Introduction
Once again back on my BS with a VLDC TAS that collects as much as possible.
The 6th Annual Vanilla Level Design Contest: Collaboration Hack is a 2016 compilation hack. The hack contains all of the existing levels from the 2008 Vanilla Level Design Contest where the ideas of a vanilla Super Mario World hacking contest were a primordial goo before becoming the amazingly creative contest it is today. For reasons only known to the level compiler the displayed user names in the hack are based on what they were in 2008, which I kind of understand why they did it but I also disagree with. The levels themselves are on average fine but quaint levels, although there's still a fair amount of levels worth checking out since they're quite fun.
Sometime during mid-August last year I briefly started a TAS of the VLDC1 compilation hack. Unfortunately the first level I started with, Frozen Cavern Castle, was a very long level that required redoing the entire level twice for each exit due to its design. I quickly got demotivated at the prospect of having to do the long autoscroller room twice and dropped it.
Around mid-November last year the RetroAchievements set for the VLDC8 compilation hack finally released and, despite some frustrations here and there, enjoyed my time playing through a whole VLDC hack again. This got me back into a mood of checking out VLDC levels, which is when I ended up watching through Suru486's WIP TASes through Six Pack: VLDC Compilation and FPZero's LPs of VLDC9 (YouTube playlist if the SA paywall is up) and VLDC11. Those videos rekindled that drive to go back and actually work on another VLDC TAS and that's how this got here.
Run notes
- Emulator used: BizHawk 2.11
- BSNES v115+ core
- Full completion
- 77/76 exits
- 162/153 dragon coins
- 8/8 moons
- Contains speed/entertainment tradeoffs
Goal choices
Once again the main focus is getting all of the intended exits, dragon coins, and 3-up moons in their respective locations in each level. For the most part this is straightforward but since there's no counter the exit count is mostly based on what the compiler for the hack considered an exit.
There are a couple of levels where there's more than 5 dragon coins and also multiple exits. For the most part some of the dragon coins are obtained on the first run of level, while the remaining 5 are obtained on the another run through the level. There's also several levels with less than 5 dragon coins which includes the judge level. These will have their dragon coint count with the denominator less than 5 in the level notes.
Mechanics and techniques
For the most part see my submission notes for my VLDC12 and VLDC6 TASes to get most of what you need to know mechanically. There is one addendum I have to add.
- Skipping the feather transformation properly
- One of the key components that I knew of for skipping the cape transformation was grabbing the feather high enough such that Mario was offscreen. The second component that I hadn't figured out until working on this TAS was that the camera must also not be scrolling vertically when grabbing the feather. This is utilized in a couple of levels when I get the opportunity to do so.
- Elaborating on the speed/entertainment tradeoffs
- There's two main speed/entertainment tradeoffs in this TAS. The first one is having 99 lives, stars, and coins. While lives and coins are pretty easy to control without losing any time, the stars are dependent on the goal tape positions. To get the 99 stars I intentionally lose a few frames in the level Rainbow World to get the one remaining star to reach 99 stars. I also recall that having more and larger numbers in the HUD affects lag by a little bit but not as much as what's going into the sprite slots of laggier levels. I mainly did this as a reference to [304] SNES Super Mario World "all 96 exits" by VIPer7 in 1:23:38.37 & [435] SNES Super Demo World: The Legend Continues "all 120 exits" by Fabian & JXQ in 2:13:17.90 where there's intentional speed/entertainment tradeoffs to also get 99 lives, stars and coins (although the latter doesn't do this) by the end of the TAS.
The second one is the routing for the level Mario Ware. There are 2 exits and multiple branches that loop back the the critical path. Instead of optimizing both runs through the level showing half of the routes, I made the call to have the two exit runs explore different branches to better show off the level, which also made for a more interesting routing challenge when it came to TASing the level.
