I'm a happy Vim user still I'm not great
with using hjk and L for navigation but
I am pretty good at playing Super Mario
Brothers
I've got an idea is it terrible let's
find out together
[Music]
greetings and welcome to another
thrilling episode of Veronica explains
I'm Veronica and today I'd like to try
playing Mario but using the Vim or VI
arrow keys to move him around the screen
one-handed
so before we get to the fun part I need
to explain a little bit about Vim
otherwise it's not edutainment
Vim is a text editor and if you've
watched Linux YouTube for almost any
appreciable amount of time you're
probably already aware of it
Vim can be thought of as a successor to
an earlier editor VI although that's a
slightly simplistic way to look at it
for reasons I don't want to get into
right now this is just a Mario video
after all
anyway Vim is a modal editor which has
the h j k and l Keys perform the
functions of arrows when in the normal
mode this has the advantage of letting
your fingers stay at home row instead of
having to move your fingers to the arrow
keys or Mouse every time you want to
move the cursor why h j k and l well
that involves a short history lesson I
promise this won't go too long
Unix Legend Bill Joy wrote The Vi editor
back in 1976. his terminal the ADM 3A by
Lear Sigler had the arrow keys right
there on the h j k and l keys and used
the control key in combination with
those other keys to move the cursor
position even after we moved to the
arrow keys over here world the hjkl
arrangement stuck around in lots of Unix
and eventually Linux spaces to a certain
extent being able to navigate using hjk
and L is considered a rite of passage
among some sysadmins that's one of the
reasons I want to get better at the Vim
movement Keys I've always been okay at
it but in general I still find that I'm
moving my hands away from home row an
awful lot I think that keeping my hands
at the proper position is going to help
me work a bit more efficiently
especially as I get older and keep
typing for a living
I've watched a few seasoned Cobalt and
Unix devs effortlessly use the Vim
shortcuts so I'd like to get a little
bit more comfortable with it plus
pairing my model M with the Soares
converter enables fun new ways to keep
my hands at home row I did a video about
this keyboard combo a bit ago and I'll
leave a card in the cardi place as
someone who grew up on the PC keyboard
layout I've always found these key
combinations a bit
frustrating and I think that's
understandable I mean look at L being
used as right because that's a sensible
arrangement
jokes aside I can appreciate that it
makes sense ergonomically which is why
I'm going to get better the best way I
know how playing Mario
who knows maybe I can make this a
challenge I do with other games in
future videos
anyway there's a million video games I
could have picked for this exercise so
why'd I choose Mario for starters Super
Mario Brothers is a classic game you
know it I know it
now I'm not an expert speedrunner or
anything but I've been playing Mario my
whole life so I know the game pretty
well I was probably six or seven when I
first beat it all the way through
without warp pipes on my classic NES
so how am I going to play it with Vim
shortcuts why emulation of course I
don't feel like rigging up a keyboard to
connect directly to the NES but let me
know if you want me to try it someday
the emulator I'm using is
fceux a well-known cross-platform
emulator which seems to perform well
enough in my casual play
I mapped the controls by going into
options then input config and then
clicking on configure
I made a new profile and then configured
each button mapping the way I wanted it
now I could have easily mapped hjk and L
to the respective d-pad positions but I
really wanted to try and do this
one-handed
so I've decided to map K to the a button
as that's the button that performs a
jump in Mario I'll map the space bar to
B which will let me run and shoot a
fireball I'll also map return and shift
to start and select respectively
one-handed Mario thanks Vim
now before we start a quick disclaimer
because I'm sure Nintendo is watching
this right now I own a copy of this game
outright
see mine
in fact this ROM is one I dumped myself
from this specific cartridge
totally legit the only thing I did to it
was apply a simple rom hack to remove
the background music from the video as I
don't want YouTube to flag it and cause
trouble there's no cheating no unlimited
lives trickery No Game Genie just them
and just to show that I am playing it
with the Vim shortcuts I set up a Vim
cam here which I think will make it
pretty fun
without further Ado let's play them I
mean I mean Mario
here we go
oh it's weird without the music
so that's down
up
left right left right and then
this one is going to make me run faster
we got a Goomba see if I can get it
okay normally I run but I am gonna just
take it easy and walk for now
this is weird I'm playing it with one
hand it's kind of strange
[Music]
okay let's see
um
can I get it there we go okay okay oh
yep there I I tried to go up and I meant
to go down so this is the learning thing
okay
[Music]
it's weird I keep thinking that it's
like Arrow okay I'm gonna pause it I
keep thinking it's like arrow keys in
that I have left bottom or left down and
right takes some getting used to
okay
kind of unsettling without the music
okay this isn't so bad all right let's
see if I can jump
I got six
okay this isn't so bad
this might be famous last words but
we'll see
all right I am going to use warp pipes
because I don't need this video to be
you know 20 hours long
there we go all right
now I'm feeling it
it's weird every now and again I find
myself resetting my my you know which
buttons do what
like that there we go okay
all right
Focus Veronica
[Music]
oh
this is so weird
[Music]
I forgot to run okay
try it again
all right I'm getting the hang of it I
think
the biggest thing is is actually that
space is what's making me run
it's like the physics feel very foreign
this way that was fun
all right just I have to play very
conservatively here
there we go
nope I missed my one up I'm gonna regret
that
see
I'm not setting any speed run records
today
oh this is weird without the music
without the music it's going to be hard
to know
when it's done all right
