(Link to video)
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Super Mario 64, the classic platformer from 1996, stars that Italian red plumber dude, named Mario. So he gets an invitation to have a one night stand eat a cake that Princess Peach has baked for him. So, like any fat Italian man would, he jumps in a green tube and heads to the castle - and so the journey begins. Once Mario arrives, he realizes that there is no cake and there will be no cake. The princess wants him to lose some weight, and she has hired Bowser to be a fitness trainer for Mario. The plan is to motivate him with cake and make him to run around the castle for "power stars", but Mario, just as any fat Italian would, skips all of that, loses no weight and demands cake.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Mupen64 0.5 Re-Recording v8
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses game-breaking glitches

Comments

This TAS began when Kyman found a 1 frame improvement in the spiral stairs room. After that was found, Nahoc managed to save 2 frames on the final Bowser battle. We then started to work on the run and Kyman found a completely new BLJless route for Bowser in the Fire Sea, which ended up saving 7 frames (and also removed 2 BLJs from the run). While redoing the spiral/endless stairs section, Kyman found a way to get 20~ more speed while still being able to C^ off of the wall. sonicpacker applied this and in the end saved another 3 frames. Instead of simply hex editing parts of our old run, we redid them for entertainment purposes. After submitting, snark found a 1 frame improvement in the DDD skip, and Nothing/Mickey found 3 frames of improvement in BitFS. Kyman had an idea for the DDD skip which saved 1 frame. Jesus found a new strategy for the beginning of BitFS which ended up another frame. Then Kyman redid the pillar wallkicks which saved the final frame.

Tricks Used in this Run

0-Input BLJ
When you have no input on the analog in between the "A" button presses for a BLJ, your speed will not decrease, thus exponentially increasing the speed at the end result of the BLJs.
Pause BLJ
Normally, you can only press the "A" button fifteen times per second because the game runs at thirty frames per second. If you had thirty continuous "A" frames, you'd just be holding "A" down, not tapping it. However, if you pause while pressing the "A" button, you are given an opportunity on the next frame to release the "A" button. You can follow that by repressing it when it's not paused (therefore letting you BLJ the equivalent of thirty times "per second"). This is useful when you need more speed to travel a long distance. It isn't as helpful as it seems as it takes three extra frames to do a Pause BLJ. In order to save time you need the extra speed to save at least 3 frames.
Forward Jump Kick Trick
While Mario is recovering after a forward movement (dive, long jump, etc.), you can hold the "A" button prior to landing, and on the frame you land, press the "B" button with the analog stick at ^54 or less (on the TAS Input Plugin), you will do a jump kick. The trick is that it maintains all of the same speed from before the landing. You can also apply this when moving backwards (such as after a BLJ), by holding "A" before you are in the running animation, and then pressing "B." This causes Mario to do a jump kick and retain the same speed. This is useful for crossing long gaps and covering large distances.
Slide Kicking
This has been found to be the best method of forward movement over a long distance, because unlike the jump kick, you can do it repeatedly without losing speed.
Punch Trick
Instead of running for one frame when accelerating from a stop, you press the "B" button with no analog input, which gives you a starting speed of 10 instead of roughly 8.
Forward Speed Conversion
After triggering text, Mario is in a frozen state with his speed stuck at what it was while activating the text. When the text is read, you have the ability to do many things. One trick we can do with this is to press "C^" (upper C button) and "Z" at the same frame and hold a specific direction to get forward speed (as opposed to backwards speed which we originally used to activate the text). This is useful because forward speed can be used for things like getting to high places, such as the endless stair case. If you don‘t use Z with C^, your options are limited, because you only move forwards or backwards in a state that will not let Mario jump.
Instant Jump Kick Trick
This trick allows you to jump kick on the very first frame that Mario has input. This also is enables you to choose an angle for Mario to travel. You do this by holding A for at least one frame before Mario can move, then push B and the direction you want to go on the first frame of input.
Hyper-Speed Wall Kicking (HSWK)
Mario's speed increases infinitely while airborne with the analog held forward. If he wallkicks on the first possible frame, he doesn't lose any speed.

Improvement Table

SectionFrames SavedFrames Saved Overall
Lakitu Skip00
BLJ to BitDW00
BitDW00
B100
BLJ to Basement00
DDD Skip22
BitFS1214
B2014
To 2nd Key Door014
Spiral Stairs to BitS418
BitS018
B3220

Special Thanks

We would like to thank snark, Mickey, Nothing and Jesus for their improvements and work to make this run ever more perfect than before. :)

Suggested Screenshot

Enjoy the run! Thanks! :)

sgrunt: Replaced the submission file with this five-frame improvement.
Baxter: Mario 64 completed even faster, with (generally considered) better camera angles. Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.
Nahoc: Processing!
Baxter: Delayed, awaiting improved version.
Baxter: Submission file replaced with a faster version. Setting the submission back to 'accepted' again.
Aktan: Processing in place of Nahoc.

