Will a bot capable of completing Super Mario Bros. be created before the end of 2024?
7
88
170
2025
44%
chance

Super Mario Bros. for the NES is one of the best-known games of all time, and accordingly, it is a common example used to demonstrate basic game bot development techniques. Completing the early levels is a relatively simple task for Lua scripts and for reinforcement learning.

Given that, it's rather surprising that, as far as I know, there has not yet been a bot capable of completing the game in its entirety. The closest I've been able to find is a project called LuigI/O which used the NEAT algorithm for evolutionary generation of neural networks to solve each level individually. But as far as I can tell, LuigI/O produced a unique network for each level, and didn't attempt to have the final network play through the entire game in a single session.

It's entirely possible this has already happened, and my Google research just didn't turn it up. In which case I'll happily resolve the market to YES immediately. But, assuming it hasn't happened yet, will it happen by the end of 2024? Resolves YES if someone links to a credible demo of a bot completing the whole game (as further explained below), and NO otherwise.

Considerations:

  • The bot must play the whole game in a single session, starting from boot and ending with Mario (or Luigi) touching the axe at the end of 8-4, including the title screen and the noninteractive cutscenes between levels. The use of save states to start at the beginning of particular levels (as LuigI/O and most ML demos do) is not allowed.

  • The bot must play on an unmodified cartridge or ROM image.

  • There must be no human interaction with the bot throughout the game. It's fine if the bot self-modifies during the run (e.g. by adjusting weights in a neural net), but it can't have human assistance in loading the updates.

  • The interface between the bot and the game must introduce some amount of imprecision into the input, such as by implementing "sticky actions" as seen in the Arcade Learning Framework. This ensures that the bot is reacting to potentially unfamiliar situations as opposed to just memorizing a precise sequence of inputs.

  • It's fine if the bot has access to "hidden" information about the game state, e.g. by reading RAM values.

  • It's fine if the bot skips levels with warp zones (although a maximally impressive demo would complete the game warpless).

  • It's fine if the bot makes use of glitches (wall jumps, wall clips, etc.). Bonus points if it discovers glitches currently unknown to speedrunners.

  • The bot does not need to play in real-time; any amount of processing time between frames is okay.

  • I will not be betting in this market.

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Saw this paper linked from another market today: https://pathak22.github.io/large-scale-curiosity/

It does include probably the best attempt of SMB1 I've yet seen; their video starts at 1-1, takes a warp pipe to world 3, and reaches the Bowser fight at the end of 3-4.

Are there limitations on actions per minute for the bot? Does the ROM need to be emulated in real time?

@vluzko I don't think real-time play is too critical, so I'm fine with however long it takes to evaluate each frame. I'll update the description accordingly.