The data this week comes from Mario Kart World Records and contains world records for the classic (if you’re a 90’s kid) racing game on the Nintendo 64.
This Video talks about the history of Mario Kart 64 World Records in greater detail. Despite it’s release back in 1996 (1997 in Europe and North America), it is still actiely played by many and new world records are achieved every month.
The game consists of 16 individual tracks and world records can be achieved for the fastes single lap or the fastest completed race (three laps). Also, through the years, players discovered shortcuts in many of the tracks. Fortunately, shortcut and non-shortcut world records are listed separately.
Furthermore, the Nintendo 64 was released for NTSC- and PAL-systems. On PAL-systems, the game runs a little slower. All times in this dataset are PAL-times, but they can be converted back to NTSC-times.
Current world records in Mario Kart 64 with date achieved and player’s name
| variable | class | description |
|---|---|---|
| track | character | Track name |
| type | factor | Single or three lap record |
| shortcut | factor | Shortcut or non-shortcut record |
| player | character | Player’s name |
| system_played | character | Used system (NTSC or PAL) |
| date | date | World record date |
| time_period | period | Time as hms period |
| time | double | Time in seconds |
| record_duration | double | Record duration in days |
Player’s data. Except nationality, this could be constructed with the above dataset.
| variable | class | description |
|---|---|---|
| position | integer | Player’s current leader board position |
| player | character | Player’s name |
| total | integer | Total world records |
| year | double | Year |
| records | integer | Number of world records |
| nation | character | Player’s nationality |
- How did the world records develop over time?
- Which track is the fastest?
- For which track did the world record improve the most?
- For how many tracks have shortcuts been discovered?
- When were shortcuts discovered?
- On which track does the shortcut save the most time?
- Which is the longest standing world record?
- Who is the player with the most world records?
- Who are recent players?
Credit: Benedikt Claus