How I started TASing it
I went to check out that video on TAS that the guys made But I found that part about the bats strange So I decided to try and optimize it (I ended up finding 2 optimizations XD)
I wanted to get the QDLC 2023 collection But it was deleted, so I decided to get it through Wayback Machine XD
Optimizations
1:50 If you jump when you touch the pipe Mario's hitbox starts to move upwards that I saved: 8 frames
3:22 I just went straight from those bats Then I released the p-switch Instead of kicking (I don't remember which frames I saved XD)
Challenger's commentary
I saw the published run of this hack two years ago just to realize that this game is not only interesting but also unique and the gameplay is "flexible" (at least for me). The level design is also good to fit well within the new pyhsics implemented to both Mario's horizontal/vertical speed and position.
Initially I was judging this run, liked the new optimizations but something caught my attention: the fact that despite being "inside the map", Mario can jump for some frames as mentioned above. I decided to make a test on a particular room where it seemed to shave off a frame or two and for my surprise, I managed to reach the warp star some frames earlier + pressing the jump button to avoid getting hit by one of Podoboos.
The idea worked well, but finishing that room even by a frame faster would affect RNG of the bat enemies improved by thegugafá. Fortunately, using a luascript I quickly found a solution for the problem, still allowing Mario to simply let the switch falling down while gaining speed. This run was supposed to keep the strategy, however, I made some unexpected magic managing Mario to bypass the enemies in the middle of the "fatal danger (the risk between they and not touching that top warp star) instead of the right side - it worked 3 times better than I expected, building up much more speed enough to save more and more frames + surprise: adjusting the p-switch drop and having precise positioning, Mario can take advantage of "the p-switch 1-frame jump trick" to skip the third warp star! This particular room already had the largest timesaver of the entire run, now it become even further.
I was considering finishing my part for now, but I did another look into the luascript just to notice something weird while Mario moves during the map screen: it's not actually visible but the collision hitbox actually can be moved slightly to the left or to the right no matter which direction he walks/runs. Holding Y or X button moves even further.
In other words: another magic I didn't expect to happen! I managed to gain 2 frames in some rooms where you must wait a while because enemies. As the actual hitbox is normally invisible, I also took advantage to move Mario further to the left/right dodging them successfully without losing any frames. However, I gained 3 frames at the point where thegugafá did the aforementioned jump glitch over the pipe, and only 1 frame was gained in the room with two rotating moles.
And to finish, I squeezed a frame on some rooms and gained 3 frames in the room with one/off switches and the grey p-switch thanks to good optimization, because I quickly started to learn using the luascript. I did some magic, indeed.
Other than that, this is a solid game.
