• Aims for fastest time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Abuses programming errors
Our initial estimate was just under 5:30, and in progress we managed to get the time even lower.

Comments

For the BLJ into BitDW, we used the JRB stairs instead of the BoB stairs, because we discovered a new technique that can bounce off walls from backwards momentum, and if you press A and B together on one frame, you jump kick backwards in a certain direction.
In BitDW, instead of waiting for the elevator we land on at first to get to the top, we just ran to the very edge and BLJed off right away, and then BLJed on an earlier elevator, saving a lot of time. In the movement, we used a new strategy, utilizing the new technique to bounce off the wall. We didn't have to jump kick this time, because when you fall off an edge after bouncing, you gain control again. We then dove like normal onto the next platform, and then dove on the pyramid shaped platform, but not to roll; we slid along the edge until we got close to the wall and jumped to cancel the speed very close to the wall. This saves some time as well. We then finished with the slope jump dives, followed by a new strat for getting to the pipe.
In BitFS, BLJing is way faster. This allowed us to save quite a number of frames. It resulted in worse positions for all moving things at the third tier, but we still got through it quickly enough.
At the end of BitS, we used a different way to get past the elevators, and a different strat before the pipe. The slope jump dives are also improved.
The final Bowser battle is also improved, due to optimisation and a different third throw.

Frame improvements

  • BLJ to BitDW: 10
  • BitDW: 62
  • BitFS: 59
  • BitS: 13
  • Final Bowser battle: 12

Thanks to:

  • bobmario511, for telling us that BLJing in BitFS is definitely faster.
  • rikku and mr_roberts_z - their m64 helped us improve the final Bowser battle.

mmbossman: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie. The current submission file truncates the ending of the movie, resulting in a pause screen. This movie file seems to fix the problem, and should be used for encoding purposes.
Johannes: The submission file does not truncate the ending of the movie. It's a bug in Mupen 64, which causes garbage input when M64 playback ends. I worked around the bug by jumping into the star, which hits the star earlier, making the garbage input happen too late to make a difference.

