Super Mario World small only TAS – by thegreginator and skamastaG
- Emulator Used: Snes9x 1.43 +v9 for Windows
- Aims for fastest time
- Abuses programming errors
- Manipulates luck
- Plays all levels possible small
- Duration: 1h 19m 55.65s (287739 frames)
- Rerecord count: 129357
- Suggested screenshot: frame 46226
The goal of this run is to beat the entire game with only small Mario. This can be defined as ‘minimalist,’ ‘low%,’ or ‘no items/power-ups/upgrades,’ but I would prefer to call it ‘small-only’ because that’s what it really is. Only small Mario, the bare minimum, is allowed, with no power-ups to help along the way. This minimalist goal creates an entirely new style of play from the existing caped run, and is like watching an entirely different TAS. The main reason for this is because in Super Mario World, the cape power-up greatly changes the gameplay, as caped Mario can easily fly over any gap, enemy, or obstacle, and even spend entire levels flying above all the ‘action.’ Small Mario, however, is forced to confront every obstacle head-on. He cannot kill enemies with a simple spin of the cape, cannot fly or float above obstacles, and cannot take any damage to save time. This requires different strategies on almost every level, and makes the game as a whole significantly more challenging. For clarification rules of the run are: nothing is allowed that would be considered a power-up or upgrade. These upgrades are: Mushroom, Fire Flower, Cape Feather, and riding on Yoshi. Switch Palaces, while not a traditional ‘power-up,’ do greatly aid Mario in some levels (and thus take away from their entertainment) so they are also disallowed. As small Mario, the following levels are not possible to complete: Donut Ghost House b, Star World 1a, Star World 1b, Cheese Bridge Area b, and Valley of Bowser 4b. Since Cheese Bridge Area b cannot be completed, Soda Lake cannot be accessed and thus cannot be completed. If you add in the four Switch Palaces that are skipped, it brings the new exit total to 86.
Tricks Used
Most of this stuff can be found on the
Super Mario World Tricks page (except the two types of shell jumps), but here are the essentials in our own words:
- Hop glitch
- Mario’s speed oscillates between three different values, and the basis of this trick is to freeze the oscillation on the highest value and effectively make Mario move at the absolute fastest speed. Since Mario’s speed oscillates in two different ranges, 35-37 and 47-49, there are two times the hop glitch can be used. See this picture. 37 hop is only used if Mario doesn’t have enough running room to build his p-meter up to 112 and thus reach the 47-49 speed range (see p-meter/speed meter in Terms Defined section). Hop glitch is used by simply releasing forward (or left) at the desired past of the oscillation, which will freeze Mario at that speed. For this to work, forward (or left) can never be pressed again, as doing so will bring the oscillation down to a lower point and freeze it there. To avoid pressing forward, Mario can never touch the ground for more than one frame, which is why it’s called the hop glitch. The hop glitch can only be used if Mario can get through the rest of the level without having to press a direction or slow down. This means there cannot be any turnaround, wall jumps, aerial shell jumps, etc in the remaining part of the level once 49 hop is started. For those numerous places where some form or pressing a direction or slowing down is needed, you use…
- 6/5
- The much more complicated and only slightly faster form of just running by pressing forward. This 11 frame cycle requires pressing nothing for 6 frames to freeze the oscillation at 49 for these 6 frames. Since doing this depletes the needed p-meter, however, there must be 5 frames of pressing forward to get the p-meter back up to its charged state. During the 11 frame cycle, Mario can only touch the ground during the last 3 frames, since these are the only 3 frames when p-meter is charged. This means all jumps must be timed out to be the perfect height so they hit during these 3 out of 11 frames. 6/5 is used in this run whenever we do a wall jump, aerial/vertical shell jump (they require changing the oscillating speeds), turnaround, grabbing a shell, or running on moving platforms.
