Submission #4857: Malleoz's GC Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in 3:25:02.75

This is an improvement of 50:45.48, or 182729 frames over the currently published TAS. This improvement is the result of 4 new glitch findings, effectively cutting out almost all of Chapter 3, the beginning of Chapter 5, the end of Chapter 6, and the beginning of Chapter 7.

I've made 2 different encodes to give as many people as possible the best viewing experience possible. The main encodes I've made public on YouTube include my audio commentary within them.

No Overlay:

I use the Japanese ISO with the MD5 checksum: 6ac3e517074b515948c4e0f28f01d9ef.

It also syncs on the MD5: bec52fb8c1912bc6f801b6281422

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is an RPG developed by Intelligent Systems and is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario for the Nintendo 64. It incorporates a world made of paper and turn-based battles, much like its predecessor. In it, Peach asks Mario to help find a treasure hidden in Rogueport. When he arrives, she is missing, as usual, and he must collect 7 Crystal Stars to save her and open the Thousand-Year Door to collect the treasure.

Note: Addresses are different in the Japanese version than the English version.

After the Shadow Sirens fight in Chapter 2, I can fall out of bounds to the left, respawning me all the way next to the right loading zone. This saves time over walking over to the right.

In my last TAS, I return to the Glitz Pit after defeating Macho Grubba because I need Yoshi in order to reach Chapter 4. Well, not anymore. After leaving encounters, there is a 1 frame window in which you can jump. I can trigger a battle while Mario jumps off of a pile of trash in the sewers, which is just high enough off the ground to let Mario clip up top with a double jump. This glitch is performed twice because I get rejected from the pipe the first time on purpose in order to talk to Darkly and gain access to Twilight Town. This also means the ticking is shortened by about 15 minutes!

This trick was found when I submitted my 3:35:16.35, which I cancelled in order to integrate this improvement. We found that by Goombella Buffering in the room before Pirate’s Grotto, you can fall out of bounds. There are a few NPCs there because unused NPCs are stored at the coordinates 0, 0, 0. By falling while riding Yoshi, I can maneuver Mario in the air to land right on top of the ember, triggering the ember fight that normally occurs while rescuing Bobbery. This warps the game ahead to a mid-Chapter 5 state. Since we can warp ahead, we no longer need to complete the pre-Chapter 5 sequence which included visiting The Thousand-Year Door, talking to Flavio, Podley the bartender, and Bobbery, saving approximately 9:30.

Using a Goombella Buffer right after getting Bobbery, I maneuver out of bounds over to the right. I can get into the wall with paper mode because of paper mode's smaller hitbox. Since I'm inside the wall, I can use Bobbery and have him clip up top on the statue. Because he's inside of the wall, he can trigger the explosion of the entrance. I use a paper mode cutscene walk to skip an odd-looking cutscene with invisible characters.

Instead of getting 3 Mega Rushes in the last TAS, I get 2. This is faster because I can still defeat the late-game bosses by dealing a few extra Power Bounces in a turn. I also get the Mega Rushes at different times. This is faster because instead of reloading the room to get both at the same time, I grab one on the way to Chapter 7 and grab the other on the way to Chapter 8. I grab the first Mega Rush in the same spot as the last TAS as I make my way up eastward to the glitch below, Teleporter Room Early. The second Mega Rush I grab from a Hammer Bro battle when going westward, which is faster when going down to The Thousand-Year Door.

The first mechanic of this glitch requires Mario to hold Bobbery over his head until he explodes. When he explodes, I hold down R. This causes Mario to walk as fast as normal but while in paper mode. In doing so, I can also open doors while in paper mode. This causes Mario to remain outside of the building when entering. Now the camera is rotated 90 degrees. From here, since I'm still outside of the building, I can perform a Flurrie Superslide, just like during Ultra Hammer Early. Because the camera is rotated, Mario moves down on Z-axis, relative to the screen's rotation. This means that I slide down into the Teleporter Room. Currently, the game doesn't think I'm in Chapter 7, so I have to read a note that makes the game think Mario is in Chapter 7. This skips grabbing the sixth Crystal Star, the Peach and Bowser intermissions, Fahr Outpost, and the General White Hunt. Just like Ultra Hammer Early, this is a Japanese-only glitch because of the superslide mechanics.

I've absolutely had a blast TASing this game. People ask me how I feel about having to work on this game three times over. Quite frankly, I've enjoyed it. The experience I've had working with the people in the community has been great. We've broken the game down further and further. To think that the first TAS was over 1 hour and 15 minutes longer is absurd. That isn't to say that we're done.

I'd like to point out the fact that this TAS incorporated two of the three theoretical glitches listed in my last TAS submission. The only one left from that list is Riddle Tower Skip. This would cut out the second half of Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6. This would save over an hour. We've tested many different glitch mechanics and scenarios. We've used Cheat Engine to test theories. We're still working on performing this glitch. Is there hope? I would say yes. Only hard work and time will tell, though.

In addition to Riddle Tower Skip, we've also theorized a Chapter 6 skip. There is only one room in Chapter 8 that you need the Ultra Boots from Chapter 6 for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUj7WRW3o-o We've discovered you can land on the seam and go underneath the spikes. We don't have any way to jump high enough while using Mowz to trigger a Mowz glitch, like what was used to land on the seam in the first place. This would save around 15 minutes. The route would require me to go to Chapter 5, the Grotto, and then perform Teleporter Room Early.

452921 (Frame not VI)

Almo, Andrick, Zeph, Nathanisbored, Cronikeys, Dsydude - Routing, glitch-hunting, etc.

TiWill_14 - Finding Ultra Hammer Early and Pirate's Grotto Early

SolidifiedGaming - Helping find Yoshi Skip and finding Teleporter Room Early and Bobbery Early

Until next time!

GoddessMaria: Time to judge this submission by its cover!

GoddessMaria: Alright, got around to take a look at this and once again, it meets site standards very well! Excellent execution and new tricks to make the currently published movie even shorter! Very well done, Malleo!

Accepting as an improvement to the currently published movie.

AntyMew: Publishing...