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Pannenkoek2012

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Full Name
  
Scott Buchanan

Years active
  
2010–

Pannenkoek2012 httpsiytimgcomvi5dInQEL6M4maxresdefaultjpg

Known for
  

Scott Buchanan (born c. 1994), better known under his username pannenkoek2012, is a Super Mario 64 analyst and YouTube personality. pannenkoek2012 is known for creating highly technical videos detailing the mechanics of Super Mario 64, in which he explains techniques he uses to beat levels of the game without using the jump mechanic. In 2014, he collected a coin until then thought unobtainable in the "Tiny-Huge Island" level. In 2015, he offered a $1,000 USD bounty for anyone who could recreate a certain glitch in Super Mario 64.

Contents

Super Mario 64 videos

Super Mario 64 was the first video game Buchanan played as a child. In 2013, before finishing college, Buchanan started uploading videos of reaching Super Mario 64 objectives without jumping on his pannenkoek2012 YouTube channel. Though Mario's primary skill is considered to be jumping from platform to platform, pannenkoek2012 attempted to clear the entirety of Super Mario 64 without pressing the A-button (which initiates a jump), by using the game's environmental hazards and Mario's running slide.

pannenkoek2012 has done a large amount of in-depth YouTube videos describing the mechanics of Super Mario 64, which Allegra Frank of Polygon describes as "programming lessons" both informative and inscrutable. In one video, pannenkoek2012 explains how a player can affect the random number generator of Super Mario 64 to make Bob-ombs blink or to determine the speed of coin drops. Despite the highly technical nature of these videos, he amasses tens of thousands of views on new pieces.

A-button challenge

Since August 2013, pannenkoek2012 had challenged himself to beat Super Mario 64 with as few A button presses as possible. This is significant since the A button triggers a jump, a maneuver which in Super Mario 64, as a platform game, is practically required. In one video, pannenkoek2012 shows to be able to collect the "Mario Wings To The Sky" objective without pressing the A-button by "cloning" a large amount of Goombas to form a ladder. This challenge took him two years of planning to achieve and the video took 55 hours to make. In a notable case on January 12, 2016, pannenkoek2012 uploaded a commentated video for the "Watch for Rolling Rocks" objective. Highlights in the video include his analysis of his "half A-press", his use of "parallel universes", his methods to manipulate the motions of the Scuttlebug enemy, and other methods not usually experienced in regular playthroughs to obtain the star with only 0.5 A-presses. It took him thirteen hours to complete the challenge. After its release, the video was critiqued and spoofed online. In response to the video, Nadia Oxford of USGamer noted that pannenkoek2012's work, as well as that of other high-level video game players, is of high value for scientists in various fields. She noted that pannenkoek2012's analyses of Super Mario 64's mechanics may be of interest to mathematicians and physicists, though Oxford stated that there may be sociological implications as well, since one could ask why a large group of people feels compelled to turn a video game inside-out and abuse its mechanics as pannenkoek2012 does.

Impossible coins

In June 2014, pannenkoek2012 collected what was known as "the impossible coin", an item hidden in the "Tiny-Huge Island" level of Super Mario 64 that was deemed impossible to reach. In 2002, the coin was discovered by a GameFAQs Super Mario 64 message board member named Josiah. The coin was likely placed underneath the ground by one of the game's developers by accident. Considered unobtainable, the coin was dubbed "the impossible coin": pannenkoek2012 managed to collect it using tool-assistance, by jumping and kicking on a single frame while moving out of water. pannenkoek2012 noted that it should be possible to collect the coin without tool-assistance, but doing so would be highly difficult and require a lot of practice.

In the Super Mario 64 level "Bowser in the Sky", pannenkoek2012 discovered a misplaced Goomba located at the bottom of the level, held by the enemy, which he dubbed "the Mystery Goomba". Since Goombas drop a coin once killed and the enemy currently seems impossible to kill, he called the Mystery Goomba's held coin the "new" impossible coin. In October 2016, pannenkoek2012 discovered another "impossible coin" in "Tiny-Huge Island". He claimed that the enlarged version of the course had a line of four coins, even though coin lines in the game always contain five. He showed that there was an invisible fifth coin that is stuck approximately 49 units below the ground.

Upwarp glitch

In August 2015, Twitch.tv streamer DOTA_TeaBag encountered a glitch in Super Mario 64 level "Tick Tock Clock", where Mario suddenly teleported upwards in the level. The "upwarp", as it is described, caught pannenkoek2012's attention, as the glitch may allow players to skip large sections of the game. If the high-level players could reliably recreate the upwarp, they could potentially shave off seconds during speedruns. pannenkoek2012 offered a $1,000 USD prize to anyone who could recreate the upwarp glitch and send gameplay data to him. As of March 2017, the bounty has not been successfully claimed.

References

Pannenkoek2012 Wikipedia