Former player
Joined: 12/5/2007
Posts: 716
...What? It ran just fine for me.
Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
bkDJ wrote:
z0MG wrote:
m64 replaced
The game is paused one frame before the the ending begins. Edit: apparently only with high res textures. nevermind, I guess.
There's a Mupen bug that makes it input random things a frame after the playback stops, including Start. This apparently only happens to some people, but I managed to avoid it the pause completely by obtaining the star with a normal jump, making him grab the star before the pause takes effect, so I would appreciate if someone could replace the current m64 with this: http://www.box.net/shared/mpyrglgdsg
Mitjitsu
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Joined: 4/24/2006
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All the frames get replaced with F's meaning pretty much every button and direction is pressed on the same frame. On Genesis games is seems to cause a crash due to some input overload bug.
Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
AKA wrote:
All the frames get replaced with F's meaning pretty much every button and direction is pressed on the same frame. On Genesis games is seems to cause a crash due to some input overload bug.
Some combinations of savestate frames and ways to end the m64 don't make this happen for some reason, but I couldn't get it this time. Do you know a good way to avoid it?
Mitjitsu
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I have no idea how to avoid it, I've even tried replacing the F's with 0's but it makes no difference.
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Joined: 11/15/2004
Posts: 2202
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z0MG wrote:
Flip wrote:
OK, looks like I wasnt paying too much attention here, took me quite a while to realise that there were 2 submissions. With the cross of improvements between the two movies, does this mean that there are still improvement to be made?
Nope, they didn't do anything better than us.
SwordlessLink sez: "Butthurt" I'd never heard that word, but now it is my favorite. So descriptive of the current situation too.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Joined: 5/2/2006
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The comparison video was really cool, but the endless japanese text got annoying. What was so important to say that it was worth having it scroll constantly?
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Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
DarkKobold wrote:
z0MG wrote:
Flip wrote:
OK, looks like I wasnt paying too much attention here, took me quite a while to realise that there were 2 submissions. With the cross of improvements between the two movies, does this mean that there are still improvement to be made?
Nope, they didn't do anything better than us.
SwordlessLink sez: "Butthurt" I'd never heard that word, but now it is my favorite. So descriptive of the current situation too.
If you think I was trying to be mean by saying "Nope, they didn't do anything better than us.", you're wrong. I was simply answering Flip's question.
Player (66)
Joined: 5/5/2007
Posts: 65
Twelvepack wrote:
The comparison video was really cool, but the endless japanese text got annoying. What was so important to say that it was worth having it scroll constantly?
I found a version on Youtube yesterday that does not have that text: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L69Tq882_c
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
Twelvepack wrote:
The comparison video was really cool, but the endless japanese text got annoying. What was so important to say that it was worth having it scroll constantly?
Welcome to nicovideo? :P There's a comment button on the video player that toggles them for those who don't care about or like them.
AKA wrote:
I have no idea how to avoid it, I've even tried replacing the F's with 0's but it makes no difference.
You'd need to change the values at 0xC and 0x18 I think. Anyway, this is a silly encode that has the new bowser fight, and I took some liberties with the screen format.
Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
bkDJ wrote:
You'd need to change the values at 0xC and 0x18 I think.
They are already at exact movie length, what should I change them to? Do you mean adding extra frames? Edit: I tried recording extra frames and changing it to the right length with a hex editor, and it still pauses.
Joined: 10/4/2008
Posts: 1
It is mentioned in a topic with one frame save in DDD skip. However, I was as follows in my environment. input frame (frame of time) Mario in the first floor under the ground moves. -new: 4086(8498)  -in 05:33.85:4156(8640). Mario entering the hole is fade-out -new: 4264(8854)  -in 05:33.851:4334(8996). Mario in Bowser in the Fire Sea moves -new: 4307(8973)  -in 05:33.85:4377(9115). ... why?
Former player
Joined: 10/6/2007
Posts: 330
Location: B.C Canada
I liked this run much more than the previous. I ALWAYS watch the previous version of a run right before watching a new one to notice differences, and this run had a lot of new stuff. One thing I'm confused about though. Wouldn't it have been faster to just stand where the star was going to land at the end of the final Bowser? Bowser looks like a hamster in this game. I guess they were going for the T-Rex arms, but he's just so laughably stupid looking.
Joined: 4/30/2007
Posts: 150
Pekopon wrote:
One thing I'm confused about though. Wouldn't it have been faster to just stand where the star was going to land at the end of the final Bowser?
often in a tas, the author does stuff during dead time to entertain the viewer as standing around doing nothing is usually boring
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
Pekopon wrote:
One thing I'm confused about though. Wouldn't it have been faster to just stand where the star was going to land at the end of the final Bowser?
Bowser's text can only appear after two conditions are met. 1) bowser is laying on his back and has finished his giving-up/relaxing animation and 2) mario is on the ground within a certain distance of bowser's body. So the authors have time to kill while waiting for condition 1.
Joined: 7/1/2008
Posts: 272
a very polished movie 10 for the techinical. i only gave it a 9 for entertainment, though. while the new things were fresh and able to keep my attention, this is like the 20th revision, so some parts have stagnated a bit. regardless, very good job.
Joined: 7/25/2008
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Awesome run !!!
Joined: 8/10/2007
Posts: 14
Location: Louisiana
Very nice run. It's nice to see very noticeable improvements in all 3 bowser levels.
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Great job guys! Way to obliterate the 5:30 barrier! It's nice to be able to spot improvements with the naked eye :)
miya00 wrote:
It is mentioned in a topic with one frame save in DDD skip. However, I was as follows in my environment. input frame (frame of time) Mario in the first floor under the ground moves. -new: 4086(8498)  -in 05:33.85:4156(8640). Mario entering the hole is fade-out -new: 4264(8854)  -in 05:33.851:4334(8996). Mario in Bowser in the Fire Sea moves -new: 4307(8973)  -in 05:33.85:4377(9115). ... why?
Hmm those numbers make it look like there was no improvement there... well as long as its not slower I don't mind :)
This signature is much better than its previous version.
Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
We assumed that since we did one more running frame to get enough speed to be able to do one less BLJ, which takes 2 frames, we saved a frame. The frame saved was probably lost in the DDD room because of less speed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Sir_VG
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BitFS battle made me go OMFG. Brilliant. Though the bug at the video end makes me sad. :(
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
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I got the same input termination bug (resulting in a paused game) at the end, and that is currently the only thing that is keeping this from being accepted.
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nesrocks
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I took some time to watch it last night. It made me laugh at some points, and the technical quality looks perfect. Can't ask for more. Good job guys! I'm just sad to see it obsolete another run so soon, that's why I like to see co-working instead of competition, but that's what we get when we go with the later. Keep improving if possible :)
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Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
mmbossman wrote:
I got the same input termination bug (resulting in a paused game) at the end, and that is currently the only thing that is keeping this from being accepted.
I avoided the pause caused by the input termination bug by replacing the ZA with an A, making Mario hit the star earlier. http://www.box.net/shared/mpyrglgdsg
FODA wrote:
I took some time to watch it last night. It made me laugh at some points, and the technical quality looks perfect. Can't ask for more. Good job guys! I'm just sad to see it obsolete another run so soon, that's why I like to see co-working instead of competition, but that's what we get when we go with the later. Keep improving if possible :)
Thank you. More improvement is currently impossible, but will probably be found :)
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z0MG wrote:
More improvement is currently impossible, but will probably be found :)
I'll offer a beer to the first one who goes below 5:00 minutes. Seriously.
Gone.