- Aerial shell jump
- This is the most frequently used type of shell jump. It requires a large open space and lots of height to set up, but allows Mario to bounce off a shell he is holding in midair to clear large horizontal gaps. This shell jump doesn’t do much in the way of height. To use this shell jump, Mario must have a fully charged p-meter so he can abuse the 47-49 range oscillating speeds. At the height of the jump, dropping (not throwing) the shell will make it travel close to Mario. To allow Mario to actually catch up to it, however, the shell must be dropped at the slowest oscillation, 47. You then press forward for a few frames and get Mario up to 49 speed and keep him there, allowing the 49 speed Mario to catch up to the 47 speed shell, even though shells are always dropped in front of Mario. Once Mario catches up to the shell, he must hit it forward (if you press Y during contact he will just grab it). Hitting this shell in midair is the same as throwing it and it can now be bounced off of, provided Mario can catch up to the now faster moving shell in midair (which he can at 49 speed). Hitting the shell for the first time will show 200 points appearing and then bouncing off of it will show 400 points. This same concept can also be used to jump off a p-switch in midair, except it need not be hit in midair because it can be bounced off of right away.
- Vertical shell jump
- This shell jump is used when a large vertical distance needs to be cleared and not much horizontal distance. It also requires turnaround. The way it works is the same as the aerial shell jump, but the set-up is different. Instead of dropping the shell right in front of Mario, the shell is thrown straight up into the air. This makes the shell move up very slowly, which is why Mario must turnaround to stay even with it. Once the shell is on the way down, Mario jumps up and hits it in the air, starting the process as explained in the aerial shell jump.
- Block duplication
- All ‘usable’ blocks in Super Mario World can be duplicated (the ones that can’t be are blocks that have been used and are thus brown or just stone blocks of ground). A block can be duplicated either above or to the left or right side of it (and possibly even below). To duplicate a block, you must throw an item such as a shell key or p-switch straight up when it is right next to the block. This will result in another usable block being created above the existing one. To duplicate to the left or right (or top-left and top-right), the item must be thrown a few pixels further away from the block. All coins blocks and power-up (Mushroom, Fire Flower, Cape Father) blocks yield the same item upon duplication, but sometimes the duplicated block may be an entirely different item, which differs with its horizontal position (blocks duplicated above are always the same as the original). For example, duplicating a 1-up to the left produces a coin block and duplicating it to the right produces a vine block (expressed as Coin-1up-vine). The most useful block duplication is the series shell-key-Yoshi wings-pballoon-shell, which means that duplicating a Yoshi wings block to the right can actually give Mario a p-balloon out of nowhere, as seen in Valley of Bowser 2.
Terms Defined
For use mainly when reading the Individual Level Comments, this defines a bunch or weird terms used to discuss SMW. Also see the Tricks Used section for more detailed explanation of certain terms and tricks.
- 49 hop
- This is the word for using 49 speed hop glitch, the fastest speed Mario can reach while running.
- 37 hop
- Using 37 speed hop glitch. This is used when Mario doesn’t have time to get up to a full run but must continue on anyways.
- 6/5
- The fastest way to move while keeping Mario’s p-meter charged. It allows Mario to momentarily slow down and be able to regain his speed very quickly. It involves pressing no direction for 6 frames and then right for 5 frames.
- a versus b exits
- Levels that are followed with an ‘a’ signify that this is the “normal” exit for that level, which is usually a gate. Levels with a ‘b’ after the name signify that this is their “secret” exit, usually a key and keyhole. Levels with only one exit have no special denotation.
- Aerial shell jump
- The type of midair shell jump that requires no turnaround and gains more horizontal distance than height. See Tricks Used section.
- Vertical shell jump
- The other kind of aerial shell jump, which requires turnaround but gets a lot of height. See tricks.
- Square
- The smallest “unit” of the game: the size of one block or small Mario.
- P-meter
- The meter that governs Mario’s run. Note that it does not directly relate to his actual velocity. It counts up from 0-112 (skipping every other number) when Mario is running on the ground. When the meter reaches 112, Mario has the running animation of his arms stretched out behind him. Mario cannot jump while the meter is charging or it will start to deplete while he is in the air. Once the meter does reach 112, Mario can safely jump without the meter depleting as long as forward is held or 6/5 is done. Doing hop glitch immediately starts to deplete the p-meter.
- P-run
- The state of having a fully charged 112 p-meter, which means Mario is at full run.
- Speed meter
- The meter that actually gives how fast Mario is moving. This picture should give a clear idea of what’s going on. Mario’s speed quickly builds up to the 35-37 range, at which point it will oscillate 35-36-35-37-etc. The p-meter reaching 112 is what breaks the barrier of this speed and allows Mario’s speed to climb to the 47-49 range, where it oscillates in the same way: 47-48-47-49-etc. The basis of hop glitch it to freeze the oscillation at the highest point.
