0.5x A Presses / But First We Need to Talk About Parallel Universes

About

“SM64 – Watch for Rolling Rocks – 0.5x A Presses” is a video uploaded by the Super Mario 64 glitch exploiter pannenkoek2012, where he obtains one of the game’s stars through tool-assisted superplay (TAS). After the narrated version of the video was released, it went viral on 4chan‘s video game board /v/ due to the complex nature of its analysis, as well as the narrator’s peculiar wordings and phrasings, most notably “But First, We Need to Talk About Parallel Universes”.

Origin

On January 12th, 2016, the original gameplay was uploaded, featuring pannenkoek2012 using a Tool Assisted Software to obtain the star “Watch for Rolling Rocks” from the level Hazy Maze Cave using “half” of a press of the A button (by keeping it pressed from before Mario enters the level). The video gained over 13,000 views in the following week (shown below, left). The same day, a narrated version was released, explaining in detail the exploits used in the run. The most notable of these exploits was the use of “parallel universes”, faraway places where the game thinks Mario is standing in the level when he isn’t, which can be accessed with enough momentum. The narrated version gained over 200,000 views in the following week.

Spread

The same day as its release, the video was posted on /v/, where some users quickly picked up the parallel universes quote.^[1] Though other threads about it were created,^[4] the catchphrase didn’t catch on until a thread from January 17th, when it was featured along a distorted image of Mario’s head.^[3] Prior to being archived, the thread gained over 500 replies.

Soon after, more threads were created on 4chan, flooding the board with jokes related to the video (shown bellow, left).^[2] On January 18th, YouTuber João Mostarda uploaded a voice remix of the video titled “‘Henry’ builds speed for over 12 hours in order to cross the extent of QPUs to shitpost on Youtube”; this remix gained over 2,000 views in less than a day. In late January 2015, the video also got viral on Tumblr.^[6]^[7]

Related Memes and In-Jokes

Scuttlebug

In the video, pannenkoek2012 uses a Scuttlebug (spider-like enemy) to reach the star, first attracting it in order to place it into the correct spot. Due this, Scuttlebug has gained some fan following.

Build Up Speed for Twelve Hours

One of the most notable parts of the video is when pannenkoek2012 builds up Mario’s speed over the course of 12 hours in order to be able to travel the parallel universes and reach the star. Due the absurd amount of time employed to gain speed, it has become a notable joke.

Misaligned QPUs

Quadruple Parallel Universes (QPU) is a term used by pannenkoek2012 in the video to describe the set of four PU that are needed to actually travel to a parallel universe (as the engine checks the hitboxes for errors 4 times during a movement). If Mario ends up out of bounds before he goes the full distance, the game cuts his movement short, aligning him incorrectly between QPUs. “Misalignments” make it much more difficult to return to the original level, putting Mario into a limbo of sorts. Because of this, the term has become an in-joke describing something negative, frightening, or frustrating.

TJ “Henry” Yoshi

TJ “Henry” Yoshi is a YouTube user who appeared in the video, questioning in a comment how the “A” button could be pressed a half time. His likeness has been used in the threads as a sort of archnemesis to Pannenkoek. Henry would later go on to do an AMA session on /v/.^[5]

TJ Yoshi’s YouTube channel has seen an influx of spamming in the comments of his videos, with remarks pertaining to the original video. On January 18th, he uploaded a video in reference to those comments.