(Link to video)
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This is probably the best Super Mario Bros. romhack ever made. This is a Metroid based game, so it's not a linear game, you have to explore all zones to get items that will help you to beat the game, such as Space Jump, Ultra Fire, Technical Fire and more.

Games Objectives

  • Manipulate luck
  • Glitch abuse
  • Complete the game as fast as possible

Movie Comments

Death Abuse

At the very start of the movie, i lost 4 lives intentionally because later on the run, when you take the first and only item, you have to go back at the Area 1 to finally get your way to Area 5 (last Area of the run). This is the fastest way to enter the Area 5, otherwise i had to travel through the pipes to another section of Area 1 and finally to the Area 5, losing time.

Area 4 Water Section

This was probably the hardest section to optimize, on the first section of water i slow down a bit to get a good enemies RNG, the enemy that i need is the Green Fish to get to the top of a platform faster.

Space Jump

This is the first and only item that i need to finish the game as fast as possible, Space Jump is basically a double jump, you can do a second jump in the air, this makes the gameplay so much easier and it's needed for a glitch later on the run.

Death to Area 1

This game has a Continue system, if you passed to another Area (this saves your progress automatically) or if you hit the Save Block and then take a Game Over, you can continue with the items that you got. After taking the Space Jump the only thing to do is go back to Area 1, but first you have to save your progress, the fastest way to save and then take a death is getting your way to Area 2.

Wrong Warp Glitch to Area 5

As you can see on the run, there's a Wrong Warp that is needed to reach Area 5 as fast as possible, this Wrong Warp works exactly the same like SMB1 4-2 Wrong Warp, manipulating On-Screen X Position, then entering the pipe the game thinks that you take the previous pipe and takes you to the Area 5. Space Jump is needed to do this Glitch since there is no wall to perform the screen manip, doing the double jump at the very top of a ceiling pushes you to the right side.

Bowser

This Bowser has 32 HP, but his attacks and movements are not so different to the original game. You want to Fire the Balls as close as possible to Bowser, that way the Fire Balls dissapears faster and you can shot faster. This game requires you to beat the game with some Keys to unlock the Best Ending but this run literally didn't take any Key, so that's why the game shows you the Bad Ending defeating Bowser, but not rescuing the Princess.

fsvgm777: Replaced movie file with one that removes some unnecessary jumps (and also corrects the re-record count). The total time remains unchanged.
Memory: Judging
Memory: Optimization looks fine.
So while on the surface this run appears ok entertainment-wise, the goal choice was a source of controversy. In my opinion this run doesn't really beat the game. The differences between good ending and bad ending are as follows
Bad ending:
  • No true final boss
  • Gets ???'s above Mario's head and asked where the princess is
  • No completion time nor completion percentage
  • After returning to title screen, hitting continue you seem to have all your previous items and progress. This is identical to a game over.
Good ending:
  • True final boss
  • Rescues princess and gets a "Thanks for playing"
  • Completion time and completion percentage are displayed
  • After returning to title screen, hitting continue you seem to lose all your items but have invincibility.
In my opinion there is a lot to suggest that the bad ending isn't really beating the game. To me it's a similar case to Igavania games where there is a clear fake ending of sorts. The fact that it is functionally identical to a gameover solidifies it for me.
Apparently the game does suggest you go to the final area before you get enough keys to get the true ending, but to me this doesn't really change things. As I see it, that could just mean they intended the bad ending as a sort of like half-way point for the game. The other indicators are just so much stronger.
However, we don't exactly have clear rules on this so admittedly one could argue that under the current rules there is nothing strictly prohibiting this. However, there is another problem.
The main thing this branch has going for it that true ending does not have is the wrong warp used, and I really don't see that alone as enough of a difference. Given that this is a romhack, it must be moons worthy in order to be accepted.
Rejecting.

