#this caption is misleading. it makes it sound like i’m normal about them. i’m not

[boombams]

bakudeku on the brain

[thearkhound]

Shigeru Miyamoto interview from Micom BASIC (February 1989)

The following is translation of a review of Super Mario Bros. 3 written by Akira Yamashita for the February 1989 issue of Micom BASIC Magazine as the 7th entry in his “Serious Play, Sincere Review” (ホンキでPlay, ホンネでReview) series of articles. It contains commentary by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto himself on the development of the game and its design choices. The review was written a few months after the release of Mario 3 and provide a few insights of not only of how game was received in Japan, but also how it compares to other games available in the market at the time thanks to Mr. Yamashita’s tremendous insights.

There’s also a list of recommended 2-players games for the Famicom that I decided to leave out, but I might translate it too and edited into the article at a later date if there’s demand for it.

Profile of Shigeru Miyamoto

Name: Shigeru Miyamoto

D.O.B: November 16, 1952 (Sonobe, Kyoto)

Employed by Nintendo Co., Ltd after graduating from the Kanazawa University of Arts on April 1977. He became involved in game development in 1979, working as a character designer in titles such as Space Fever and Space Firebird. Currently works as manager of Nintendo’s R&D department 2.

Work History

Arcade: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros.

Famicom (as director & game designer): Hogan’s Alley, Excitebike, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Wild Gunman, Duck Hunt, Devil World, Spartan X [aka Kung-Fu]

Famicom (as producer): The Adventure of Link, Doki Doki Panic, Super Mario Bros. 3, Shin Onigashima, Famicom Grand Prix: F1 Race, Volley Ball, 3D Hot Rally

The Culmination of The Athletic Game Genre

Athletic Game - This is the term that Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto and Nintendo uses to collectively refer to Super Mario-like games. Specifically it refers to games where slightly large characters move around the screen and jumps serve as the basic action.

Indeed. Mr. Miyamoto’s career has been in a cycle. Ever since Donkey Kong, the first time he ever worked as a game designer, it appears he has an inseparable bond with the athletic game genre.

First of all, any game in which almost all the characters are pushed out to the front (including “athletic games”) can be divided in the following sub-categories depending on the objective the player needs to fulfill in order clear a single stage.

A so-called “chase game” where the purpose is to avoid obstacles and enemies while doing a certain task (such as eating all the dots or reaching the exit). Examples include Pac-Man, Mappy and Chuck’n Pop.

A game where the objective is to defeat a set amount of enemies such as Dig Dug or Bubble Bobble.

Donkey Kong, Mr. Miyamoto’s maiden title, clearly belonged to the first category (although it might be a bit misleading to call it a “chase game”, since the enemies and obstacles only move at a regular pace). I remember it felt pretty fresh at the time to play a game made basically about “jumping”.

The objective of the game was changed for the original Mario Bros., which now felt into the second category. In addition to the Jump from Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. introduced “headbutting” as a new method for defeating enemies - This was very groundbreaking. Usually in a second category game, it was expected for the player to shoot bullets or some kind of equivalent. Substituting that with such an unusual method as “headbutting” was the nature, and significance, of the original Mario Bros. When it comes to games that feature unique methods of defeating enemies, it is surprising rare for titles released prior to Mario Bros. The games that suddenly comes to mind are titles such as Heiankyō Alien, where you dig and fill-in holes, and Libble Rabble, which employs a unique method called “bashishi”. [Translator’s note: The “bashishi” refers to the ability to destroy enemies by using a strand tied to two arrows to enclose them.]

And with Super Mario Bros. released for the Famicom [NES], the ingenuity was further expanded. “Stomping” on enemies has been added as a gameplay element in addition to jumping and headbutting, as well as the option for “Fire Mario” in order to satisfy the desires of players who wanted to shoot bullets. When you consider the type, it’s basically a Category 1 game, but it brings up the image of a Category 2 game to the player, creating a brilliant fusion of both types.

“It’s a type of game that is easily approachable for younger inexperienced players, but can also be played by experienced hardcores without getting tired of it. It’s a fun game, even when you’re just watching other people play from the sidelines. That’s the sort of game that I wanted to create.”

Miyamoto explained why he stepped into the so-called “athletic game” genre (which is a label that I don’t mind using). Super Mario Bros. 3, a game which satisfies such conditions, can be said to be the culmination of the genre.