Level by level notes
- 13/13 exits
- 12/12 dragon coins
- 2/2 moons
Castle World done in the TAS, mainly because I wanted to have the Worst World not be done first to at least give some viewers better expectations up front of what to expect in terms of overall level quality in the first VLDC. As for the world itself, the levels grouped here are generally fortress themed so there's a fair amount of boss exits here.
- Frozen Cavern Castle
- 2 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
Something worth noting is that for some reason in this compilation, completing any exit internally flagged as a secret exit for the first time will move Mario on the map. This is fortunate for this level as it will move Mario up on the overworld, and will stop this from happening for the rest of the levels.
As for the level itself, it's quite lengthy and requires going through all three subpaths for both exits. The order does matter since Yoshi helps out in the spike path without needing to obtain any of the stars, with the extra benefit for the normal exit being a more convenient way to get extra height in the vertical climb.
The Dragon Coins are obtained during the secret exit run through the level. The secret exit requires the spike path being done last to reach the key path so the same routing choices from the normal exit are used.
- Castle of Mystery
- 2 exits
- 1 moon
The upper path to the goal tape is straightforward enough with maintaining 49 speed. The moon is obtained in the Big Boo path, where a mushroom and a damage boost makes getting back on the critical path faster by spin jumping through the floor. Big Boo is made to despawn sooner by running to the right of the arena after the last hit.
- Wendy Security Castle
- 1 exit
There's no way around waiting for the 1st P-switch to wear off, but I do use the slope to get 49 speed to get past the blockade with as much speed as possible. A leftward scroll is used to get past the wooden stakes without slowing down. A bit of slowing down is used to prevent jumping up too high and getting caught in a slowdown trap. A damage boost from the midway power up reaches the door to Wendy's fight a frame sooner than normal. This frame perfect timing also skips the power down animation.
- (No Name) - Wowfunhappy
- 1 exit
This level's whole item carrying puzzle is entirely skipped with a wall jump to reach the key and keyhole. Fun note: it's also really easy to cheese this entire level by simply taking the spring in this room, leaving, and coming back to get a second spring to bypass needing to interact with the rest of the level.
- Bowser's Nightmare factory
- 1 exit
There's a shortcut to the last section of the level with the digging Chucks by jumping over the top of the factory entrance to a back door. A shell jump is used to skip using the intended vine to the upper path. After the autoscroller is a Bowser fight because of course there is. Delaying a bit before throwing the first mechakoopa at Bowser is needed to prevent the second throw from tossing the mechakoopa off the left side of the screen. Otherwise this is your small Mario fight against Bowser with the steelie skip as seen in optimal Bowser fights.
Surely I'll never see Bowser again.
- Iggy's Castle
- 2 exits
- 2/2 dragon coins
- 1 moon
For some reason this level only has 2 dragon coins. This is going to happen for a few levels.
While there's a door to an autoscroller to the Iggy exit close to the start of the 2nd section, taking the long path leads to the 2nd dragon coin and the moon. Thus the same general route to the key exit is use for the Iggy exit.
- Triple Threat
- 4 exits
Since the branching point is late in the level, the beginning of each exit run through the level is reused between them, with lag adjustments needed for the saw section. This shared input also has 6-5 running jumps, midair shell jumps, and midair key jumps to bypass several sections of the level.
The key is used to hit a turn block for the goal orb exit, which skips needing to take time spin jumping through to the pipe.
The key is used for both the key exit and Wendy exit, since they share the same path and the key enables hitting turn blocks early and key jumps to get past one of the rooms quicker.
The key and throw block can't be taken to the Big Boo exit since carrying one into the fight despawns the Big Boo, resulting in an unwinnable state. The blue P-switch is thrown as soon as it's used to slightly speed up the fight to skip needing one of the throw blocks. Moving to the right after the 3rd hit on Big Boo makes the despawn immediate, speeding up the end of the fight.
