I like the idea of reaching the 1st place point goal while sacrificing as few frames as possible, it adds an extra avenue of optimization beyond just reaching top speed and keeping it. If the credits play regardless of place, 1st place could be considered a full completion, so I think it's a vaultable secondary goal.
Funnily enough, 1st place has a much shorter final text than 2nd place, saving a few frames on the last input, more frames than getting those points cost, so it's actually faster to get 20k points. But if a low score run was faster, I don't think it would necessarily obsolete this one.
It's fortunate that jumping lowers your speed by so little that it doesn't always lose time. However, doing too many jumps in one level can! I was able to save a few frames by reducing jumps. I made up the points with a lot of extra barrel jumps that didn't cost any frames. I also improved the acceleration to max in a couple stages.
Level 1 I couldn't save a frame in, even doing a test run trying to reduce the number of jumps as much as possible. Which is good, since its points are quite valuable. So I didn't touch it.
Level 2 I went full Donkey Kong on without losing a frame. (And if I remove all jumps after reaching max speed, it still doesn't save a frame)
Level 3 I was able to save 2 frames on by removing quite a few jumps. I kept in as many as I could.
Level 4 gets no save from removing jumps.
Level 5 I was able to reach top speed and reduce low-speed travel by jumping one less time near the start and going between the sand and grass (frame 7670). I saved 21 frames (23 frames ahead).
Level 6 hold up yes.
Level 7's quest for keeping max speed is pretty complex with a lot of required dodges. I was able to get to max speed sooner with less jumping / direction changing, and preserved speed as much as possible. I saved 41 frames (64 frames ahead).
Level 8 barely manages 1st place thanks to more barrels. I also saved 1 frame, probably on lowering total number of jumps. Oddly, you need a little less than 20,000 points to get 1st place (19840 worked), but I added 3 extra jumps without loss, to reach 20,065 and make the goal more clear.
65 frame faster movie:
http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/info/63851104284844683
Requesting movie file update and co-authorship
I would guess this will end up in Vault. The game has a similar feel to Paperboy, except missing the part of Paperboy's gameplay that actually makes it interesting. It also suffers from repetition, despite being short; I believe the long stages repeat their structure/hazards two or three times before ending, with the grand finale level being 3 previous levels, repeated 3 times. Reaching/keeping top speed is not trivial at all, but not very impressive either. I vote Meh.