Some of the Virtues of Super Mario 3

Super Mario Bros. 3 was a huge hit that by the end of 1988 there was even a shortage of supply. I think the following aspects should be noted.

Caption: A card-flipping minigame similar to concentration. There are many hidden items such as 1UPs, Starmen, coins. Since there are only eight patterns to the distribution of the cards, it’s not impossible to memorize them and get a perfect.

Caption:

At a first glance it seems like a picture-matching game. You can stop the wheel (?) with the push of a button. If you can memorize the pattern, you can combine the picture into a starman and earn a shocking amount of five extra lives. It’s a perfect aid.

The Spirit of Aiding - Because 1UP mushrooms are plentiful compared to the previous two Mario games, and it’s also easy to get extra lives through minigames such as the picture roulette and concentration, it’s almost hard to get to the Game Over screen. Moreover, I’m glade there are aids that have been employed, such as the technique of picking up consecutive starmen, that take into consideration how well you can play the game comfortably.

The Presentation - Despite being an action game, considerable effort has been put into the game’s presentation in otherwise mundane places. For example, the kings that appear at the end of each world has been transformed into a different animal, in World 4 there levels where you can switch between normal-sized version and a version where all the enemies and environments are larger than usual, and in World 5 there’s a tower that you can climb which takes you to the heavens, where you will find the castle at the end. There’s no limit to the examples I can give. This is a significant improvement over the first two Super Mario games thanks to the increasement of the game’s ROM size. If there is one aspect I think could’ve been improved, was the presentation of the ending could’ve been better.

Scrolling Ideas - It’s rare for a single game to employ various methods of scrolling. There’s free-scrolling with your character, forced-scrolling to the right (and ocassionally diagonally), hi-speed scrolling, ect. The highlights are the flying airships that you enter at the end of each World. Like in Stage 3 of the arcade game R-Type (which also involved moving around a giant airship), you must carefully navigate your character while the stage scrolls through various directions in order to avoid being crush by a wall. While these ideas have been employed by other games in the past, they still deserve merit for the way they’re employed here.

The Music -  I believe the soundtrack to Super Mario Bros. 3 will go down as one of the best in Famicom music’s history. In addition to the sense and atmosphere that makes you feel the uniqueness of each world, what is truly amazing is that they managed to devise a program that makes sound sampling on the Famicom possible. That’s real. Those are the sounds of a real kettledrum and a bassdrum that were recorded through sampling. Following the release of the game, rumors spread that the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartridge employed an integrated chip specifically for the sampled sounds, but Mr. Miyamoto clearly denied such a thing.

Caption: The king who appears in the castle at the end of Worlds 1 through 7 are each transformed into a different animal. You might find yourself laughing at the unexpected transformations. By the way, do you know what happens if you clear a World as Frog Mario?

The Peculiar Details and the Difficulty Setting

Caption: The airship from World 8 is said to be one of the most difficult levels in Super Mario 3. Because of its uneven footholds, along with its high-speed scrolling, the results are quite bad. Perhaps you might even need the P-Wings if you can’t clear it normally.

Caption: Among the enemies with individual patterns in the game, Boo has the most unique concept out of all of them. She only approaches gradually while Mario has his back turned on her. Each of these character establishes have good sense in them.

As mentioned above, Super Mario Bros. 3 has several aspects that are a rank higher than other games. However, when you take into account the game as a whole, it could be said that the secret to its popularity lies in how the details were set. The experts at Nintendo have crafted detailed maps, along with enemy characters that exists mainly to raise the quality of the game, that help motivate players.

Of course, you can’t ignore the perfectly exquisite difficulty setting. When I was playing for the first time, there were many stages where I thought “gah, I hope I don’t have to repeat this again!” Yet, strangely enough, most of the levels can actually be cleared without much of an effort. Although, you could say it depends on how you memorize the level designs, it is at that moment that you truly believe that you’re skilled. It is evident that you gain experience from playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and level-up at a very fast-rate.

Once you’ve become truly skilled, that’s when you start pursuing artistry in your play style. On a certain rough spot, could it be possible to clear it elegantly on the quickest time possible? With that in mind, perhaps the best strategy for certain stages is to aim for a non-stop completion. In fact, if you jump while doing the B-dash, it is possible to stomp on a Goomba and such with dead-on timing.

