No using warp whistles (collecting them is allowed)
Complete game as fast as possible
Complete individual stages as fast as possible
For the most part, this was a very fun run to work on. Planning out a route through the game for the use of sub-items and when to be powered up with what in order to finish the game quickly was very enjoyable to me. The only part of this run I didn't like recording was World 8, because Genisto already dominated that World and I was just floundering in a sea of non-ninja-ness trying to catch up.
Several levels may appear to have a delay when grabbing the card at the end. This is done to manipulate the hammer brothers on the map screen into moving as little as possible (or into a specific spot, if needed). It was also important to make sure that three matching cards were never grabbed. In some levels, a flower was reachable without slowdown, but in others, delays are needed so that different cards are taken.
World 1
1-F has a minor error; Mario can gain super-speed a bit earlier than he does here. It is also faster to collect the whistle than to defeat boom-boom (even when going through the wall).
Although the hammer brother can move less by walking back and forth, since he is defeated early, his total amount of movements is the same as it would have been with that strategy.
World 2
In 2-F, it is faster to get hit on the spikes than it is to keep firepower for Boom-Boom.
In 2-3, you are not experiencing a desync! The deaths that occur are the fastest way to put the hammer brother that gives a hammer in a spot to fight, so that several levels can be skipped.
In 2-P, there is a spot that would save time if the wall could be jumped through, but it was looked at in a level editor by Hanzou and extensively tested by Nitsuja, Kyrsimys, and myself, and it cannot be done at that spot.
World 3
If the water is long enough, it is faster to stay in it than to repeatedly jump out of it.
Both hammer brothers are fought in this world so that the bridge is down between 3-6 and 3-8 when I need it to be, so I can skip 3-6 (an autoscroller). Otherwise, I would only fight the one with the hammer.
3-8 is one of the slowest looking levels of the run, but many strategies were tested.
3-9 uses the "fall through a corner of a block" glitch for the first time. Others throughout the run are more difficult to spot at full speed.
World 4
4-2 shows off a little pipe-entering glitch that costs a few frames, because I have to wait until a certain frame for the hammer brothers movements anyway. The hammer brothers in this world are a pain. It may be possible to reduce their number of movements by one, but the one is fought early so that Mario still has firepower.
Unknown to me when I started, 4-F can be skipped with a hammer. However, this hammer is better saved for World 6.
In 4-6, the jump that seems much too far to the left is done to avoid invisible coin blocks.
This airship is so boring.
World 5
After 5-5 is completed, a sound can be heard on the map. This corresponds to one of the hammer brothers on the ground level turning into a treasure ship.
Since I don't have firepower when entering 5-7, using the star here lets me get super speed much earlier than without. This star wasn't put in the original planning, but I ended up with an extra star from the hammer brother in World 3.
5-9 is that diagonal-scrolling level, so it is skipped.
World 6
The hammer here skips 2 stages, and allows for a hammer brother fight to replace that hammer.
Using the star in 6-F saves a couple seconds, since there is another star in the level that allows a quick execution of Boom-Boom.
6-5 was tested in MANY ways. It's possible to enter the second pipe underground and glitch through the pipe there to finish the level, but this ended up being slower than the (somewhat) standard route. Also, having raccoon power now saves getting it in the next level, which speeds things up considerably there.
There is an obstacle to jump over above the screen in 6-9, which is why super speed is delayed.
Since Mario doesn't have firepower on the airship, the leaf is used to fly to the top of the screen. The two strategies are nearly equal in time saved.
World 7
Heavy abuse of programming errors in this world turns in from one of the longest to one of the shortest.
I actually had to slow down in 7-3 to avoid collecting three flower cards.
Cloud used on 7-4, the water autoscroller.
Glitching through the wall on 7-6 gives me an extra P-Wing, which I can use on 7-F. A P-Wing isn't needed here, just raccoon power, but I don't collect any leaves in my inventory for this run.
World 8
Notice that the musicbox is still playing at the beginning of this world - apparently airships don't count as completed levels in that aspect.
It's surprising and disappointing how few extra lives can be obtained in the first level without a raccoon tail.
The longest skippable level remaining after getting the last cloud is 8-F.
Just before getting to Bowser, Mario turns around for one frame to manipulate Bowser into waiting the longest time allowed before jumping. Otherwise, he jumps too early and the battle ends up being slower.
Suggested description: Super Mario Bros. 3 completed as fast as possible with the restriction of not using warp whistles. This run does not complete every level; rather, it uses the layout of the world maps and the items obtained throughout to play as few levels as possible.
