This is a completely new type of a Super Mario World run. It beats the game by getting the THE END [dead link removed] screen in the 2nd level (Yoshi's Island 3).
After the discovery of a new glitch by あんた (anta), our Skype TASing community was trying to understand what happened in the .smv. Since he only uploaded the .smv and a japanese documentation, we had to find it out by ourselves.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Snes9x 1.43 v17
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses game-breaking glitches
  • Heavy luck manipulation
  • Achieves credits early

The "credits glitch"

"spit sprite position = yoshi X position + offset to spit object(index by Y which is the direction) normally, this would store to the sprites X position, however, because the sprite index is #$FF It writes to #$E4 + #$FF which is #$01E3. This is the stack address that is corrupted. If yoshi is facing left he must be at the position #$86, and if he is facing right it should be #$66."
p4plus2's documentation of the "credits glitch" [dead link removed]

Addresses which have to be manipulated

RAM Addressneeded ValueDescription
$7E:148C#$7CRNG 1 | See explanation below
$7E:148D#$92RNG 2
$7E:148E#$F7RNG 3
$7E:00E8#$86X position of sprite #04 (it's Yoshi in this case) (freezes when the sprite disappears, though you shouldn't have him disappear)
OAM Addressneeded ValueDescription
$01:02D4#$26X position of some score numbers onscreen (freezes when it disappears)
$01:02FC#$A3X position of the "smoke" effect (like when a fireball goes into a wall) (freezes when it disappears)
$01:02FD#$F0Y position of the "smoke" effect (same as above) (sets to #$F0 when it disappears)
$01:0304#$81X position of a Mario tile that appears when Mario is on Yoshi and he is in the turning animation (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0305#$39Y position of the same Mario tile as above (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0308#$B0X position of a cape tile (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0309#$F0Y position of a cape tile (sets to #$F0 when it disappears)
$01:030C#$60X position of a cape tile that appears when mario is flying (freezes when it disappears)
Those addresses starting with "01" are just OAM Addresses. OAM is a chunk of memory that stores the data about the sprite tiles to draw onto screen.
RNG:
The Random Number Generators (RNGs) change with certain events. We have to change the RNG 1197 times for it to work in our favor. When a koopa spawns, it's called once (when the RNG is "called", it changes). Before going into the pipe in YI3, three koopas appear; this leaves the RNG to be called a remaining 1194 times. This is where the fish come in. When a flopping fish bounces on the floor, it calls the RNG three times. So, that means the fish need to bounce 396 times (to call the RNG 1188 more times). After the fish manipulation, there are exactly six koopas that spawn. After they spawn, the RNGs are set perfectly in order for me to activate the credits.
There are also some OAM addresses that have more than one possible values, they have to have the same bytes of opcode and they also have to not affect the A register.
OAM AddressBytes of OpcodeDescription
$01:02FA2Will be the right value when you shoot a fireball with X
$01:02FE2Will be the right value when you shoot a fireball with Y
$01:03004X position of a koopa shell tile
$01:03023Will be the right value when you pick up a shell
$01:03062Nearly always right
$01:030A2Nearly always right
(actually you can change the bytes of the opcode, only the number of bytes between two required values is important)

Stage by stage comments

Yoshi's Island 2

We can't manipulate the addresses here since they would reset in the overworld.

Yoshi's Island 3

If you jump on a p-switch and then get the "pressed" p-switch in Yoshi's mouth on the right time, you will spawn a fish if you spit out the p-switch fast enough. Also, there can only be eight fishes in the room. After this room, I went back to the Yoshi block. I spawned two Yoshi's by hitting the block with Mario and the p-switch at the same time. I jumped on one Yoshi, got the p-switch in his mouth and let him die, so the second - invisible - Yoshi becomes visible and have a null sprite in his mouth. Then I go right to perform a PI (Powerup Incrementation) so i get a cape, to manipulate some values.

Other comments

Potential Improvements

Maybe the part with the fishes can be improved, since its heavy luck manipulation. Also, maybe there is a faster strategy to get all the right values.

