekly indie showcases look at a variety of indie games that were submitted and I’m always looking for more games to check out.

00:00 Intro
00:15 Power of Ten
2:04 Welcome to Empyreum
3:28 Alien Slayers
4:44 Rainworld/Rainworld Downpour DLC
6:50 We are the Caretakers
9:08 Mahokenshi

Weird Balatro Deck Peeking Trick Discovered

A trick was discovered a scant few days ago in Balatro that will outright tell you what the top card on your deck is, it’s been in the game since the original demo release, and its an intentional inclusion by the game’s creator.

One of the many Jokers you can obtain in the game is Misprint. (See right) Misprint’s function is to add a random number from 0 to 23 to the hand’s “Mult,” the chip value it’ll earn. It displays this, amusingly, as glitched description text that changes, and occasionally displays random, apparently garbled text.

Well as it turns out, it’s not random text at all. It’s a code that tells you what the card on top of your deck is! It’s the rank of the card (2-14 for its rank) and its suit (H for Hearts, etc.)!

Misprint on the Collection page
The trick in action — the next card is a 10 of Hearts!

Balatro is unusually devoid of other deck-peeking abilities. While there’s abilities that affect chips, Mult, Mult-multipliers, money, Tarot cards, Spectral cards and lots more, and you can at any time review what possible cards might be waiting in your deck, nothing will absolutely tell you what’s waiting for your next hand. And you don’t even have to have this Joker in play to use it, which is good, because it’s not great in many circumstances. If you go to the card’s spot in the Collection (provided it’s been gained at least once) and look at its description there, it still works! It’s been noted that it’ll even reveal the hidden identity of Stone Cards, which have their original values obscured by a layer of rock.

How does this affect the game? Well I’m going to go out on a limb and say, not as much as you’d think? It only reveals one card, and doesn’t say anything about its Enhancement, Edition or Seal. If you have more than one of a card, it’ll just tell you its rank and suit. That can still be used to deduce other properties of a card (if your only Red-Sealed Glass card is a 7 of Hearts, it’s a giveaway if Misprint reports a 7H) but it’ll require some setup, which is like nearly every other aspect of the game. It does slightly help you make specific hands, but even the best games of Balatro eventually run afoul of its ruthless ante scaling.

Every Set Side B post needs a link to a Youtube video, right? Here’s a breathless two minute one from BelenosBear explaining the trick:

Of particular note, Balatro University says they’ve known about this all along (18 seconds):

Sundry Sunday: Crash Bandicoot Carnival Japan-only Cutscenes

Sundry Sunday is our weekly feature of fun gaming culture finds and videos, from across the years and even decades.

Crash Bash was Crash Bandicoot’s attempt to move into the Mario Party genre of minigame compilations. It was the first Crash game to be made by someone other than Naughty Dog, and the last to be released exclusively for Sony platforms. In Japan, the game was known as Crash Bandicoot Carnival. All of this comes from the Wikipedia page.

Japanese Crash, from “Bandipedia“

Now we venture into weirder waters. For Crash had a weird ad campaign in Japan. In Japan, Crash had a slightly different character design, with rounder eyes and five fingers on his hands. (The Japanese market has a weird thing about four fingered hands.) And also, he had an extremely catchy theme song and associated dance, which which the series seems to have became associated. We linked to that song here before, almost exactly two years ago!

The theme song music video seems to have been an unlockable in some version of Crash Bandicoot or its sequels. CBC had some other little videos included, including live-action bits with a lady and someone in a Crash mascot costume. It seems to be a retrospective of the previous Crash games, including kart racers and a little handheld device virtual pet that I don’t know the name of, but they were missing something if they didn’t call it a Crashigatchi. You also get to hear the lady say “Arabian Nigh-toooo!” free of context.

They total sixteen minutes in all, and they’re this week’s offering for Sundry Sunday. Enjoy them, won’t you? Thank you. Crash Bandicoooot, Crash Bandicoo-OOoot! Crashi-bandi-bandicoot!

Have an extra, hidden cutscenes from the Japanese version of Crash Bandicoot 3 (13 minutes)!

Annapurna Interactive’s Entire Staff Resigns

“We scour the Earth web for indie, retro, and niche gaming news so you don’t have to, drebnar!” – your faithful reporter

It’s been a while since I, your favorite amorphous neon-green alien, have presented my whimsical take on Earth gaming news. I’ve mostly settled into an editorial role, consuming, digesting and excreting the work of others in an un-credited and, I assure you, sanitary capacity. This, as opposed to doing so for the news posts of other websites, which was time consuming, space filling, and of dubious interest to readers. I’m a humble amoeboid and can admit when something isn’t working.

But this story, from PC Gamer but no doubt from plenty of others too, is huge! Everyone at popular and prolific publisher Annapurna Interactive walked out! They released tons of games! They published Kentucky Route Zero! They published Stray! And Donut County, Outer Wilds and Wattam! And a lot of other games too!

Annapurna Interactive publishes adorable and somewhat upsetting animal imperiling adventure game Stray.

The surface reason is dismay over abandoned plans by owner Megan Ellison to spin their company off from owners Annapurna Pictures. If there’s some deeper reason, I wouldn’t have any way to speculate. Annapurna Interactive was highly successful, president Nathan Gary was promoted from it to head their movie-making parent, and screenplays based on their games are in production, including an animated movie based on Stray.

I’m sure there’s some deep story there behind literally everyone leaving the company. I’d presume the Pictures parent not wanting to lose access to such a useful source of projects, but the employees feeling betrayed by that? I can only speculate, in a way that gets more irresponsible the further I go, so I’m going to stop. Annapurna Interactive had a good, consistent track record of hits, and didn’t seem to alienate the studios publishing through them. That counts for a lot, from a publisher.

