Ocarina of Time TAS by dwangoAC, TASBot, Savestate, Sauraen in 53:05 - Summer Games Done Quick 2022
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a stunning demonstration of arbitrary code execution in a console game and of what speedrunners effectively do as vulnerability researchers.
What it is
A tool-assisted speedrun of Ocarina of Time at Summer Games Done Quick 2022, using TASBot and arbitrary code execution to reach an alternate ending in about 53 minutes. The run is introduced by its creators and followed by an interview.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec prophesi · 2025-03 · on “Speedrunners are vulnerability researchers, they just don't know it yet”
I think if they're active in the speedrunning community, then they're already well aware of this! And for a fun additional example to add to this article, you can often find TAS'ers talking about arbitrary code execution. The legendary GDQ run of TASBot's alternate ending to OoT[0] utiziling an ACE exploit they found in that game absolutely blew me away. [0] [this video]
Recommends andrekandre · 2025-09 · on “Bad Apple but it's played inside Super Mario Bros”
they are most likely using a controller hooked up to a bot/laptop that exploits flaws in the code with inputs at high speed (much faster than a human could) that injects code into live games a good video that makes this tech more understandable (with explanations at the beginnimg and an amazing demo at the end) [this video] and some background [LINK]
Cites NobodyNada · 2022-10 · on “Beating Super Mario Bros 3 in 19 frames (2021)”
Some highlights/historically significant examples of this: Super Mario World (TAS, 2014): [LINK] Super Mario Bros. 3 (TAS, 2014): [LINK] - The same run performed RTA (i.e. by a human using a real controller) at AGDQ 2015: [LINK] Super Mario World (RTA, 2015): [LINK] Super Mario World "total control" (RTA, 2015): [LINK] Pokemon Yellow total control (TAS, 2017): [LINK] The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (RTA, 2019-ish?): [LINK] Ocarina of Time total control/"Triforce%" (TAS, 2022): [this video] (explanation: [LINK] )