Submission Text Full Submission Page Publication Page
Super Mario Kart for the SNES, completed in 150cc mode (all tracks) in 23 minutes and 10.89 seconds.

Emulator used

Snes9x 1.43-improvement9 with Record Resets (edit by adelikat: removed dead link to emulator. I'm not sure where we can find this version, but link the snes9x downloads because if it is found, it should be linked there

Sync Settings

  • WIP 1 Timing ON
  • Left+Right/Up+Down OFF
  • Volume Envelope Height Reading OFF
  • Fake Mute desync workaround ON
  • Sync samples with sound CPU ON

Run Attributes

  • Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates Luck
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Starts from SRAM to enable hard mode (150cc)
  • Uses resets to save time
  • Rams walls to save time

About The Game

In 1992 Super Mario Kart defined the genre of "go-kart racing games" with ahead of its time graphics and gameplay that was kept almost unchanged in the numerous sequels it spawned. Its influence can be seen in console racing games as far apart as Wipeout and Crash Team Racing.

F.A.Q.

Why do you take the corners so wide?

To get the item I want from an item square I need to hit the square on exactly the right pair of frames. To delay hitting them without losing my speed I sometimes take corners wide.

Why do you bump into so many walls?

  • To delay hitting item squares
  • To make mushroom boosts last longer (long boosts)
  • Because I'm moving too fast to avoid them.

Why do you sometimes go over dirt and stuff without hopping?

I'm in a "mini-boost" and unaffected by dirt and stuff.

Why do you change characters after the Mushroom Cup?

I think Koopa is faster for the other cups.

Why do you pause the game occasionally in the Special Cup?

To manipulate luck. I only discovered this works when I was up to the special cup.
For more information on tricks used in this run, see the Super Mario Kart Physics page.

Track Times in Seconds

Mushroom Cup

  • Mario Circuit 1: 42.06
  • Donut Plains 1: 18.80
  • Ghost Valley 1: 37.68
  • Bowser Castle 1: 48.62
  • Mario Circuit 2: 40.40

Flower Cup

  • Choco Island 1: 28.28
  • Ghost Valley 2: 29.49
  • Donut Plains 2: 48.83
  • Bowser Castle 2: 46.57
  • Mario Circuit 3: 63.06

Star Cup

  • Koopa Beach 1: 34.31
  • Choco Island 2: 30.61
  • Vanilla Lake 1: 30.64
  • Bowser Castle 3: 44.96
  • Mario Circuit 4: 16.99

Special Cup

  • Donut Plains 3: 24.07
  • Koopa Beach 2: 16.64
  • Ghost Valley 3: 31.20
  • Vanilla Lake 2: 30.94
  • Rainbow Road: 31.80

Possible Improvements

  • Better routes are known for Koopa Beach 1 and Bowser Castle 1
  • Possible to make long boosts last longer by starting them at certain speeds
  • Better luck manipulation (using pause throughout)
  • Might be possible to skip laps in Choco Island 2 (and possibly other races) by landing inside walls
  • Better optimisation of corners
  • May be faster to use other drivers
  • May be faster to use Lakitu to skip 2 laps on Ghost Valley 3, rather than 1

Thanks To

Comicalflop (for getting me started on this),
A Runnelid, duffjr, Spider-Waffle, zoddtheimmortal, Saturn, Spekkio, SprintGod, Polo and ateam2 (routes, tricks and information),
JXQ (hex-editing),
DeHackEd and Nitsuja (technical help)
And everyone who watched the WIPs and gave me encouragement :)
DeHackEd: Yoink.... Oh, and what did I technically contribute? All I remember is some hex editting advice which I don't remember the outcome to.
Huffers: You helped me compile your version of snes9x for linux - which I eventually hacked into a luck manipulation bot, without which this run would have been impossible

