About the game

I think most of you know this game, as it is a very classic and famous Gameboy game. Princess Daisy who reigns over Sarasaland has been kidnapped by the alien Tatanga and Mario heads out to save her.

About the run

  • Used emulator: 1.7.2 re-recording v21-interim
  • Aims for maximum score Aims for the highest possible score without wasting time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Genre: Platform
I didn't think I would have been able to improve on xenos' run at the time he submitted it. At the time I created my walkathon, however, I learned about a lot of new tricks and glitches and since I had a lot of potential time-savers and stuff in my mind I went and tried to improve his run... and succeeded.
The bonus screens after each world are a big turn-off. If you save a few frames in a level, the bonus screen at the end of the world would ruin your save. In order to succeed with the bonus screens, you have to invest idle frames into the first two levels of a world. For example, you can only pass the bonus screen of the first world if you invest 1 idle frame in 1-1 and 3 idle frames in 1-2. Despite was xenos said, namely that 4 idle frames in the first two levels need to be put in, I didn't succeed when I put the 4 idle frames in 1-2. The matter with the bonus screens and the frame rule that seems to be linked to it still isn't very examined and needs to be looked into.
Most points were saved just by comboing enemies which weren't comboed before. In contrary to what most people might believe, you are allowed to touch the ground inbetween enemies when comboing them as the only thing that matters is a set amount of time in which you need to reach the next enemy for a combo to work. 4 Frames were saved in 2-3 by skipping the dragon instead of fighting it which unfortunately meant a 5000 points loss. 1 Frame in 3-1 was saved by lag reduction. Many frames were saved in 3-3 by navigating through the passage faster.

Table

LevelFrames savedPoints savedNotes
1-100Pretty straight-forward level so nothing was changed here.
1-20+1400Points were saved by comboing more enemies and by using a better strategy to acquire 100 more points near the end of the level.
1-300Also pretty straight-forward. At the small tunnel you can hit the Nokobon (koopa) from below which costs ~1 frame but it ruined the luck with the bonus screen and I didn't succeed either when I used different combinations of idle frames in the previous levels. This was also the level were I changed from the v1.0 ROM to the v1.1 ROM due to the bonus screen (the best I got on v1.0 was 18 frames behind xenos).
2-10+1000Points were saved by more enemy hopping here too. I found a faster way to pass through the part where you need to stop faster, which saves 1 frame but the bonus screen on 2-3 didn't want me to keep it! (it actually saved 2 frames but the level timer would be greater by one second so it nullifies the save).
2-20+100100 points were saved by hopping on a Chibibo (goomba) which was missed before.
2-3+4-51505000 points were lost since I skip the dragon as it proved to be faster doing so. It is possible to kill the dragon and get the fireflower from the bonus screen without losing time. However, the screen is very delayed. I couldn't do anything about it despite trying to put idle frames in the previous levels and trying a lot of strategies. The next person who runs this game should look into the mechanics of the bonus screens and hopefully succeed acquiring these 5000 points back! ._.

150 points were lost since I don't shoot all the blocks at the end of the level since it would have wasted time. I actually saved 10 frames but the bonus screen converted it to 4... Bleh!
3-1+101 lag frame was removed from the previous run here.
3-2+10I found another 1-frame-saver by using a walljump at the passage where you need to stop but the bonus screen didn't agree here either so it wasn't used... I don't know how I saved one frame here still; my guess is it was saved by optimizing the way to get the mushroom. (I'm too lazy to check)
3-3+18+10I saved a lot of time by navigating through the passage with the two platforms faster. I had one more in-game second left, so I gained 10 points.
4-1+2+2000More enemy hopping here. Time was saved as I got less lag at the part where three Pionpis jump towards me.
4-2+1+300More enemy hopping here too. Navigated through the passage with the pipes faster but the save was somehow lost...(?) Another frame was saved as I didn't release the B-button to shoot an enemy.
4-3+50I added some funny sound glitches here. Also, this level and 2-3 almost drove me crazy since I stumbled into scoring glitches (when two enemies are hit simultaneously, you don't get the points you would have actually gained. And sometimes the invincibility star gives you a smaller amount of points and as I'm unsure about how this scoring glitch works, I just used trial-and-error). Thank god I succeeded hex-editing both levels!

You don't need to get hit by the cloud boss here so I don't.

I don't know how I saved 5 frames here. I compared the final frame counts of xenos' run and my run and substracted the difference from 27 frames I had saved so far and got 5 frames...
Total32 frames saved340 points lost

Closing words

Thanks to xenos, mmbossman and others!
As usual, I hope you enjoy the run and I hope I didn't forget anything important.