[Music]
break that block and then this block and
come on down
there we go
this is definitely weird
there I was trying to jump with space I
don't know why I'm trying to jump with
space
[Music]
no uh-oh am I gonna have to mind this
world no
I'm not gonna try the minus World glitch
maybe that's a separate video
okay
all right four one mode
I want this okay here we go I'm just
gonna run again okay this is normally
how I play this level
not quite that fast no I'm having
regrets
oh can I do this all right let's see if
I can slide uh and am I having any key
rollover problems no it's just timing
okay this is gonna cost me too much time
go
oh
[Music]
it's definitely getting harder it's
strange for sure but it's fun playing
with one hand I mean that's kind of neat
all right jump jump I feel like I need
to Center myself each time right left
jump fire okay gotta run
right and
there we go okay that's not bad all
right see if I can get in see if I can
make the Beanstalk happen
there we go okay come on come on
up
there I actually needed the up key and I
have jump mapped that way so the one
thing I've needed up for so far
8-1 on Vim mode Let's see if we can do
it we only have two lives though
foreign
there's a one up in here
oh okay
there we go
hurry this is uh
this is definitely a thing
[Music]
okay one coin and another one up it
reminds me of watching there we go it
reminds me of watching other people
playing Mario like
you know like I'm pretty fast but Mario
typically so I mean I'm not a
speedrunner but like I get by
oh I missed it there we go
yep I'm running out of time okay
come on
oh here comes the big jump
see if I can do it no
I'm getting better at it with the space
bar you know using the space bar as run
is challenging and
take some work every now and again I
just forget what he does what that's
that's one of the challenges which is
the reason I'm doing this ultimately is
so I can get better at that
see if I can do it there we go
there we go
[Music]
eight one
in the books on Vim mode
all right
eight two feel much better about this if
I was starting with a fire flower let's
take it a one up
oh no
play it conservatively
get the one up here we go okay
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
there we go
okay I keep forgetting which button is
down and which one is up even though I'm
jumping with it which I think is a Vim
thing for me that's definitely something
I need to get better at
foreign
so close
okay three lives
I got a chance
fall in the Trap fall in the Trap there
we go okay
what am I doing ah
[Music]
this is gonna it was gonna be bad
slow down and jump and there we go okay
Oh weird
no
it's like my physics are weird it does
it feel it's like I I forget where I'm
gonna slide and where I'm not gonna
slide
I have to remember to play very
conservatively it's gentle
foreign
[Music]
up is here
that's no good
I have one life
I think I'm gonna try it again
it's that it just feels totally
different playing with shortcuts that
aren't the natural keys that you use in
the game
um
I mean it's fun definitely having a good
time
[Music]
okay eight three
this is the hard one can I do it
oh no
I got hammered Bros there we go okay we
got one
okay
[Music]
there we go okay
oh this is so hard
[Music]
stop it
[Music]
there we go
huh
okay
now I have a Fighting Chance
come on I got fire
oh come on
okay eight four
let's see if I can do it there
okay I have to be super careful not to
lose this
I have a feeling I'm gonna need it
[Music]
oh geez that was gonna be hard
this is weird and Vim okay there we go
okay oh
[Music]
foreign
I got past flying fish
okay
swimming in Vim is very weird
I don't like swimming in them
swimming in Vim is very strange
I I could practice that alone I think
okay
I think we're just on Bowser now
okay come on come on come on can I can I
kill him this way I got him
I mean Mario on Vim mode
Ah that's fantastic my fingers hurt
I just beat Mario one-handed on Vim mode
I've never done that before
okay so now that I've actually gotten
through it it wasn't so bad I most
certainly struggled a bit with
remembering which key was jump or up and
which one was down and that mimics My
overall experience with Vim
definitely something I think I'll need
to keep working on all in all I thought
this was actually a pretty good exercise
and I think I'll keep doing it to try
and improve my Vim skills now you might
be wondering why would anybody actually
want to do this and it's simple really I
like to do fun things for fun and this
was fun
not everything has to be serious or
thought-provoking all the time after all
this is just the internet
do you have a game you'd like me to try
in a future Vim controls challenge let
me know in the comments
should I start a hashtag for this nope I
think one of the best things about being
a Linux system administrator is finding
new ways to challenge yourself to pick
up a new skill and the plethora of
options available on Linux based systems
is always so impressive because Linux is
awesome and so are you
it's time once again for ask Veronica
where I answer a question from one of
the supporters of my channel today's
question is
what's the difference between
virtualization and emulation
um this is an extremely complicated
question to answer because this this
gets into almost a philosophical debate
for some people you can look at wine as
a good example of how this can be blurry
because wine stands for famously wine is
not an emulator yet you can go through
and see people describing it as though
it's an emulator and I I think that's
kind of justifiable for reasons I'm not
going to get into in like 30 seconds
here I've always thought of it as
emulation is emulating the hardware
whereas virtualization doesn't
necessarily have to emulate the hardware
another great example of this is the
fact that you can run arm code on x86
using an arm emulator Vice also comes to
mind as an emulator that's emulating the
the chip of the Commodore 64 The vic-20
it's not actually running directly on
the hardware without that abstraction
and that's what emulation is
virtualization can include tools that
don't have that abstraction but again
this stuff gets confusing
um space nope that was wrong okay space
[Music]
okay
[Music]
oh geez
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]