Caption: For example, when you’re on top of the T-shaped pies in World 1-2 if you’re run off with the B-dash and do a large jump with a clack, you can step on a Para-Goomba like this. If you’re confident in your skills, you might want to try challenging your friends over who has the faster completion time in certain stages (although, it might be foolish to try this on a forced-scrolling level). You may also want to record your own nonstop gameplays on video to make your own “Super Mario Bros.3 Perfect Strategy Video”.

Mr. Miyamoto comments on the excess that led to such a strange setting being accepted by players

“I believe the reason why our players have support our games to such an extent is because we do our work with the utmost sincerity. ‘Don’t make the consumers feel like they’re lost - That’s our policy. Also we never try to deviate from our original intent, our original concept, even if a similar game is released before finish ours. If you do that, then it will be inevitable are that your game’s settings and balance will be ruined.”

It was through this interview that I’ve come to the realization that Mr. Miyamoto is truly one of Japan’s leading video game designers with his firm grasp on video game development.

The Greatest Theme: 2-Player Simultaneous Play

Caption: In 2-players mode, if Mario and Luigi enter the same area, the original Mario Bros. will somehow begin play (this is no hoax). You can understand the importance that Mr. Miyamoto is placed on 2-players gameplay.

“The biggest theme of Super Mario Bros. 3 was making a game that was fun for 2 people to play”

I was a bit surprised by Mr. Miyamoto’s statement. I was aware that Super Mario Bros. 3 has a mode where two players take turns between Mario and Luigi. For example, if Mario completes World 1-1, then it’s Luigi’s turn to play World 1-2, which feels a bit odd at first. I’ve never paid much attention to this mode until Mr. Miyamoto mentioned it. What was his purpose for adding such a mode? The following is his answer.

“In Super Mario Bros. 3, I wanted to give players a ‘field where two people can play together’. For example, you can have a skilled play help out his unskilled sister proceed through the game through cooperation, or have a pair of friends compete to see who gets the highest score. Therefore, when playing in 2-players mode, I would be glad if they approach it like a board game and use the whistles to instantly access any of the 8 worlds they like.”

This could indeed be said to be a challenge to create a new 2-players game for Miyamoto, who made one of the biggest 2-players game ever, the original Mario Bros. However, Miyamoto himself was not satisfied with the 2-players play of Super Mario Bros. 3.

Perhaps there are readers who are thinking “Why don’t they just put Mario and Luigi on-screen in Super Mario Bros. at the same time? That’s such a brilliant idea! Maybe I should become a game designer”, but such an idea is short-sighted. Just having Mario and Luigi on-screen at the same time wouldn’t be viable. To be precise, it’s not impossible, but the quality of the game would suffer.

Figure 1: A situation in 2-players co-op

Let met get into the specifics. Let’s supposed there’s a version of Super Mario Bros. where two players can play simultaneously. Now, consider the situation shown in Figure 1. Mario will naturally try to avoid the Venus Fire Trap by moving towards the right (the direction of the scrolling), but he can’t because Luigi is on the other end of the screen. As a result, a tragedy will occur and Mario will be struck by fire. There’s also the problem that Mario cannot see the enemies that will appear ahead of him since he’s too close to the edge of the screen. In terms of the situation described above, it’s almost impossible to play Super Mario Bros. with two players at the same time, unless forced-scrolling is employed.

Caption: This is Alien Syndrome, an arcade game by Sega. The gruesomeness of the monsters was nice, but during 2-players mode, I was also concerned on where to scroll as well.

With that said, there has been plenty of free-scrolling multiplayer games in the past ,especially arcade games. Titles such as Alien Syndrome, Ikari Warriors and its sequels, Rock ‘n Rage, Dark Adventure, Quartet, and many more. Anyone who has played this game with partner has likely experienced the frustration of screaming while seeing their character died on-screen because the screen wasn’t scrolling like it should. It can be asserted that these types of multiplayer games are absolutely unreasonable systematically. Multiplayer games are only possible either, with a fixed screen or with auto-scrolling - that’s my theory.

Caption: Although it was an early Famicom games, Devil World must be seen for its scrolling ideas. When I was told this was a Shigeru Miyamoto game, I was pretty convinced.

