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  • Works on: VBA v22. Note the ROM version carefully; JUE (instead of W) may not work.
Hey, since this is a cool game and it's similar to Super Mario Bros I thought I'd make a walkathon version of it. The B-Button is not used in the entire run, so Mario is walking to save princess Daisy from the evil clutches of Tatanga!

New Glitches

Here I list glitches I stumbled upon while playing Super Mario Land. Not all of these are included in this submission. I'm going to make a glitch compilation video of these sometime.

Out of Bounds

On the autoscroller levels, if you are pushed out of the screen, hold 'left' to go out of bounds. You appear about a screen length into the right side. You cannot reappear on the left side again. Due to the way the game loads the level layout, you can sometimes go through walls but not through others, while out of bounds. This trick does not save time, to my knowledge. (Only works on v1.0)

Glitch sound

As big Mario, if you get hit and immediately die or get an invincibility star, the sound will be glitched. The pitch at which the glitch sound plays varies.

Coins from 3-3 boss

The boss of level 3-3 throws rocks which Mario can use to reach the exit. The first frame these rocks appear, they can be collected as coins. (Only works on v1.0(?) )

Moving objects & enemies to the left at the end of levels

At the end of a level, if you go back and then right, the screen will move backwards for a bit. Moving platforms, enemies and bosses will notably move to the left if done repeatedly.

One second freeze when beating Tatanga

(There is a possibility that I recall this one incorrectly) As big Mario, when delivering the last shot to Tatanga, and you get hit the game will freeze for about a second.

About the run

Sorry, but I didn't bother to fix some of the flaws that are in this run. Well, I had fun doing it and I hope you have fun watching.
I have some ideas to improve on xenos' normal TAS that I want to test sometime. Maybe I will post about them if there is much interest.

FractalFusion: We already have a walkathon submission. Walkathon is an arbitrary goal and there's nothing here that makes the goal notable, so I will reject this submission.

Nach: Since we now have a Moons tier which relaxed some restrictions on entertaining runs, I am unrejecting this and rejudging it.

mugg: Thanks for reconsidering this submission, but I feel this run is not optimized well enough. Therefore I will cancel this submission.
Specifically, the bonus game after each world is not optimized. Going into the bonus game as big or fire Mario wasn't considered and might save even more time. The out of bounds trick (v1.0 only) at the end of world 2-3 was not done to reach the goal faster, which would save about 3 seconds there. Perhaps this will motivate someone else to take a look at it. Since Bizhawk's Gambatte core emulates lag frames all over the place as opposed to VBA, the game has got a lot more demanding to TAS than it already was, making running this game a true pain (This wasn't the case upon checking, but the game is nevertheless tedious to optimize). I would like to refrain from working on this game until a new skip comes up, something like this would be sweet. Looking into this theoretical bug yielded nothing, however...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2624: MUGG's GB Super Mario Land "walkathon" in 15:00.23
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Man. We got a lot of good submissions this April Fools, this one especially. :)
Nach wrote:
I also used to wake up every morning, open my curtains, and see the twin towers. And then one day, wasn't able to anymore, I'll never forget that.
mklip2001
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This game is so tough for casual players, especially in Stage 4, that the walkthrough is particularly entertaining. Also, nice WTF moments in Stage 4-3. Yes vote, and I'd be particularly interested in improvements to the regular run.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Limne
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4-3 just on its own deserves a Yes vote. This was awesome.
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4-3 is indeed awesome.
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meh vote, just boring compared to normal run
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I liked this very much. I approve it should be on the site. And I confirm 4-3 is best.
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Mugg, cool to see you do some kind of walkathon. I wonder if there are some other games where this could get interesting. yes vote.
Super Mario Bros. console speedrunner - Andrew Gardikis
NitroGenesis
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How about New SMB?
YoungJ1997lol wrote:
Normally i would say Yes, but thennI thought "its not the same hack" so ill stick with meh.
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NitroGenesis wrote:
How about New SMB?
It's not possible to use the fastest warps route for the walkathon. World 2 requires some speed to unlock the hidden level that leads to a warp cannon (to world 5). Then on World 5 it's possible to achieve the secret exit on 5 Ghost if the runner can manipulate a mini mushroom (to get a faster time). And then it's the last 12 levels of world 8. 2 of them will have some swinning.
greenalink.blogspot.com
Warepire
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The only thing that was entertaining in this TAS was level 4-3, the rest was kinda meh. Very weak yes.
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Hey people, thanks for watching. Just saying that I want to run the hard mode of this game, so maybe this shouldn't be published (well, it depends on whether people are ok with 3 publications). I'm also improving xenos' normal run and if it wasn't for those autoscroller stages this improvement would already be ready to be submitted.
sgrunt
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I, for one, found this boring. Then again, I also found the normal run boring. We already have a walkathon for SMB on the NES which is novel enough on its own; I don't think we need this to supplement that. I would prefer to wait for the improvement to the normal run, and possibly the hard mode run, rather than see this published. In that light, I will vote No.
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Very, very interesting, with great music. At first, I thought I would hate this, but then I really, really liked what I saw. I also loved the randomness of the level locations, how the can-can song plays during invincibility times, and most of all how at the end of worlds, daisy always looks like she has a mustache too. Good Job, YES VOTE
[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool
Limne
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Hey people, thanks for watching. Just saying that I want to run the hard mode of this game, so maybe this shouldn't be published (well, it depends on whether people are ok with 3 publications). I'm also improving xenos' normal run and if it wasn't for those autoscroller stages this improvement would already be ready to be submitted.
Three seems like a bit much for a game as straightforward as this. Maybe this run could obsolete the normal one and we could have a Hard Mode done with running?
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om, nom, nom... blech, bitter!
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Found this accidentally. Can it be unrejected for Moons maybe?
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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Yes it can. And the original rejection doesn't entirely make sense to me either. Edit: Unrejected and claimed. Audience, please give this run a watch and let me know your feelings. Link to video
Warning: Opinions expressed by Nach or others in this post do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or position of Nach himself on the matter(s) being discussed therein.
ViGadeomes
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I like it ! yes vote.
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I will be cancelling this as I don't want this published as is. The bonus game after each world is not well optimized and the out of bounds skip at the end of 2-3 wasn't done. This run could be faster by 5 seconds or more. As far as I checked, Bizhawk's Gambatte core emulates random lag frames all over the place, making this game much more demanding to TAS than it already was on VBA (this wasn't the case upon checking). I'm not looking forward to whatever work I will ever do in this game again; I might not touch it as long as no new skip appears.
EZGames69
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I never really saw the appeal Walkathons had. I saw them more as just a movie where you purposely go slow and that was it. Now after watching this walkathon, I'm starting to really see the appeal. Mario instead of bouncing at top speed and skipping out on enemies now has the chance to hit every one of them without wasting time, due to him taking his time. Bouncing on enemies is one of the most satisfying things to watch in these kinds of games, so the more there are, the more entertaining. In addition, you really get a better view of some of the tight corner cuts with jumping on and off platforms. It almost goes unnoticed in a normal movie as it's too fast to really see. But here, you can see it clearly, and appreciate the movement more. Finally, some jumps that seem too wide to make without running speed can actually be made with the right timing. Kinda like how in MegaMan when you do those hops onto other platforms far apart from eachother, it's all very tight and satisfying to watch. Overall, this movie has changed how I view the walkathon category and I definitely see the appeal for it now. There's so much more to them than just simply going slower on purpose. I hope a more optimized run of this game gets submitted in the near future, as I think it would be recieved pretty well.
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
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YouTube encode: Link to video