(Link to video)

After 5 years of work, it's finally here!

This is an improvement of 09:04.17 over the previous movie by Rikku.
For comparison, the fastest non-TAS run (by Siglemic) is 1:44:23 (as of 11/12).

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Mupen64 0.5 re-recording v8
  • Uses death to save time
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Manipulates luck
  • Uses game-breaking glitches
  • Abuses programming errors
  • Genre: Platform

Comments

MKDasher's Comments

Yay, done at last! I didn't start TASing this game that long ago, so I have the least experience, but I really want to thank the rest of the team for letting me join and participate in this great project. It's been a really nice experience for me and I'm hoping that everyone enjoys watching the run as much as we did making it!

Nahoc's Comments

Yo, yo, yo! I must say, like Jeremiah and David, I'm really happy to finally see this completed run in the workbench. I had a blast TASing this awesome game with such awesome people.
I'd like to point out that a big part of this project was done by the Japanese TASers. When they were working on the "120 Stars" TAS, they used to go back a lot to redo and improve earlier stars, since they were working on a "perfect" TAS. We (sonicpacker and myself) got tired of being left aside the project, seeing how slow the progress on it was and decided to go along and do our own TAS. MKDasher later joined us. Not gonna lie, we used a lot of their inputs during the making of this movie (but always with permissions) and "quickly" finished the masterpiece that you're about to watch. Of course, some improvements were found during the 3-month period we worked on the project, but it's nothing too big.
We would like to thank all the Japanese SM64 TASers for their hard work and hope they will be able to improve this movie with a more "perfect" v2. Good luck guys!

sonicpacker's Comments

Well it's about damn time. No, but really, working with the community towards finishing this run has given me the best time of my life and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my teenage years. I've met so many awesome people and have had the best partners to work with. I'm thankful beyond words and I hope everyone that watches the TAS has a great time! I could go on and write a book about it, but I'll let the run speak for itself. And remember, SM64 isn't even near dead. Stay tuned, haha!

Tricks

See this page [dead link removed] for a brief description of all the tricks used in this run.

Star Times

Here's a comprehensive list of all the star times. It also includes a time comparison with Rikku's run.
[dead image link removed]
Star(s)Time(s)Rikku's Time(s)Difference
Cool, Cool Mountain Time Saved: 18"43
Wallkicks Will Work (with text)5"57 (6"10)10"904"80
Slip Slidin' Away25"0326"351"32
100 Coins & Big Penguin Race (with 3 stars text)1'00"12 & 1'16"751'20"533"78
Frosty Slide for 8 Red Coins36"0340"934"90
Li'l Penguin Lost16"2019"032"83
Snowman's Lost his Head35"3736"170"80
Whomp's Fortress Time Saved: 27"12
Blast Away the Wall (with text)7"17 (8"60)9"430"83
Fall onto the Caged Island9"2010"871"67
100 Coins & Red Coins on the Floating Isle47"33 & 53"7368"0714"34
Chip Off Whomp's Block27"6330"933"30
To the Top of the Fortress10"5714"954"38
Shoot Into the Wild Blue7"8710"472"60
Bob-omb Battlefield Time Saved: 1'47"95
Find the 8 Red Coins (with text)29"40 (30"53)51"6021"07
Mario Wings to the Sky21"8331"8710"04
Big Bob-omb on the Summit35"7345"9010"17
100 Coins & Footrace with Koopa the Quick1'19"40 & 1'35"472'27"7052"23
Shoot to the Island in the Sky14"4024"9010"50
Behind Chain Chomp's Gate9"1313"073"94
Dire, Dire Docks Time Saved: 39"53
100 Coins & Pole-Jumping for Red Coins1'31"58 & 1'38"952'04"6325"68
Chests in the Current26"7031"534"83
Collect the Caps...47"2247"450"23
Through the Jet Stream34"8839"935"05
Board Bowser's Sub31"9834"572"59
The Manta Ray's Reward14"0315"181"15
Hazy Maze Cave Time Saved: 1'17"47
Metal-Head Mario Can Move!17"5230"1312"61
A-Maze-ing Emergency Exit10"7011"030"33
Watch for Rolling Rocks14"1015"301"20
100 Coins & Elevate for 8 Red Coins1'36"40 & 1'41"3746"23 (-100 Coins)+55"14
Swimming Beast in the Cavern14"871'50"97 (+100 Coins)1'36"10
Navigating the Toxic Maze13"3335"7022"37
Shifting Sand Land Time Saved: 1'19"89
100 Coins & Pyramid Puzzle1'17"12 & 1'23"181'52"7029"52
Shining Atop the Pyramid6"137"070"94
Stand Tall on the Four Pillars47"3753"135"76
In the Talons of the Big Bird13"3316"403"07
Inside the Ancient Pyramid12"1827"2215"04
Free Flying for 8 Red Coins34"971'00"5325"56
Lethal Lava Land Time Saved: 26"36
Elevator Tour in the Volcano (with text)17"35 (17"88)20"672"79
Boil the Big Bully14"3719"375"00
Red-Hot Log Rolling7"4313"175"74
8-Coin Puzzle with 15 Pieces13"2714"701"43
Bully the Bullies18"2724"406"13
100 Coins & Hot-Foot-It into the Volcano56"97 & 1'03"201'08"435"23
Jolly Roger Bay Time Saved: 1'50"82
Treasure of the Ocean Cave18"431'45"65 (+100 Coins)1'27"22
Blast to the Stone Pillar11"7318"716"98
Plunder in the Sunken Ship31"3253"7822"46
100 Coins & Red Coins on the Ship Afloat1'15"73 & 1'20"5753"00 (-100 Coins)+27"57
Through the Jet Stream8"7020"1711"47
Can the Eel Come Out to Play?24"5734"8310"26
Big Boo's Haunt Time Saved: 1'02"66
Go on a Ghost Hunt (with text)39"26 (39"80)55"7715"97
Big Boo's Balcony22"3328"676"34
Eye to Eye in the Secret Room25"8328"332"50
Secret of the Haunted Books10"6011"731"13
100 Coins & Ride Big Boo's Merry-Go-Round1'15"87 & 1'20"501'32"7312"23
Seek the 8 Red Coins29"7754"2624"49
Tiny-Huge Island Time Saved: 45"00
100 Coins & Wiggler's Red Coins1'04"25 & 1'08"851'35"5526"70
The Tip Top of the Huge Island16"2021"435"23
Five Itty Bitty Secrets17"0019"102"10
Pluck the Piranha Flower23"3323"700"37
Rematch with Koopa the Quick42"2348"506"27
Make Wiggler Squirm40"9845"314"33
Snowman's Land Time Saved: 44"87
In the Deep Freeze5"335"930"60
Whirl from the Freezing Pond12"5714"702"13
Chill with the Bully11"8312"700"87
Snowman's Big Head7"9710"502"53
Into the Igloo13"451'31"08 (+100 Coins)1'17"63
100 Coins & Shell Shreddin' for Red Coins1'04"55 & 1'12"6533"76 (-100 Coins)+38"89
Tall, Tall Mountain Time Saved: 1'05"37
Breathtaking View from Bridge10"4318"578"14
Mysterious Mountainside6"9010"173"27
100 Coins & Scary 'Shrooms, Red Coins1'22"25 & 1'29"751'50"6820"93
Scale the Mountain11"5019"538"03
Mystery of the Monkey Cage31"8051"0319"23
Blast to the Lonely Mushroom5"4311"205"77
Wet-Dry World Time Saved: 58"59
Secrets in the Shallows & Sky27"771'17"61 (+100 Coins)49"84
Top O' the Town12"2016"574"37
100 Coins & Go to Town for Red Coins1'15"93 & 1'20"701'00"63 (-100 Coins)+20"07
Shocking Arrow Lifts!11"6314"182"55
Express Elevator--Hurry Up!7"1019"4312"33
Quick Race Through Downtown!31"8341"409"57
Tick Tock Clock Time Saved: 20"53
Stop Time for Red Coins12"2316"804"57
100 Coins & Stomp on the Thwomp42"80 & 49"501'04"1314"63
Get a Hand5"209"103"90
The Pit and the Pendulums7"8712"404"53
Timed Jumps on Moving Bars11"5318"376"84
Roll into the Cage6"579"432"86
Rainbow Ride Time Saved: 2'03"08
Cruiser Crossing The Rainbow15"1322"577"44
The Big House in the Sky39"431'57"371'07"94
100 Coins & Somewhere over the Rainbow1'05"78 & 1'09"951'36"2026"25
Tricky Triangles!9"0014"235"23
Swingin' in the Breeze11"1712"831"66
Coins Amassed in a Maze19"4724"034"56
Castle Secret Stars Time Saved: 56"33
Princess' Secret Slide under 21 Seconds20"4320"730"30
Bowser in the Dark World Red Coins (with text)33"1745"0311"86
Princess' Secret Slide24"4724"800"33
Tower of the Wing Cap (with text)20"4322"572"14
Bowser in the Fire Sea Red Coins45"7753"337"56
Cavern of the Metal Cap43"7851"057"27
Vanish Cap under the Moat26"1329"733"60
Secret Aquarium40"1242"522"40
Wing Mario over the Rainbow51"9358"606"67
Bowser in the Sky Red Coins49"771'03"9714"20

Known Improvements

Of course, in every long TAS, even with the highest standards and level of optimization, nothing is ever perfect. Here's a list of the known improvements. Most were discovered when we were already too far into the run to go back. They will be included in a new version made by a different team of TASers.
[dead image link removed]
  • CCM:
    • About 18 frames can be saved on "Frosty Slide for 8 Red Coins".
    • 3 frames lost on "Li'l Penguin Lost".
    • 1 VI/s is savable during the "100 Coins" star.
  • BoB:
    • About 1 second can be saved on the "100 Coins" star with better coins manipulation.
  • WF:
    • "Chip Off Whomp's Block" is improvable by 3 frames.
    • "To the Top of the Fortress" is improvable by 7 frames.
    • 2 frames lost on the "100 Coins" star due to luck manipulation.
  • DDD:
    • 0"30 seconds lost due to random lag.
    • Extra frame lost for better lag manipulation.
  • LLL:
    • 1 frame lost for better luck manipulation.
  • HMC:
  • BBH:
    • 1 frame lost for better luck manipulation.

YouTube Channels of the Authors (in alphabetical order)

Here are the YouTube channels of every authors having inputs in this TAS. Subscribe to them for more SM64 superplays!

Special Thanks (in alphabetical order)

We worked hard to add everyone that has contributed to this run is some way in this list. Hope we didn't forget anybody!
Thank you so much for all the good years.

Suggested Screenshot

Phew... too many highlights in this run for a single screenshot! Here is our favourite:
[dead image link removed]
Feel free to suggest more screenshots!

Final Thoughts

[dead image link removed]
Enjoy the run and share it with your friends!

Want more SM64 action? See these other submissions:

Nahoc: Added YouTube module.
Baxter: Great improvement over the currently published TAS with many creative timesavers. Accepting for publication.
Aktan: Processing... wait a bit...

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ALAKTORN
He/Him
Player (99)
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 2527
Location: Italy
Glitcher wrote:
BTW, how did you collect that star in Tall, Tall Mountain and fall to your death before saving? I thought Mario would stand on the sky in that case. Also, how were you able to attack on the shell in Tiny, Huge Island?
there are a few places where you can fall to the bottom of the level and be brought back up on the surface (I think it requires water, the most famous example is on WF); so basically they went down enough to trigger the “falling OoB death” thing but actually used that weird water-surface glitch to come back up and collect the star after triggering the death screen the shell glitch is just jumping against the level’s border and somehow falling into water, idk lol
Joined: 11/24/2012
Posts: 18
Location: France
Odongdong wrote:
Screenshot suggestion: <image> (frame 218793)
Seconding, this is one of my favourite stars.
Joined: 2/26/2011
Posts: 98
Mark my words, a cargo cult will form around this TAS. Big yes.
Expert player (2578)
Joined: 6/2/2009
Posts: 1182
Location: Teresópolis - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Beautiful, the highlight for me is definitely Bob Omb Battlefield, especially the collection of those red coins! Also, for the thumbnail, alec kermit's second screenshot, or something around it. Seeing Mario with that Koopa shell is hilarious :) Thanks again guys for such a good run!
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
Tub
Joined: 6/25/2005
Posts: 1377
Wow. That run was so fast, I had to watch it at half speed just to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately, that puts your time at 2:41:23.04, which is over an hour slower than Rikku's run. Sorry, guys! Seriously, hats off to you. I had never expected to see such level of optimization in SM64, but apparently everything is possible with a group of talented people who are willing to invest a lot of time, knowledge and passion into a project. I hope you enjoyed making it at least as much as I enjoyed watching it!
m00
Player (19)
Joined: 5/22/2012
Posts: 26
I haven't watched the whole thing, but aren't we voting on entertainment on not technical merit? It's clearly very optimized, but honestly I don't find this that entertaining. It gets repetitive quickly, though some stars do add some variety. I have a feeling the best I could do would be a meh vote because some parts entertained me but at some points it was just "this is getting old fast". We'll see if this holds at the end, but I'm 70 stars in so far and don't see this opinion changing. Nothing against the TAS itself, it's a very well done piece of work and I congratulate everyone involved for a job well done.
Joined: 9/6/2005
Posts: 39
Location: Sweden
A friend and me were watching this on YouTube, he's a novice at watching TASVideos and I told him there's not just one person doing the entire run, there's several people. So, he thought it would be awesome if, in the YouTube encode, there would be a text showing who did what star. At first I thought it was dumb, but after a while, I started agreeing with him. There SHOULD be a text saying who did what star so that each TASer gets the respect he/she should have. Anyways, this was AWESOME! Definite YES! :D
The Dj Opposite Website - My Main music site | Dj Opposite on Newgrounds - My music, mostly Game Remakes.
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
I have no name wrote:
I haven't watched the whole thing, but aren't we voting on entertainment on not technical merit?
Yes, we are voting on entertainment, and it's okay not to think the run is entertaining. No one should feel pressured to vote Yes if they found the run boring.
Dwedit
He/Him
Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 692
Location: Chicago
I still can't listen to the level music of Super Mario 64 without hearing the Old Spice version. Also, which 4 losers voted no on this?
Editor, Experienced player (607)
Joined: 11/8/2010
Posts: 4012
Dwedit wrote:
Also, which 4 losers voted no on this?
They didn't vote No to publication. They voted No to it being entertaining, and explained why they felt that way.
Editor, Experienced player (851)
Joined: 8/12/2008
Posts: 845
Location: Québec, Canada
nesfreak wrote:
A friend and me were watching this on YouTube, he's a novice at watching TASVideos and I told him there's not just one person doing the entire run, there's several people. So, he thought it would be awesome if, in the YouTube encode, there would be a text showing who did what star. At first I thought it was dumb, but after a while, I started agreeing with him. There SHOULD be a text saying who did what star so that each TASer gets the respect he/she should have.
It would be interesting, yes. Though, this is not possible. Most of the time, more than 1 person work on each single star. I can go ahead and TAS, say, "Swimming Beast in the Cavern" and then sonicpacker will revise my work and save 3 frames. Or, better example, the 100 Coins stars. We often worked on them with a team of 3 people. There's also the fact that we are unsure as to which Japanese author did what. If you really want to know who did what for certain stars, I could tell you. But I think it is pointless to write it down somewhere, sorry. :/ Glad you enjoyed the run, though! Thanks for the votes guys.
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
Tub wrote:
I had never expected to see such level of optimization in SM64, but apparently everything is possible with a group of talented people who are willing to invest a lot of time, knowledge and passion into a project.
Thanks so much for your sentiments! We (speaking for everyone that worked on the TAS) love reading comments like this. It touches us when someone goes out of their way to recognize passion and effort. So thanks again, and we're glad you liked the run so much. (✿◠‿◠)
Player (19)
Joined: 5/22/2012
Posts: 26
Ended up narrowly voting yes. It starts out slow and repetitive but basically everything including and after Snowman's Land was very entertaining.
Skilled player (1669)
Joined: 6/11/2006
Posts: 818
Location: Arboga, Sweden
Dwedit wrote:
Also, which 4 losers voted no on this?
That's an unhealthy attitude.
Warp wrote:
omg lol this is so fake!!!1 the nes cant produce music like this!
Joined: 4/13/2009
Posts: 431
Tub wrote:
