Submission #9357: Darkman425's SNES The 6th Annual Vanilla Level Design Contest: Collaboration Hack "all exits, Dragon Coins & 3-Up Moons" in 2:49:13.66

Introduction

Run notes

• Emulator used: BizHawk 2.9.1
• BSNES 115+ core
• Full completion
  • 115/114 exits reached
  • 349/340 dragon coins collected
  • 11/11 moons collected
• oh no why does the fire world have so many autoscrollers aah

Goal choice with regards to dragon coins

Mechanics and Techniques

Apparently fast cape transformation was a VLDC12 thing? Weird, that

I couldn't get fast cape transformation in VLDC6 like I did in VLDC12 and I assume it might have been some ASM quirk only present in VLDC12.

Lag management

The major thing that I mentioned in the introduction was the VLDC6 compilation doesn't use the SA-1 enhancements. This means that lag management and enemy sprite limits are actual concerns here. A fair amount of work was done to reduce lag in some of the levels such as taking out extra enemies or preventing the screen from scrolling but it's something I just had to deal with throughout. I didn't try much score manipulation to reduce the end of level lag as I knew at some point the score would be too big for any meaningful work on that to matter.

Level by level breakdown

• North Mountains
• Northwest Highlands
• Southwest Mesa
• South Grasslands
• East Sea
• Fire World
• Sky World
• Ice World
• Forest World
• Best World
• Mixed World

Totals

• 12/12 exits
• 30/30 dragon coins
• 1/1 moon

None of the overworld sections were given names so I've made up some to make it a bit clearer on which section is what. This section of the main overworld is done first from how I routed out the level order. The pipe at the end of this section goes back to the main pipe hub which is used to go to the northwest Highlands.

YOSHI NO HOUSE

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins
• 1 moon

A sumo brother directly above Mario, what a way to start this whole journey off.

A wall jump at the start to reach the first dragon coin avoids needing to do backtracking from looping around. A shell is taken from a koopa rather than the intended block containing a shell to cut down on more backtracking. Wall jumping for the moon avoids needing to wait on the P-switch timer ro run out.

Air Plains

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

For some reason there's two Yoshis stacked on top of each other in this level, though there's no real need to take advantage of that in either exit runs. Otherwise this level is mostly about P-meter and speed management.

DEEP DARK CAVE

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The swoopers are used to skip the skull raft ride across the lava, saving quite a bit of time. While ending the level next to the otherwise unused spring created a lot of end of level lag frames, I found it amusing to do ans was willing to eat the time penalty for a small goof.

A SIMPLE LEVEL

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

Grabbing a mushroom was used to take the lower path in the first section of the level, as despite the time cost of grabbing one was much faster than taking the upper water route. The third dragon coin also just happens to be on that path.

Reznor's Fields and Fortress

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The silver P-switch created a situation where I had to figure out a fair amount of lag management before reaching the place where it's needed. Once inside the fortress, I managed to pull off my first perpetual air catch to reach the third dragon coin. The rest of the level is about cape flight management.

Living Mountain

• 2 exits

There's a feather at the very start of the level directly above Mario that requires some waiting. this is intended for the secret exit path. However, the cape enables such a large amount of time saves with spin flight that it's used on the normal exit path as well.

Mountainous Mountains

• 1 exit

There are two different pipes to the second section of the level, but the first possible pipe is the one I found to be the fastest path.

GHOST TOWER

• 2 exits

A slope clip is used to reach the blue P-switch without having to first find a silver P-switch and enter a door blocked by munchers. The normal exit is required to reach the secret exit as the normal exit path activates the 1-up checkpoint needed to spawn the secret exit path. While it might be possible to prematurely enter the secret exit pipe by throwing a blue P-switch in the right place and using it to enter the pipe, that's significantly slower than just completing the normal exit as intended first.

HOW DO CHUCK GLITCH

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

First you need a Yoshi for that, I'm pretty sure.

A camera scroll to the left is used to manipulate the spawn timing and movement of the moving platforms at the beginning of the level. The last dragon coin requires being big Mario, so a checkpoint is used to obtain that state without slowing down.

Totals

• 10/10 exits
• 30/30 dragon coins
• 2/2 moons

Mario's climbing animation on the overworld is pretty slow such that the overworld path I chose ended up being faster.

