![]() ![]() Exploits like the one that powers the fastest Ocarina of Time speedruns trivialize the challenge normally associated with beating a game as fast as possible, but they also highlight the incredible technical expertise and community effort that goes into dissecting and analyzing beloved games. Ocarina of Time is one of the most iconic games ever made, and the robust, dedicated speedrunning community has allowed the game to thrive with new developments for decades after it was originally released. Emulators like Project64 help a lot, allowing runners and tool developers to go through how the game executes code step-by-step. Savestate explained that the Ocarina of Time community has developed tools to look at how memory is arranged in the game, as well as programs to simulate different memory arrangements. These exploits aren’t just randomly discovered, either. To get custom data into memory, we use a glitch that allows us to start adding and modifying stuff in memory with the help of TASBot while only interfacing with the N64 console through its controller ports.” ![]() Savestate continued: “There is no modification of the game cartridge. ![]() With that setup, the runners are able to add any code they want to the game just through controller inputs. In short, the Triforce% showcase is using ACE and SRM like a normal Ocarina of Time speedrun, but it’s specifically changing how the Nintendo 64 console understands instructions. The runners are able to add any code they want to the game just through controller inputs. This is called Stale Reference Manipulation, or SRM, and dannyb says the exploit is what cracked Ocarina of Time speedruns open in a major way. The goal in an Any% speedrun is to rearrange the memory to look at your character’s name instead of where it would typically look. In a game like Ocarina of Time, the game checks its memory for a certain requirement to be met in order to beat the game. That’s exactly the action that has allowed Ocarina of Time to be beaten so quickly. With the right actions, dannyb says players are able to “essentially run any code we like from within the game, and cause the game to do things it was not programmed to do.” These actions include things as seemingly useless as the name you enter when you start the game. That’s how dannyb, a speedrunner for Ocarina of Time who holds the second-place record in the Any% category, described ACE in Ocarina of Time: “Arbitrary Code Execution in OoT is an exploit whereby a player can use in-game actions to arrange a bunch of data in memory to mimic game code, and then manipulate the location where the game is looking to run code to be the place where we just did that arranging.” It’s a term thrown around in cybersecurity that basically means running code (or a program) that shouldn’t be run. Far from arbitrary Rob Tek/ShutterstockĪrbitrary Code Execution, or ACE, sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is. I reached out to two of the leading minds in the community to find out what makes the classic Nintendo 64 game tick, and it all comes down to one exploit: Arbitrary Code Execution. The Ocarina of Time speedrunning community has continued to break the game in seemingly impossible ways. And all of that was done on a stock copy of the game with no preprogramming. At Summer Games Done Quick 2022, a semiannual speedrunning marathon for charity, there was a showcase that highlighted a group of speedrunners reprogramming the game on the fly to display new graphics, play new music, and even run a Twitch chat overlay. Fitbit Versa 3Įven with being such a remarkable feat, that’s not all Ocarina of Time speedruns bring to the table. ![]()
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