Keita Takahashi’s current project To A T

The walkout leaves a number of games currently in production in a state of ๐™ฟ๐š„๐™ฑ๐™ป๐™ธ๐š‚๐™ท๐™ธ๐™ฝ๐™ถ ๐™ป๐™ธ๐™ผ๐™ฑ๐™พ, including always-delightful Keita Takahashi’s upcoming To A T. Let’s hope everything works out for all involved.

The Chances of Unlikely Layouts in Minesweeper

I’ve saved this one up for a while. For those of you who remember when Minesweeper was distributed — for free?? — with every copy of Microsoft Windows. What are the odds that unlikely layouts, like 8s, or neighboring 7s, are possible in that game? Alternatively, is it possible to get a game that can be completed in one move? Find out here (16 minutes):

Gamefinds: World of Goo Demake for Pico8

We love it when we find weird and unique indie games to tell you all about! Our alien friends to the left herald these occasions.

It’s continually amazing what people manage to make within the modest resources of the Pico8 fantasy console virtual machine. This time it’s a decent demake of 2DBOY’s World of Goo, by VirtuaVirtue!

The objective is the same as the original: drag goo balls to build structures, to try to reach the pipe, which will then suck away all the excess goo balls on your construction. If you have enough left over, you win and get to move to the next level.

It’s quite challenging, it gets harder much faster than the original game. The physics of the goo constructions is much wobblier and bouncier than WoG, and goo balls don’t stick to walls here, so you’ll have to spend more goo balls on balances and counterweights. But it’s certainly not a bad thing to play around with for free!

World of Goo Demake for Pico8 (itch.io, $0)

Spelunky 64

The thing about Spelunky 64, a reimplementation of Spelunky on the Commodore 64, that gets me is how smooth the scrolling is. Smooth multi-directional scrolling isn’t easy to do on the C64 without hardware assistance, but here it handles it without apparent problem. Here is a 7-minute demonstration from Just Jamie:

It’s not the only obstacle Paul Koller (PaulKo64) had in making this surprisingly faithful recreation. It contents itself with the basic Atari-style joystick, with a single overloaded button. So up is used for jumping, tapping the button attacks, holding the button uses an item, down+button takes out a bomb, and up+button places a rope. It’s not perfect, and you have to be really careful in shops, but it doesn’t work badly.

BastichB 64K has an interview with its developer on Youtube (7 1/2 minutes):

Here is a complete playthrough (28 minutes):

Spelunky 64 is on itch.io for $3. To play it, you’ll need a Commodore 64 emulator, or a physical C64 and a way to get the game image onto a disk.

Balatro University’s Beginner’s Guide to Extremely High Scores

It’s a long one today folks. To mark the release of the mobile version of poker-based time sink Balatro, let’s sit back, for two hours and 42 minutes, and watch Balatro University plot their way through the first eight antes of a game:

The video says it’s part 1 of 2, and ends after the nominal win, but the game doesn’t end there. If you want to watch the rest of the game, it’ll take another two hours and 27 minutes of your time, to get to Ante 18.

Irrelevant note in passing: the Youtube ID for this video contains four consecutive lowercase ‘u’s.

High-level Balatro is a game of extremely big numbers, and Ante 18’s requirements are along the lines of 5.53130, which in regular notation is 5,531,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Be still my beating heart! If you just want to jump to where the game starts to get insane, try this link to a moment a little into that video.

So if you don’t want to watch five hours of video but still wan to know something of what’s going on? First off they use a lot of Purple Seals. Every time a Purple Seal card is discarded you receive a random consumable Tarot card. Tarot cards have a bunch of uses. Two of them give you money, but most of them give you some way to modify your deck. Particularly, Strength lets you increase the rank of two cards, Hanged Man lets you destroy two cards, and Death lets you turn one card into a copy of a different one.

With enough Tarot cards you can perform potent crimes against power, like turning your entire deck into a single type of card! That not only makes some poker hands, like Four of a Kind, or the secret hand Flush Five, really easy to make, but it lets you exploit certain Jokers that operate on a different card each round. These Jokers always pick one of the cards in your deck at random, but if you only have one type of card, they have to pick that one!

The most valuable kind of Joker for the long haul is one that gives you multiple Mult Multipliers, and to retrigger those multipliers. A Glass card multiplies your Mult by 2; a Glass card with a Red Seal multiplies it by 2 twice; other Jokers that retrigger cards multiply it by 2 more times.

It sounds fairly simple written out here, but setting up this system is where the skill lies. While I observe that the real game of Balatro isn’t merely in performing these ludicrous offenses to mathematics, but in figuring our how to do them, watching a really high-level player smash through its strictures and rules might give you some ideas for improving your own game, even if you don’t follow Balatro University’s techniques exactly.

Sundry Sunday: Eggpo, in Joyride

Here’s the fourth installment of the Eggpo sequence, made by Homestar Runner creators The Brothers Chaps for Disney. In this one, the goombesque duo try out one of the powerups that’s usually reserved for the good guy character. It’s 1 1/2 minutes:

Eggpo is part of their series Two More Eggs, which has a number of other chuckle-worthy bits that don’t so obviously fit in our purview. Two More Eggs was around for only a bit over a year, but in that time we got a number of fun new characters that, due to ownership by the Mouse, will probably never have new installments ever again. So, all of Dooble, Hector and Kovich, CG Pals, Panda Bractice, Hot Dip and others that exist now, will probably be all that will ever exist, unless the copyright regime were to suddenly become much less draconian. I’ve beaten this drum since the early days of the internet. I will never stop beating it, until I stop entirely.