Looks like a "holding onto null sprite"-related glitch?
I smell SMW-style hyper-corruption (stunning, ACE) glitches in the future if this gets developed further.
The glitch looks interesting indeed, maybe it has potential in the future.
As for the any%, seems like ALAKTORN doesn't want to work on it anymore, so I'll check to see if there's some improvements (Bowser throws maybe), and then submit.
I tried the glitch on the (E) 1.1 version, you can hold the null object and throw it, but nothing seem to happen next.
I then tried on the (U) version but you don't seem to be able to hold it at all, Yoshi just throw his egg and doesn't stop when jumping on a goomba.
Hope this help.
There are a lot of issues with the routing so I have never attempted it. Specially the silver bunnies.
80 star tas no clips / no bunnies would be a more reasonable TAS to try though.
1. How do the heaven/hell portals work? Why does the game suddenly shoot you far below/above?
2. Is the submitted TAS possible in other versions of the ROM? If not, is the general route at least possible?
1. Never heard the “hell” term before, lol. Honestly I have no idea how they work. Outside the castle I think you get heaven every time unless you hit the water surface or press A/B 4 frames before hitting the wall. For the infinite stairs skip, SKing early gets heaven, SKing late gets hell. In the fake SA entry, only hell seems to be possible even with an early SK. In other places only hell is possible because the roof stops heaven.
2. Never even checked version differences myself.
^The term "hell's portal" I believe actually refers to a very specific type of glitch where you do get flung very high into the air like in a heaven's portal but never fall back down, making you stuck ("hell") until you press A or B which results in death. The type where you slide kick too late for the endless stair skip, then fall through the floor and die is just a wall clip and not a "portal".
They're quite rare and unfortunately the only source that listed several of them (the SM64DS Glitch FAQ on Gamefaqs) is now deleted. I've pulled it off once before in V1 only, through the cannon on the opposite corner of the course in Bob-omb Battlefield. Aim as far down and to the left as possible (into the hill/wall), then fire for a heaven's portal. Aim very slightly away from that for a hell's portal.
This is the only video I could find, and unfortunately it doesn't show the touch screen (Mario's icon jumps between the corners of the screen in a strange way while "falling") or much of the full result. But you should be able to see that Mario is very high in the air, and he never comes back down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eefRFuQKf4k
Is "hell's portal" stuck in air, or launched into air in an uncontrollable state? I think I've encountered the latter before, both when attempting endless stairs skip, and in my earlier linked glitch video. (Not sure if recorded or not)
All the star doors that check Mario's presence are skipped in the newest run. Is it possible to beat the game with Yoshi alone? Or only Mario is able to make the rabbits in corresponding locations appear?
IIRC the game only spawns hats of characters you've unlocked at that point, and goes into an infinite loop if you have only Yoshi.
I'm sure this is not always the case. Yoshi can get a few stars with Mario hat without rescuing him first. The Wario hat on the dragon's head in the 6th level spawns before he is rescued as well.
There is no reason to put a check for Mario hat in Bowser fights because there is no legit way to get to him without Mario at the first place. I might be wrong though.
Nobody ever looked into the Yoshi null box memory corruption glitch?
I looked into it again with an EUR game and it actually works on console, I just didn't wait long enough last time (could also be the fact that I did the glitch twice in the same session to be sure).
Most plateforms and signs disapears after some time, the icons on the touch screen as well. It generally crashes when you take a coin or spawn one by killing an enemy, or just randomly.
I'll try some others stuff to see what we can actually do with it, but I don't think it's really useable in TAS.
edit: I think you need to meet certain conditions when doing the glitch for it to work, which is why I thought it didn't at first. Maybe there need to be the maximum of objects possible on the screen when you have the null object in your hands?