Alright, I’m not sure how many people are going to find this as amazing as I did, but I have to put it up here, if only so I can find it again later.

For those who don’t know, Super Mario World was a great game for the Super Nintendo system. It brought the Mario series to a whole new level just because there were so many things you could do and so many ways to interact with the environments of each level. It wasn’t long before people copied the game over to the computer and started messing with the code to make their own modifications.

In 2007, some guy with the user name sonomamario created a whole new Mario level that was fully automated. (This was for a different game—one with a level builder—but more on that later.) Basically, the level could be loaded up and the contraptions in the level would move Mario from start to finish without the user having to touch any of the controls.

Since people had already been hacking Super Mario World for years, the trend took off with that game as well. It was a little harder, since gamers now had to manipulate hexadecimal values rather than use a nice graphical level editor, but people started making more and more complex levels that were fully automated and posting videos of the levels to YouTube.

It wasn’t long before simple automated levels just weren’t enough. People aspired to more. The next development was building automated levels and manipulating the objects within those levels that make sounds. Once gamers could orchestrate the sounds produced by the Mario levels, they started setting the automated levels to music. There are a number of these videos on YouTube, but I’m going to skip straight to the most impressive one. (It’s long, but the whole thing is pretty amazing, considering they built it from scratch.)

So I just started playing this new online game, Neo Steam, which is a steampunk-themed RPG. If you don’t know, these types of games frequently bring people together to accomplish a variety of tasks, from conquering new dungeons or opposing nations to crafting weapons and armor to talking about politics. Because of this, it’s sometimes easier to get a larger group together on a more permanent basis. This group can chat easily with each other, making it easier to find teammates and share items. These groups are called guilds.

Anyway, I was playing this past weekend and someone invited me into a guild. As a new player, I gratefully accepted. They quickly answered a lot of the questions that I had, and that was quite helpful.

The next time I got on, I saw that people were talking in my guild chat box. Only they were talking in Spanish! I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had inadvertently joined a guild where Spanish was the primary language. You’d've thought the name would have given it away—Brigada do Crepusculo—but I thought it was some medieval fantasy name.

So, in an effort to broaden my horizons, I’m going to be learning some Spanish to communicate with my guild. Here are some terms and phrases for you to memorize and use in every-day conversation:

¡Venga rápidamente, una bestia espantosa del infierno aterroriza la aldea pacífica! – Come quickly, a frightening hell-beast is terrorizing the peaceful village!

Haga a manome por favor una cota de mallas. – Please craft me a hauberk.

¿Mi energía es agotada, tiene usted poción? – My stamina is depleted, have you any potions?

¡Ahora, amigos de duende de madera, convocan sus animales favoritos y prepara su magia! – Now, wood elf friends, summon your pets and prepare your magic!

Tengo la instrucción insuficiente que puntos para avanzar mi habilidad con protectores – I have insufficient training points to advance my skill with shields.

Estos lobos otorgan 300 puntos de experiencia. – These wolves grant 300 experience points.

¿Me acompañaría usted en mi búsqueda para matar 10 ratas? – Would you accompany me on my quest to slay 10 rats?

Perdone, parezco haber perdido mi vida social. – Excuse me, I seem to have misplaced my social life.

Who knew the French were capable of this much mayhem?