On a side-note, one 2-players game that impressed me with its scrolling was Devil World, a previous game by none other than Mr. Miyamoto himself. This was a game where the direction of the auto-scrolling changes as indicated by the devil at the top of the screen. Although one of the game’s flaws is that the logic behind the scrolling couldn’t be understood during a 2-players game, the concept of an auto-scrolling game that changes direction is still impressive even in this age.

What’s Next For Nintendo’s Top Designer?

Usually this would be part where I would mention the aspects of the game in which I was unsatisfied with and come up with suggestions on how to improve them, but unfortunately (or not).

If I may mention a few things, perhaps the game might be too difficult to players who have never played the previous Mario games or the game might take too many hours to complete if you intend on completing it without using warp zones. With that said, it’s a pretty good game when you consider that those are the only flaws I could think of. 

Is Mr. Miyamoto, who served as producer of this super game, going to continue making games like this? This is a question that is of the interest of many videogame fans. At the end of this interview, while the answer was a bit abstract, I was still able to get it from him .

“I have been in charge of game direction until now. Of course, I will continue doing so in the future, but when the time is right, I would also like to work on planning out a gameplay system too.”

System planning - While Mr. Miyamoto said this quite bluntly, he seems to have considerable preparedness for it. The fact that most recent games don’t have their gameplay systems designed for them, but rather they simply rearrange existing systems, is a situation that Mr. Miyamoto himself is coming to grasp, even though most players can’t imagined it from their standpoint.

What kind of gameplay system is Mr. Miyamoto thinking of? I’ve asked him for the specifics.

“There are many talented creators involved in other industries such as novel authors and filmmakers. Now if only someone would create a system, or perhaps a field, in which such people could get involved in game development with ease... My dream is to create a point of contact for creators active in fields other than video game development.”

In our current situation, it’s pretty difficult to create an interesting game if you don’t already know anything about videogames to some extent. But perhaps, with some kind of tool or aid, we will see infinite possibilities in the game industry that we’ve ever seen before.

Mr. Miyamoto brought up an RPG that is being developed by Nintendo with the cooperation of writer Mr. Shigesato Itoi, best known for his coverage of Namco’s Family Stadium baseball video game “Please look forward to it” remarks Mr. Miyamoto. [TL’s note: Of course, that RPG would be none other than the original MOTHER, which Mr. Yamashita himself would review in a later issue.]

1989 will be an intense year, not just for the Super Famicom, but Nintendo’s software development department in general. [TL’s note: At the time, the Super Famicom was expected to be released in 1989 in Japan, but it was ultimately delayed to 1990.]

Miyamoto’s History of Athletic Games

Donkey Kong (June 1981, Arcade) - The originator of the athletic game genre, as well as the first game Miyamoto was involved as a game designer. Despite the fixed screen format and simple controls that consists of a joystick for moving and a jump button, the game was rich in its variety that it showed. Perhaps it might had been the first game to ever have a jump button, but I can’t say for sure.

Donkey Kong Jr. (July 1982, Arcade) - The sequel to Donkey Kong featured a bold setting in which the roles of the protagonist and antagonist from the previous game were switched. While the gameplay system remained largely unchanged, the switch to a larger protagonist brought on many new ideas. This has been the only game to ever feature Mario as antagonist.

Mario Bros. (April 1983, Arcade) - A game that brought-in 2-players co-op to the gameplay cultivated by Donkey Kong. Both players can proceed throughout the stages in various ways, whether it is by cooperating with each other or by pulling each others’ legs trying to kill each other. It is considered to be one of the greatest 2-players simultaneous game in history.

Super Mario Bros. (September 1985, Famicom) - The game that served as the turning point for the athletic game genre, expanding from a fixed screen to side-scrolling. It would go on to become the biggest hit game for the Famicom, becoming a huge influence to the industry along with Dragon Quest.

Super Mario Bros. 2 [Japanese version] (June 1986, Famicom Disk) -  A sequel known for its hellish difficulty, it was aimed specifically at players who mastered the first game. The game is filled with many situations in which the levels can only be cleared using advanced techniques. With that said, the gameplay system was almost unchanged from the original. There were many people who bought the Disk System add-on just for this game.

