[TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as the standard demonstration of arbitrary code execution on a Game Boy, and of glitches and bugs being turned into a working computer.
What it is
A tool-assisted speedrun of Pokemon Yellow by MrWint that uses arbitrary code execution to push Game Boy hardware to its limits. Through crafted inputs it injects code and ends up running other programs, such as Tetris, inside the game.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2020 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec stepupmakeup · 2022-08 · on “Tetsuji: Remote Code Execution on a GameBoy Colour 22 Years Later”
One of the crazier uses of ACE in Gameboy Pokemon games exploits is this "speedrun", by MrWint: [this video] ([TAS] Pokémon Yellow - Arbitrary Code Execution) I've timestamped the part where the actual exploit begins, after all of thesetup. It's worth mentioning that this isn't faked or edited in any way, and it's possible to download the input data and replicate on a emulator yourself.
Recommends alexb_ · 2022-02 · on “Accidentally Turing-Complete”
It mentions Pokemon Yellow, but really any code run isn't really "run in the game" more so that it uses bugs to hack together alternate instructions for the game boy to execute. Good example: [this video] (skip to 1:20 for craziness)
Recommends Dwedit · 2024-05 · on “Hackers discover how to reprogram NES Tetris from within the game”
Sometimes even after you've come up with the exploit, you can create something really beautiful for the console to run afterwards. Pokemon Yellow: [this video] Super Mario World: [LINK]
Recommends alex-moon · 2025-09 · on “Bad Apple but it's played inside Super Mario Bros”
There is an amazing video of a similar exploit in Pokémon Yellow where they basically run a bunch of different games: [this video]
Cites DougBTX · 2020-09 · on “Show HN: A SQL database implemented purely in TypeScript type annotations”
At the end of the day, if you look at a low enough level in the stack, there are no types. In a very concrete way, types are a high-level idea, and if the high-level stops matching the low-level, then bugs crop up. See for example Tetris implemented in Pokémon Yellow via runtime code injection: [this video] Their compiler missed that! So I think there's good reason to switch from talking about types as "assumptions", and think of them as compile time "assertions". Something lower-level in the stack could break the high-level code, but that doesn't make the high-level code useless, just imperfect.
Cites schroeding · 2022-07 · on “Games Done Quick “Ocarina of Time” beta showcase”
Arbitrary Code Execution TAS like Triforce% or this Pokemon Yellow one[1] are more or less demos that target both the console and the "host game". I would say even some non-ACE ones like this Brainage TAS[2] are demos :D [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]