I remember spending a lot of time on this back in the day, although I never ended up getting very far. I was thinking this would make an interesting movie, and it turns out that there's complete map and extensive faq/walkthrough on gamefaqs.
Some interesting points about this game include starting out with 50 lives. I can definitely see "uses death as a shortcut" being taken to a whole new level. It also strikes me as a game that will take a *lot* of planning, since there are 100 rooms to consider, and the eventual movie will need to budget keys very carefully.
I may take this on myself and will definitely help with the planning. To that end, I've made a couple composite pngs of all the levels, one
with numbered rooms and
without.
For those who don't know, you start out in room 0-7 and have to rescue the princess in 7-0. There are a number of finer points, but playing the game is obviously the best way to get acquainted with them.