Super Mario in the Pernicious Kingdoms: Classifying glitches in old games

TL;DR

This paper classifies 237 glitches across four classic Super Mario games using established defect taxonomies, identifying new game-specific weaknesses and providing insights into exploiting these glitches for speedrunning.

Contribution

It introduces a novel classification of game glitches using software defect taxonomies and uncovers seven new weaknesses specific to video games.

Findings

237 glitches analyzed across four games

Seven new game-specific weaknesses identified

Enhanced understanding of glitch exploitation in speedrunning

Abstract

In a case study spanning four classic Super Mario games and the analysis of 237 known glitches within them, we classify a variety of weaknesses that are exploited by speedrunners to enable them to beat games quickly and in surprising ways. Using the Seven Pernicious Kingdoms software defect taxonomy and the Common Weakness Enumeration, we categorize the glitches by the weaknesses that enable them. We identify 7 new weaknesses that appear specific to games and which are not covered by current software weakness taxonomies.