Possible screenshots:
22396 (World 2 map using hammer)
34412 (3-2 with fish stomping)
55363 (4-2 carrying ice block)
105351 (6-5 destroying blocks)
129799 (7-6 wall-glitch)
I used several other runs for reference in Mario physics and tricks - Kyrsimys's Mario Adventure run and Genisto's run of this game using the warp whistles. Thanks go to both of them. Also thanks to Nitsuja, Hanzou, and Kyrsimys again for helping me with the glitch that lets you zip (well, crawl is more like it) through the walls. Thanks to FODA, 4Masty, Tailz, Bag of Magic Food, Randil, Saturn, A Runnelid, Andypro, Kitsune, and everyone else on the forums who offered encouragement (you can never have enough of that)! And finally, an extra thanks to Hanzou for editing the movie to begin from power-on rather than soft-reset. Color me n00bed!
(It may be more helpful to word the FCM error on the submission page differently: instead of "movie does not start from reset", have "movie does not start from power-on".)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
JXQ, I just wanted to express my deepest respect to you because you have in a few months, totally Oblivionized! major runs such as this one, Sonic 1, Super Demo World and soon Super Metroid! 100% run. I bow to you Mighty JXQ.
Edit:
I saw now your whole run and there were so many good, creative, inventive and speedy things that I cannot pick my favorite part. I really liked how you could maintain your speed from the pipes and when you jumped/glitched through walls. Voting obviously yes as everyone else.
Nitrogenesis wrote:
Guys I come from the DidyKnogRacist communite, and you are all wrong, tihs is the run of the mileniun and everyone who says otherwise dosnt know any bater! I found this run vary ease to masturbate too!!!! Don't fuck with me, I know this game so that mean I'm always right!StupedfackincommunityTASVideoz!!!!!!
Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
Very nice run, JXQ! It's a bit disappointing that you couldn't do 99 lives on the first levels of World 8 but hey, this is a very entertaining and super fast run. I liked all this close near-death moves in auto-scroller levels and especially the last castle in World 7 right before the final airship-level. Also the redone World 6 was very surprising with beating the Castle Boss with a Star.
A big YES from me and now I'm really looking forward what you can do in your Super Metroid 100% run!
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
I don't know why, but this run still desyncs for me at frame 140434. I used fast-forward to get to this airship 3 times now, and without fail it desyncs there. I'm using FCEU 0.98.13 and Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG1) [!].nes.
Mario ducks under 1 throwing star, gets hit by another, then gets crushed by the boat itself because of autoscrolling.
Joined: 11/14/2005
Posts: 1058
Location: United States
You sure have made a name for yourself in the past few months JXQ. This is an excellent run, and it helps bring back memories of all the stages we miss in a warp whistle run. Easy yes vote from me, and I look forward to your Super Metroid run.
Hmm, deaths in the World 2 aren't a sign of desync :o
He had me fooled. I nearly restarted 'cause I hadn't read the submission and I thought it desynched on me. Good thing I was slow to the mouse.
Kudos: this run is pretty cool.
This run is the best thing since sliced bread. (sliced bread being SDW:TLC).
A++ run :). I didn't watch the progress of this run, just because I didn't want to spoil it for when I see the finished run. Now I'm glad I refrained, because this run is SO GOOD!
Makes me want to steal my friend's NES and attempt it on a console :).
I don't know why, but this run still desyncs for me at frame 140434. I used fast-forward to get to this airship 3 times now, and without fail it desyncs there. I'm using FCEU 0.98.13 and Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG1) [!].nes.
I think you might be using the wrong version of FCEU. I know you said you're using 0.98.13, but try downloading 0.98.13 again, in case you missed an update of it that didn't change the version number. And if that doesn't work: Does it also desync there for you in 0.98.12? (If so, I would guess that your ROM is probably bad.)
Anyway, I enjoyed watching this despite having seen some parts of it many times already, and so am voting Yes. (Will this obsolete Tokushin's movie?)
Wow, thanks everyone! In my haste to submit this before I went to work today, I forgot to include my thanks in the submission. It's now updated, sorry about that!
Angerfist, thanks man, you have always been very encouraging! I am also excited for Super Metroid, although I have some more homework to do on it before I'm ready.
Bablo, ninja material? Personally I think I need to get a few more runs under my belt at least, but that's encouraging! Thanks :)
DK64, your comment gave me a good LOL, as always, hehe..
Nitsuja, there used to be a link in the description of Tokushin's movie to an fmv file of a run that had the same goals as this run, or very similar, so I thought it would obsolete that one, but I just checked and I don't see the link there anymore. (I believe it was 55 minutes long, if I remember correctly)
If not mine, then Vatchern's upcoming all-levels run will obsolete it. I'm looking forward to that run; although all levels are played, there still will be some optimization such as when to use stars and P-Wings collected from the hammer brother battles, and perhaps even visiting a mushroom house if the situation is right.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Dude, that was awesome! I'm surprised that the game can be beaten that quickly. Based on the way you toy with the flame throwers, I think you can add "plays with death" to the list for this submission.