COLORSPLASH CASTLE

• 1 exit
• 1 moon

With some subpixel speed management it's possible to slip past some thwomps through the small corner openings that they otherwise block, slightly speeding up the orange room. A damage boost is used in the green room to move past a fair amount of piranha plants. A shell jump and wall jump is used to slightly speed up the end of the purple room.

Jumping and Stuff

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The bullet bills are needed to advance through the first half of the level so some waiting is needed. The camera is shifted to avoid getting hit by a cape koopa while maintaining speed and having the bullet bills fire to the right for the next pit. There's a noticeable bit of lag when bouncing off multiple cape koopas in quick succession but I kept that in since it looked cool.

NEGATIVE WORLD

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A wall jump is used to skip waiting on a boo block. Saw blades can be killed with a slide which is used to build speed while avoiding getting hit.

GREEN SWITCH PALACE

• 1 exit

The only way to speed this switch palace up is to adjust horizontal speed and positioning to keep maximum falling speed whenever possible.

CAVE ESCAPE 2

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

This level has quite a bit of slowdowns, in both "enemy placement meant to slow down the player" and "lots of lag" ways. Carefully planned jumps are both used to mitigate both of those factors. A wall jump is used to skip a step normally required for the secret exit. An up throw to hit a block on its side is used to reveal a P-switch needed to enter an reas with a dragon coin on the regular exit run.

BOWSER'S BLOCKS

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A mushroom is required for the third dragon coin of the level since the damage blocks are too high to use the checkpoint boost. Not being small Mario is also required for the fifth dragon coin so damage boosting is not an option that's available for the goal of this TAS.

Land of Mystery

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins
• 1 moon

For the secret exit, grabbing a fire flower to put a mushroom in the reserve box allows for growing the red Yoshi faster than the intended strat of feeding blocks from across the room. For the dragon coin sub area it's faster to grab a mushroom for a damage boost than it is to ride the bouncing rock.

VACATION ISLAND 4

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A well timed jump off of a falling green koopa is used to avid needing to reveal an invisible block. A shell jump is used to avoid needing a vine for the fourth dragon coin.

Totals

• 6/6 exits
• 18/15 dragon coins
• 1/1 moon

This is by far the shortest section of the overworld. While I could've combined this with another section I felt like it would bloat the adjacent sections a little too much.

TERRIBLE WHITENESS

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The P-switch is needed for the final dragon coin as a hidden door in the ice section requires it. While the P-switch could also be used for the other exit blocked by brown blocks, it's a long autoscroller that's also missing the fourth dragon coin. The fire flower is needed for the quick kill on Ludwig.

BULLET BLUFFS

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A midair shell jump is used to reach the first dragon coin quickly. The cape found near the checkpoint is used for the second half of the level to reach the remaining dragon coins quickly by getting flight speed when possible.

Rocky Land

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

A chain of wall jumps is used to skip waiting on a moving platform in the first section of the level. A shell is taken from the second section into the third section to skip waiting on another moving platform. A blue throw block in the third section is used for a spin jump to avoid waiting on yet another moving platform. A damage boost is used at the midway point to once again avoid needing to ride a moving platform.

For the secret exit, Mario is barely not fast enough to reach the door on time without the On-Off switch so the long way around to the P switch is required.

Ashy Plains

• 2 exits
• 3 dragon coins
• 1 moon

This level only has 3 dragon coins, all found in the first section of the level. Due to the time to grow the red Yoshi and the nature of the last section of the regular exit path, Yoshi is only needed for the secret exit path. Instead, a part of the regular exit path is slightly sped up by getting into a high gap in the snake block path to pass to the right sooner than intended.

Totals

• 11/11 exits
• 27/25 dragon coins
• 1/1 moon

This section has some of the longer non-autoscroller levels in the hack. Otherwise this is done in a fairly straightforward manner.

KUMQUAT CAVERNS

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This is an autoscrolling level where the player is restricted to the left third of the screen. While this makes it interesting to play in a casual sense, it's very limiting for what I could do in a TAS sense. There's also frame perfect jumps done to prevent the camera scrolling causing lag in some sections.

YELLOW SWITCH PALACE

• 1 exit

The entire switch palace challenge for a 1-up at the top is simply skipped in favor of going straight to the yellow switch so progress can be "bP saved".