- Ninji Fortress
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
Waiting is required for the first 2 dragon coins and there's no real way around it. The moving ceiling room is made a bit quicker by double hitting an On/Off block in the upper section to reduce the wait time a little bit. The last dragon coin also requires a brief wait to get the spikes to move out of the way.
- 8/8 exits
- 30/30 dragon coins
- 0/0 moons
The straight line of levels makes ma routing quite easy, I should say. That being said, it's made up with a few rather long levels to get through. There's also not a single moon to be found here.
- Into the Dark
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
The dragon coins are all located before the midway checkpoint. There's a fair bit of lag when getting the blue P-switch in the first section. A couple of double carries with shells are used for midair shell jumps without using the blue P-switch. Instead the blue P-switch is used to quickly swim through the first 2 water sections of the level as well as avoiding a detour to get the silver P-switch.
The fire flower is obtained for a damage boost back to the left side of the 2nd water section. This section has the last dragon coin of the level. The silver P-switch is needed for either exit in the 2nd water section but the last dragon coin is blocked by the munchers.
In the branching part of the dark section of the level, the upper path is taken since it's the fastest due to just needing P-speed running to reach the end of the path.
- Frozen Future Fury
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
This level has lots of uses for 6-5 running and midair shell jumps to reach dragon coins without heavy speed loss. This also avoids some of the intentional paths to the dragon coins since vine climbing loses running speed. A wall jump to the exit pipe is used in the room with the 1st dragon coin to skip waiting on the 2nd moving platform of the room.
- A Land Lost in dust
- 2 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
A wall jump followed by a shell jump over the 1st exit pipe of the 1st section to reach the 2nd exit pipe skips both a short swimming section and a text box, saving a substantial amount of time for both exits. I found this skip from watching Suru486's TAS of Six Pack of the same level so thank them that one. A key jump is used to reach the last dragon coin before the goal tape exit.
- Mt. Dover
- 1 exit
The feather is obtained offscreen without camera movement to skip the animation. Spin flight is used to maintain P-meter in the muncher section to keep a flight timer for flight speed in the light castle section. Another spin flight for the flight timer in the dark castle section is used to get flight speed in 1st clouds section.
- Tunnel Trouble
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
A lot of damage boosting and incredibly aggressive P-meter management is used to skip a lot of the riding of moving platforms and mega moles. This includes a shell jump to keep the P-meter buildup in the 2nd half of the level.
- Podoboo Cavern
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
The 2nd subsection with the 3rd dragon coin has a mandatory ride on the moving platform due to the ceiling and enemy placement making skipping the ride impossible. A mushroom is taken to damage boost on munchers to skip a moving platform on the way to the last dragon coin, while a shell jump to get back to the exit pipe to the goal
avoids the need for another damage boost.
- Sunset Vista
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
6-5 running and a wall jump skips the need to go down and back up between the 1st and 2nd dragon coins. Wall jumps avoid needing the spring for the 4th and 5th dragon coins. After getting the last dragon coin, 6-5 running is used to get past the brown swinging platforms with 49 speed for the rest of the level.
- 12/11 exits
- 24/24 dragon coins
- 1/1 moons
This has a level where the definition of an "exit" is a bit awkward but I'll count them anyways. While this follows how VLDC 7 & 8, from my understanding the only other VLDC compilation hacks available at the time, having a "worst world" to shame the low scoring levels of the contest these levels are just mediocre rather than outright terrible. I'm glad that later SMW Level Design Contest compilations kicked out the concept of a worst world entirely.
Another thing of note is that while there's a level entry for Cape Quest, that level's been lost to time and entering the level states as such. It's there mainly to note that it was judged and did exist at one point but is otherwise lost.
- This is a Castle
- 2 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
According to the level designer, the 1st boss door to Iggy was supposed to be a trap but was set to actually go to the boss instead. The reason this hack lists 2 exits is that it counts the separate boss doors in this level as exits despite leading to the same boss. As such, I do 2 runs through the level for each boss door.
Waiting on the brown stakes is unavoidable, sadly. A wall jump grants access to the spring early, bypassing the intended path to reach it with a galoomba bounce.
- Sky Attack
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
All of the dragon coins are in the 1st section, which is a long autoscroller. A feather can be found here which speeds up the rest of the level once inside the airship. The cape also makes for a good life farming playaround. The flight timer is used to get flight when exiting each pipe in the level to speed up the start of each section. Jumping of of the blue P-switch in midair is slightly faster than needing to jump on it when it's on actual ground.
- Hazy Forest Castle
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
A midair shell jump is used to reach the green ! block with the feather and have cape flight upon obtaining the feather. Flying under the level geometry to the door was faster than going back the intended route. A camera scroll to the left is used to avoid getting hit and maintaining as much speed as possible in the brown room with the bullet bill cannons. Spin flight is used in the sky section to maintain P-speed and have a flight timer in the final section to reach the goal tape exit faster.
- Watch Out... Above and Below
- 1 exit
A shell is taken from the 1st section to skip part of the skull raft ride of the 2nd section. For some reason this level uses the Butter Bridge scrolling rather than normal horizontal scrolling in the 3rd section so a goal orb is placed where the scrolling ends. Otherwise the intended goal tape never shows up and makes the level unbeatable as the Butter Bridge scrolling hard stops at a certain point.
- Super Wario Blah
- 3/2 exits
- 4/4 dragon coins
- 1 moon
The first exit taken is the "impossible" key exit of the level. It's possible to reach by dying while riding a Yoshi holding a key in their mouth. Unfortunately the only source of dying to reach the "impossible" keyhole is by letting the 600 timer run out. While there's ways to clip upwards, the lack of any enemies to actually perform the action needed for the up clip means that this is the only way to reach it. So instead here's 6 minutes of mostly unassisted play that grabs all 4 dragon coins as well as the moon of the level, with the only TAS adjustments is redoing anything if unnecessary lag was generated and getting into position to reach the keyhole as soon as possible when the timer reaches 0.
The intended key exit simply requires getting a cape to fly up to it. The goal fish (which is just a reskinned goal orb) exit uses the baby Yoshi to fast swim through the water sections.
- ?
- 2 exits
No, that's the actual name of the level. Also, all of the moons are actually spikes.
The Yellow Switch exit is needed to reach the goal orb exit. However, there's large overlap that movement for both exits is the same for a large chunk. A frame perfect jump over the spike wall for the goal orb exit is done to skip an intended damage boost.
- Haunted Isle
- 1 exit
This is a pretty straightforward level overall, although a double boo ring spawn does occur when getting out of the brief water section. Sadly I couldn't make any S or Z Tetrinominos due to no cape.
- Prison Escape
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
Some of the flying ? blocks contain feathers so the mushroom at the start and a buzzy beetle are used to get the cape as soon as possible. Flying under the level skips parts of the level but getting back up is needed for the 4th dragon coin.
- 12/12 exits
- 26/22 dragon coins
- 3/3 moons
The overworld movement required a fair amount of map rerouting to find the fastest path to all of the levels. A few of the levels also required some complex tricks to speed up.
- Black Switch Palace
- 1 exit
A mushroom is obtained at the start to obtain a cape later in the level. As this hack only allows small Mario starts and the cape is obtained after the branch point, the dark room path is taken since it's a bit faster due to not needing to climb either via vine or slowly getting a boo closer for a spin jump in the other path.
- Mario's Ship
- 2 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
Due to the boo ring positions being unfavorable both times through the level, brief slowdown is needed to get past them in the blue P-switch room. A double grab to hold both the key and the P-switch is used to save a bit of time for the key exit run of the level.
- Land of Darkness
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
- 1 moon
Cape flight is required to reach the moon so that's obtained as soon as possible, with offscreen feather grabbing to skip the transformation. Grabbing the 2nd dragon coin from below allows Mario to build up P-speed to transition to spin flight then cape flight instead of getting stuck spin jumping on the turn blocks.
- Haunted Fortress
- 1 exit
No flower means no fast Mort fight, sadly. A shell is taken in the 1st section to fast swim through the 2nd section and to shell jump in the 3rd section for P-speed management.
- Boo's time tower
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
There's some slowdown to avoid hitting the boo ring. The unavoidable mushroom finds use for the Big Boo fight at the top of the vertical room as a damage boost gives just enough time to obtain the 1st throw block before the spikes cover them up. This also grants a Big Boo fast despawn as the death animation happens to end up high enough in a vertical screen section that standing on the ground below along with Big boo's path at the 3rd hit is enough distance to trigger the early end.
- Dark Core
- 1 exit
- 2 moons
It's possible to swim below a large chunk of the level when the layer 2 water isn't at high tide, skipping some sections. A few coins are obtained before hitting the blue P-switch to make getting up and falling down from the 1st moon faster. A mushroom is required to reach the 2nd moon, which is obtained shortly after the 1st moon. A frame perfect spin jump is used in the bone ceiling section to get further ahead in the section with less slowdown. The buzzy beetle shell is kicked to reveal the other blue P-switch sooner to hit it sooner. A spin jump through the cloud blocks is the intended method to reach the 2nd moon.
- The Soulwrecked
- 1 exit
- 2/2 dragon coins
Despite what the hack readme file for this hack says, there's 2 dragon coins in the level. And yes the 1st dragon coin is bugged to give infinite coins due to being placed on a map section edge. It's a vanilla bug that doesn't come up on the original Super Mario World since dragon coin placement avoided the bug.
A wall jump is used to access the feather room for a cape needed for block clipping later. The water room is the only one with dragon coins. A shell is used for fast swimming, which is faster despite the lag generation.
The block clip avoids needing to do each path, or one path twice, for P-switches to clear the path to the Big Boo fight. Throw blocks are obtained quickly to avoid running into sprite limit issues caused by the boo blocks and eerie generator. moving to the right after the 3rd hit results in a fast Big Boo despawn.
- Chateau von Mort
- 1 exit
The puzzle to reach the blue P-switch takes a bit of time and requires a mushroom. This is slightly sped up by getting a spink jump out of the water at the right time to break through the blocks quickly. A P-switch jump later in the level avoids needing to use a damage boost or a spring for one of the rooms.
- The House on Haunted Hill
- 2 exits
- 9/5 dragon coins
Thanks to the 2 level exit routes and dragon coin placement, getting all 9 dragon coins placed in the level is a matter of getting 4 on the key exit run and the remaining 5 on the normal exit run.
Mushrooms are used for damage boosting in the key exit path to skip some layer 2 water cycles. Key jumps slightly speed up the end of the key exit run by avoiding the speed loss of falling in water with downwards speed. For the goal tape exit run, waiting is needed to reach one of the doors needed to progress.
- Big Boo's Icy Mansion
- 1 exit
A camera scroll to the right causes the hole to spawn later, letting Mario reach the P-switch door quicker. The P-balloon is grabbed as late as possible to reach the lower pipe exit faster with balloon clipping. This also shows off a downwards pipe transition on an up pipe which is pretty amusing.
- 17/17 exits
- 22/21 dragon coins
- 1/1 moons
This section has the most exits in the hack, solely because of a certain level in particular. Oddly, having more than 2 exits wasn't banned until after VLDC 2 where it was a severe problem.
- Switch Palace Way
- 1 exit
- 1/1 dragon coins
- 1 moon
A wall jump skips needing to bounce on the green bean platform which slows down horizontal movement. The lakitu cloud is used for the glitch speed allowing for near cape flight speed as well as easily reaching the sole dragon coin and the moon.
- Twisted Forest AKA (No Name) - Sind
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
For some reason the name isn't listed in the compilation hack. As for the level itself, it's faster to gradually build up the P-meter in the final section to the goal tape rather than building it up first then maintaining 49 speed.
- Star Grass Island
- 2 exits
The galoomba from the block is used to hit the turn block for the P-switch rather than using the intended shell and having a charging Chuck break open the way back. This P-switch is required for the 2nd goal tape exit. Even when hitting the P-switch as soon as possible, there's still a required wait to continue on the path.
- Yoshi's Island 7
- 2 exits
- 6/5 dragon coins
Despite the extra dragon coin being in the key exit path I ended up getting it on the goal tape exit run along with the other 5 dragon coins. It's a weird inconsistency that I mistakenly made when compared to the other levels which I get some in one run and the remaining 5 in the other. It's probably fine though.
Anyways, the blue P-switch is used to enter the pipe to the keyhole a little faster rather than using the blocks that the P-switch would normally reveal. A wall jump is used to get one of the dragon coins without needing to wait on the red parakoopa movement cycle. P-meter management is used for a midair shell jump to maintain 49 speed to the goal tape exit.
- (No Name) - Pozeal
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
Despite my best efforts, keeping P-speed past the sumo brother wasn't a possibility. A slide kill on the pokey blocking the 4th dragon coin is used to avoid a slower damage boost.
- Pleasant Hills
- 7/7 exits
Yes, you read that right: 7 distinct exits. However, there's a lot of overlap for the last 4 exits.
The first 2 exits are ones that don't need the dark green switch to be activated. The 3rd exit is the dark green switch because the cape is required for the remaining exits. For the most part each subsequent exit is a branch off the previous one so there's a lot of reused inputs. Spin flight is used for the 6th and 7th exits to speed up the moon background room with cape flight speed.
- Frozen forest
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
A shell jump is used to reach the 2nd dragon coin faster than the intended path of a pipe detour. A mushroom is obtained to get a fire flower later. Due to sprite limits being hit, the platforms that are normally supposed to be under the last dragon coin don't spawn so a different approach of using the spring a little bit to the left is used. A fire flower is obtained right before Roy to get the quick kill.
- Mario Ware
- 2 exits
This is another level where the 2 exits lead to the same boss but are considered "different" by different door entrances. I used this as a good speed/entertainment tradeoff by showing off all of the different rooms. As one branch has a cape while the other doesn't, this lead me to route out which branches benefit more with a cape or which branch is faster when not considering a cape. This lead to some interesting solutions for the capeless path such as P-switch jumping to avoid a mega mole. This was definitely a fun level to work out.
Something that I found interesting: this is the only level with Reznor fights which is odd when I think about it.
- 15/15 exits
- 48/44 dragon coins
- 1/1 moons
To me these levels seem quaint for the best of the best, but standards and the level of creativity on the SMW Central community wasn't quite there yet in 2008. That being said, these levels are quite good although also a bit long.
Due to the routing, I don't end up doing the 1st place level last so I chose a route that had the more appropriate end for this TAS.
- Rainbow World
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
There's several branches to reaching the end as well as discrete dragon coin paths. I used the route Suru486 took in their TAS but made adjustments to take a damage boost to keep the silver P-switch for the beach section later. The midway tape was the fastest place for a power up and avoids a transformation animation. A note about silver P-switches: in vanilla they'll act like blue P-switches after a pipe transition so it's not used to clear the munchers around the 4th dragon coin. Instead in the beach section it's used to spawn the star earlier to reach the 4th dragon coin and to go above the pipes with 49 speed and avoid slowing down in the water.
A small bit of speed/entertainment tradeoff: I intentionally slow down before reaching the goal tape exit for a few frames to get 15 stars rather than 14 stars with fastest speed without a cape or cannon speed. This lets me end the TAS with 99 stars. You might be able to guess where this is going.
- Mario's Epic Excursion
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
A feather can be found early in the level which helps speed up multiple sections. A spin flight is done to get cape flight into the moving lava section, which speeds the section up and makes the one cycle a breeze compared to real time play. Spin flight is also used before entering the castle section to fly through quite a bit of the moving floor section, although it still requires some waiting. Wall jumps are used to reach and obtain the 3rd dragon coin without getting hit by a thwomp, taking an intentional damage boost, or needing to wait on the last On/Off switch. The final section with the note blocks only needed 2 slow falls. One slow fall avoided bouncing back up from the note blocks while the other lets Mario grab the last dragon coin without needing to land on the note blocks nearby.
- Do the Time Warp
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
Despite looking like it's possible to avoid the blue P-switch, I couldn't find a way to get enough falling speed to get block clipping to the door of the next section to work.
Instead of using the shell from the icy past to get the spring, the shell is instead used to shell jump to the up pipe to the future where the P-switch is located. At the level branch the icy past path was much faster than the volcanic future path. The lakitu cloud speed glitch was the faster way to reach the next exit pipe compared to playing normally despite having to slow down to 46 speed to avoid landing back on the cloud.
- Tidal Swamp
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
This level has a cape in the 1st layer 2 water section so a mushroom is grabbed at the start of the level. Taking the door next to the moon rather than flying back sets Mario up for a spin flight to enter the 2nd layer 2 water section with cape flight to speed up that room slightly faster. A low swim after breaking the turn block with a spin jump lets Mario fall into the lower water a bit faster while a wall jump off the pipe lets him leave the water without getting caught by its rise. A shell is taken after the last dragon coin to get fast swimming to the goal tape.
- Shining Forest
- 3 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
The light green switch exit is taken first as collecting all of the dragon coins and the key exit is locked behind it. The cape from the light green ! blocks also helps with speeding up dragon coin collecting. The routing to the Big Boo exit uses a few spin flights for P-meter management and cape flight after a pipe transition. The key exit can be slightly sped up by grabbing the key at maximum cape flight speed and moving back to the keyhole at the same speed in the opposite direction.
- Flight of the Yoshi
- 2 exits
- 4/4 dragon coins
- 1 moon
Really odd that the one judge level in this hack only has 4 dragon coins.
The green switch exit is required to reach the plunger (another reskinned goal orb) exit. A shell is used to clear the way of clapping Chucks rather than use the intended fire flower to said green switch. Despite the availability of capes they aren't used for the 2nd exit at all since the flying Yoshi on the airship works well enough and the first blue P-switch forces a wait. The 2nd blue P-switch is thrown on top of the silver P-switch, mainly to not block off the 4th dragon coin by hitting the switch before going to the coin.
- Mountain Heights
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
A midair shell jump is used to reach the 1st dragon coin without the pipe cannon, followed by another shell jump to avoid needing to go further to the right in the 1st section. At the start of the 2nd section a shell is taken to knock out a charging Chuck and allow building up P-meter. Building up P-meter rather than getting 49 speed from the slope game a better path to landing on the amazing flying hammer bro without getting hit by a hammer. The 2nd section ends with a branch point, with the upper path taken.
The upper path has a detour to a bonus room where a feather from a cycling power up can be obtained for bypassing some sections. Spin flight is used to skip the throw block puzzle for the blue P-switch as well as carry it into the mega mole section. The blue P-switch is used there to fly past the wall of brown blocks that would normally release the mega mole meant for crossing the muncher hallway.
Spin flight is used to move through the vertical climb section quickly without needing to ride the moving platforms. A flight timer is readied while grabbing the 4th dragon coin to slightly speed up the start of the final section. A spin flight is used to reach the last dragon coin and a dive cape pump past the brown blocks in front of the goal tape is used to skip doing the work for the blue P-switch.
Small note: for some reason the overworld music doesn't come back after completing this level. It dues return after entering another level or leaving and re-entering the submap.