Yume Kojō: Doki Doki Panic (July 1987, Famicom Disk) - A game produced in cooperation with the Fuji TV’s event Yume Kōjō. While the game wasn’t much of a success, many of its ideas would go on to inspire Super Mario Bros. 3. In fact, a graphically modified version was released for the NES in North America as its version of Super Mario Bros. 2.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (October 1988, Famicom) - The third installment of the Super Mario series was developed with the idea of rearranging the original with a much larger ROM size. In addition to the high degree of completeness, we cannot overlook the amount of new ideas that were enthusiastically inserted into the game. The hard work that has put into the game can be felt by its presentation.

Super Mario Bros. 4 (working title) - Scheduled to be released this October as one of the launch titles for the Super Famicom. [TL’s note: The Super Famicom wouldn’t be released in Japan until 1990] Our curiousity over the kind of Super Mario game that this new machine will be capable of is endless. One can only expect as much from Mr. Miyamoto’s skills as a producer.

[j2littleshits-blog]

Kourtney’s submission

I love the latest meditating picture(1) she shared, the caption was perfect as well. I’m all for promoting what you love and whatnot but she comes off as a phony, ya know? I don’t care if celebrities share their gym experiences or like when Le@ Michele shares 900 green juice photos (gross!) because it’s just them sharing what they love. But with G it always seems like she’s sharing the picture to show off how much better she is than anyone else but in a subtle way. I’m always thankful, meditating keeps me sane, I use a 600$ blender because it gets my kids to eat their vegetables. It’s never just a simple “I mediate because I like too” or “We put vegetables in smoothies so the kids will actually eat right”. There’s always some underlining meaning to her captions and it’s mind boggling that people can’t see that. Or they see it and they’re choosing to ignore it for the sake of a peaceful Tumblr experience.(2)

Her need to share Girl Power and Girls Run The World is getting old. I’m all for unity and bringing each other up rather than tearing each other down but she’s going about it the wrong way. Your daughter needs to know the sky is the limit and she shouldn’t be held back just because she’s female but she doesn’t need to know that she’s better than another person because she’s female. Her two boys don’t need to grow up thinking they need to step aside so there sister can shine and she doesn’t need to grow up thinking they should step aside for her because she’s female. G is teaching her that she’s entitled all because she was born with a vagina. Again, I’m all for being a feminist and teaching girls AND boys that we’re all equal but I’m not about to get behind someone that wants her daughter to feel better than her own siblings just because she’s a girl. It’s wrong.(3)

Not even going to lie but when I saw the picture she shared of her and T with the caption “This was snapped right before a 🐝 headed right in our direction…. 🙃 thanks to ___ and ___ we have an apiary. Who wants some P@dalecki honey? 🍯” (4) my knee jerk response was to roll my eyes. I’m all for doing our part to bring back the bees but getting an apiary in your backyard seems a tad extreme. I just imagine these kids going to school and being asked what they did over the weekend and them talking about the pictures being taken.(5) Kids don’t have a filter so I can’t imagine what T has to tell his teacher after a weekend at home or whatever. The funniest part of the photos is that she couldn’t even be bothered to change her top or anything. It’s obvious that certain pictures were taken on the same day and others on another.(6) But generally speaking they were taken all around the same time because the bump is pretty much the same size. I will say that with T she gained weight throughout her body. She wasn’t fat by any stretch of the imagination! But her cheeks were fuller, she looked a little more tired and honestly pulled off the being pregnant look better with him than she did with the other two.(7) If you look at the pictures of her doing yoga you can see the outline of the photographer being reflected in the window. And then if you look at the picture of them in bed with S being held over her head you can again see the photographers shadow!(8) We all knew the photos were done by a professional but that just made my a little nauseous because it just seems so wrong to put your kids in their pajamas and create a wonderful family moment like that just for a blog or whatever. Jessica @lba owns her own company, has a website and an Instagram for said company but never once has she used her kids to promote her things. Yeah over Halloween she did her daughters makeup using her product but that was it. Promote your project and perfect life all you want but why add your kids in it like they’re props? It’s just wrong.(9)