Suggested Screenshots

[dead links removed]

Thanks to

  • Our Skype TASing community, for being able to help each other.
  • あんた (anta), for the discovery of this awesome glitch.
  • p4plus2 and smallhacker, for their awesome work exploring the glitch.
  • DarkMoon and Kaizoman666, for helping me writing this submission text.
  • bahamete, for creating some helpful lua scripts.
  • Mister, for helping me with YI2 :P.

adelikat: Judging

Accepting this movie as a new 'ram corruption' category. See this post for details.

Dacicus: Publication underway

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TASVideoAgent
They/Them
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Active player (420)
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Nice job on this! Excellent to see a new SMW category being made, and hopefully it won't get merged with the any%. Like someone wants.
YouTube Channel - Twitter Current projects: Sutte Hakkun, Hyper VI, RTDL, own hacking projects
Joined: 12/22/2009
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Link to video HD encode.
Current projects: Yoshi's Island Disassembly Yoshi's Island any% TAS with Carl Sagan
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
Um, wow... wtf. The game dun broke. Definite YES! Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Dwedit
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WTF. Just... WTF.
Joined: 9/10/2011
Posts: 8
wat
Joined: 6/27/2004
Posts: 55
You just turned the game in to a mere interactive debugger with p-button fishes, boring everyday stuff. Yes!
Skilled player (1633)
Joined: 11/15/2004
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Location: Killjoy
I don't feel like this one ends, quite the way the other movie ends. Could you add the 3 frames, and link to that movie? The music continues, and the splash screen just fades in. Not really the same as "reaching the credits"
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: 5/14/2007
Posts: 525
Location: Pisces-Cetus filament
lol <oasiz> "thank you for playing SMW! Unfortunately this trial copy will let you only play for two minutes"
AzumaK wrote: I swear my 1 year old daughter's favorite TASVideo is your R4MI run :3 xxNKxx wrote: ok thanks handsome feos :D Help improving TASVideos!
Joined: 6/26/2011
Posts: 167
For years, the finest scientists of the Mushroom Kingdom have attempted to figure out exactly how Yoshi biology actually works. Now that it appears that Yoshies are capable of restoring P-Switches, causing fish to spontaneously appear into existence, and even warping the fabric of space-time, it is probably a lost cause. Yes Vote.
First a movie gets submitted, and ends up accepted despite breaking rules other runs have been rejected for. And when I vote less than spectacularly on this movie, I become the victim of harassment and threats. Yay, favoritism.
Joined: 5/2/2009
Posts: 656
Zeupar wrote:
lol <oasiz> "thank you for playing SMW! Unfortunately this trial copy will let you only play for two minutes"
perfect. I couldn't top this. voting ye, of course.
My first language is not English, so please excuse myself if I write something wrong. I'll do my best do write as cleary as I can, so cope with me here =) (ノಥ益ಥ)ノ
Joined: 5/13/2009
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Just....awesome.
Joined: 12/4/2011
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Location: Australia
this game was relativey quick before this glitch was found, now it's completely broken. yes vote :)
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DarkKobold wrote:
I don't feel like this one ends, quite the way the other movie ends. Could you add the 3 frames, and link to that movie? The music continues, and the splash screen just fades in. Not really the same as "reaching the credits"
I second this. You should really use those 3 extra frames to get the "full credits".
Editor, Experienced player (607)
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Posts: 4012
Nice glitched run! Voting Yes. Whatever the branch name turns out to be, I just hope this gets published!
Joined: 3/31/2005
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Location: Argentina
I like the "Thank You!" version better, with the bonus stage in the background, followed by the enemy roll call and then the "The End" screen.
Joined: 12/29/2007
Posts: 489
Me too.
Joined: 12/6/2008
Posts: 1193
Yes vote! But please make this the normal any% and the other one "defeats bowser" or "no game ending glitch". I layed out my reasoning in the other SMW submission.
Active player (405)
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I thought the part where Mario spontaneously grew a cape was wacky but then... my brain exploded.
Player (79)
Joined: 8/5/2007
Posts: 865
DarkKobold wrote:
I don't feel like this one ends, quite the way the other movie ends. Could you add the 3 frames, and link to that movie? The music continues, and the splash screen just fades in. Not really the same as "reaching the credits"
