Pannenkoek2012

Scott Buchanan,known online asPannenkoek2012,pannenkoek2012,pannenkoekorpannen(/ˈpænɪnkoʊək/PAN-in-koh-ək),is aYouTubepersonalitywho specializes in highly in-depth and technicalSuper Mario 64videos. He is best known for his "A-button challenge" videos, in which he attempts to playSuper Mario 64while pressing the A-button as few times as possible. The A-button is the "jump" button, and a normal playthrough ofSuper Mario 64can be expected to take thousands of A-presses.
In 2014, he received media attention for collecting a particular coin which, due to abug, had been thought to be uncollectable.In 2015, he offered aUS$1,000 bounty to anyone who could recreate a rare but usefulSuper Mario 64glitch called an "upwarp" that was accidentally performed by DOTA_TeaBag.As of 2024, the bounty has not been claimed. One theory is that the upwarp was caused by a one-offbit flipcaused by a cosmic ray, although this is not universally agreed upon.
As a kid,Super Mario 64was the firstvideo gamepannenkoek2012 ever played.In 2013, while still in college, he started uploadingSuper Mario 64videos to YouTube.These videos showcased his attempts to complete all ofSuper Mario 64without pressing theA button(the jump button,Mario'sprimary ability), making use of environmental hazards and various glitches instead.These alternative strategies are often only possible withtool assistance.
Pannenkoek has produced many in-depth YouTube videos deconstructing the mechanics ofSuper Mario 64, which have been described as esoteric "programming lessons".In one video, pannenkoek explains how a player can manipulate therandom number generatorofSuper Mario 64by kicking up dust in a certain way. Despite the highly arcane nature of these videos, videos on pannenkoek's main channel regularly get hundreds of thousands of views.
He also runs a second channel, UncommentatedPannen, where he uploads raw footage without commentary. He does not upload videos to his main channel if they fail to meet his standards of quality.
The bulk of pannenkoek2012's videos are about the "A button challenge" (ABC), a self-imposed challenge whose ultimate goal is to completeSuper Mario 64while pressing the A button as little as possible.In regular gameplay, the A-button makes Mario jump; this is one of the fundamental game mechanics ofSuper Mario 64, aplatformerwhose gameplay has been described as "all about jumping".It is possible to jump without the A-button in very rare, but often useless circumstances.In one video, pannenkoek shows that it is possible to collect the star in the level "Mario Wings to the Sky" without pressing the A button at all. To do this, pannenkoek uses glitches that enable him to "clone" a large amount ofGoombasto form a ladder. This took two years of planning, and the video took 55 hours to make.
On January 12, 2016, pannenkoek uploaded a commentated video in which he explains how to complete the level "Watch for Rolling Rocks" in "half an A-press".His strategy originally took 14.8 hours from start to finish,most of which were spent using a glitch to accelerate Mario to the high speeds necessary for "parallel universe" movement.This was reduced to 5.4 hours in 2017.The video became popular and was widely spoofed online for its incredibly obtuse and technical content, especially pannenkoek's "half A-press" notation (meaning that he began the level with the A button already held down) and his use of parallel universes (acollisionglitch caused byinteger overflow).
On October 1, 2023, pannenkoek uploaded an updated video of Watch for Rolling Rocks in 0 A pressesusing a technique named "Mario's Platform Adventure" documented by Thadortin only a week prior.This strategy also saved time over the previous Watch for Rolling Rocks ABC run in 1:49:16.77 by Marbler from 10 days earlier.In August 2013, when pannenkoek began working on the A button challenge, over 200 A-presses were required to completeSuper Mario 64.As of October 2023, a 120-star playthrough ofSuper Mario 64can be completed in as few as 13 A-presses.A 70-star ABC (70ABC) or 98-star max% run can be completed in 0 A presses, but only on the WiiVirtual Consoleversions of the game, due to a version-exclusive floating-point rounding error in which certain moving platforms in Bowser in the Fire Sea rise slowly over time, which can be used to save an A press.A 70ABC run has also been completed withouttool assistanceby a runner named Marbler.
In June 2014, pannenkoek collected what was known as "the impossible coin", anitemhidden in the level "Tiny-Huge Island", which was originally considered impossible to reach. The coin was discovered in 2002 by aGameFAQsmessage board user named Josiah.Likely due to an oversight by the game's developers, the coin was placed underneath the ground. Pannenkoek managed to collect it usingtool assistanceby jumping and kicking on a singleframewhile moving out of water. He noted that it should be possible to collect the coin without tool assistance, but he added that doing so would be very difficult and require a lot of practice.
In theSuper Mario 64level "Bowser in the Sky", pannenkoek discovered a misplacedGoombalocated at the bottom of the level, which he dubbed the "mystery Goomba". Since Goombas drop a coin once killed, and the enemy currently seems to be impossible to kill, he called the mystery Goomba's coin the "new" impossible coin.In October 2016, pannenkoek discovered another impossible coin in "Tiny-Huge Island".
In September 2013,TwitchstreamerDOTA_TeaBag encountered aglitchin theSuper Mario 64level "Tick Tock Clock" in which Mario suddenly teleports upwards. In 2015, this "upwarp" caught pannenkoek2012's attention, as replicating the glitch could allow players to skip large sections of the game or reduce the required number of A-presses. Pannenkoek offered aUS$1,000 prize to anyone who could recreate the upwarp glitch without modifying the game.
The bounty has not been claimed. However, the glitch's effect can be replicated by modifying the game and flipping a singlebitof memory. Since no legitimate method for flipping this bit has been found, it has been speculated that, in DOTA_TeaBag's case, astray cosmic ray caused the bit to change. This would mean that it is very unlikely for the glitch to occur again naturally.
Pannenkoek started working on a video detailing the workings ofSuper Mario 64'sgeometryin summer 2016. He eventually finished this video in May 2017, releasing it under the title "Walls, Floors, & Ceilings". The video details how Mario's movement is measured in the game―it varies depending on whether Mario is located on the ground, in the air, or in water―and how the character interacts with thehitboxesof objects along the way. Pannenkoek noted that he considers the information in this video "extremely important", as he has been using this information to help him execute or dismiss strategies for years.Gamasutradescribed this video as a "passionate delve into the most granular details of level design".Since then, pannenkoek has released two more "Walls, Floors, & Ceilings" videos.
In March 2019, pannenkoek uploaded a number of "no joystick allowed" videos in which he completes levels inSuper Mario 64without using the controller'sanalog stick, which is ordinarily how the player moves Mario.
On April 13, 2024, pannenkoek uploaded a video titled "SM64's Invisible Walls Explained Once and for All" in which he explains the many causes and locations of invisible wall-like phenomena inSuper Mario 64's stages. With a runtime of just over three hours and forty-five minutes, it is the longest video on the pannenkoek2012 YouTube channel, and as of December 8, 2024, has received 6.6 million views making it the most viewed video on the channel.