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #6774: Baddap1's NES Extra Mario Bros. "bad ending" in 05:26.78
Patashu
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Nice to see this category improved after over 10 years! Yes vote. I'd love to see a 100% run too (which I guess is: all 1up mushrooms, all upgrades, all keys) but it'd be plenty of work.
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I voted meh. I found all the constant jumping annoying. Is that necessary? Is jump speed faster than run speed?
Baddap1
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dave_dfwm wrote:
I voted meh. I found all the constant jumping annoying. Is that necessary? Is jump speed faster than run speed?
Most of them are necessary, every time you are starting running, the most optimal way to reach the maximum speed as fast as possible is jumping twice facing left, this is know as Fast Acceleration. The jumps at the water section are all necessary to keep your maximum speed all the time, since walking on the water reduces your speed at half.
Fortranm
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Glad to see this submitted. Yes vote.
Patashu wrote:
Nice to see this category improved after over 10 years! Yes vote. I'd love to see a 100% run too (which I guess is: all 1up mushrooms, all upgrades, all keys) but it'd be plenty of work.
A 100% run should complete Area-Sp as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjq3-KunWcE It's supposedly only available after getting the good ending, but it would be interesting if there is a way to break into that area without beating the game first.
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dave_dfwm wrote:
I voted meh. I found all the constant jumping annoying. Is that necessary? Is jump speed faster than run speed?
I agree, I also didn't like the continuous jumping. I didn't vote. I think that it's ok for arcade-like games like the original Super Mario Bros., but in my opinion this hack ROM gives much emphasis to the atmosphere and the exploration, so the playaround feels wrong.
Baddap1 wrote:
Most of them are necessary, every time you are starting running, the most optimal way to reach the maximum speed as fast as possible is jumping twice facing left, this is know as Fast Acceleration. The jumps at the water section are all necessary to keep your maximum speed all the time, since walking on the water reduces your speed at half.
Sorry but the fact is, you kept jumping after the first two times, in non-water sections. I wish to see how this TAS would have looked like if jumping was reduced to the minimum. I think it would be easy to edit that with TAS Editor or TAStudio. If you want, I can do it for you.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
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It's cool to see this game again. Unfortunately, by putting in the new use of the wrong warp glitch, you cut out so much of the game that the new run is actually less interesting than HappyLee's movie. Great job making this, but I had to vote Meh on it. For the people mentioning 100%, it gets really tedious. I watched sistermind's run a long time ago, and with no map available it all ends up looking quite repetitive. Having an "all abilities" run might be a nice compromise though.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
Baddap1
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Youtube Video Encode replaced with the current movie file that removes some of the unnecessary jumps. Time remains exactly the same.
BigBoct
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This is a fine enough movie for me. Area-5 is different from HappyLee's movie, and the route to get Space Jump and then deathwarp back to Area-1 to get to Area-5 and pipe glitch is interesting. I do agree with mklip about the 100% run being a bit tedious, so if I was making the judging decisions, my thoughts would be this movie, HappyLee's (no scroll glitch?) and then either All Upgrades or 100%.
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Baddap1 wrote:
Youtube Video Encode replaced with the current movie file that removes some of the unnecessary jumps. Time remains exactly the same.
Thank you. There are still a lot of jumps, but these seem more appropriate to me. Overall, I found the playarounds enjoyable. I'm voting Yes. This looks like a very impressive hack ROM, I really like how they turned SMB in something different. It's also very well designed.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
Post subject: Hmm... why "any%"?
Αsumeh
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I feel cheated with how this run achieves the bad ending. I mean, I get that it beats the game faster than this movie, but in the end, the game is confused as to where "Princess" is. That tells me that the best/good ending has not been achieved. I don't know if it should be published alongside HL's run because I've seen "bad ending" runs get rejected/canceled and "best/good ending" runs published. Obviously, skipping the giant Bowser fight to the "Thank you Mario! Your quest is over" text signifies that the TAS has achieved the bad ending, whereas the good/best ending is normally achieved by collecting all eight keys and finishing the giant Bowser fight altogether. Stated here in the rules:
TASVideos / Movie Rules wrote:
Where applicable, the movie must reach an ending screen that positively signifies a game is finished successfully.
Still a significant run overall! Just the "bad ending" part of it is what I'm a bit worried about. Abstaining vote.
I'm Asumeh, semi-expert SMB1 TASer. :) Check out some of the TASes I don't submit/upload to TASVideos on my YouTube channel, if you'd like: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyDD727I6LYNJTPEKCzauCw In progress: - Record my older TASes (excluding any obsolete TASes) and upload to YouTube; other than that, nothing at the moment.
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Many jumps but still i consider this TAS very good and entertaining, i actually had no idea a mix of Mario with Mega Man would be something cool to see, and the optimization is awesome. My vote is YES
