research-article

Classic Nintendo games are (computationally) hard

Authors:

Erik D. Demaine,

Giovanni VigliettaAuthors Info & Claims

Theoretical Computer Science, Volume 586, Issue C

Pages 135 - 160

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2015.02.037

Published: 27 June 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We prove NP-hardness results for five of Nintendo's largest video game franchises: Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokémon. Our results apply to generalized versions of Super Mario Bros. 1-3, The Lost Levels, and Super Mario World; Donkey Kong Country 1-3; all Legend of Zelda games; all Metroid games; and all Pokémon role-playing games. In addition, we prove PSPACE-completeness of the Donkey Kong Country games and several Legend of Zelda games.

References

[1]

Graham Cormode, The hardness of the Lemmings game, or Oh no, more NP-completeness proofs, in: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, May 2004, pp. 65-76.

[2]

Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Joseph O'Rourke, PushPush and Push-1 are NP-hard in 2D, in: Proceedings of the 12th Annual Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, August 2000, pp. 211-219.

[3]

Erik D. Demaine, Michael Hoffmann, Markus Holzer, PushPush-k is PSPACE-complete, in: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, May 2004, pp. 159-170.

[4]

Michal Forišek, Computational complexity of two-dimensional platform games, in: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, June 2010, pp. 214-226.

Digital Library

[5]

Giovanni Viglietta, Gaming is a hard job, but someone has to do it!, Theory Comput. Syst., 54 (2014) 595-621.

Digital Library

[6]

Giovanni Viglietta, Lemmings is PSPACE-complete, in: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, July 2014, pp. 340-351.

[7]

. http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario_Bros

[8]

. http://donkeykong.wikia.com/wiki/Donkey_Kong_Country

[9]

. http://www.zeldawiki.org/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(Game)

[10]

. http://www.zeldawiki.org/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_A_Link_to_the_Past

[11]

. http://www.metroidwiki.org/wiki/Metroid_(game)

[12]

. http://spriters-resource.com/

[13]

. http://www.videogamesprites.net/

[14]

. http://www.nesmaps.com/

[15]

. http://www.snesmaps.com/

[16]

Masterjun, SNES Super Mario World (USA) "glitched" in 02:36.4, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syo5sI-iOgY

Cited By

Zhou HAyesh TFan CSarsenbayeva ZWithana A(2024)CoplayingVR: Understanding User Experience in Shared Control in Virtual RealityProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36785088:3(1-25)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678508
Zhou HSomarathne PPeirispulle TFan CSarsenbayeva ZWithana A(2024)PairPlayVR: Shared Hand Control for Virtual GamesProceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference 202410.1145/3652920.3653057(311-314)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652920.3653057
Pfau JCharan MKleinman ESeif El-Nasr M(2024)Damage Optimization in Video Games: A Player-Driven Co-Creative ApproachProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642643(1-16)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642643

Classic Nintendo games are (computationally) hard

Recommendations

The interplay between immersion and appeal in video games

A 2í 2 study on immersion and appeal of video games is presented.Immersion and appeal are found to be highly related.Immersion is found to be unaffected by playing experience.Appeal is found to be affected both by game played and playing experience. ...
Classic Video Games: The Golden Age, 1971-1984
Heuristics for Video Games Evaluation: How Players Rate Their Relevance for Different Game Genres According to Their Experience
IHM '13: Proceedings of the 25th Conference on l'Interaction Homme-Machine

This paper reports a study evaluating the relative relevance of evaluation heuristics for different game genres and players. 120 players (amateur or e-Sport players) were invited to assess the relevance of 47 heuristics for different game genre (Real ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Theoretical Computer Science

Theoretical Computer Science Volume 586, Issue C

June 2015

175 pages

ISSN:0304-3975

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © Elsevier B.V.

Publisher

Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd.

United Kingdom

Publication History

Published: 27 June 2015

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

3
Total Citations
View Citations
0
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)0
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0

Reflects downloads up to 10 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Zhou HAyesh TFan CSarsenbayeva ZWithana A(2024)CoplayingVR: Understanding User Experience in Shared Control in Virtual RealityProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/36785088:3(1-25)Online publication date: 9-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3678508
Zhou HSomarathne PPeirispulle TFan CSarsenbayeva ZWithana A(2024)PairPlayVR: Shared Hand Control for Virtual GamesProceedings of the Augmented Humans International Conference 202410.1145/3652920.3653057(311-314)Online publication date: 4-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3652920.3653057
Pfau JCharan MKleinman ESeif El-Nasr M(2024)Damage Optimization in Video Games: A Player-Driven Co-Creative ApproachProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642643(1-16)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642643

View Options

View options

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents