Submission #1858: adelikat, Deign, Cardboard & JXQ's NES Super Mario Bros. 3 "warpless" in 47:33.52

This is an improvement of about 56 seconds over the previous movie.

ROM version has been switched to PRG0. Reason: More interesting level names during the ending sequence. This run will desync on World 1's airship when using ROM version PRG1.

Emulator used: FCEU 0.98.16

Goal priority:

1. No using warp whistles (collecting them is allowed)
2. Complete game as fast as possible
3. Complete individual stages as fast as possible

Improvements:

- Stutter-running, allowing P-speed to be reached earlier in some levels
- Better on-map hammer brother manipulation
- Abuse of fast sliding speed to hop continuously through some levels
- Faster boss fights, and taking the magic wand at the bottom of the screen
- Lag reduction

Game Mechanics:

The end-of-level card cycles on a universal timer, which is why sometimes the first available card is a flower, and sometimes is a star. The chance of getting a flower on any given level is 1/4, and it can be changed by altering the frame a level is entered.

Hammer brother movements are determined by a 72 bit RNG that rolls right and uses some carry flag and overflow flag logic to keep things pseudorandom (LFSR). The RNG cycles on nearly every frame, but by playing in certain ways, it can be made to lag. Hammer brothers will always move once, and continue to move until they land on an unoccupied space. They will not attempt to move over a completed level or a pipe.

Death is no longer used as a shortcut in World 2. When a hammer brother moves onto a space occupied by another hammer brother, both will move again. This is abused to get them to walk longer distances without entering extra levels. The route happens offscreen, but can be seen [here]. (Dead link removed)

Accelerating in water has a frame rule. Yeah.

Route Improvements that ended up not being so:

Taking the normal exit in 5-1 - This sacrifices a musicbox, saves a P-wing for another level, keeps firepower for the fortress, and avoids using a star in 5-7. It would have gaine a few seconds overall, but due to hammer brother placement on World 5, it is not possible to avoid them without using a musicbox because the tower is considered the same as a pipe, which the hammer brothers will not move onto.

Getting a leaf before 6-5 via hammer brother fight - The map square to the left of 6-5 will cause a hammer brother fight with a leaf-box in the lower-right brick. This is seemingly convenient because we're already fighting this hammer brother for the cloud, and we get a leaf in 6-5 anyway. Unfortunately, getting this route to work required 2 extra hammer brother map movements, and then, having the leaf in the level prevented earlier jumping (due to the way the p-meter works).

Time gained, by world:

Ha ha ha! Bye bye.

adelikat: I did this for pride and the joy of improving JXQ's work.

Deign: I did stuff.

Cardboard: Are we gonna start redoing soon?

JXQ: TASing as a team is awesome <3

Bisqwit: Accepting.
Bisqwit: Processing.
Bisqwit: Publishing.
Bisqwit: Also edited the submission text to add these four lines.
Bisqwit: Also added verb to the previous line.