This section is a very detailed level-by-level explanation of everything we do. It explains all the strategies, routes, decisions made, etc. Since it is so long, it’s understandable if you don’t read every word, but use it more as a reference guide. If you’re wondering how or why we do something or have a question on a particular level as you’re watching, just look here. Also if you think something looks unoptimized or sloppy, this is the place to look for an explanation of why a said action looks this way. If, when reading this, you don’t understand a term used, check above in the Terms Defined section or Tricks Used section.
Yoshi’s Island 2
Grabbing the green shell before the Baby Koopa can get in requires very precise placement.
Yoshi’s Island 3
Touching the ground for one frame when doing hop glitch is like not touching at all, so the screen never scrolls up because the game doesn’t ever register Mario touching the ground higher up. Doing 6/5 and running on the forward rotating platforms is still slower than 49 hop.
Yoshi’s Island 4
The water slows down the shell so it can be caught without manipulation of oscillating speeds, allows us to keep 49 hop for the whole level.
Castle #1
The fence must be grabbed to make it over the second pit, so 6/5 must be used to quickly regain p-run after grabbing this fence. Surviving the stompers is possible by pressing A and B alternately every frame, which somehow prevents Mario from being crushed.
Donut Plains 1b
Taking the blue pipe is 40 frames slower. The shell jump at the end is one of four vertical shell jumps used in the game, which don’t get must distance but are good for height. They are a bit slower than aerial shell jumps because they require some turnaround, but there is not enough room here to pull off an aerial shell jump. Switch Palaces aren’t allowed in this run, but using the switch blocks to run straight up is actually slower anyways because doing so is like running into a wall in that it doesn’t let Mario gain any horizontal distance.
Donut Secret 1a
Corner boosts, which only work on the bottom right corners of blocks, are used in 7 places to save 1-2 frames each. Note that they don’t work while holding an item. Taking the pipe is 93 frames slower because with no cape we can’t get a shell to speed us up in the water. Holding an item in water lets you swim faster horizontally but prevents you from being able to move up quickly, so at the end the p-switch had to be thrown and re-grabbed several times so it wouldn’t slow Mario’s ascent.
Donut Ghost House a
Jumping backwards in the second room allows Mario to face away from the Boo so it will start to travel up and to the left sooner (Boos don’t move when Mario is facing them), making it possible to spin jump straight from him to the upper platform as quickly as possible. The secret exit here requires a cape and isn’t possible small.
Donut Plains 3
Running on the first two platforms was faster then doing 6/5 because the platforms were moving forward and thus gave Mario and extra boost. We didn’t run on later moving platforms because they didn’t save time over 49 hop, which we started after grabbing the shell. The standard shell requires 7 frames of turnaround, and thus must always have 6/5 done before it so Mario can have p-meter when going back to the right. Clearing the gap is not possible without the shell jump.
Donut Plains 4
The yellow shell is grabbed without any time cost since it’s not yet inhabited by a Koopa. The sloped green pipe can shoot Mario out at 64 speed, but the fade-in and fade-out of entering and exiting a pipe took too long for it to be worth it.
Castle #2
Two wall jumps are used to get to the bonus room, which saves lots of time by allowing us to bypass the entire second room of the castle. When Mario lands on the absolute corner of a platform, the game treats it as both landing on the platform and hitting the side of it, which kills all of Mario’s horizontal speed while still allowing him a one frame window to jump from the platform, similar to performing a wall jump. This trick is used to allow Mario to quickly change directions, since it instantly kills his speed so there is no skidding. The screen has trouble catching up with Mario in some places because, like in YI4, Mario never touches the ground for more than a frame.
Vanilla Dome 1b
When Mario drops a shell, he cannot grab it again until 20 frames have passed, so when killing the beetles it was sometimes necessary to do a pretty much undetectable amount of slowdown so Mario didn’t run past the shell without grabbing it. A tiny bit of slowdown was also needed to pass through the spinning yellow block because, although it was hit as soon as possible, it takes 10 frames after being hit before the game registers it as spinning and thus pass-through-able. Hitting the vine block early with the shell made it so that Mario didn’t have to wait for the vine to slowly climb upwards. The Buzzy Beetle wakes up at the perfect time so we can jump off him right before starting to climb the vine using fast climbing.