- Onyx Platform
- 2 exits
- 9/5 dragon coins
The hard path exit is taken first as it has 4 dragon coins on the way. A fair amount of P-meter management and careful falling makes reaching the left goal tape pretty quick. A wall jump is used to skip using the spring.
The easy exit path is more P-meter management with a wall jump to avoid climbing a vine. The last dragon coin can be obtained without slowing down by carefully falling down one of the holes.
- Koopa Hills
- 2 exits
- 5/5 dragon coins
A mushroom is required for the secret goal tape exit due to a turn block. The first blue P-switch is required to reach the intended silver P-switch from a detour. While it's possible to block dupe for a silver P-switch instead this means losing the mushroom and having to go much further through the level for another power up to break the turn block. The 2nd blue P-switch is only used to reveal the silver P-switch faster. Otherwise this would require needing to item babysit the blue P-switch a bit farther into the level.
For the normal goal tape there's a feather in the same room as the 3rd dragon coin. There's invisible blocks above the normal goal tape so flying over the level to quickly reach the last dragon coin isn't in the cards.
- Random Airship
- 1 exit
- 5/5 dragon coins
For the autoscrollers it's mainly a matter of coin count management for amusement purposes and carefully considered movement for lag reduction purposes. For the sumo bros room I couldn't find a way to kick a shell up and attempt to test if doing a midair shell jump could skip the P-switch entirely. In the cloud autoscroller, timing the cloud glitch speed to the door was used to save a small amount of time. The icy spikes and stars room was mainly P-meter management, with a wall jump to keep P-meter management until hitting 49 speed after grabbing the 2nd star. The number platform room used a lot of 6-5 running to get the horizontal boost from the platforms. The last autoscroller room was played in such a way that the coin count in the corner going into the final room was 99 coins.
Also the final room is another Bowser fight. Augh. Anyways, it's like the first Bowser fight in this TAS with the big steelie skip, no cape, and everything.
- Credits
- 0 exits
This is as good of a place as any to put this.
I have this TAS call time upon going to the bottom of the credits level and taking the side enabled level exit, which isn't a real exit. For the submitted input file this lets the moving platform go down far enough to despawn then letting Mario jump down quickly. For the extended inputs I have Mario ride the platform instead so the credits can be read in a normal manner.
Possible improvements
- Of course cutting out the unnecessary speed/entertainment tradeoffs that were mentioned in the level notes would save time if someone was really into wanting the minimal time possible at all costs
- Lag reduction is definitely still in the cards to consider since there's a fair amount of levels which have lag issues
- There's likely some movement optimizations that I never considered that could be faster through levels
Special thanks
- Suru486's TAS of the VLDC1 levels in Six Pack which was a helpful resource to compare strats against, even if I didn't have a cape to always work with in most levels: https://youtu.be/3pJhUBmA6So
- FPZero's LPs of VLDC9 and VLDC11 also getting me back into the mood of TASing another VLDC compilation hack
- Here's a link to the SMW Central thread for the VLDC11 LP: https://smwc.me/1502067
Suggested screenshot
There's probably a lot more dynamic and cool screenshot choices but the one that stands out to me is this one.
Frame 227185: "Wario" (actually just a yellow Mario) abuses death and a Yoshi to reach the "impossible" exit.
Publisher's note
I have an extended input file that lets the credits scroll through slowly before leaving the Credits level. This is what I used for my personal encode but up to you if you want to use it as well if this gets published.
CoolHandMike: Claiming for judging.
CoolHandMike: Cannot judge this atm. Sorry for holding this up. Will release this back so another judge can take this up.
Setting to New.
Samsara: Claiming for judging.
Samsara: Another absolute banger VLDC full completion. The quality of the levels may be a bit weaker than other entries, but the quality of the TASing remains just as top tier as always.
Excellent work! Accepting!