Speaking of websites, I’m not sure if you know this but G actually had a website before!(10) It was a fan dedicated website that this one girl ran and G approached her about it. They met up a few times and the girl made sure that all content on the website was completely true and even got G to do a Q and A video. G ended up co-running the website with her until it was taken down because the girl just didn’t want to run it anymore and I’m assuming G realized how odd it would be for her to run her own fan dedicated website. But yeah one day the girl asked G if she could do a meetup and maybe meets some fans, G agreed and they went to lunch. Wanna know who made a surprise visit during lunch? J did!(11) It was such a surprise too, I mean it’s not like G asked him to come or anything. Yeah, I don’t believe that either. That’s why I was surprised that she was creating another website because I didn’t think she had enough of a life outside of J to actually have one just as her own. That sounds really harsh and I apologize for that but if you look at her life she has nothing that’s just her own. It always comes back to J.(12) I did see her new website before it became password protected and I truly hope people take what she posts with a grain of salt. There were sections for parenting, recipes, fashion, lifestyle and a couple others. I’m all for giving advice but I don’t want a first time mom going into her blog and taking everything she says for fact. She talks a lot about things (home birthing, organic living) like she’s an expert and that’s not good.(13) G does have people that look to her for advice and take her word as gospel so I hope she keeps that in mind and puts somewhere in her blog how she’s not an expert on these topics.

I forgot last post but I wanted to say I agree whole heartedly about J and D sharing photos of the kids lately! What is up with that? J actually told the paparazzi in Vancouver he did not want little J photographed.(14) They could photos of him and D all they wanted but his daughter was off limits. They very rarely shared pictures of her and when they did it always came from them, not a family member or friend because they didn’t want it to be stolen. Fine, I get it, you want her to be shielded from the media and the crazy side of the fandom. But now it’s like here’s a picture of the twins, here’s a picture of J, here’s a picture of us being happy together, here’s a video where you can actually hear little J’s voice. Which, again, wouldn’t be weird had they not been so protective of her. That situation has honestly thrown me for a loop and I can’t think of a reason for the sudden love of sharing pictures of their kids.(15)

I’ll tell you about my theory as to why she remained silent on the A_F campaign in another submission so you don’t have to read an essay because I didn’t realize how long this was until I started writing this! Hahaha, sorry!

I hope you have a nice weekend!

Yo Kourtney, happy to see you again! Sorry for the wait, I should’ve post this earlier. Always with something bumped in when I was going through your “essay” ;) And I don’t quite follow G so it took me some time to run through her things *ouch*

Here’s my little side notes (according to the numbers I added above) :

Yoga class?

Peaceful internet platform behaviour. I agree with “phony” but it’s like a basic foundation for business accounts, so I won’t be easily brainwashed by… WAIT. THIS IS THE POINT. I don’t care how fake her IG is because I never consider myself looking at a real life journal wtf! Holy shit! How should I tell her fans about this, Kourtney?! My mixed feelings all the time is explainable? Her business heavy IG with heavy charity promoting? Is she taking my money or is she helping me to donate my money? How about Jay’s part? Why is he there?

I’ve talked about this with my professor IRL on ppl’s misunderstanding and media’s misleading portraying to feminism. Tricky topic.

Cute muffin T is scared of bees aww

Only when kids involved I’m a little mad

Stocked photoshoots I’ve no problem with that *proud*

Asking for science, any mamas out there gained weight with some babies and none with others?

Wait! Some fans say the photos are taken by Jay! ;)

Imagine if these was done by non-celebrities. Normalizing everything is THE TREND in 21st century, sadly

I know! Now we have a similar /dress-like-g______/ *insert eyeroll here*

Oh wow this is new to me omg

Who would pay attention to her if she’s not his “wife” honestly sorry

Life-related reminder alert. Although I’m not a mom, I can sense how ridiculous her advices are

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!!!

Can someone write a meta for this? jk lol

Thanks for this informative submission again, sweetie! It’s really long, I survived lol. Please don’t hold back to talk why she isn’t supportive in A/_/F, and please don’t hold back to write it long! You become an important role here you know? I can’t make quality posts on my own! Have a nice day and hope to see you soon, XXOO

[spekture]

Everyone knows when you run higher octane gas in your car it will run smoother, make more power, and get better fuel economy, right?  Not only is that a common misconception: in some cases, using higher octane gas can actually make your car run worse and get worse fuel economy if you run higher octane gas than needed! In this month’s tech article I’m going to discuss this myth, other gasoline myths, and hopefully demystify gasoline in general for some readers.