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Posted: 5/9/2007 3:44 PM
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billybobfred
Other
Joined: 12/2/2005
Posts: 76
Awesome. I especially liked the driving in small circles. It's already published, but I'm voting "yes" anyway, because it's just that awesome.
I'm just a spectator. There was a time when I tried to participate, but I'm really lazy, so. she/her/hers
Posted: 5/9/2007 4:30 PM
Quote
Inzult
Active player (434)
Joined: 9/27/2004
Posts: 650
Location: Canada
NES TAS of 2021
Haha, pure gold. Pure. Gold. Even if some tracks can be improved, this is the most entertaining thing I've seen in a while.
Posted: 5/9/2007 4:43 PM
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SaxxonPike
Any
Emulator Coder
Joined: 6/8/2005
Posts: 236
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
I thought it was pretty good. Though the mini-circles at the starting line on some tracks was a tad boring, they can't be avoided if you are going for the fastest time. It was more enjoyable than I'd thought, though.
Music - https://www.sanxion7.com Code - https://github.com/SaxxonPike
Posted: 5/9/2007 5:37 PM
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Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Watched the whole published avi now, thus adding my yes vote. It was entertaining, although lots of route choices aren't too obvious for the casual viewer.
m00
Posted: 5/10/2007 12:13 AM
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upthorn
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Active player (391)
Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 1802
Sega TAS of 2011 Sega TAS of 2010 Sega TAS of 2008 Sega TASer of 2007
This got published before I got a chance to vote. Ah well, I was going to vote yes anyway.
How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks.
Posted: 5/10/2007 8:23 AM
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Bob_A
Joined: 2/12/2006
Posts: 432
i liked the racing, but not the glitch-abuse. i voted meh.
Posted: 5/10/2007 2:40 PM
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flagitious
Player (201)
Joined: 7/6/2004
Posts: 511
karterfreak wrote:
I have money on the fact that mc1 can be improved by making the turns tighter and keeping good luck manipulation to get shrooms while doing so. If I am proved wrong i will record myself eating a hat. Thats how sure i am.
A statement like that is gutless because you can never be proved wrong even if you are wrong. Besides 99% of existing movies can be improved but that doesn't mean they are bad or that I could do any better. This run was awesome, in terms of entertainment it is top notch and one of the most entertaining runs on the site. My only question is in one of the earlier koopa beach levels you go in the water for the first couple of laps but complete the last few normally. This doesn't make sense to me, could you explain?
g,o,p,i=1e4,a[10001];main(x){for(;p?g=g/x*p+a[p]*i+2*!o: 53^(printf("%.4d",o+g/i),p=i,o=g%i);a[p--]=g%x)x=p*2-1;}
Posted: 5/10/2007 2:44 PM
(Edited: 5/10/2007 3:35 PM)
Quote
Comicalflop
Editor, Experienced player (734)
Joined: 6/13/2006
Posts: 3300
Location: Massachussetts, USA
Speedy TAS of 2009
Flagitious is absolutely right, technically all movies can be theoretically improved. While yes improvements can be made to this, claiming to know for a fact that it's very improvable is out of place. In answer to Flag's question: The way that the rest of the course is 'played normally' by driving around the course is done with long boosts. However, in that course there are no walls with which to long boost off of, except the other drivers. So Huffers drove around in circles, which was the fastest to do given that he was unable to long boost off of anything, and as soon as the CPU's came around, he long boosted off of them for faster laps.
☣ Homepage ☣ Retired
Posted: 5/10/2007 3:10 PM
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shallow
Joined: 10/16/2006
Posts: 174
I get an error message when trying to download that version of SNES9x. Not exactly sure why...
Posted: 5/11/2007 2:21 AM
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juef
He/Him
Player (154)
Joined: 1/29/2007
Posts: 208
Location: Québec, Canada
