Super Mario Bros. Gameplay Dataset

Super Mario Bros. (NES) gameplay dataset for machine learning.

Just in case you have any issues downloading the dataset directly from GitHub, here is a link from Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htB9qCxbeD2xCHqtzCt3ITFdd1CDrWjl/view?usp=sharing

Features

256x240 8bit indexed PNG images with RAM snapshot into metadata
256 actions (all possible NES controler input combinations, including START and SELECT), stored as an integer on each PNG metadata and in its own filename
737,134 frames
32 levels (normal mode)
141 wins + 139 failures = 280 episodes
889MB compressed, 3.4GB uncompressed
1 player
60 FPS
Includes warps
Game beaten

How to Use

Each PNG contains relevant information in its name itself and in its metadata.

Filename Format

Folder: <user>_<sessid>_e<episode>_<world>-<level>_<outcome>

Frame: <user>_<sessid>_e<episode>_<world>-<level>_f<frame>_a<action>_<datetime>.<outcome>.png

user: The logged user who recorded that gameplay. Currently there is only 1 player (me: Rafael);
sessid: Session ID. Just to differentiate between different gameplay sessions;
episode: Episode number in current session. An episode is 1 level, be it a completion or a failed (death) run;
world: Current world from 1 to 8;
level: Current level from 1 to 4;
frame: Frame number in a single episode / run (starting from 1);
action: An 8 bit integer from 0 to 255. Each bit corresponds to a button in the following order (from MSB to LSB): up, down, left, right, A, B, start, select, e.g.: 20dec = 00010100bin = right + B (running to the right)
datetime: Date and time the frame was captured (YYYY-MM-DD_HH-mm-SS);
outcome: Does this folder / frame corresponds to a completion (win) or a failed / death (fail) run / episode?

PNG Metadata Format

The PNG format supports metadata chunks after the IEND token. After each chunk token there is a \0 and then the corresponding data. We use 3 custom chunks for storing game data inside the image:

tEXtRAM: RAM snapshot at that frame, consisting of 2048 bytes;
tEXtBP1: Player 1 input buttons at that frame, same format as in the filename (1 byte);
tEXtOUTCOME: Does this frame corresponds to a completion (win) or a failed / death (fail) run / episode? fail = 1, win =2 (1 byte).

Useful References for Reading PNG Chunks

How to Cite

@misc{Pinto2021,
  author = {Pinto, R.C.},
  title = {Super Mario Bros. Gameplay Dataset},
  year = {2021},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/rafaelcp/smbdataset}}
}