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An attempt to collect every Coinless-Cannonless-Capless star in Super Mario 64. At first, this run aimed for minimum possible completion time, but soon after the run began, many star times became obsoleted. It was possible to match every frame count in the latest 120 star TAS, but the run would look very similar to said TAS, so, like the first 120 star TAS, I decided to sacrifice a few frames here and there to make the run entertaining and different from previous runs. It can probably be improved by at least a minute, but hopefully that won't happen for a while.
Emulator: Mupen 64 ReRecording Edition 0.5.0
  • Video Plugin: Jabo's Direct3D8 1.6
  • Input Plugin: N-Rage's Direct-Input8 1.60 and TAS Input Plugin
  • Sound Plugin: Jabo's DirectSound 1.6
  • RSP Plugin: RSP emulation Plugin
Abuses programming errors
Aims to complete all stars possible to get without:
  • Touching any coins
  • Using any caps
  • Entering any cannons
Thanks to:
  • Swordless_Link: for support from the beginning, and for actively participating in the run
  • Rikku: for actively participating in the run
  • nesrocks: for helping me come up with the idea of the CCC run and for support and planning
  • Mitjitsu: for showing me how to hex edit, which saved a lot of time
  • Brightguy: for the list of CCC stars, and for his invaluable site at www.sm64.com
  • Hb2: for discovering the latest CCC star
  • And thanks to everyone else who supported the run and watched the few WIPs I released, and gave feedback on them

adelikat: According to the JudgeGuidelines:
  • Keep the number of different branches per a game minimal.
  • Avoid doing decisions that undermine this guideline (or other guidelines) now or in the future. For example, don't publish an arbitrarily rule-restricted movie just because there are few of movies for that game
Both of these point to rejection of this movie. The main problem is that it doesn't stand out beyond the 2 currently published movies to warrant a 3rd branch of this game.
While "CCC" may be a common unassisted playing goal, it fails to be an impressive TAS goal. If anything, because the goal itself is doable unassisted. "Extra" (runs other than any%, low%, 100%, or perhaps pacifist?) of games tend to have goals that would be thought impossible or at least impossible by human standards to achieve. Such as SMW's small only run, Metroid's no mini-boss run, or Nightmare on Elm Street's 4 player run.
Sorry, but I am rejecting this submission.


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Joined: 7/21/2006
Posts: 747
Location: Northern Hemisphere
the lobby glitch is not used
The Lobby Glitch can't be used because it automatically makes you collect some coins.
Player (66)
Joined: 3/29/2005
Posts: 229
Location: The boonies.
Well, hunh... OK. So I never owned an N64, and so I've never spent more than 15 minutes at a time with Mario64. Needless to say, I'm not a huge fan. I think the two Mario64 runs already on the site are entertaining, though at times it's hard to tell what's going on in them. (Though I will say that I liked the old 120 star run a little better than this new one; I dunno, I think I just prefer FODA's style.) I don't give a rat's ass as to how many movies Mario64 has on this site. It can have 45, for all I care... so long as all 45 of those runs are distinct in non-arbitrary ways. I got the same sense Bisqwit got about the restrictions being arbitrary - caps I can see, and maybe cannons, but coins? (Yeah, I'm sure that has to do with precluding damage-abuse tricks, but it still seems weird to have a run of a Mario game that specifically avoids coins.) And more to the point, this is still a "completes as quickly as possible," just with an odd set of restrictions. As far as I'm aware, the rules of this site particularly frown on that sort of thing. (E.g: "collects as many items as possible without doing X" is not considered a valid goal, last I checked.) The author says he's made time/entertainment trade-offs, but I'm not seeing a large prevelence of them. There's nowhere near the creativity in other "mostly entertainment" runs on this site here. I'm not really seeing new tricks (aside from that chuckya thing), and I'm not seeing Mario go out of his way to do something interesting. Basically, the whole thing feels contrived. The run itself isn't boring or anything, I'm just not seeing the justification. I don't really know why the concept demo section exists, so I'll leave that up to the admin/judges to decide as to whether it belongs there or not, but I'm not feeling it as far as being published in the main section. (No vote, in case you couldn't tell.)