Vanilla Secret 1b
The first walking red Koopa is too far out of the way to grab the shell from. To get to the pipe, neither a vertical shell jump nor an aerial shell jump will get enough height, but luckily there is something to bounce the shell off of. Sliding on the slope at the end increases Mario’s speed from 37 up to 47, which is maintained with the hop glitch.
Star World 2b
This is one the few levels in that game that can actually be done faster with small Mario as opposed to having a cape or other power-up. This is because small Mario can come out of the beginning pipe quicker since there is less of his body to get “stuck” in the pipe.
Star World 3b
Landing in the cloud is not possible without jumping off the p-switch. Left+right in a cloud is used to push Mario through the wall. This unique phenomenon also allows Mario’s speed to reach 52, which can be maintained with hop glitch and is the fastest form of travel in the game other than being shot from a cannon pipe (64 speed). Once the key block is hit, Mario must wait 46 frames for the key to stop bouncing before he can grab it. During this waiting time, the cloud is maneuvered into the ideal position so it can be quickly jumped back into to get Mario to 52 speed.
Star World 4b
6/5 is needed for the shell jump at the end, and running on the forward moving platforms saves a few frames over just 6/5 each time. The vertical shell jump at the end is tricky because Mario must also have a shell in his hands to open the key block, so to avoid having the shells kill each other it is important to keep them from touching. A bit of slowdown is needed to throw the shell up at the right speed and position. Landing on the very corner of the key block is used to kill Mario’s speed so he can quickly change directions (see Castle #2).
Star World 5a
Oscillating speeds are abused to jump off the p-switch in the air the same way as when doing an aerial shell jump. The aerial shell jump at the end requires the use of 6/5 (as well as the 2 frame turnaround needed to make it under the overhanging green pipe), but when Mario jumps off a p-switch his p-meter is destroyed, so p-run is regained on the floating gray platforms, with 49 hop used up until that point.
Star World 5b
One of the levels thought to be impossible small. Mario waits at the beginning to get the shell because the Koopa will fall through the gray platforms and thus must be over the green platform. This shell is needed to cross the gap because the p-switch needs to be saved for the end. It is possible to grab any two items at once because if they are perfectly aligned the game treats it as one item. The gap is crossed with an aerial shell jump, but luckily the p-switch falls at a different speed from the shell so it can be re-grabbed without also grabbing the shell. When grabbing the second shell for the end, long sweeping jumps with lots of turnaround are necessary for Mario to keep p-run. The ending is simple enough: wall jump, shell jump, re-grab p-switch (had to be thrown along with shell), jump off the p-switch and up.
Gnarly
The route taken up is the fastest possible. At time 293, a small bit of time needs to be spent on the yellow block to get up Mario’s speed so he can make the jump up to the gray block with the spring attached (more speed = higher jump). A sideways pipe cannot normally be entered in the air, but Mario catches the wall like in a wall jump so the game thinks Mario is standing on a solid surface and lets him enter the pipe. Normally a p-switch must be hit to make a block appear under this pipe. The midair p-switch jump at the end again uses the same physics as an aerial shell jump.
Tubular
Similar to in a cloud, left+right can be used in a p-balloon to make Mario’s speed reach 52. Unlike a cloud, however, Mario cannot jump out of a p-balloon and use hop glitch to keep a constant 52 speed, so we have to sit through the normal p-balloon/cloud speed oscillation, which counts down from 52 to 36 and then jumps back up to 52. This is still much faster than just holding right, however. The p-balloon turns into a mushroom at the gate, but Mario does not collect this mushroom if he hits the gate at a high enough point.
Way Cool
6/5 is used before the turnaround that is needed at the beginning when going from the circle with two Fuzzies to the oval with one Fuzzy, but 49 hop can be used after this. Since there’s no Yoshi allowed, we can finally see the end of the level instead of taking the Yoshi wings ;).
Awesome
This level is awesome. The quick slide at the end keeps Mario at 49 speed and thus doesn’t cost any time.
Groovy
Throwing the shell at the Pokey is the fastest way past the part where they’re all stacked up. It only takes out one of his body sections, but small Mario can still squeeze through.