Editor
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 1466
Location: Not playing Puyo Tetris
Yes for the creative use of something that is not a complete and total abuse of the engine.
When TAS does Quake 1, SDA will declare war. The Prince doth arrive he doth please.
Player (116)
Joined: 5/13/2009
Posts: 700
Location: suffern, ny
Holy crap, just when I thought they could save any more frames on the run, this comes. In the words of Mario, Here we go! Yes vote!
[19:16] <scrimpy> silly portuguese [19:16] <scrimpy> it's like spanish, only less cool
Joined: 3/31/2010
Posts: 24
I was pleasantly surprised by the BitFS route. Voted yes.
Joined: 7/30/2011
Posts: 129
Location: Watching a TAS in the basement...
NitroGenesis wrote:
The camera angles were so terrible but because of abuse that has happened I voted yes.
MrGrunz wrote:
how old's kyman?
14
Oh man, I'm screwed. I have a year to get up to Kyman's level of TASing. I never would have guessed he was 14 by skill. Impressive!
I am the future ruler of the world! My forum: http://elderyoshisisland.forumotion.com/
Former player
Joined: 8/31/2009
Posts: 236
Easy yes vote! Good job you guys!
ALAKTORN
He/Him
Player (99)
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 2527
Location: Italy
NitroGenesis wrote:
MrGrunz wrote:
how old's kyman?
14
that’s amazing O_o and wow guys, I would’ve never thought this could get an improvement without going through the moat door… great job :)
Joined: 12/31/2009
Posts: 174
This a very awesome run. Great job! A solid Yes vote after seeing the new FS route and less annoying camera. I never really cared for the camera as long as I can see what is going on (the last run was the first time it bothered me badly).
Active player (490)
Joined: 1/12/2007
Posts: 682
Excellent run, obviously I voted yes. At least this time, there won't be any people needlessly complaining about camera angles.
Warepire
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
I never dreamed of that this much frames could be saved on the old run, this is incredible. It's impossible to vote something else than Yes.
Tompa
Any
Editor, Expert player (2142)
Joined: 8/15/2005
Posts: 1934
Location: Mullsjö, Sweden
A new step towards sub 5 minutes. Great work guys! I'll deliver another yes vote for ya.
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11267
Location: RU
Osom stuff, beautiful movie!
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Joined: 3/10/2011
Posts: 136
Location: Inside the FCEUX emulator
Wow, this was an unexepected improvement. Yes vote.
Blah Blah Blah... Why I'm writing this?
Active player (422)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 329
Wow. Yes vote.
Joined: 7/20/2010
Posts: 25
The japanese version has a shorter cutscene at the start (peach doesn't say her little dialouge). I think that's the next step to sub 5 minutes. Does anyone know about the glitches in the japanese version? Oh, and obviously, voted yes
Editor, Experienced player (608)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
NitroGenesis wrote:
MrGrunz wrote:
how old's kyman?
14
That is awesome. This run is really amazing. I love the new BitFS route and great camera angles (now the run can regain its star!). And that first paragraph is still hilarious. Obvious yes vote.
Active player (420)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
For the improvement table in the submission text, can someone change the BitS "Frames saved overall" section from 10 to 11? Just a small typo. Edit: Thank you Grunt =)
sgrunt
He/Him
Emulator Coder, Former player
Joined: 10/28/2007
Posts: 1360
Location: The dark horror in the back of your mind
sonicpacker wrote:
For the improvement table in the submission text, can someone change the BitS "Frames saved overall" section from 10 to 11? Just a small typo.
Done. I'm impressed with the new BitFS route (it only saved seven frames over the old route? That must have been one intensely fast old route), and this run is actually watchable compared to the last. I vote yes.
Editor, Active player (429)
Joined: 9/29/2008
Posts: 706
Location: Canada
MrGrunz wrote:
wow, nice improvement. No need to say, what I will vote. I happen to have had the same idea a few weeks back, but due to not having much experience in sm64 TASing I wasn't able to pull it off. I planned to do it slightly differently, though. I executed a BLJ using the spot shown here: Afterwards my goal was to grab the pole and get forward speed. Sadly, I've never got that far because I always lost the speed when I grabbed the pole. Using the forwards speed I would have jumped up to the elevator and then did the wallkicks the same way you guys did it. This is just a theory, no idea if it really can work. I decided to share it, because I could never pull it off any way ;) btw, sry for the big picture.
Trust me, I tried this to no end, but it doesn't save any time. Maybe today I'll upload all of my alternate BitFS route ideas, they really are quite interesting. :)
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (532)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
Did someone say SM64 improvement? I voted yes
Former player
Joined: 12/1/2007
Posts: 425
Mupen bug causes input (including start) when playback ends and thus pauses the game before hitting the star. Anyway, yes vote of course.
Skilled player (1885)
Joined: 4/20/2005
Posts: 2160
Location: Norrköping, Sweden
Nice job, here's another yes vote!
Former player
Joined: 7/21/2006
Posts: 747
Location: Northern Hemisphere
Awesome new finds. Awesome run. Another easy yes vote.
Joined: 2/7/2006
Posts: 55
Hell yes vote! Great new route, entertaining as always. I can't believe this game has been improved yet again. I've enjoyed watching Mario 64 get improved over and over again probably more than any other game on here.
Joined: 6/16/2011
Posts: 48
SM64 improvements are always a yes from me. I also can't wait for a new 100% run. Does anyone know if one is in the works? Awesome job on this one too, though, guys.
Editor, Experienced player (852)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
stootab wrote:
The japanese version has a shorter cutscene at the start (peach doesn't say her little dialouge). I think that's the next step to sub 5 minutes. Does anyone know about the glitches in the japanese version? Oh, and obviously, voted yes
For a 0 star run, other than the shorter intro, there is no other timesaver. I doubt the TASvideos.org community would accept an improvement using the Japanese rom, sadly.