If life were an RPG, I'd be an NPC.
nesrocks
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Player (246)
Joined: 5/1/2004
Posts: 4096
Location: Rio, Brazil
quietkane wrote:
I got the same sense Bisqwit got about the restrictions being arbitrary - caps I can see, and maybe cannons, but coins?
Each level in mario 64 has 2 statistics (you can access the statistics screen by pressing START): how many stars were collected on each level AND how many coins. You can have a save file in the game with 0 coins on all levels, but with the most stars. That's where the challenge originated. Mario 64 allows 4 save files, and they are generally used by speedrunners to store these separate challenges, which gives the game a bigger replay value: 1 - full completion (120 stars + all caps) 2 - least stars completion 3 - CCCless run 4 - Maximum coins on all levels All of these can be verified legitimate by loading the game. Except in CCC you can't count all coins in the game (only the coins inside the levels), but for the TAS it was decided to be simpler to just say no caps, cannons or coins anywhere in the whole game.
Player (105)
Joined: 6/7/2005
Posts: 290
Location: New York
Yes! Definitely yes from me. You've brought back half the point of this site with his run. Entertainment! I think sometimes we forget that is half the point! You did beautifully. I think you chose the right parts to sacrifice time, some parts I'm not even sure if they were even slower. Like glitching that stupid bomb dude into a star in Wet & Dry world! Oh my god! my other favorite part was BLJ glitching to the last star on Rainbow Ride. Awesome.
Soft Blue Dragon
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Joined: 8/20/2005
Posts: 643
Location: Mikkeli,Finland
Wow that was awesome! I love that Wet Dry World final star! Yes vote :)
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Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Spacecow wrote:
I would also support the creation of a "concept demo"/"TAS labs" section of the site for movies like this or the MM3/4/5/6 quad run that is expressly for experimentation and entertainment instead of simply beating a game as fast as possible.
Yes if only we had such a section. But alas! Anyway I enjoyed seeing old chukya in all his glory. Voted yes.
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Joined: 3/29/2006
Posts: 273
Location: Sweden
Another great sm64 TAS, one can never watch too many. : ) Most of the stars had something new and interesting, so this is a yes from me.
Joined: 4/30/2005
Posts: 199
Hmm, Foda is right. This run is more interesting than most other runs and it is more enjoyable for most viewers than the average run. Good run, yes from me.
Spacecow
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Joined: 6/21/2004
Posts: 247
Location: New Hampshire
asteron wrote:
Yes if only we had such a section. But alas! Anyway I enjoyed seeing old chukya in all his glory. Voted yes.
My mistake; I thought that section was for runs of hacked games only. If we already have a section devoted to movies like this, then I see absolutely no reason why this movie (or the MM3/4/5/6) should not be published in that section (separate from the rest of the movies).
Joined: 2/16/2005
Posts: 462
Ive been giving it some thought and I think the publishability of this movie depends on the audience. SM64 fans (and there are lots) will love this as it is a classic challenge. However I can see how more casual fans won't see it in great light. To tell the truth I think only 3ish stars are vastly different than their 120/16 star counterparts (Pyramid Puzzle, chuckya, and the Rainbow one). I actually regret that you didnt skip 1-up mushrooms too while you were at it (maybe the shell as well). Also on the chuckya glitch, how easy is it to manipulate the object chuckya morphs into? Is it a function of the time or position you cross the loading zone? I'd be surprized if you can't collect that on the first try. Now that I thought about it more I think this might be more deserving of a "Meh". This does fit the category of completes game as much as possible with minimalist equipment.
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Mitjitsu
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Joined: 4/24/2006
Posts: 2997
This run is kind of like the inverse of the Quad run, doesn't sound too interesting when reading about it, buts actually quite entertaining to watch, and it certainly offers a lot in relation to what the 16 and 120 star don't show. Still my feelings are mixed about it, the Bowser stages weren't paticuarly great to watch but some of the stars like the chukka glitch were, and the movies also a nice length as well , being just over an hour, so we can't accuse it of being same as any other run we've seen. I'll vote yes to this one as it felt like a breath of fresh air watching it, and it also removes some of the more boring stars seen in the 120 run and adds more interesting stars compared to what we don't see in the 16 star run.
