March 20th, 2010

Super Mario World AI

This is a little old but still really cool, so in case any of you haven’t seen or heard about the Super Mario AI contest let me get you up to speed. Basically, a few months ago IEEE held a contest to see who could create the best AI for Super Mario World. The rules were pretty simple. Levels would be programmatically created using a third party library. The program would poll the state of the game periodically and issue commands to Mario with the goal being to reach the end of the level. Recently the results came in, check out the winner’s bot:

YouTube Preview Image

Pretty awesome video, huh? I’d love to see the algorithm and level generating software used to create a screensaver!

Mario A* in Action

Mario A* in Action

What’s maybe most amazing is how simple the solution was to this problem. The winning algorithm was simply the A* algorithm! If you’re interested in reading more about it check out this interview with the author or click the above diagram for a more detailed picture.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did!

Found this post interesting? Consider sharing it:
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • del.icio.us
  • Twitter

comments

6 Responses to “Super Mario World AI”

  1. Gornova on December 1st, 2009

    really incredible! :D

  2. Bumhan on December 6th, 2009

    Holy cow! Can't take eyes off this! Incredible, indeed.

  3. aschearer on December 6th, 2009

    Pretty sweet right? Like I said I think someone needs to make this into a screensaver — way better than floating text! By the way really nice web site, you're an awesome graphic designer!

  4. Tweets that mention Super Mario World AI : Another Early Morning -- Topsy.com on December 6th, 2009

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ben and Geoff Gaudreault, Felix Turner. Felix Turner said: A* beats mario world – RT @BK4D: Super Mario World AI – http://shar.es/aIIth (via @away4m) [...]

  5. Bumhan on December 7th, 2009

    Holy cow! Can't take eyes off this! Incredible, indeed.

  6. aschearer on December 7th, 2009

    Pretty sweet right? Like I said I think someone needs to make this into a screensaver — way better than floating text! By the way really nice web site, you're an awesome graphic designer!

Leave a Reply