MAGIKOOPA FUN HOUSE

• 2 exits
• 7 dragon coins

This level has two extra dragon coins to be found in the final indoor section along the normal exit path. For the secret exit door, taking the left path for the blue P-switch saves 84 frames compared to taking the right path and getting the blue P-switch. Yellow koopas are taken out with a spin jump to reduce some of the lag in the final room of the secret exit path.

Running Greens

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

The blue P-switch is utilized for both exits. The secret exit requires it as it opens the barrier between the keyhole and the key. The normal exit uses the blue P-switch to cross a gap and build P-speed for the end of the level over what would normally be a huge pit.

Small Vanilla Castle

• 1 exit

Fun fact: this level was originally submitted and judged without an actual exit, rendering it unbeatable in its original incarnation. The version in this compilation added a goal so that it can be completed. As for the level itself, it's just maintaining running speed as much as possible while minimizing the use of springs.

Gardens of Natura

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins
• 1 moon

The mushroom is needed for the feather found in the level. For the normal exit the cape enables reaching the higher up collectables quicker. The secret exit requires the use of a cape to reach the key.

Short Adventure

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins (technically 6)

There are 6 dragon coins but only 5 can be obtained as the last one would despawn once the first 5 are obtained. I do move to the area where the coin would be to technically grab it but I won't be adding it to the total tally. This screenshot of the level in Lunar Magic is my only real proof that I'm not slowing down for absolutely no reason, just some arbitrary reason.

Totals

• 9/9 exits
• 35/35 dragon coins
• 1/1 moon

Taking the longer looking route to reach the level Cake Island in this section was actually faster due to the overworld climbing and swimming animations taking a fair amount of time. Once this is done, the remaining levels are in the submaps that are clustered in one spot of the overworld.

Ghost Ship

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The startup time of Torpedo Teds launching out means it's faster to just keep hopping out of the water. The last dragon coin is obtained going with the water flow as it's faster than slowly going against the flow since the floor above doesn't allow for hopping out of the water.

Grand Galleon

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A minor amount of lag management with camera positioning had to be used at the start of the level due to objects above the water potentially causing lag. Focusing on the right side first on the non-standard Reznor fight ended up being slightly faster.

Cake Island

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins
• 1 moon

Welcome to the only level that has music that isn't the normal Super Mario World soundtrack. While there was a version without the music and the birthday message at the end, this one was judged by mistake and disqualified because of the custom music. That being said, the cutscene water background would've disqualified this level anyways because that's just how the kind of messy rules of VLDC6 were like.

Taking a shell at the start of the stage despawns the first amazing flying hammer brother due to sprite limits and kills the piranha plant next to the big wall without losing too much speed and height. The moon is obtained when getting shot out of the diagonal pipe. The launch speed is maintained until the end of the level.

Wet Dry Ruins

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

The super mushroom allows Mario to wall jump low enough to enter the up pipe a block away. This bypasses needing to do a loop for the moving platform path to the secret exit.

Dino River

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The last dragon coin can barely be reached with a max speed, max height jump without having to use the dino rhinos. Due to subpixel speed dependency it wasn't possible to adjust speed until after the dragon coin was obtained.

ihatemylife.

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

Due to the terrain, using slopes to build speed was used to build speed rather than having to deal with P-meter management.

The Koopa Hills

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

The first power up block in the stage is flagged to give a feather while big Mario so block duplication is done as soon as possible to get the cape as early as possible. This also avoids needing to enter a sub area that requires the silver P-switch to enter. Instead the P-switch is used to swim faster through the underwater section.

Totals

• 13/13 exits
• 34/30 dragon coins
• 0/0 moons

This world has no moons to obtain. Due to 5 exits requiring extensive autoscrolling sections, this world felt the most tedious to work on.

Road to Larry

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This is just an edit of VALLEY OF BOWSER 4 from the base version of Super Mario World without a second exit.

PLATFORM POTHOLE

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

The secret exit path requires the dragon coins to be collected as they the path to the key room. This does mean that a portion of the autoscrolling area does need to be repeated on both runs.

Burning Boiler

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

I couldn't find a good way to build P-speed in the final section of the level due to the level geometry and enemy placements. At the very least I could cut out lag by not scrolling the camera up until hitting the goal tape.