Mondo
The water not only kills all of Mario’s speed and p-meter but also flows backwards, so the time spent in the water is always minimized by jumping on as many things as possible. When Mario is in the air, the oscillating speed is frozen at 37, which is the highest his speed can go without having p-meter (called mid speed hop glitch). In two places the water Mario lands in is less than a “square” deep, so it doesn’t slow him down.
Outrageous
6/5 must be used for the two wall jumps and for the turnaround needed when clearing the tall blue pipe near the end. Doing this turnaround to get on top of the pipe is faster than doing a wall jump here.
Funky
Shells grabs always require 6/5 to be done before hand because of the turnaround needed. Since the faster hop glitch can be done after, it is important to always grab the first available shell. The jumping Koopa takes too long because it takes two hits to get to his shell and the two blue Koopas can’t have their shells grabbed because Mario will fall off their platforms before he can regain p-run. When blue blocks are thrown, they can’t be bounced off of normally but can be when spin jumping for some reason.
Yoshi’s Island 1
Beating Special World changes the color of the world map and changes the appearance of some enemies (Koopas, Piranha Plants, and Bullet Bills). Rexes usually take two hits to kill, and for this reason Mario can actually spin jump off them and gain height instead of just crushing through them and landing on the ground. Note that near the beginning the third sloped platform in the set of three is passed through with a spin jump, which works with any sloped surface. At the very end, a trick is used where Mario releases the shell during the perfect phase of his rotation so the shell originally shoots behind Mario but then quickly boomerangs in front, following the direction of Mario’s spinning and allowing him to land on it in midair. Coming up: NOT a boring pointless Switch Palace which ruins the minimalist goal and the challenge of many levels.
Donut Plains 1a
49 hop the whole way.
Donut Plains 2b
The first real scroller, which means plenty of time for messing around. The main trick seem here is block duplication. Blocks can either be duplicated above or to the right or left and blocks that have been used up (are brown) cannot be duplicated. In the part with the yellow rising ground, we were almost able to get a 1up by bouncing off the shells, only one hit away. A Buzzy Beetle shell can be thrown into some walls and it will walk around inside the walls when it wakes up. We were able to get over 18 mushrooms to come out of the mushroom blocks, but having more than 3 onscreen at a time causes lag. When the second set of coin blocks are duplicated, the blocks go right into the walls. To enter the green pipe as fast as possible, the Buzzy Beetle has to wake up at just the right time, which means hitting him at the right time earlier in the level since they always rest for 300 frames. The second shell is needed to get up to the key at the end without waiting for the vine. When Mario comes up through the orange pipe, he does a tiny bit of turnaround to manipulate the Chargin Chuck into not kicking a football, which is impossible to get past without losing p-run. You’ll notice that the Chuck is doing a kicking motion but nothing is there. The color change at the end occurs because Mario beats the level without being onscreen. Putting the key into the keyhole at different positions created 3 different possible colors.
Donut Plains 2a
Some different blocks are duplicated here at the beginning. The shell is bounced off the ceiling by throwing it at just the right angle into the sloped part of it. This shell is then thrown through the slope and into the ground to kill the Swooper that thought he had gotten away. This time around, the Buzzy Beetle is placed inside the gray part of the wall. No idea why, but when the shell gets stuck inside the coin blocks and rapidly causes them to produce coins, the coins start flowing out of the open air to the right of the blocks. The Chuck at the end doesn’t kick a football this time because his attempt failed the time before.
Donut Secret 1b
Pretty much the same as the time before, except the block is carried instead of the p-switch so we can get to the key. The dropping and re-grabbing of it to speed Mario up in vertical sections is optimized.
Donut Secret House b
Mario is able to spin jump through the stairs because he enters them while moving upwards, so the game lets him pass though. This can only be done with a spin jump and max speed. It saves about 120 frames. The p-switch is thrown through the stair using the same concept. During the Boo fight, normally Mario needs a some ground to stand on because the animation of the level ending waits for Mario to land on a solid surface. By catching the wall for a wall jump right as the level ends, however, the game thinks Mario is standing during that frame. This trick is used in several other boss fights and in Gnarly to enter the sideways pipe in the air.
Donut Secret House a
In the second room, jumping backwards causes the Boo to start to move away from the door, saving a few frames since Mario doesn’t have to jump higher and do turnaround to avoid hitting the Boo.
Donut Secret 2
6/5 needs to be used because of the final wall jump. The ice somehow really screws up 6/5; normally when doing 6/5 there is a 3 frame window during the 11 frame cycle to hit the ground, with ice there is only a 1 frame window in most cases. Doing a shell jump to get over the pipe was slower than the wall jump.
Vanilla Dome 1a
As before, a bit or turnaround/delay is needed when doing the shell drops in the first room because 20 frames must go by before Mario can grab the shell again. In the second room, the upward slope prevents p-meter from being charged so 37 speed hop glitch is used until the slope is passed and p-meter can be charged freely. In the third room, hitting the yellow spinning block with the shell first is much faster than having Mario hit it, fall back down, and then jump up again. 49 hop cant be started until Mario is under the block of ground with the 2 red Spike Tops because a few frames of running on the ground are necessary to get under this block (Mario will hit the left side of it if he does 49 hop and jumps right away). When going up the slope, 49 speed is maintained by pressing A and B alternately every frame, thus jumping on every frame. Grabbing the blue block without being stopped requires very precise positioning.
Vanilla Dome 2b
The shell saves time by helping Mario travel much quicker in the water horizontally, but when going vertically the shell needs to be ditched because even doing a throw up and re-grab procedure costs too much time; it is quicker to simply use a few frames of turnaround to grab another shell for use later. Falling down the passageway looks sloppy because Mario hits the wall, but it is optimized. Shell jumping out of the water is faster than just ditching the shell and jumping off the ground to the right. You can’t see it because the screen hasn’t scrolled up yet, but sliding on the slope is used to boost Mario’s speed from 37 to 44 before p-run and thus 49 speed can be gained. Jumping off the p-switch is not possible because it always puts Mario in a bad position for making it past the gaps, so Mario simply falls off the p-switch and only loses p-run for a few frames because 6/5 allows it to quickly be regained. Falling down the passage way requires 5 frames of turnaround, and 49 hop can be used once this is done. Throwing the key down into the water is faster than having Mario carry it down because Mario can fall faster without holding the key (and the key can fall faster without being held).
Vanilla Dome 2a
The beginning of this level is just a hexed copy of Vanilla Dome 2b, it becomes different upon entering the second water pool. When exiting the water, 37 hop is used until Mario can start gained p-meter on the yellow blocks. 6/5 needs to be used until Mario is on top of the next set of yellow blocks because 4 frames of turnaround are necessary to squeeze Mario into the gap while avoiding the half-way gate (which makes Mario big). Jumping off the p-switch always results in instant death by running into the Chargin Chuck no matter the setup, so Mario has to fall off the switch and go down to 48 speed. Luckily, there is a nearby slope that we slide on to boost Mario back to 49 speed right away. Since Mario lands on two Buzzy Beetles after sliding, he never touches the ground and is able to keep the weird butt-out sliding animation while in the air. This also allows him to kill a beetle in the air by just running into him because the game still thinks he is sliding on a slope.
Vanilla Ghost House
Boos in the circles cannot be spin jumped on (or the Boos that turn invisible, not seen in this level). In the second room, 10 frames of turnaround are needed to get above the bubble and make it onto the platform and avoid being killed by it. Jumping on the bubble like this is much faster than waiting for it to be out of the way. Grabbing the p-switch had the least amount of backtracking possible while still being able to regain p-run. Jumping off the p-switch at the end doesn’t work because coins surrounding the door turn to blocks and prevent you from entering it.
Vanilla Dome 3
Usually when a shell is thrown on lava it will sink into it and die, but sloped lava for some reason acts like solid ground for a shell. In the second lava pit, the shell is placed at the top of the slope so Mario can spin jump grab it without wasting any time (Mario must have the shell in front of him and spin jump into it to pick it up while spinning). Neither a vertical nor aerial shell jump will get enough height to make it up to the bonus room, so the shell had to be backed off the wall, requiring 5 frames of turnaround. Clearing the next pit was possible without the wall jump, but was slower because it required a lot more waiting on the raft to get the needed height. The reason we stop and duck at the end is because we have to wait for the shell to come alive so Mario can bounce off it and make it over the slope. There is no other way to make it over without waiting for the raft.
Vanilla Dome 4
The shell jump had enough room to be possible without any turnaround or manipulation of oscillating speeds needed for an aerial shell jump, so 49 hop could be used as soon as the shell was grabbed. Note how the game forgot to change the appearance of Bullet Bills moving straight up to the new Pidgit Bill look.