Seriously, hats off to you. I had never expected to see such level of optimization in SM64, but apparently everything is possible with a group of talented people who are willing to invest a lot of time, knowledge and passion into a project. I hope you enjoyed making it at least as much as I enjoyed watching it!
I will echo this. It is sometimes pretty amazing what the TAS pulls off, and that makes it all so interesting to watch. Though, in my opinion, it would have been better off without the BLJs. They mostly just skip entire stages, starving us from more WTFness and amazing tricks. *shrug* Anyway, great work nevertheless.
Joined: 1/17/2006
Posts: 775
Location: Deign
I didn't and probably won't watch this any time soon, but the author list makes me very happy. qdq meets m64 TAS, the kind of massive collaboration that I love and that produces awesome results.
Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign aqfaq Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign Deign
Active player (422)
Joined: 9/7/2007
Posts: 329
Tub wrote:
Wow. That run was so fast, I had to watch it at half speed just to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately, that puts your time at 2:41:23.04, which is over an hour slower than Rikku's run. Sorry, guys!
Heh, I watched Rikku's run alongside this run (star by star) to compare how each star improved from way back, so I ended up with an even longer time ;) It took a long time to get through all that. YES vote!
Active player (333)
Joined: 1/19/2010
Posts: 383
Location: Texas
Console Verified. Booyah! Link to video
Joined: 7/26/2006
Posts: 1215
I voted yes, because that was amazing! However, I didn't see this in the known improvements section so I'll ask: Is it really faster to side-BLJ into DDD and then later have to run and dive into BitFS, rather than go to BitFS frst so that the distance to getting into DDD the first time (after key collection) is very short? I just don't see how the time saved getting less speed on the BLJ negates the time wasted between the different exit/enter positions. :/
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1140)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
SoulCal wrote:
Console Verified.
Watching that video, the duration on real console appears to be about 1:21:21 (~39.5 seconds more than movie file length). Of course, there are sources of inaccuracy in that (video production might have altered the timings a bit).
Warepire
He/Him
Editor
Joined: 3/2/2010
Posts: 2174
Location: A little to the left of nowhere (Sweden)
Ilari wrote:
SoulCal wrote:
Console Verified.
Watching that video, the duration on real console appears to be about 1:21:21 (~39.5 seconds more than movie file length). Of course, there are sources of inaccuracy in that (video production might have altered the timings a bit).
Timing accuracy in mupen64 is a joke. It does not surprise me that the movie completes in a different time when run on console.
Experienced player (599)
Joined: 2/8/2009
Posts: 655
Warepire wrote:
Ilari wrote:
SoulCal wrote:
Console Verified.
Watching that video, the duration on real console appears to be about 1:21:21 (~39.5 seconds more than movie file length). Of course, there are sources of inaccuracy in that (video production might have altered the timings a bit).
Timing accuracy in mupen64 is a joke. It does not surprise me that the movie completes in a different time when run on console.
At least it synchs. The fact, that Mupen is a piece of shit and that a lot of movies (*cough* Majora's Mask *cough*) will never be synched on a real console is something we simply have to accept. Damn awesome run, guys. Although I followed the SM64 community for the last 4 years, there were still many suprises for me left in there, that I didn't expect at all. I have to admit I was kind of sceptical, when I heard about your quick progress within the last months, because usually it took a good amount of weeks in the past to do a project like the 0 star run and then out of a sudden you do the 120 Star TAS, which I really never expected to happen, in 3-4 months. Fortunately, my darkest expectations didn't come true and you delivered us a master piece. I also can't agree with anyone who says, BLJs are boring. Speed is entertainment, at least to me. And I don't know any game in which such high speeds are reached while it is still possible to control the character so smoothly. Now everything left to do is giving us a nice commentary, just like Cosmo's runs have. They are usually quite awesome to listen to while watching the run. As there's quite a big story behind this run, I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem with filling those 80 minutes with a lot interesting informations ;)
Active player (419)
Joined: 9/21/2009
Posts: 1047
Location: California
bkDJ wrote:
However, I didn't see this in the known improvements section so I'll ask: Is it really faster to side-BLJ into DDD and then later have to run and dive into BitFS, rather than go to BitFS frst so that the distance to getting into DDD the first time (after key collection) is very short? I just don't see how the time saved getting less speed on the BLJ negates the time wasted between the different exit/enter positions. :/
The sub disappears if you beat BitFS first. And guys, we already knew the run would be longer by a bit. That's why we asked SoulCal to make the video in the first place...
Mitjitsu
He/Him
Banned User, Experienced player (531)
Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
Warepire wrote:
Ilari wrote:
SoulCal wrote:
Console Verified.
Watching that video, the duration on real console appears to be about 1:21:21 (~39.5 seconds more than movie file length). Of course, there are sources of inaccuracy in that (video production might have altered the timings a bit).
Timing accuracy in mupen64 is a joke. It does not surprise me that the movie completes in a different time when run on console.
Not at all, you'll find that with even the most accurate emus on the site. Mupen calculates frames at 60fps while NTSC does 59.85, which is roughly 1.55% difference in timing. With my rough calculations I was expecting to see a console time of 1:21:57.93
ALAKTORN
He/Him
Player (99)
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 2527
Location: Italy
sonicpacker wrote:
The sub disappears if you beat BitFS first.
that’s funny actually I have a noob question about DDD too: when does the water go back to reveal BitFS? I think it happened when you collected the sub star, but if so why not leave that star for last?
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