(Link to video)
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Armed with a mallet and chisel, you shall carve out depictions of things that are mostly Japanese, and mostly not Mario related.

All Puzzles

  • Emulator used: Bizhawk v2.9.1
  • Solve all 300 picross puzzles

Notes

  • Upon solving the last puzzle of the SPECIAL level on the Mario side, the credits play. I restart the game to get back to the title screen faster.
  • I had cancelled this one after learning that this game does allow for co-op. So, I wanted to instead make a 2-player TAS of this game and submit that, as it would be faster. However, I went back in, and couldn't figure out how to access player 2 input, so I changed my mind and uncancelled it. Also, this was very tedious the first time, and at the moment, I can't bring myself to do it all over again.
Both Mario and Wario have set up a bunch of picross puzzles for you in an archeological dig site. Can you solve them all? That probably isn't the story of this game, but it's also purely a picross game with a Super Mario skin barely on it, so I don't think it really matters.

Potential Improvements

  • Fairly early on I stopped forgetting about diagonal movement with the cursor.
  • Only when I reached the "Level EX" Mario puzzles, did I realize that you could start one frame earlier. The Mario puzzles start by asking if you want a hint or not, which will solve a single row and column at random. You can input "RIGHT" and "A" on the same frame to select "no" even though the cursor doesn't visibly move.
  • Some puzzles may be able to be completed faster by not passing over tiles that have already been chiseled, or don't need to be. It's unavoidable in some cases.
nymx: Claiming for judging.
nymx: I always thought that a Picross submission wouldn't have been interesting, but this version made me think otherwise. The early levels may have been a breeze for optimizing, but when you get to the larger pictures...backtracking and square revisiting become an issue. Honestly, this TAS appears extremely tight. I wouldn't say that nothing can be found, but the author's statement about routing (point #3 of "Potential Improvements")...would be where I believe cuts can be found mostly. As for the diagonal movement...I did catch a few spots that you missed, but I'm not going to hold that as negative feedback. This is a long and tedious TAS...it's to be expected. Being almost 2 hours faster than the WR, I would say that this demonstrates what we like to see in movies.
Well, I believe this is the first Picross TAS to be accepted on our site. Congratulations! Accepting.
despoa: Processing...

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Posted: 4/18/2025 8:44 PM
TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9663: UndercookedRice's SNES Mario's Super Picross "1 player, all puzzles" in 1:54:43.10
Posted: 4/19/2025 5:56 AM
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... blech, bitter!
Posted: 4/19/2025 6:29 AM
feos
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NES TAS of 2011
What difference does player count make? Both 1p and 2p might be acceptable.
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.
Posted: 4/19/2025 7:59 AM
InputEvelution
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With 2 players, each starts at opposite corners of the board and can work cooperatively to find a solution.
Posted: 4/19/2025 8:09 AM
feos
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Yeah co-op sounds like a perfect reason to have both branches.
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.
Posted: 5/8/2025 5:50 PM
Challenger
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Glad to see a TAS of this game, because each puzzle usually requires a huge amount of time to solve. Redoing all puzzles for 2 player version would be very very difficult, so no worries after all. This run looks very optimized and I like it! Yes vote.
My homepage --Currently not much motived for TASing as before...-- But I'm still working.
Posted: 28 days ago
nymx
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TASVideosGrue wrote:
om, nom, nom... blech, bitter!
I'm sorry...I wasn't around when this happened. What was this all about?
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Posted: 28 days ago
InputEvelution
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Undercooked didn't know that Super Picross supported 2-player when they made the TAS, and upon learning it did, cancelled the submission. However, having learnt that 1-player would be acceptable as well, they eventually uncancelled.
Posted: 28 days ago
nymx
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InputEvelution wrote:
Undercooked didn't know that Super Picross supported 2-player when they made the TAS, and upon learning it did, cancelled the submission. However, having learnt that 1-player would be acceptable as well, they eventually uncancelled.
Ok...thank you.
I recently discovered that if you haven't reached a level of frustration with TASing any game, then you haven't done your due diligence. ---- SOYZA: Are you playing a game? NYMX: I'm not playing a game, I'm TASing. SOYZA: Oh...so its not a game...Its for real? ---- Anybody got a Quantum computer I can borrow for 20 minutes? Nevermind...eien's 64 core machine will do. :) ---- BOTing will be the end of all games. --NYMX
Posted: 21 days ago
Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [6548] SNES Mario's Super Picross "1 player, all puzzles" by UndercookedRice in 1:54:43.10
Posted: 21 days ago
despoa
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InputEvelution wrote:
Undercooked didn't know that Super Picross supported 2-player when they made the TAS, and upon learning it did, cancelled the submission. However, having learnt that 1-player would be acceptable as well, they eventually uncancelled.
He also couldn't figure out how to get the second controller working. It's really simple: press any button on the second controller while solving a puzzle. Here's a demo. User movie #638834317280788532