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Speedrunning, glitches & game hacking: videos Hacker News recommends
Speedrunning: tool-assisted speedruns, glitches, exploits, arbitrary code execution in games, game hacking, modding, reverse engineering games, Summoning Salt-style histories. Below: every video in this topic that at least three HN users linked with real commentary, in at least three different months (20 demos, 12 explainers, 7 talks), best-scored first, with the comments on each video page.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2016–2024P pannenkoek2012 · explainerHeld up as a legendary deep dive into game internals, explained lucidly and with humor, and a gateway to the channel.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2018–2025Praised as a brilliant, deadpan and inventive hardware hack, and a good starting point for Tom7's videos.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2015–2026The go-to accessible introduction to neuroevolution and NEAT, praised for crediting prior research.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2016–2025Constantly cited as the canonical example of arbitrary code execution through gameplay and of deep system knowledge among speedrunners.
- 7 HN recommenders 7 months 2022–2025K Kaze Emanuar · explainerHN loves the deep, hands-on look at N64 hardware quirks such as bus contention and the surprisingly large wins from low-hanging optimizations.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2023–2026P Power Pak · documentaryStrongly recommended as a gripping story and art piece worth watching even if you do not care about games.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2025HN recommends it as an engaging lesson in probability and in how statistics can expose cheating.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2025M MrWint · demoHN points to it as the standard demonstration of arbitrary code execution on a Game Boy, and of glitches and bugs being turned into a working computer.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2019–2025T TASVideosChannel · demoHN commenters rate it a great GDQ watch and point to its feats, such as streaming video and Skype through controller ports, as inspiring hacks.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2022Recommended as a well-researched rebuttal of the idea that Nintendo simply forgot an optimization flag.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2018U UncommentatedPannen · explainerPraised as an engrossing, in-depth look at SM64 mechanics that is surprisingly compelling to watch.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2018S Summoning Salt · documentaryHN recommends it as a gripping entry point into speedrunning and as a model of a well-made history video.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2021D debuglive · documentaryRecommended as an inspiring story of hardware reverse engineering and persistence.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2019–2022D Double Fine · demoRecommended as an entertaining, hilarious view of developers watching a speedrunner break their game.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2022Cited as a landmark of speedrunning, where a trick once limited to tool-assisted runs was pulled off live on hardware.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2024L Linkus7 · explainerHN recommends it as a rigorous, fun example of reverse engineering a game to predict and conquer its RNG.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2024Recommended as an approachable, detailed look at console hardware architecture, FreeBSD in the PS4 and console hacking.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2024B Bismuth · documentaryRecommended as a deep-dive rabbit hole showing extraordinary knowledge of game internals.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2013–2015C CosmoSpeedruns · demoHN commenters recommend it as a showcase of the deep reverse-engineering and glitch knowledge behind speedrunning, and cite it for the wrongwarp trick.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2017–2025E ExileLord · talkHeld up as a favorite tech talk and a great hard-debugging story about patching a game binary.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2022–2025G Games Done Quick · demoHN points to it as a stunning demonstration of arbitrary code execution in a console game and of what speedrunners effectively do as vulnerability researchers.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2022HN points to it as a fun, technically deep talk that makes memory-safety bugs vivid through a beloved game.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2026HN recommends it as the primary source on Sony's ECDSA nonce-reuse blunder and the history of console cracking.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2024G GameHut · explainerCited in anti-piracy discussions as a clear explanation of clever retro copy-protection tricks, though one commenter disputes a claim about Leander.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2023C Coding Secrets · explainerShared as a favorite game-development anecdote with a clear technical explanation.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2023F FitMC · commentaryCited as the original, accurate account of the Nocom exploit, a story of years of player tracking and impressive technical work.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2024–2026S Summoning Salt · documentaryHN recommends it as a thorough, well-researched history, and one commenter finds such videos more exhaustive than Wikipedia's sourced articles.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2025F Frieze · explainerHN people cite it as the clearest explanation of how the credits warp exploit works.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2013T TASVideosChannel · demoHN cites it as a showcase of memory-corruption exploits achievable using only normal controller inputs, often alongside other arbitrary-code-execution speedruns.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024S SalC1 · explainerHN points to it as a mind-blowing seed-cracking story related to other Minecraft RNG reversal work.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2011–20151 1KIND Reviews · talkRecommended as a fun, detailed account of how the PS3's security was broken.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2021A arrow in my gluteus maximus · demoHN points to it as a showpiece of what Factorio's circuit network can compute, alongside other absurd in-game computing feats.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–20233 3kliksphilip · explainerHN cites it as a source for how Valve uses machine learning on player behavior to detect cheating.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2011–2014Q Quake done Quick · demoHN uses it as a showcase of extreme FPS movement skill, such as rocket and grenade jumping.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2016–2025B BaronWable · demoHN cites it as an impressive example of building computation inside Dwarf Fortress.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2022G Games Done Quick · demoHN points to it as a funny, fun-to-watch example of what TAS can do to a game's input handling.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2024A aGameScout · explainerHN points to it as the concise explanation of the latest competitive NES Tetris technique.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2015–2022J Jan K · demoLinked as the canonical video of the first fully automatic NetHack bot ascension in threads on NetHack and game-playing AI.
- cited 3× 0 months 2019–2025J Jaimers · demoHN uses it as a showcase of what skilled bullet hell play looks like, with dense patterns dodged through a tiny hitbox rather than luck.
- cited 4× 0 months 2018–2023Used as a reference for how the Switch was actually broken, including the Tegra debug backdoor, and for facts about its non-FreeBSD kernel.
- cited 6× 0 months 2015–2021M Masterjun3 · demoCited as the classic example of arbitrary code execution inside a game, with later runs injecting Pong, Snake and Flappy Bird.
- cited 3× 0 months 2012–2016T TPMFofMFF · demoCited as the best available video of Doom on a TI calculator in threads about Doom ports and calculator programming.
- cited 3× 0 months 2022–20268 8-Bit Show And Tell · explainerPointed to as a walkthrough of the BASIC listing of a famous game partly written in BASIC.
- cited 4× 0 months 2016–2025P pekkavaa · demoCited as the canonical example of Quake running on an exotic display, usually in 'will it run Doom' threads.
- cited 3× 0 months 2023–2025B Bloc · demoPointed to as an early example of LLM-powered NPC dialog in games.
- cited 3× 0 months 2019–2025I invalidation · demoUsed as the canonical example of arbitrary code execution through nothing but controller input, often in talks about speedrunning and exploits.
- cited 3× 0 months 2021–2024B Basically Homeless · commentaryHN uses it as a reference when discussing anti-cheat limits, particularly external hardware and AI cheats that bypass kernel-level protection.
Questions
What is the most recommended speedrunning, glitches & game hacking video on Hacker News?
SM64 - Watch for Rolling Rocks - 0.5x A Presses (Commentated) [OUTDATED] by pannenkoek2012: Held up as a legendary deep dive into game internals, explained lucidly and with humor, and a gateway to the channel.
How is this speedrunning, glitches & game hacking list ranked?
By HackerTube's score: the number of distinct months in which an HN comment recommended the video, plus half a point for every month with a strong recommendation. One viral thread counts less than steady recommendations over years.
Where do the videos come from?
From every Hacker News comment between 2007 and 2026 that linked a YouTube video, labeled by an AI model as a recommendation, a citation, a joke or a criticism. The list is published by HackerTube under ODC-By 1.0; this edition adds indexable pages and the comment context.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.