PangaeaPanga

PangaeaPanga
Born Alex Tan
(1996-03-18) March 18, 1996
Occupation Speedrunner, Livestreamer, student
Home town Rocky Hill, Connecticut, U.S.

Alex Tan (born March 18, 1996), better known under the screen name PangaeaPanga or formerly Penangbenny, is an American ROM hacker and tool-assisted speedrunner.[1] He created what are known as the most difficult Super Mario fan levels, and has also played through Super Mario World blindfolded.

Personal life

Tan was born on March 18, 1996.[2][3][4] He is from Rocky Hill, Connecticut and is a graduate of Rocky Hill High School, where he holds the school record for 800 meter and 1000 meter run. His fastest mile run is 4:23.13.[5][6] He is currently a student at the University of Connecticut School of Business studying management information systems and is a NCAA Division I cross country runner for the UConn Huskies.[6][7] He plays the piano and trumpet and has perfect pitch.[8]

Speedrunning career

PangaeaPanga was the world record holder for speedrunning Super Mario World in 2015, having beaten the game in 1 minute and 38 seconds using arbitrary code execution,[9] though this record has since been beaten.

PangaeaPanga started playing through Super Mario World while blindfolded on June 16, 2015, and completed a full run of the game this way eight days later.[1] He has stated that he got the idea from gamer DavisKongCountry, who played portions of the game blindfolded. To beat the game in this way, PangaeaPanga memorized a route that was "easy and consistent," using musical cues from the game to know when to carry out certain actions.[2] The run took 23 minutes, despite player character Mario dying a few times and getting lost.[10] After having his world record beaten on July 20, 2016, in a time of 17:46, he reclaimed the title a few days later on August 8, 2016 with a time of 15:59 using the Japanese release.[11][12]

In September 2015, YouTube removed the majority of PangaeaPanga's tool-assisted speedrun videos from his channel after a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim was made by Nintendo. PangaeaPanga described his YouTube channel as "wrecked" on Twitter and stated that he finds it a "shame" that content creators "are restricted to … Super Mario Maker instead of the way we have always done."[13][14]

Super Mario levels

Screenshot of "Item Abuse"

Through ROM hacking, PangaeaPanga has made various difficult levels for Super Mario World, the most famous of which is "Item Abuse 3." This level, which took three years to create and beat, has been consistently described as "the hardest Super Mario World level ever." The level is impossible to beat without making use of tool-assistance to allow individual frame button input. PangaeaPanga has declared that "Anyone who can complete this is pretty much mentally insane."[15][16]

In September 2015, 10 days after the American release of Super Mario Maker, PangaeaPanga uploaded "Pit of Panga: P-Break". The level, which took five hours to create, had to be beaten beforehand to be uploaded to Super Mario Maker's servers, as the game prevents players from uploading impossible levels. It took PangaeaPanga nine hours to beat the level, all of which he streamed on Twitch.[17][18] "P-Break" was a sequel to "Bomb Voyage," another difficult level PangaeaPanga created. It took the Super Mario Maker community a collective total of 11,000 tries before speedrunner Bananasaurus Rex beat this level.[19][20][21]

By the end of October 2015, "P-Break" was beaten 41 times. After stating that "in an ideal world, no more than 10 clears would satisfy me," PangaeaPanga went on to create the even more difficult "U-Break". PangaeaPanga influenced various other people to create unusually difficult Super Mario Maker levels.[22] In an interview, PangaeaPanga has stated that he never really tried to build easy levels, as he enjoys to "force players to take a single specific route," in contrast to the autonomy video games usually offer players. Furthermore, PangaeaPanga has noted that he aims to make levels "both fair and fun, without being too aggravating or difficult," for which he playtests his levels extensively.[19]

References

  1. 1 2 Reilly, Luke (2015-06-24). "Blindfolded Gamer Beats Super Mario World in 23 Minutes". IGN.
  2. 1 2 Landau, Joel (2015-06-29). "New England YouTuber explains how he beat Nintendo's Super Mario World video game while blindfolded". Daily News.
  3. ↑ AlexRiceTan (2015-03-13). "Boatright hitting that game winner is a great way to end a birthday." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-tan-8ba01ba0
  5. ↑ "PangaeaPanga". Speedrunning. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Men's Cross Country". UConn Huskies. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  7. ↑ http://www.twitch.tv/pangaeapanga
  8. ↑ Conyers, Matthew (February 6, 2014). "Rocky Hill Runner Tan All Tuned Up For Big Meet". Hartford Courant. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ "0 Exit in 1m 38s 700ms". Speedrun.com. 2015-03-22.
  10. ↑ Henne, B.G. (2015-06-26). "A Super Mario World speedrunner beat the whole game while blindfolded". The A.V. Club.
  11. ↑ "Super Mario World Blindfold Speed Run【17:46】目隠しマリオワールドRTA旧世界記録". "YouTube". 2016-07-20.
  12. ↑ "Super Mario World Blindfolded in 15:59 (World Record)". "YouTube". 2016-08-08.
  13. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (2015-09-09). "Creator of 'Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever' Says Copyright Crackdown Gutted His YouTube Channel". Kotaku.
  14. ↑ Parlock, Joe (2015-09-10). "Nintendo's cracking down on speedrunning and ROM hacking videos". Destructoid.
  15. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (2015-02-23). "It Took Three Years To Beat The 'Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever'". Kotaku.
  16. ↑ Wenz, John (2015-02-24). "Watch 8 Anxiety-Inducing Minutes of the Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever". Popular Mechanics.
  17. ↑ Tassi, Paul (2015-09-23). "Witness The Hardest 'Super Mario Maker' Level Ever Made". Forbes.
  18. ↑ Grant, Stacey (2015-09-23). "Only One Person In The Whole World Has Beaten This 'Super Mario Maker' Level — Its Creator". MTV News.
  19. 1 2 Hernandez, Patricia (2015-09-22). "The Creator Of The 'Hardest Super Mario World Level Ever' Is At It Again". Kotaku.
  20. ↑ grubb, Jeff (2015-09-21). "The 'a-hole' version of Super Mario World that's inspiring Mario Maker's hardest stages". VentureBeat.
  21. ↑ Plante, Chris (2015-09-21). "You could play the most difficult Super Mario Maker level, or you could just watch this video". The Verge.
  22. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (2015-10-29). "Mario Maker Players Are In An Arms Race To Make The Hardest Level Ever". Kotaku.
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