You could get $1,000 for recreating this Mario 64 glitch

Speedruns are built on glitches, exploits, and anything else that can get you from the start screen to the credits as quickly as possible. Few games have as active and dedicated of a speedrunning community as Super Mario 64 - which is why one of their number is offering a bounty of $1,000 for whoever can recreate a previously undiscovered glitch.

The glitch in question was first observed on a casual stream of two players running through Tick Tock Clock; landing on the back of the little steps near the start of the stage unexpectedly warped one of the players upward, letting him skip a significant portion of the level. That's valuable enough on its own for Mario 64 speedrunners, but since this one seems to be distinct from any other known glitches, it could be the key to discovering (and exploiting) more.

Unfortunately, you have to be able to reliably recreate a glitch before you can start studying it - and that's where the bounty comes in. Speedrunner pannenkoek2012 has been unable to replicate it himself, so instead he's pledged $1,000 to the first person who sends him the replay files his crack team of Mario 64 researchers will need to isolate and potentially expand upon the glitch. If you think you have the chops (and the patience) to claim the bounty, you'd better get to work.

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.