u/iamaquantumcomputerin r/compsci • Recommends
How a computer learns to play super mario using neural networks
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#neat#neuroevolution#supermarioworld
MarI/O - Machine Learning for Video Games
SethBling
1.9M subscribers • 5 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 12 people: 10 on Hacker News, 1 on Lobsters and 1 in engineering communities.
- A classic. People kept recommending it from 2015 to 2025.
- May be out of date. Uploaded 11 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
11M views11 years ago12 recommendations
AI and machine learningClassic machine learningAlgorithms
SethBling demonstrates MarI/O, a program that uses neural networks and genetic algorithms to learn how to play Super Mario World.
MarI/O is a program made of neural networks and genetic algorithms that kicks butt at Super Mario World. Source Code: gist.github.com/SethBling/598639f8d5e8afb5453a0b9519be51ff "NEAT" Paper: nn.cs.utexas.edu/downloads/papers/stanley.ec02.pdf Some relevant Wikipedia links: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroevolution en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network BizHawk Emulator: tasvideos.org/BizHawk.html SethBling Twitter: twitter.com/sethbling SethBling Twitch: twitch.tv/sethbling SethBling Facebook: facebook.com/sethbling SethBling Website: sethbling.com SethBling Shirts: sethbling.spreadshirt.com Suggest Ideas: reddit.com/r/SethBlingSuggestions Music at the end is Cipher by Kevin MacLeodWhy it's here
12 people recommend thisWhat people say. Recommended as a classic, highly accessible introduction to neuroevolution and the NEAT algorithm.
deepneton Hacker News • Recommends
On “The differences between tinkering and research (2016)”
OP, Togelius, is quite wrong in 1 point at least. tl;dr Seth Bling directly references NEAT and his linksShow More [1] link to 2 Togelius papers1314 among many others ! To wit, in OP, Togelius mentions Seth Bling's MarI/O1 as lacking scholarship because he didn't mention Togelius: " seen as research, it is atrocious because of the complete lack of scholarship. The guy didn't even know he was reinventing the wheel, and didn't care to look it up. " Rather disdaignfully (sadly/ ironically/ poigniantly) Togelius refers to Seth not by name but only as " some guy ". Yet Seth Bling2 in his short video, mentions and explains NEAT and directly links Ken Stanley's and Risto Miikkulainen's fo…
dberston Hacker News • Recommends
On “Synchronizing Pong to music with constrained optimization”
…actively maintained 1. It's been a few years, but I remember being able to get it up and running in a day or two (maybe a weekend). It used the Retroarch emulator, which is compatible with a huge number of emulators and consoles. link There also SethBling's excellent video on YouTube about machine learning specifically with Super Mario World: link to this video I encourage you to give it a try! I feel that video games are a bit underrated by current AI buzz, I think there's lots of potential for a machine to learn a skill through playing a game. And lots of potential for a game being selected or even created with the goal of teaching a specific skill. However at that point maybe it's better to for…
andaion Hacker News • Recommends
On “Self-Adapting Language Models”
Here is my favorite introduction to NEAT: SethBling's MarI/O - Machine Learning for Video Games link to this video
pdkl95on Hacker News • Recommends
On “Hacking Super Mario World to Warp to the Credits [video]”
…rly insane. As a side note sethbling's latest project is teaching2 (using neuro-evolution) his machine learning bot to play SMW2, SMB13, and Mario Kart (original)4. While he machine learning is simple by today's standards, his brief videos give a really nice introduction to the topic that should be accessible to most people. 1 link 2 link to this video 3 link 4 link…
slpsyson Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: What are some examples of beautiful software?”
There is an objective, but it may not be exactly as you reason about it. There's a great video that made the rounds last year about building a neural net that plays Super Mario World, that may help visualize what's going on - link to this video There's also a great snippet in the currently-ongoing AlphaGo videos that explains that when AlphaGo plays in ways that you may not expect, it's because it's strictly worried about _winning_ (even by the slimmest margin) with the greatest probability, and not necessarily by winning handily, like a human might.
notgoodon Hacker News • Recommends
On “NeuroEvolution – Flappy Bird”
You mean this script? Or machine learning in general? If the later then it has already been done: link to this video (great educational video)
new299on Hacker News • Recommends
On “Whence your reward function?”
This video of a Super Mario playing AI was pretty neat: link to this video It may, or may not be on a useful path to solving harder AI problems. I don't know. But it's a good way of demonstrating value (and publishing papers).
intunderflowon Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: Which algorithms based on biological ideas do you know?”
Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies is a classic genetic algorithm, as a teenager it was my first genetic algorithm I implemented after watching a Youtube video of an implementation of it - link to this video
circuit10on Hacker News • Recommends
On “The future of generative AI is niche, not generalized”
…an brain doesn’t use maths, what does it use? It’s Magic? > "training", more accurately described as references Uh, no, that's not at all how the training process works. The training process very roughly mirrors evolution/natural selection except more more direct and faster. This is a good introduction to the concept of how a computer could learn: link to this video This is a more technical look at how exactly it works in more modern AIs: link (it's a series) > If it encounters a problem it hasn't been programmed for, it cannot reason a new solution. But an LLM can? It's not as good at it as a human but it can Relevant: link (if you don’t want to click it it says “referring to AI models as "just ma…
cookiengineeron Hacker News • Recommends
On “Ask HN: Is genetic programming still actively researched?”
…iors due to safety regulations. There was a nice intro video into the underlying base concept which is called NEAT by a youtuber named SethBling 2 In my case I'm using this as a decentralized learning approach, because peer to peer networks can benefit heavily from genetic AIs that can communicate, adapt and learn from themselves. 1 link 2 link to this video…
u/aeshaynesin r/compsci • Mentions
On “Intro into Neural Networks?”
EDIT: this is the link for MarI/O for people who haven't seen it link to this video
nlon Hacker News • Mentions
On “FANN.js – Fast Artificial Neural Network Compiled with Emscripten”
…nd "C" code in The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks 3 is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The beginnings of work around goal-seeking. The (now Google) DeepMind Atari demo4 and Marl/O5 Finally, the work being done on making this stuff usable by programmers (Torch etc). 1 link 2 link 3 link 4 link 5 link to this video…
rawnlqon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Japan student held for making Puzzle and Dragons hack”
If someone did this in the US, can they get in trouble? When exactly does "hacking" a game become illegal? What about people doing it for research like the machine learning mario guy: link to this video . Or tool-assisted speedruns? Or the starcraft broodwar ai? Is it only when you breach the TOS or copyrights? Just curious since it never even occurred to me that such things are punishable.
halflingson Hacker News • Mentions
On “AI Programmer’s Bookshelf”
It's true that game AI is surprisingly under-developped compared to what you see in academia on other topics... but it is not always that basic. What you describe in your football example is often called "Behavior Tree", and there are ways to learn those using machine learning (usually by reinforcement learning, using neural networks and/or genetic programming). There was a popular video showing this applied on Mario 1 ... and a paper published 7 years before that video doing the same thing 2 (more context about this in 3). I remember seeing something on Gamasutra saying that similar methods are used in some AAA games. 1 link to this video 2 link 3 link