BURST MAN'S LEVEL

• 1 exit
• 4 dragon coins

This is mainly an autoscroller where the left side is forbidden to the player. Think of it as the opposite of KUMQUAT CAVERNS in terms of area lockout. This also lacks a 5th dragon coin for some reason.

Molten Magma Meadow

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

Maintaining P-meter from the start of the stage is needed for maintaining P-speed throughout the stage until the shell jump into wall jump needed to skip the sub area.

EXTREME LAVA CAVE!

• 2 exits

Unfortunately due to the location of the keyhole, this incredibly laggy autoscroller level requires completing the entire level twice. The main goal here is lag management since there's a lot of sprites that are active due to their triggers being vertical in nature despite not always being visible in the camera. Thankfully the regular exit has a little less lag to deal with due to not having a key sprite in the mix for the second half.

Lava Mansion

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

Spin jumping through the stairs at the start is faster thank taking the intended path to the P-switch. The different boo ring cycle meant that the approach to the blue door had to be changed between exits.

Volcano Valley

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

There were some ways to skip a cycle in the moving lava room but I still had to do a little waiting. The secret exit path throws the blue P-switch at the yellow turn blocks rather than needing the charging Chuck to break them open. The blue P-switch is then used for a midair switch jump to reach the silver P-switch needed to take the secret exit path.

FORTRESS CASTLE

• 1 exit

As much as I'd like to have the entire level done with 6-5 speed and/or max running speed, the moving block at the very end of the level is set up that waiting for it and losing P-meter is unavoidable.

Totals

• 11/11 exits
• 35/35 dragon coins
• 3/3 moons

Totals

• 8/ 8 exits
• 30/30 dragon coins
• 0/ 0 moons

All of these levels have one exit and no moons. A pretty straightforward submap to complete.

Totals

• 12/11 exits
• 35/35 dragon coins
• 2/2 moons

Totals

• 13/13 exits
• 50/50 dragon coins
• 0/0 moons

Time for "la crème de la crème" in terms of the contest judge's picks and the popular vote's top 3 picks. Despite being what would be the peak of the contest, this section isn't done last due to how I routed the overworld movement and how this submap doesn't have a fast exit pipe to work with. There also isn't any moons to collect here.

muSTARd Nightfall

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This nice looking level is quickly hopped through with maximum speed preservation and careful jumping.

Treacherous TOWER

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A shell jump is used to avoid grabbing a spring for the first dragon coin. The first upper path is the only way to get the second dragon coin. The second upper path avoids an autoscrolling path which does have its own alternate third dragon coin that's mutually exclusive. A mushroom is obtained as it's needed for the last dragon coin blocked by a turn block.

A Haunted House

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

A P-switch is needed to enter the autoscroller to the secret exit guarded by Big Boo. Spin jumping off of a Boo to reach the P-switch avoids needing to go through half of the level path to the normal exit for a cape.

Choco Mountains

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

Block duplication at the start of the level is used to get a feather earlier than intended. The cape is used to significantly speed up the rest of the level.

FIERCE FIRE FLOW

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

It's possible to go above the top of the screen and run above all of the level, but I never managed to get a block clip back in bounds. This would save a significant amount of time as it avoids needing to ride the second skull raft. At the very least, a shell jump skips the first skull raft while simply using maximum speed preservation skips the third skull raft. The P-balloon does show off some wall clipping to reach the last dragon coin in a quick manner.

Pictured below is where this TAS would want to a wall clip back in bounds to continue collecting dragon coins. It would be ideally be just above the dragon coin if coming through the ceiling.

Fine Lineguide Ride

• 1 exit

A few wall jumps are used to skip some of the longer moving platform sections. However, due to sprite limits one of the fuzzies failed to spawn which would have otherwise alleviated the need to use a wall jump as that does slow down horizontal movement.

Athletic Something

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

As this level involves a lot of riding moving platforms for a good while, I take the time to build up P-meter when it's useful for the sections without moving platforms. For the secret exit, frame perfect rope jumps are used to maintain P-meter until the last part of the rope section such that spin jumping off the grinders skips the remaining rope path. A wall jump on the normal exit path skips the last bit of the final moving platform section.

