Imagine a Bus Stop

Submission 30,237

Part of a series on Speedrunning. [View Related Entries]

About

Imagine a Bus Stop, also known as Bus Analogy, is a popular analogy used by Super Mario Bros speedrunners to explain the "frame rule," a limitation of Super Mario Bros. timing system. Created by prolific Super Mario Bros. speedrunner darbian and often used by speedrunners and speedrunning channels, the analogy became a popular subject of jokes in the community due to its frequent use.

Origin

In Super Mario Bros, the timing system of the game measures whether the player has completed a given level in 21-frame (.35 second) increments. If the player fails to finish a level within any given increment, his level completion time will increase by .35 seconds even if they only were late by a single frame.

On February 1st, 2016, Super Mario Bros. speedrunner darbian uploaded a YouTube^[1] tutorial for any% category speedrun of the game.^[2] In the video, darbian uses an analogy to explain the rule.

Imagine that the castle Mario walks into at the end of each stage is a bus station, and that Mario must take a bus to the next stage. In the Mushroom Kingdom, buses operate on an oddly specific schedule, such that every 0.35 seconds a bus departs. When Mario reaches the end of a stage, he must wait for the next bus to depart.
When it comes to speedrunning this game, the frame rule means that you don't have to play each level perfectly to get a perfect time, you just need to play each level fast enough to get on the same bus as someone who did play it perfectly.

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On April 7th, 2016, Kotaku^[3] quoted the analogy in its article about the Super Mario Bros. any% world record.

The analogy saw extensive used in Super Mario Bros. speedrunning community in the following years, used by darbian and other speedrunners to clarify the "frame rule." For example, on January 18th, 2017, speedrunning history YouTube^[4] channel Summoning Salt used the analogy in its Super Mario Bros. any% video, with the video accumulating over 1.8 million views in three years (shown below, left). On September 9th, 2019, Summoning Salt^[5] again used the analogy in its video on Super Mario Bros. Warpless category progression that received over 1.5 million views in six months (shown below, right).

Due to its excessive use on YouTube and Twitch, the Bus Analogy gained popularity as a meme in the speedrunning community, being referenced in comments and memes. For example, Starter Pack meme posted by Redditor^[6] Camwood7 in /r/speedrun on September 15th, 2019, received over 1,800 upvotes in six months (shown below).

On October 31st, 2019, Scratch^[7] user Miniland333 uploaded a minigame parodying the analogy, also posting several speedrunning videos of it on their YouTube^[8]^[9] channel.