First, we need to explain what octane is and why it’s important to know. Before we do that, we need to dispel another misconception some people have: when a gas – or for that matter, a diesel engine, is running properly and with no concerns, the air/fuel mixture that enters the engine is ignited, consumed, and turned into energy. I think everyone understands this. Where the confusion starts for some is what normal combustion for gas engines (and diesel engines alike) is actually.  Normal combustion occurs when the air/fuel mixture is, in fact, burned at a controlled and predictable rate, at a specific time, within the engine’s rotational cycle.

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It does not explode, and at no time is it ever desirable for an explosion, or detonation to take place in any gas or diesel powered engine of any type. If an explosion or detonation of the air/fuel mixture does occur, extremely localized hot spots with uneven cylinder pressures are the result, with major engine damage possible if severe or prolonged enough. Not a good thing!

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Detonation is commonly referred to as: “spark knock,” “pre-ignition,” or “pinging,” and is recognizable most often as a tin can rattling sound coming from the engine under moderate throttle, going up a grade, or wide open throttle under heavy acceleration. There are many causes of detonation. Running hot or overheating-related concerns, ignition timing over-advanced, EGR system problems, or insufficient octane for the engine’s needs are some common causes. Whatever the cause, the result is the same: the air/fuel mixture is not burning the way it should, and/or when it should.

Octane, simply put, is a measure of a gasoline’s ability to prevent detonation. The higher the octane, the less likely detonation is to occur, and the less volatile the fuel is. That seems to be a contradiction, doesn’t it? High performance racing engines running high octane racing gas making lots of power seem to just scream “highly volatile,” don’t they?  This couldn’t be further from the truth. The reason being is that octane has absolutely nothing to do with the measurement of gasoline’s ability to produce a certain amount of energy when burned. There are a variety of different methods across the world on how gasoline’s octane is rated. For the purposes of this article I won’t discuss specific octane rating methods here, as they don’t really have any pertinence to our discussion.

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That brings us to the myth about higher octane gas making your car run better. That statement needs to be qualified: in a car that is running properly, that does not have any special requirements/recommendations for octane from the manufacturer, there is absolutely no benefit to running any higher octane gas than needed. In other words, if your car runs fine on 87 octane, you are just throwing money away by using gas with a higher octane rating. That is contrary to what many gasoline retailers imply. They rely on misleading advertising, myths perpetuating themselves, and an underlying paranoia people have regarding their car’s well-being to get people to pay for higher octane gas than needed.

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There is no doubt one or more persons reading this swear their car runs better and/or gets better fuel economy with higher octane gas. To that I say: it is a figment of your imagination perpetuated by a one-time issue that is no longer present and/or you have bought into your favorite gasoline retailer’s advertising, your car has an issue you aren’t aware of, your gas station of choice has ongoing gas purity issues, or your car does, in fact, have a requirement for higher octane gas.  Any of those cases make you an exception. Because higher octane gas is less volatile, it is also harder to ignite as a result. If your car will run fine on 87 octane gas and you run 91, it can, and does in some cars, make them hard to start. Because the higher octane gas doesn’t ignite as easy, a car running it for no reason is more likely to have concerns with incomplete combustion (small amounts of leftover, unburned air/fuel mixture), and thus won’t run efficiently, and as a result fuel economy may go down. Every car is unique. You might not suffer hard starts or lower fuel economy, but it is possible. Want to test this out?  Grab a gas powered lawn mower, run it out of the gas that’s in it (or drain it), and go fill it with high-octane gas. You’ll be lucky to get it to start, in many cases. The hard start problem is much more pronounced in the lawn mower because of its small motor which doesn’t have as much compression as most car engines.

About now, someone is probably thinking, “Why do race cars and high performance street cars need high octane gas, then?” The reason is the engines in these vehicles are modified to have higher temperatures as a whole and/or higher cylinder pressures, which directly correlates to higher combustion chamber temperatures. This makes it much more likely that detonation will occur.  Adding a turbo, supercharger, or increasing the compression ratio are all tried-and-true methods of increasing an engine’s horsepower. Rarely can modifications like these be done without any other changes to accommodate them and have it run properly. The first problem encountered is usually detonation. Sometimes all that is required is running higher octane gas after doing one of those modifications.

