The game that brought Mario into millions of homes was released in October 1985. As one of the foundations of the Mario series, the game introduced many Mario favorites such as mushrooms, Koopas, Bloopers, Bowser, and the Princess.
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0:04:59 by Andrew Gardikis.
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Author's comments:
While I'm writing this, it is technically Christmas. So Merry Christmas everyone!!! This is my present to SDA for the Christmas season. :)
Thank you to all who have supported me on this run. Without everyone cheering me on to get this run, I really wouldn't have finished it. I'd also like to thank all the competitors I've had on this title now; Scott, Trevor, Jwild28, Cyghfer, Carlos Krueger and a few others for the motivation and encouragement to finally perform this. You guys are all really great runners, honestly some of the best runners out there, and you all really deserve the recognition. I'm 100% sure all these runners will perform something great if they haven't already! I would also like to thank my family and friends, especially my brother, my sister, and my girlfriend for putting up with my constant attempts at this game. I know I'm annoying, but it was worth it. Haha. I would also like to give a BIG Thank You to Nate and Mike for video transfer, uploading and encoding the video, etc. I'd really just like to thank the entire SDA team including the verifiers. This couldn't have been possible without all you guys and I really appreciate it. :)
The Super Mario Bros. series is easily my favorite video game series of all time. I love both how simple the games are, yet how complicated the speedrunning can get for these games. I can't believe how many things that have been found from the time I first started speedrunning this game to now: December, 2010. This run really shows how with practice you can pull off quite amazing feats. I remember when my best time for this game was 6:20 when I first started. I've come a long way since my first speedrun of this game and now I don't think I can play any faster. I'll still probably try to improve it, but it almost doesn't seem feasible to try when I think of the perfection involved.
This is a 4:59 run, 4 minutes and 59 seconds! This should be a world record time. Of course, this is not a TAS, I recorded this with a DVD recorder with an NES system, a standard NES controller, and my two hands. No cheating, hacks, etc was involved in the making of this run. This is pretty much the fastest you can get without relying on any real luck to help you out. I really don't know, but I'm fairly confident that this run will never be beaten, at least not into the 4:58 range, and that's really saying a lot!!! You never really know though. In my run, I played essentially exactly as I wanted to! Absolutely amazing!
Breakdown of the entire run:
1-1 - 370 (perfect)
1-2 - 346 (perfect)
4-1 - 340 (perfect)
4-2 - 353 (1 game unit slow, but no time lost as far as I know)
8-1 - 200 (perfect)
8-2 - 242 - (perfect game time you can achieve, but improvable (will explain))
8-3 - 342 (perfect)
8-4 - 315 - (1 game unit slow, slightly improvable)
In level 8-2, there is a glitch I refer to as The Flagpole Glitch. To make this occur, you jump (at full speed) on a Bullet Bill right as it approaches the base of the flagpole. What can happen is that you end up triggering the game timer countdown immediately when you hit the flagpole. With this method, even though Mario touches the flagpole at 337-338 on the clock, it is faster because you are able to glitch the game timer to decrease earlier than normal. The most time I have saved with this method is exactly 0.7 seconds. If more time can be saved, it is exactly 1.05 seconds and no more.
Before I explain 8-4, let me describe the "1 frame rule" of Super Mario Bros. I hope Scott Kessler doesn't mind me using this quote from him, it's a very easy to follow explanation of the 21 frame rule: "It isn't random or due to slowdown. Think of it like a window at the end of a level or pipe room that is only open every 21 frames. Say you have two separate runs where you reach the window on the 50th time it opens. If you arrive just after it closes the 49th time then you have to wait 20 frames for it to open the 50th time. If you get there just as it opens the 50th time then you can enter without waiting even though you arrived up to 20 frames later. Generally speaking, you can only save time in multiples of 21 frames (0.35 seconds)."
For levels 1-1 through 8-3 frame rules are present.
In level 8-4, there are no frame rules. What this means is that every frame you save, you get, which I really wish were how the entire game were structured. Though, even still, 21 frames is a very short amount. Now I don't know how many frames I lost, but it was probably AT MOST 0.2 seconds, small amounts of frames lost in each section, the most lost in the water area.