I found the TAS to be very entertaining, even when laps were completed by just turning around or jumping off the course. It shows how "easy" abusing is. I didn't mind the pausing, considering it was barely noticeable and that it allowed a faster game completion. Also, as some have mentioned already, it seems like the run is improvable, but speed and entertainment are achieved big time here. So big yes vote for me.
Posted: 5/11/2007 3:06 AM
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duffjr
Joined: 5/2/2007
Posts: 17
this isn't confirmed, but i bet the lapskip can be pulled off on gv2 using yoshi or princess considering the time trial records are set with them.
Posted: 5/11/2007 7:18 PM
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CodeRed119
Banned User
Joined: 12/15/2006
Posts: 1
how did u keep getting the feather and the mushroom over and over again? i only get banana peels and coins when im in first place
Posted: 5/11/2007 7:34 PM
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laughing_gas
Former player
Joined: 10/1/2006
Posts: 1102
Location: boot_camp
luck manipulation
Borg Collective wrote:
Negotiation is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You will be assimilated.
Posted: 5/12/2007 6:29 AM
Quote
FractalFusion
Editor, Expert player (2072)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
Glitchy TAS of 2013 Gameboy TAS of 2013 PSX TASer of 2010
To be more specific: http://membres.lycos.fr/bunga/item-stats.html It is rare but not impossible. Something like 1/16 for each mushroom and feather. Also, luck manipulation of course. If there is a positive probability of something happening, you can make it happen (assuming that the probability is not ridiculously small). By the way, welcome to the forum.
Posted: 5/15/2007 3:15 PM
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r0xm2n
Joined: 3/5/2007
Posts: 27
Wow, what a cool and ludicrous run that was. :D
Posted: 5/16/2007 12:01 PM
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Admiral_Sif
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 53
Gets my yes vote hands down, even if it does desync after the mushroom cup EDIT: Realised shortly after posting that I was using the wrong version emulator, silly me
Posted: 5/21/2007 2:40 PM
Quote
Sir_VG
He/Him
Player (40)
Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
Facts: Only twice in the game does 6th place occur in the point rankings. 7th place and 8th place never happen. In the two that only 4 kart racers earn points, the same 4 earn the same points in all 5 races in that circuit. Amazing what you notice when you're half awake. ^^;;
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
Posted: 8/6/2007 12:19 AM
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chyren
Joined: 2/27/2006
Posts: 31
I have no idea how you do it, but this TAS stands out for one reason--its longevity. I've been playing this game for over a decade. I don't recall ever getting as angry at the AI as in this game. And, yet, this run can be watched over and over without getting boring! How much time could I have saved had I known these tricks back in the day (Not to mention the pain I could have avoided inflicting on my friend when I threw the SNES cartridge at him...)? It's like being in 1992, but with 2k skillz playing the game the way you always hoped to! The pace is fantastic, especially for the Mushroom Cup! I don't know a better way to put it. Oh, and for the record, I sure "dig it" :)
Posted: 4/5/2010 9:10 PM
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fsvgm777
She/Her
Senior Publisher, Player (225)
Joined: 5/28/2009
Posts: 1213
Location: Luxembourg
This is part of the new encoding project. Archive.org mirror: http://www.archive.org/download/SNESSuperMarioKartbyAndrewHuffaka.Huffersin2310.88/supermariokart-tas-all_150cc-huffers.mp4
Steam Community page - Bluesky profile Oh, I'm just a concerned observer.
Posted: 1/5/2019 3:11 PM
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MESHUGGAH
Other
Skilled player (1916)
Joined: 11/14/2009
Posts: 1353
Location: 𝔐𝔞𝔤𝑦𝔞𝔯
NES TASer of 2013 NES TAS of 2013 NES TAS of 2012 NES TAS of 2011
In the submission text, the link @ For more information on tricks used in this run, see the Super Mario Kart Physics page. should be changed to: GameResources/SNES/SuperMarioKart
PhD in TASing 🎓 speedrun enthusiast ❤🚷🔥 white hat hacker ▓ black box tester ░ censorships and rules...
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