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
If you put it as a 70 star run with some extra to make it different from the 120 and 16 star run.... This does hovewer prove that you can beat the game without collecting a single coin. Lobby Glitch giving you coins, never thought about that
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Joined: 7/16/2006
Posts: 635
Defninitely yes. was a nice change of pace from the 120 and 16 star runs.
Joined: 10/31/2005
Posts: 329
Location: The Netherlands
asteron wrote:
However I can see how more casual fans won't see it in great light.
they can choose to not download and watch.
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Joined: 3/8/2004
Posts: 7469
Location: Arzareth
Wouter Jansen wrote:
they can choose to not download and watch.
Does the site become better by increasing the ratio of users who choose not to download and watch? I think not. Theoretically speaking, of course.
Joined: 12/2/2005
Posts: 139
Location: New York, United States
Well this one won't get as many downloads as the other Mario 64 runs, but the point has already been made that it will undoubtedly get more downloads than some of the more obscure NES games.
What's a man like me supposed to do with all this extra savoir-faire?
Joined: 6/9/2006
Posts: 614
Location: Mettmann
mario 64>obscure nes games yeah i guess it is because the name is more common to some groups of people;) but is this ccc-thing really that special? - indeed there are some stars where you need to be tricky to get them under the made rules but that was not enough for a yes so i guess its a meh run for me :/ still great effort and work mr.robertz :) you should start beating rikkus run ;)))!
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Joined: 7/21/2006
Posts: 747
Location: Northern Hemisphere
evilchen wrote:
still great effort and work mr.robertz :)
Thanks! I didn't really expect the run to be published; submitting it was kind of a "what the hell, it couldn't hurt" thing, and I'm already surprised by the number of yes votes. Thanks a lot to everyone for watching, voting (even if it was No or Meh), and critiquing.
snorlax
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Joined: 5/20/2007
Posts: 174
Location: Wisconsin
Is there an AVI available yet? If this run is not going to be published, I would at least like to watch it. Thanks.
Dwedit
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Joined: 3/24/2006
Posts: 692
Location: Chicago
I've watched the 120 Stars WIP video too much, and I guess that spoiled this one for me. This one was just boring, and too similar to the other movie. I turned it off halfway through the ghost level.
Joined: 10/31/2005
Posts: 329
Location: The Netherlands
Bisqwit wrote:
Does the site become better by increasing the ratio of users who choose not to download and watch? I think not.
I'll simply respond with what's already been said by the same person I quoted previously:
asteron wrote:
SM64 fans (and there are lots) will love this as it is a classic challenge.
Add to that: I think if a video gets rejected because not every possible visitor would like it, then this site would be totally empty.
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Joined: 8/1/2004
Posts: 2687
Location: Seattle, WA
Wouter Jansen wrote:
asteron wrote:
SM64 fans (and there are lots) will love this as it is a classic challenge.
Add to that: I think if a video gets rejected because not every possible visitor would like it, then this site would be totally empty.
This reminds me of the Combat Tribes submission by Phil. He accepted it right off the bat because he made the run that fans would enjoy, even though it seemed that there were very few people on the site who actually enjoyed it. At what point do theoretical fans play a role equal to the actual vocal opposition of site members? I don't think that this movie will be rejected. However, I hope that it doesn't create some new arbitrary category for people to compete on. There is a reason that the SMB walkathon isn't in high contention. This should be published as a concept demo, but not as a legitimately restrictive run. This doesn't fit the somewhat accepted format of low%/any%/100% that is usually attributed to the competitive publications.
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Joined: 4/3/2006
Posts: 269
I have been following this CCC run from the start, I didn't expect it to be finished yet. I guess it's debatable on whether this run should be a "concept/demo" or not. To me, it doesn't make too much difference between "aims for fastest completion time" vs "aims to collect every Coinless-Cannonless-Capless star". I understand all the arguments behind each side, so no need to repeat it. It's just my opinon. In the end, it all comes down to whether it's an entertaining run or not. I like this run, it's fun to see how some stars can be obtained without touching any coins -- especially the start inside the pyramid where normally one must collect some coins. Voting YES for it.
Joined: 3/2/2006
Posts: 15
Location: Ontario, Canada
snorlax wrote:
Is there an AVI available yet? If this run is not going to be published, I would at least like to watch it. Thanks.
I'm also curious about this.
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Joined: 7/21/2006
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Location: Northern Hemisphere