Simmering Stalagmites

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

A wall jump is used to grab the last dragon coin without having to wait on a paratroopa to move into place. The disco shell is used to quickly knock out the clapping Chuck blocking the pipe.

Sky Island

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

Midair shell jumps are used to skip the first moving platform section and to return to ground from grabbing the second dragon coin quickly. A wall jump off the pipe to the second section is barely possible, skipping the need to use the swinging platform. Midair shell jumps continue throughout the second half of the level as they enable skipping all of the moving platform rides, as well as the problem of one of the moving platforms falling into a spot that locks up the game.

Forgotten Fortress

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This level is mostly an autoscroller so I had to find ways to keep it entertaining for myself. Also, the magikoopa was taken out as soon as possible to reduce any potential lag.

Concussion Mountain

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This level's movement is all about 6-5 running speed and P-meter management to grab all of the dragon coins. There's also a fair amount of lag that I couldn't quite mitigate as much as I wanted to.

Totals

• 10/10 exits
• 25/25 dragon coins
• 0/0 moons

Due to needing to slowly walk out of the Best World due to no fast exit, it's faster to do either Forest World or Mixed World last as it cuts out a little bit of overworld walking. I chose Mixed World as the last set of levels to complete as it has an appropriate final level compared to Forest World.

Dimensions

• 1 exit

Taking the blue P-switch through the pipe allows for a switch jump to practically skip the entire second half of the stage. Doing a wall jump on the cloud wall does give access to a Yoshi but it's not necessary with the switch jump.

Blazing Desert

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

The cave rooms have most of the dragon coins and also reset the outdoors time limit. 6-5 running was needed to keep sprinting speed after walking on the ground to access certain doors at the bottom of hills.

goat world snes

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

The P-switch needed to advance through the regular exit path is taken past its intended area for speeding up the water section greatly. Another P-switch is used to slightly speed up growing a vine by throwing it at the block from a distance and the using a switch jump after jumping off of said vine to quickly reach the last dragon coin.

The Time Dimension

• 1 exit

This is a pretty straightforward level where a central level shape is used in multiple contexts. Due to their slight changes it's not exactly feasible to maintain max running speed in all forms but I still find ways to speed up sections despite that.

rRrRrR rRrRrRrR!!!

• 1 exit

I don't need any notes on this area. This level's got quite a bit of them. Doh-ho-ho!

On a more serious note, the timing to knock out two bullet bills with a single note block is a bit tight in terms of maintaining a good amount of rightward movement.

Great Koopa Gate

• 2 exits
• 5 dragon coins

This stage has 3 branching path to the goal tape exit that converge and a separate boss path. The dragon coins along the fastest goal tape path was used for obtaining the dragon coins as the boss path requires falling down and backtracking for that set of dragon coins. A spin jump off of a ball 'n' chain allowed for performing a wall jump high enough to skip part of the moving platform section.

Complexity in a Nutshell

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This level is a mix of P-meter management and speed management across the entire level. Most of the sections have distinct approaches, especially the area with the last dragon coin that utilized a fair amount of P-meter management throughout most of the area.

Super Level Run

• 1 exit
• 5 dragon coins

This level ends with a standard Bowser fight, though due to the nature of the end point taking damage is slower and I have to position Mario in the right position to cut out walking in the cutscene.

Yoshi's House

• 0 exits
• This is where the credits live

This is the information place about this VLDC compilation. Touching the goal tape doesn't count as an exit but it's the trigger for the credits. The extended input includes a certain credits bug not seen since the first vanilla Super Mario World 96 exit publication! Y'all deserve the clapping since y'all are worth it!

I guess since it's never going to come up in any other SMW related publication, I can give an explanation about the credits animation bug. The game cycles Mario's animations through 3 consecutive states. When neutral it's the standard walking frames. Holding up before the credits sequence starts puts the starting animation index in a different place which results in Mario instead cycing through the frame of looking up and 2 sprinting frames, giving the illusion of Mario "clapping" during the credits scroll. This doesn't happen when holding down as the developers probably caught that edge case.

Special thanks

• Once again, thanks to SMW Central for hosting the contest that lead to this hack and for also having a nice community of talented folks
• DeppySlide with his VLDC1-8 review thread with historical context and explanation that helped me understand why VLDC6 was how it was

Publisher's note