Post subject: Re: Interesting
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JulianRX wrote:
Many jumps but still i consider this TAS very good and entertaining, i actually had no idea a mix of Mario with Mega Man would be something cool to see, and the optimization is awesome. My vote is YES
It's a mix with Super Metroid, not Mega Man.
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
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It's necessary to point out that this branch should be named "bad ending any%", because Mario won't have the chance to fight the final Boss and rescue the Princess with this strat, doesn't count as really completing the game. This movie shouldn't obsolete the current EMB publication, which should be named "true ending (no continue)". I've been working on an improvement of the current publication for quite a while, which hopefully would be a big surprise to all. There's also a 100% category, but it's hard to definite it. In my mind, the best category of this game is "true ending (no continue)".
Recent projects: SMB warpless TAS (2018), SMB warpless walkathon (2019), SMB something never done before (2019), Extra Mario Bros. (best ending) (2020).
CoolHandMike
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Short but interesting run. Definitely looks like a high quality hack. Yes.
discord: CoolHandMike#0352
Patashu
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HappyLee, I'm excited to see your true ending (no continue) TAS improvement when it's finished!
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So some notes as to the two endings:
  • Bad ending does not have the true final boss
  • Bad ending leaves off with "Where is princess" indicating things might not actually be finished.
  • Good ending shows off the ingame time and percentage of mushrooms(?) collected whereas bad ending does not. Might be indicative that the game is only considered beaten if the good ending is achieved.
  • The RTA community has bad ending runs listed as any% (we often differ from their rules so this is a small note at most)
So far looking to me the game might not actually be finished with this but I'm not necessarily locked into this opinion.
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Fortranm
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What happens after you get the bad ending? Do you keep everything you got after starting the game again?
Memory
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You mean if you hit continue? It appears you still have space jump. This TAS kinda doesn't get much else though. Not sure what happens if you hit continue after the good ending (assuming it lets you).
[16:36:31] <Mothrayas> I have to say this argument about robot drug usage is a lot more fun than whatever else we have been doing in the past two+ hours
[16:08:10] <BenLubar> a TAS is just the limit of a segmented speedrun as the segment length approaches zero
Fortranm
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From what I see in the video I posted earlier, getting a good ending makes you invulnerable when you hit continue afterward.
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What are the requirements for the good ending?
my personal page - my YouTube channel - my GitHub - my Discord: thunderaxe31 <Masterjun> if you look at the "NES" in a weird angle, it actually clearly says "GBA"
Patashu
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ThunderAxe31 wrote:
What are the requirements for the good ending?
Pretty sure it's collecting all eight keys before reaching Bowser, triggering the true final boss fight. Powerups and 1-up mushrooms don't seem to be necessary.
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Best Ending "only" requires all 8 keys, but I believe access/progression to them is gated in such a way that you wind up needing all the upgrades anyway, EXCEPT Space Jump. (The area immediately after the SJ mushroom has on/off blocks that you can trigger before the SJ mushroom to get through.)
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nymx
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This is an interesting category. On one side, it satisfies the condition of "Beating The Game", which is made clear by the ending, yet some parts of the game is cut. HappyLee states that it should be an any% category, based off of the stated goal of "Bad Ending", which I agree with. One posting stated that this was an improvement over the existing publication, which I do not agree. For one, it does not collect all the keys, which "True Ending" does. This can show significant time differences between the two for routing and various other strats, thus...the current publication and this submission have two different completion goals. The true ending is met by http://tasvideos.org/1336M.html. I am also in agreement that this movie cheats us from seeing the game in its entirety, but I don't hold to that judgement to dismiss this as another category. On the note of excessive jumping, I do not have a problem with it as I see it only demonstrates how crazy the player can move about. Among all the posts, their seems to be division on the chosen "play around"; however, I'm not sure why Baddap1's effort is being singled out for criticism over the run of HappyLee...where I see existing play around, which is nice. Optimization for most of the game seems to mimic the skill demonstrated by HappyLee's publication. The parts where slowness does occur, seem to be unavoidable because of the circumstances...mostly water levels. The part that I have concern over, is something that I haven't heard from anybody else, not even in the submission text. At 4:17, the TASer slows down to jump multiple times against a platform. This will need explanation...otherwise, I would immediately recognize this to be unoptimal. This is possibly a trick for RNG manipulation, but as I have discovered in so many different games and situations, there has to be a way to minimize this.
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