The main highlights and improvements are in 8-1, 8-2, and 8-3. By using a new & complex Koopa shell–kicking strategy, we skip entering the castle, saving a significant amount of time.
The entertainment value has also been improved. I added some music-synced gameplay in 4-1 and 8-4 - did you notice it?
Note: This is not the original Super Mario Bros., but a Two Players hack based on the original game. Both players must touch the flagpole to clear a stage, and both must press Down simultaneously to enter pipes.
Improvements: 21 frames in 1-1, 21 frames in 4-1, 21 frames in 4-2, 105 frames in 8-1, 84 frames in 8-2, 84 frames in 8-3, and 1 frame in 8-4 (third room). Total: 337 frames.
Note: When comparing the raw video length, it may appear to be 338 frames faster. This is because the previous TAS ended 1 frame later. As with all SMB TASes, this movie ends on the frame when the axe disappears.
When I first saw the previous TAS on December 14, I immediately thought of an improvement using underground Koopa shell kicking, which led to the shell-kick strategy in 8-1. A test version was completed on December 17.
For the 8-2 and 8-3 test versions, special thanks go to Kzwbz for the help. We discussed the ideas together and quickly settled on the final approach. My initial concept was to clip through the ground, but testing showed that ground clipping is slower in 8-2, and in 8-3 it would require a lower-positioned Koopa shell.
The Koopa shell kick in 8-3 was my own idea. Mario's ability to kick the shell so quickly is made possible by the special shell collision behavior in the 2-player version. The earlier pipe clips were purely for entertainment.
This is my first dual-player TAS. Special thanks to Kzwbz for his help. I would also like to thank chatterbox for his significant contributions to this project.
I'm glad that HappyLee invited me to join this project. I've been quite busy recently, so I was only able to create test versions for a few levels. HappyLee then made some incredible improvements, including techniques I had never seen before. Many thanks to him for his outstanding contribution to this project.
Suggested Screenshot (frame #13591):
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: Uploading improvement file.
nymx: I am definitely in agreement with the audience on this one. This was fun to watch with surprising tricks! Very good work and I congratulate the two of your for such excellent effort!