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There is one glaring caveat I must state, or I’m sure someone will call me out. Many performance type cars do in fact have a recommended minimum octane gas that is recommended. If you own one of these cars and you choose to ignore that requirement/recommendation, the performance of your car will, in fact, suffer. So there, I said it! The reason the performance degrades in these cars is because their computer controlled fuel injection system incorporates the use of a “knock” sensor. This is a sensor that is designed to listen for, or detect, detonation. If detonation is detected, the computer will retard the ignition timing, reducing the likeliness of detonation occurring. As a result of the adjusted ignition timing, the engine won’t make as much power. Some cars continuously monitor and adjust for this; others adjust one time and only reset to normal timing after turning the ignition off and restarting the engine.

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Gasoline retailers feed on peoples’ anxieties about their cars, so their advertising is designed to help feed this myth. Their ads include claims about additives and conditioners, or detergents in their gas, usually more so in regards to their premium gas (high octane) to promote better performance, and better fuel economy. Some of this is to prevent claims of false advertising from claims that high octane gas in itself will make your car run better. As far as the claims about their additives, while it is possible in theory that you can benefit from keeping your fuel system clean by using a gas a cleaning agent, it is added at levels so low on that there is no real world benefit to these additives that gasoline companies rave about. If these additives/fuel system cleaners were added at a level high enough to do any real good, the emissions coming from the tailpipe of your car would be higher than normal, and that dreaded check engine light might also turn on in newer cars. Due to the nature of these additives being corrosive in most instances, long term use may cause damage. Some examples of these detergents would be: acetone, toluene, xylene, benzene, naptha, stoddard solvent, methanol, isobutanol, and polyetheramine.

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The most abundant gasoline additive being used in the United States currently is ethanol. There are many reasons ethanol is in favor currently as an additive – not all of them are good, in my opinion. Ethanol, or grain alcohol, is added to unleaded gas at 10 to 15% by volume. Ethanol was thought to be the perfect choice as an additive because it creates crops for farmers in the U.S., decreases our use of gasoline, burns cleaner,  increases the octane of gas, and is more environmentally friendly than other additives used in the past like tetraethyllead (lead) and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). Just as with anything, there are compromises with ethanol use.

Running ethanol in vehicles not specifically designed for ethanol (non flex-fuel capable, or not designed to run on 20% up to 85% ethanol) will cause damage. Ethanol is corrosive and it attacks certain types of metal, plastic, and rubber, degrading them. Vehicles running E10 or E15 (10-15% ethanol, 85-90% gasoline) wear out faster than pure gasoline.  Valve train and fuel system components are the most affected items. The amount of damage that occurs varies and is based on the type of materials used to manufacture that vehicle, and how much ethanol is used over its lifetime. This is a fact, of which results of a scientific study was found, and can be read by following this link: https://crcao.org/reports/recentstudies2012/CM-136-09-1B%20Engine%20Durability/CRC%20CM-136-09-1B%20Final%20Report.pdf

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Because ethanol has different energy content than gasoline, a different volume of it is required to maintain the same air/fuel ratio as an engine running gasoline. The more ethanol added to gas, the leaner the air/fuel ratio will become due to this fact. If the car running the E10, E15, or higher percentage ethanol content can’t compensate for this leaner air/fuel mixture, the combustion won’t be as complete. This isn’t as much a problem for newer cars, but older cars can’t compensate as easily. Non-computer controlled cars don’t compensate at all! Once the percentage of ethanol reaches 20% and goes higher, even modern cars made in the last couple years can’t compensate. As someone who has repaired many cars with driveability/check engine lamp concerns, I can tell you the gasoline companies haven’t perfected their method of maintaining the correct percentage of ethanol content in their gas, at least when it is at the gas station. Finding ethanol content higher than advertised levels labeled on the pump is not that uncommon, especially when purchased at bargain gas stations.

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So, ethanol does burn cleaner with lower emissions, but only in engines specifically designed to run on ethanol. Higher tailpipe emissions, engines wearing out faster – that’s supposed to be good? Another myth busted! It’s my opinion the powers that be are hoping these older cars will wear out, their use will diminish, and they will be replaced by newer cars that are being made to compensate better for ethanol content. That, or they’re hoping we’ll all be driving electric cars sooner than later – I hope not!

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High Octane Hogwash? Everyone knows when you run higher octane gas in your car it will run smoother, make more power, and get better fuel economy, right?