This went way beyond my expectations! I still feel the swag washing over me even after it ended. Great job!
You just identified the one change, besides removing checkpoints, that it makes.
I thought of something for your table.
Let's say the RNG address has X in it, then you trigger a drop, and now the RNG address has Y in it.
Is it possible that you're making a table of Ys when it's using the X to decide if a drop happened or not, or vice versa?
e.g. when the game needs an RNG value does it use what's in the address, or advance it by 1 THEN use what's now in the address?
Another reason can be due to RNG jitter. There are two causes of RNG jitter:
1) a random number is needed, and rejected if it doesn't have a certain property. For example, in a game with an RNG that returns 1 2 3 or 4, to fairly get a 1/3 roll you have to reject if you get a 4, so potentially many rolls are needed.
2) depending on the outcome of a roll, more rolls are needed. For example, an item is or is not spawned, and if it is, it needs an item id thus more rolls.
He's unstoppable! More A presses removed.
These all use the '207 dive recover' technique:
it is a technique to use a dive recover to ascend at most 207 units by taking advantage of poor object collision testing. Essentially, the sides of the cork boxes push Mario outwards, but these walls are misaligned at the corner. Therefore, Mario can do a dive recover into this misalignment, allowing him to get under the top without being pushed away by the sides. The top then clips Mario upwards onto it.
Here's a TAS of Hana no Star Kaidou (花のスター街道) for Famicom:
Part 1 - Nicovideo | Nicovideo Viewer
Part 2 - Nicovideo | Nicovideo Viewer
I don't speak anything but the most basic Japanese so I'm not sure if the script file is available, but given the obscure gameplay (see Hardcore Gaming 101 for details) this would clearly be an aid to anyone else attempting it.
A couple questions:
When you're waiting for enemies to spawn, is it best to time the stomp so that they spawn on the last frame of the attack, or do you need two hits to kill them?
I not sure what you mean
If you attack as early as possible, you have to wait a shorter amount of time before you can move again, because you waited out the warm up of the attack while you were unable to do anything to make progress.
In a fighting game this is known as a 'meaty attack'.