FractalFusion: Accepting as an improvement to the published run.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15629
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2633: MUGG's GB Super Mario Land in 12:13.15
Skilled player (1328)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 1354
Location: U.S.
Voted No because I saw room to save 1/2 a frame. Incase nobody knows, this is complete sarcasm. I did vote Yes on this. ;)
Active player (279)
Joined: 4/30/2009
Posts: 791
Yay for more Tetris in 2-2. Yes vote here!
Joined: 6/4/2009
Posts: 570
Location: 33°07'41"S, 160°42'04"W
I vote yes and I encode (thanks to Flygon guide!) Click here
Former player
Joined: 11/13/2005
Posts: 1587
Noob Irdoh wrote:
I vote yes and I encode (thanks to Flygon guide!) Click here
The tags here use different syntax than HTML (I presume that was HTML in your post). BBCode uses [ and ] brackets and in this case the tag is URL. Tags can be found in the posting form above the actual body.
sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
As I alluded to in the other recent submission, I find this game boring. That having been said, there's a clear if minor time-wise improvement here. I am thus confused about why any mention whatsoever is made of the score - if the intent is a primarily speed-based run (which I am under the impression this is), then this should be published as an improvement, but if it is primarily score-based, it doesn't actually improve the old run!
Experienced player (829)
Joined: 11/18/2006
Posts: 2426
Location: Back where I belong
As has been the goal since the first iteration of this run, speed is the primary goal, score is the secondary goal, meaning that if the runner is able to complete the game faster at the expense of score, he should. However, if speed is not lost by scoring points, then the maximum points should be attempted.
Living Well Is The Best Revenge My Personal Page
Joined: 6/20/2008
Posts: 150
I'm seeing a lot of opportunities lost here; you get a fireflower in the second bonus round, for instance, and completely squander its score-gaining abilities. I've seen other Mario game runs turn and fire for 1 frame without losing momentum, and you don't even fire in the same direction you're moving unless you have no other choice. Is the inertia that different in this game?
Editor, Expert player (2372)
Joined: 5/15/2007
Posts: 3940
Location: Germany
If you release the B-button for even as much as one frame you lose running speed, and ultimately lose at least one frame everytime you shoot. You don't lose momentum in most of the other Mario games when jumping and releasing directional buttons (like in Super Mario Land 2 and Super Mario World; correct me if I'm wrong).
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
It was fairly entertaining, Yes vote and encoded in HD. Playlist Part 1 Part 2 Also, sorry Irdoh, but uh... yeah, that isn't a qualifying encode, we need to contact each other at some point, I'd like to see another encoder, but XviD videos without logo or subtitles isn't exactly going to cut it. Anyway, encoded in SD with a merange of 256 while encoding into lossless, thanks Aktan for the suggestion on both of them. There is two editions, both with different audio codecs and containers: MP4 download 10mb (Uses AAC audio) MKV download 13mb (Uses OGG audio) It's almost impossible (Without breaking player compatibility) to make a more optimized encode, if this one isn't published, I'll be pretty astounded, heh. Be sure to use the latest ffdshow! Here, have a download page. I have tested this encode in VLC, MPlayer and Windows Media Player (The one that comes with Windows 7), it should work.
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Posts: 15629
Location: 127.0.0.1
This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1503] GB Super Mario Land by MUGG in 12:13.15
Joined: 2/7/2008
Posts: 185
Regarding the encode, I couldn't detect any difference between 1080 and 480. But thanks for providing the option. The run is obviously ludicrously optimised. I'm sure I'd seen a SML run before but was again surprised when you killed the upside down piranha plants. The submarine stage was brilliant - I loved the last-minute scrapes and the total decimation of blocks. The patterns that you created - before destroying them too - were sublime and ensured there were no dull moments. I think a run that is a technical improvement but doesn't play around like that should get rejected. Seeing you chain together kills whilst invincible was also cool - I think scoring as a secondary goal definitely helps make this more entertaining but it's ultimately your own dedication towards packing in shitloads that kept me glued to the screen. There were definitely a few points in the submarine stage and plan stage that went beyond what I'd expect to hit/kill you. You know, watching the cutscenes, I wondered why the enemies don't fly towards mario when he's offguard and kill him... Or if they can disguise themselves, maybe they could infiltrate the monarchy and then kill the king?
I'm just some random guy. Don't let my words get you riled - I have my opinions but they're only mine.