Nahoc wrote:
I second this. You should really use those 3 extra frames to get the "full credits".
I'll reiterate my preference for the submitted version, which I stated in the game's topic. There will always be a place on this site for a SMW run that completes the game roughly as it was intended and includes the entire credit sequence. This is not such a run.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
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Bobo the King wrote:
There will always be a place on this site for a SMW run that completes the game roughly as it was intended and includes the entire credit sequence. This is not such a run.
The 3 frame slower run they're talking about starts from the Yoshi's House "Thank You" screen and proceeds through the enemy roll call to the credits, all with no music and no sound at all. It's not the full credits, and with full silence, it's not very entertaining.
Joined: 12/6/2008
Posts: 1193
Yeah how it is now is more fun. It seems more like the game just giving up. :D
Player (79)
Joined: 8/5/2007
Posts: 865
CoolKirby wrote:
Bobo the King wrote:
There will always be a place on this site for a SMW run that completes the game roughly as it was intended and includes the entire credit sequence. This is not such a run.
The 3 frame slower run they're talking about starts from the Yoshi's House "Thank You" screen and proceeds through the enemy roll call to the credits, all with no music and no sound at all. It's not the full credits, and with full silence, it's not very entertaining.
Yeah, I'm aware, and those all genuinely detract from it. I'd have brought it up myself, but I decided if I got lost in a rant, people wouldn't take my post as seriously. But yes, CoolKirby is right: it's not even the unadulterated credit sequence. I prefer this version by a significant margin.
Player (12)
Joined: 6/17/2006
Posts: 498
Nahoc wrote:
DarkKobold wrote:
I don't feel like this one ends, quite the way the other movie ends. Could you add the 3 frames, and link to that movie? The music continues, and the splash screen just fades in. Not really the same as "reaching the credits"
I second this. You should really use those 3 extra frames to get the "full credits".
Man I haven't logged in on these forums for years. However I was compelled to do so because I strongly disagree with you two. Having a longer input (in this case 3 frames) in order to reach the ending screen even later is much less entertaining in my opinion. Sacrificing those frames would only cause the viewer to witness the same old Super Mario World ending everybody has seen countless times already. This difference of opinion is definitely a gray area though. The movie rules clearly states that "a speed-oriented movie must beat all existing records", and the movie guidelines states that "you are permitted to trade off speed for entertainment". The way I interpret these seemingly contradictory statements is the following: trading speed for entertainment is allowed only if it isn't a speed-oriented movie. However, I know that there has been some precedent in the past to the contrary such as one of the Castlevania SotN runs to avoid spamming the Wolf transformation. (All of the SotN runs are all strangely missing from the Movies section right now for some reason so I can't link to the one I'm referring to.) I'm not sure if it's because a faster run has not yet been made even though that improvement was known to the author or because it was considered a valid exception to the rule and that known improvement would have been rejected for entertainment purposes, but I find this practice quite annoying and not entertaining at all. In any case, I believe a clarification of this gray zone in the current rules/guidelines of TASvideos is in order. In the end, as long as this gray area will remain, it will be the decision of a judge to decide which version to publish, and if said judge decides to select the most entertaining version rather than the absolute fastest, then it becomes a matter of public opinion, and I think it would be wise to post an encode of the longer version in this thread so that everybody can state which version is the most entertaining for them. Needless to say, I hope the absolute fastest will be selected. For the rest, I leave the final decision to the judges. That said, kudos to everybody that made this run possible, this was very impressive and entertaining! May I suggest a commentary directly on the encode since the input is so strange?
Skilled player (1633)
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Slowking wrote:
Yes vote! But please make this the normal any% and the other one "defeats bowser" or "no game ending glitch". I layed out my reasoning in the other SMW submission.
I've laid out the reason I won't be doing this in the Sites Forum.
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.
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