(There is no sound, and the start looks like it is frozen. These are expected behaviors.)
Super Mario v1.2
for the TI-83 Calculator
in 2:11.150
FILES USED IN THE MULTI-DISK BUNDLER FOR THIS SUBMISSION:
MARIO.83P, NAGEL.83P
and then
ION.83G
^^ In that order. The .zip for 'Super Mario v1.2' will contain a number of files, including an on-calculator level editor program, but only the two I list here are used.
I am linking to them for judging simplicity because none of the files are paid-for licensed products, this is all homebrew. Oh, I also used the TI-83 v1.02 firmware rom, in case that matters.
THE GAME
This is the definitive Super Mario Bros. game for TI-83 calculators, programmed by one Sam Heald in 2001. He based his version on the TI-86 game, 'Mario 86' by Bill Nagel, after Sam asked Bill for assistance porting the game to the TI-82. According to the readme provided with SMv1.2, Heald says, "He told me that Mario was too advanced a game, I was too inferior a programmer, and if it would be done at all, it would be done by him," before adding, "Well, it was never done by him." Oh, snap!.....(do we still say that one? i forget)
Super Mario v1.2 plays in the style of the first Super Mario Bros. game for the NES, but with a tileset that pulls from Mario 3 and World as well. The game's main pull is the second program included in the zip upload: a full-featured on-calc level editor, allowing anyone to create and share levels surprisingly easily! This TAS uses the demonstration levelset included with the game, called NAGEL.83P, which was recreated (along with all of the game's graphics) from Bill Nagel's Mario 86, in a simultaneous "thank you" and "screw you" from one programmer to another.
THE RUN
- In Level 1, I pick up a Mushroom followed by a Fire Flower as soon as possible. I had also tested whether avoiding the power-up animations was faster--While being able to fireball piranha plants instead of waiting for them to move away was almost fast enough by itself, the main benefit to Fire Mario comes later in Level 3.
- This game has similar movement quirks to the NES game, including how bouncing off enemies works. As long as Mario is falling down, he can bounce off of an enemy, no matter what part of his body makes contact. While manipulating this sometimes gives better movement routes, usually this TAS does this just because it looks funny. Ha ha, I squished you with my moustache, stupid goomba!
- When multiple enemies are on screen, lag tends to appear. Fire power helps clear out groupas of koopas before things start to slow down, as they are the worst offenders.
- Level 2 contains the first Note Blocks, which might pause Mario's horizontal movement if he lands on them wrong. I avoid them when possible because of this headache.
- Level 3, the fortress-style level, has two horrible Thwomps that ended up defining the whole run up to this point. While the first Thwomp can be scooted past safely if Mario is small, the second one absolutely cannot. Big Mario having to take damage at the first Thwomp and Small Mario having to wait for the second Thwomp to retract are the primary reasons why obtaining Fire Mario back in Level 1 ended up being the fastest route: Fire Mario taking damage to the first Thwomp reverts his status to merely Big Mario, which means that the TAS can just take the damage from the second Thwomp and charge on through in the i-frames.
- The next major timesave for this run comes from using Big Mario to take damage during the Bowser fight in Level 6. With the fastest mushroom in levels 4 and 5 to obtain being the one in Level 5, what's leftover for the TAS to do in Level 4 is simply run right to win.
- I hope you like Mario's pseudo-trampoline act in Level 5.
- Level 6 is this levelset's finale, using Super Mario v1.2's impersonation of the Super Mario Bros. 3 final boss fight with Bowser. Taking damage by sitting under Bowser's Big Bottom means he bounces left and right less, saving a full movement cycle before he plunges to his kersplat.
- Yeah SMv1.2's end screen isn't much but oh well. Thanks for watching!
Here's
another TAS (volume warning) that was uploaded to YouTube 15 years ago, apparently! Wowee. And hey: For other fun TI-83 games to look at,
try here and the whole catalog
over here. I even have a couple buried in there that I submitted back in '02! Yeah I'm an OG, now get off my lawn.
Oh, also: Apparently, there was an unofficial v2.0 released for this game many years later, but how different it is from the official v1.2 version seems so in-debate that I saw many comments claiming that the new version was literally the same program file and someone was just scamming internet clicks to their personal website? Seems weird. So I used the most official, most familiar, and most popular version of the game, the same one I played on back in high school. hey i said stay off my lawn already, shoosh!
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: I finally got the package built to confirm a sync. These TI games are amazing. I remember trying to make a game on a TI-81, back in highschool. Very neat stuff. Obviously, the later models had much more power and capability to do things as we just witnessed here.
In regard to the run, I've reviewed the concern with grabbing a mushroom...not only once, but twice. Both cases are legitimate, because each are used to save time. The first instance was to walk through a Whomp, without getting killed and to keep moving. The 2nd instance was to lure Bowser over to a specific spot by sacrificing Mario's powerup to trap him.
All looks good here.
