How Speedrunners Beat the Brawl Ocarina of Time Demo

Name: How Speedrunners Beat the Brawl Ocarina of Time Demo
Uploaded: 2021-09-10T16:00:02.000Z
Duration: 44 min 20 s

The Quest to Beat Ocarina of Time in Super Smash Brothers Brawl's Demo

Overview of the Brawl Demo

The demo for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is featured in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, a crossover fighting game on the Wii, showcasing characters like Mario, Link, and Pikachu.

Players have only five minutes to play the demo before being booted back to Brawl, which limits gameplay significantly.

Despite this limitation, speedrunners managed to defeat Ganon and reach the end credits within this short time frame through extensive research and creativity.

Unique Features of the Brawl Demo

The demo contains the entire game rather than just snippets, but it has a strict five-minute timer that starts upon loading.

Saving progress is ineffective; players cannot reload saved games after resetting or running out of time.

There are two pre-made save files: one as child Link starting in Kokiri Forest with basic items and another as adult Link in the Temple of Time.

Differences Between Demos

Notable differences exist between North American and Japanese demos regarding starting health, items, and obstacles (e.g., Mido blocking paths).

These pre-made files are crucial for completing the demo since they skip lengthy cutscenes that would otherwise hinder progress.

Early Attempts at Speedrunning

In January 2019, speedrunner ZFG experimented with glitches in the brawl demo but could not defeat Ganon at that time.

Interest was reignited on July 12, 2021, when Save State discussed potential strategies for beating ODC (Ocarina of Time).

Introduction to Stale Reference Manipulation (SRM)

A powerful glitch known as Stale Reference Manipulation (SRM), discovered by various glitch hunters, became central to achieving success in this challenge.

SRM allows manipulation such as editing treasure chest contents and performing arbitrary code execution by exploiting memory references linked to objects Link carries.

Mechanics Behind SRM

When Link carries an object, it maintains a reference point in memory. If that object is deleted without breaking its reference link, new data can be loaded into its place.

Heap manipulation occurs during loading transitions between scenes. By executing specific actions while crossing these transitions (like dropping bombs), players can control what loads into memory.

Ocarina of Time SRM Techniques in Brawl

Unloading Actors and Stale References

The actor must be unloaded while cold to prevent Link from picking it up due to data not being cleared. This can be achieved through techniques like super sliding or the walking while talking glitch.

When Link walks into a new room, he can load new items into memory at the stale reference's location, allowing for manipulation of position and rotation data.

Initial Attempts and Wrong Warp Setup

Save State spent significant time unlocking the Ocarina of Time demo in Brawl, testing ideas by quickly navigating to the Lost Woods after spawning in Temple of Time.

The setup involved catching a fish for heat manipulation and unloading a piece of grass to set up a Grotto SRM that would warp Link directly to Ganon's fight.

Challenges with Timing and Setup Efficiency

Despite successfully executing the wrong warp, the initial setup was too slow as catching the fish took too much time before facing Ganon.

Save State explored different setups using simulations developed by Mr. Cheese but faced bottlenecks that slowed down progress.

New Strategies and Lightnode SRM

After several failed attempts, focus shifted towards creating an any percent route using lightnode SRM, which modifies game RAM for arbitrary code execution.

Lightnode SRM was effective on GameCube but posed challenges in Brawl due to timing constraints when creating specific file names.

Advanced Techniques for Speedrunning

On August 8th, Mr. Cheese proposed a new method involving Child Link purchasing Deku nuts and manipulating loading planes for efficient wrong warps.

The technique required precise control stick positioning during loading plane crossings to modify RAM without needing unique file names.

Final Adjustments and Successful Execution

Dying upon entering Deku Tree allowed quitting back to title screen, resulting in a wrong warp that spawned Link as an adult with full inventory.

This setup proved fast enough to reach credits before being kicked out of Brawl; however, it required tight timing for successful execution.

Overcoming Challenges in Ocarina of Time Speedrunning

Initial Roadblocks and New Strategies

The initial setups worked in the emulator Mupin 64 Plus but failed in the Brawl demo due to an emulator limitation that did not uncache recompiled code, necessitating a return to brainstorming.

On August 17th, Mr. Cheese introduced a new Grotto SRM setup in the Lost Woods for warping to Ganon's fight, which was significantly faster than previous attempts.

Despite the promising setup, it became evident during a stream that there was still a slim margin for error when attempting to defeat Ganon within time constraints.

Innovative Techniques and Execution

A new plan involved using an adult Link to grab a fish from outside Goron City, which would be utilized for a draw function SRM after manipulating memory through heap manipulation.

The fish overlay is crucial as it allows writing rotation data of an actor into memory, enabling manipulation of cutscene values leading to credits upon voiding out.

Although no suitable entrances existed in Lost Woods for Save State's setup, using a grotto SRM could warp Link to an unused entrance and manipulate cutscene values effectively.

Final Attempts and Success

The presence of hostile Skull Kids posed challenges with dart spawning affecting timing; however, Link could perform a Hess maneuver to navigate quickly past them.

On August 21st, Save State executed their run successfully against Ganon in the Brawl demo after overcoming multiple obstacles.

Historic Achievement

Save State became the first person to beat Ocarina of Time within Super Smash Brothers Brawl after years of attempts by others who couldn't complete it due to time limits on demos.

This accomplishment gained significant online attention and is regarded as one of the coolest achievements in Ocarina of Time history despite earlier claims about defeating Ganon being misleading.

Refinements Leading to Victory

It was clarified that while reaching credits within five minutes was impossible during runs against Ganon, modifications made the route viable again with Mr. Cheese’s new SRM setup combined with Save State's angle adjustments.

On August 23rd, Save State tested this refined strategy under tight timing conditions estimated at around ten seconds leeway before any mistakes could jeopardize success.

Community Response and Future Prospects

Ocarina of Time Speedrunning Insights

Validity of Leaderboards and Categories

The runs discussed are not valid under main categories due to the use of pre-made save files instead of starting from scratch.

There is a mention of a categories extension page on speedrun.com, indicating that alternative categories may exist for specific types of gameplay.

A potential "Brawl Percent" meme category could be created, featuring subcategories like "Any Percent" and "Defeat Ganon."

Rich History and Contributions

Ocarina of Time is highlighted as having one of the richest histories in speedrunning, with extraordinary stories associated with it.