I expected Level 8 to basically be a carbon copy of the warp run, but the lack of 99-lives takes nothing away from it. I love the way you jumped on Bowser's corpse after you owned him. Awesome stuff. I think this deserves a star.
TASing or playing back a DOS game? Make sure your files match the archive at RGB Classic Games.
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 100
Location: Michigan, United States
I think you might be using the wrong version of FCEU. I know you said you're using 0.98.13, but try downloading 0.98.13 again, in case you missed an update of it that didn't change the version number. And if that doesn't work: Does it also desync there for you in 0.98.12? (If so, I would guess that your ROM is probably bad.)
Very interesting. Yes, you were in fact right. I was using:
FCE Ultra 0.98.13
5:59:20
Nov 19 2005
I updated to:
FCE Ultra 0.98.13
7:53:13
Dec 4 2005
This did, in fact, fix the desync. Interestingly enough, the savestate I made using the old emulator still caused a desync. What I found even more intriguing, though, was the reason for Mario's death in the previous emulator. It was not the player off-sync, but rather the game using a different set of randomness. In the correct version, there are two throwing stars, one low (ducked under) one high. When the movie is played back with the old emulator, there are two low stars. Mario gets hit by the second low one and is then crushed. Maybe this is old news or something, but I found it to be strange.
Anyway, thanks for the help. And of course, JXQ, this run was awesome. I had been following the WIPs and this is an obvious yes vote from me.
couldn't the deaths in world 2 be avoided by manipulating movement in the earlier levels?
FODA is right, the hammer brother I need is five "spaces" away at the beginning, meaning that a hammer brother only moves one space per turn unless they land on a level, then they move again, so after completing three levels, I need two deaths. I tested this against completing 2-3 (so the hammer brother could move between there and the desert), but this was faster.
in 4-4, you take a hit. Why? You'll lose time at the castle grabbing a new fire flower.
In 4-4, you'll notice that after I get hit, my horizontal speed quickens dramatically, since I still have a full P-meter. Raccoon Mario gets pretty slow the longer he stays in the air, but Super Mario does not. I grab the flower in 4-4 because it speeds up the Boom-Boom fight and the fight on the airship with the koopa kid. I'd do this even if I didn't take a hit in 4-4, because I used a P-wing there and that lost my firepower.
same in 5-2, resulting in a firepower-less bossfight.
Same as 4-4, I didn't have firepower, I used a P-Wing in 5-1 to save much more time than firepower would have in 5-F. Getting hit in 5-2 allowed me to run up to super speed even though there were enemies in the way, and even if there was room to run, raccoon Mario can't jump when super-speeding without starting flight, and that slows him down.
in 5-5, you slow down to get a second flower instead of grabbing the faster star. why?
This is the worst-looking level as far as grabbing the card goes, and it indeed was for hammer brother manipulation. Remember, there are two hammer brothers on the ground who's movements I must minimize as well. Although I wait about 15 frames to get the card, it saves over 40 frames in one extra movement.
6-8, took a hit.
Same thing, to get speed and regular Mario can jump with super speed without losing it by flying.
you don't always grab the magic wands at the same height. Isn't it faster to always grab it as early as possible?
FODA is right again, some airships have a higher ground, allowing me to jump higher to the wand. I fly to the wand in World 6 only because there isn't a good spot to get firepower in that World after 6-5.
Thanks for watching so closely, hopefully that cleared up your concerns.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
no.. ehm.. uh.. too obvious.
and walljumping won't help, as was demonstrated in world 1.. right.
Thank you for your reply JXQ, I didn't know that Racoon Mario was slower when flying. Just watched the run again, and knowing that, it looked better. :)
The category you choose isn't the most entertaining for me (because of deaths and damage taken), but you did an excellent performance on it. I'm glad it's already enqueued for processing as I couldn't even give you a yes vote.
Joined: 4/16/2004
Posts: 1276
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
I just watched this and it's awesome! The thing I liked most was in world 4, on the airship when you trapped yourself and you jumped to the music! A very simple thing but it made me smile ;)
I didn't like the two deaths in world 2 though, but it doesn't really matter, and since it was faster it doesn't matter even more. Awesome! Now I want to see a full wellmade run of this great game ;P
Oh, and another thought hit me. In the movie Matrix, when Neo wakes up in the real world and when he's being sucked downards there should be a hatch closing. I think I saw a documentary about that sound the hatch makes when its closing. It was made from like 80 different sounds such as perhaps flushing a toilet and various other sounds, combined into this one hatch-closing sound. Well, despite their effort I must say that one of the greatest sounds ever invented is the 1-up sound!