In conclusion, a 4:58 should be doable, but it's almost inconceivable from how I look at it. This run time is ~4:59.72. Levels: 8-2 + 8-4 = (0.7+ ~0.2) seconds of possible improvement unless a new trick is discovered. You can't rely on skill completely, you need luck in order to get this run as well. Who knows if anyone will get it, it's possible, barely, and I'm going to keep making attempts just in case I one day get that lucky run.
Here is an FAQ I made a while back. It pretty much covers everything in my speedrun as far as general questions go:
Q1: Isn't it faster to jump at the bottom of the flagpole?
A1: No, it does not matter where you land on the flagpole since the flag has to come down anyways.
Q2: You went right through the piranha plants, why didn't you die?
A2: Super Mario Bros. has many problems with hit detection, making it possible to jump through the piranha plants with accurate timing.
Q3: What exactly did you do in level 4-2? Doesn't a vine usually take you to the warp zone area?
A3: I did a glitch. By jumping backwards into any object (As seen in 4-2 - I did three of these.) Mario gets pushed to the right side of the screen. The game is tricked because Mario is normally always supposed to be in the center of the screen. Depending on Mario's position on the screen, the game decides which vine or pipe Mario is using. In 4-2, the pipe and vine are close enough for the game to be tricked. This saves time because I don't have to sit through the vine "cutscene".
If you still don't get what I mean by all this here's my suggestion: In level 4-2, look at Mario's position when compared to the "W" in "WORLD". Now after I do these three jumps... look at Mario's position when compared to the "W" in "WORLD". Notice the change. Mario is moved forward on the screen and isn't in the direct center as he usually is. The vine and pipe warp locations confuse the game as Mario is not where he should be. After doing this glitch if you make a complete stop (Ie: speed = 0) on the pipe and go down, it will bring you to the warp zone.
Q4: You went through the firebar in level 8-4 and did not die, why?
A4: Same as piranha plants. it just works. Poor hitbox detection.
Q5: The first pipe in 8-4 you ran into the piranha plant and did not die, why?
A5: The piranha plant for some reason disappears as you approach it. Try to kill yourself on that piranha plant in the original game, you cant. It just disappears. I know it sounds like some sort of trick or something, but really the game is just crazy.
Q6: Why did you do this run?
A6: To push the game to it's limits. Speedrunning is fun. I wanted to see what time is the fastest I could manage.
Q7: What did you do in the middle of level 8-4 to get up to the floating pipe.
A7: I did a walljump. What you have to do is catch Mario's foot in the 16th pixel of a block and then jump as soon as you hit the pipe.
Q8: Didn't you take the wrong pipe to get to the water area in level 8-4?
A8: Going a certain distance past that pipe and then turning back tricks the game in a similar way that the game is tricked in level 4-2, pipe warp location confusion. That pipe is quicker to go down as well, very slightly.
Q9: Why didn't you fall into the gaps when you ran over them?
A9: You can run over the gaps, I think it's an intended feature. You can even walk over them occasionally.
*Note The hitboxes in this game are weird. List of things you can get hit by in certain spots and not die:
- Tops of piranha plants
- Ends of firebars
- Bowser's axes
*Note When moving downwards towards an enemy Mario will always have priority over the enemy and the enemy will usually die, not Mario.
I worked extremely hard for this. Enjoy!
100% 0:19:40 by Andrew Gardikis.
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Author's comments:
This run finishes with a time of 19:40, about a 17 second improvement over my last submission. In this run, I chose not to get any power-ups (stars or mushrooms) and I finish all 32 levels without dying once. I had been experimenting with getting fire-power to obtain a faster time by killing Bowser and eliminating the "bridge dropping" cutscenes. I'm pretty sure that the luck required and time it wastes to get the power-ups ends up wasting time overall, but I'm going to test it out a bit more in the next few months.
World by world analysis:
I did not reach my goal of sub 19:30, but hopefully I will in my next attempt.