Castle #3
2 frames of turnaround were needed at the very beginning to manipulate the wizard to appear in the ideal spot for breaking the right block for Mario to fall through with a minimal turnaround and loss of p-run. In the final room Mario needs to wait for the walls to move, so there is plenty of time for some unnecessary wall jumping. Boss fight ends on a wall by catching it like a wall jump.
Cheese Bridge Area a
The first saw that appears moves to the right faster than the platforms, so it is important to spin jump onto it and ride it to the end, using long sweeping jumps to keep p-run. The first incoming saw is jumped onto as soon as possible, but the second higher one requires a bit of waiting. This is because Mario can’t make it up that high and must wait for the saw to start to dip down. Jumping off the ropes doesn’t interfere with 49 hop and can give Mario a 1-2 frame boost. The secret exit of this level is not possible small.
Cookie Mountain
It is necessary to jump off the mole to get enough height to be able to wall jump over the pipe. This is much faster than running back and forth in the “maze” below. The ending may look sloppy, but is indeed done the fastest possible way.
Castle #4
When the Bony Beetle has its spikes out, Mario will die even if he spin jumps on it. The Ball n Chain at the very end is passable because Mario’s spin jumps off the top half of it. Sliding on the stairs in the second room gets Mario to 49 speed much faster than running. In the third room, Mario must wait for the screen to scroll up because once Mario gets a certain distance above the screen he can’t go any higher. The climbing was as fast as possible while still allowing the screen time to catch up to Mario. By hitting the boss in the air for the second hit, it skips the sequence where he gets in his shell and slides around and lets Mario get in the third hit immediately afterward. This saves about 12 seconds.
Forest of Illusion 1a
49 hop through the whole level.
Forest of Illusion 2a
Many opportunities for corner boosts here, but some had to be passed up because they don’t work when holding an item. Holding an item boosts Mario’s horizontal swimming speed from the 15-17 range to the 31-33 range. The throw and re-grab process of keeping these blocks for moving upwards and ditching them when moving downwards is optimal. At 270 on the in-game timer, there is supposed to be an Urchin just to the left of the existing one. This Urchin blocks the passage and forces Mario to do turnaround to squeeze through, but for some reason when we got to this point the Urchin wasn’t there, allowing us to save about 10 frames. Another improvement on this level was the boost off the Chargin Chuck at the very end, which briefly boosts Mario’s swimming speed up to 32. A corner boost could not be used on the last indentation in the ceiling because going up there causes more fish to be on screen and causes more lag. The missing Urchin, Chargin Chuck boost, and ability of small Mario to more quickly exit the pipe that begins the level all contribute to make this one of the few levels that is faster than the caped run.
Forest of Illusion 3a
6/5 until the wall jump, 49 hop afterwards. The only way to do the ending part with all the blocks without slowdown is to kill the Goomba by throwing the shell.
Forest Ghost House a
3 frames of turnaround are necessary to make it up the narrow passageway at the end. When falling down right after this, there is no way to avoid hitting the all and losing p-run, but doing 6/5 allows p-run to be regained almost immediately after it is lost. In the second room, many ghosts appear to be solid but are still able to be passed through. Going in the small gap before the p-switch was almost impossible to do while still being able to grab the p-switch. In the third “room,” some waiting is necessary at the beginning so Mario doesn’t hit the Eeries, but this waiting time is minimized.
Forest of Illusion 4b
Grabbing a shell to kill to Lakitu and then getting in his cloud to get to 52 speed was tested with every possible method of entering the cloud, but the setup required was too slow to make up for 52 speed over such a short period. Mario cannot grab the 1up because it is always just behind him. A key jump is used at the very end.
Forest Secret Area
There are two gaps in this level that are not possible to cross by just jumping off Koopas. To cross the first gap, we need to wait for the red Koopa to fly over the ? block so we can grab his shell and do an aerial shell jump to cross the gap. The Koopa is hit as soon as possible while ensuring he lands on the block. Mario must make long sweeping jumps back and forth to keep p-run, so the long jump to the left once Mario has the shell is necessary. For the second gap, there is fortunately a Koopa already right over the block, so grabbing the shell doesn’t cost much time. A bit of turnaround is needed to land on the flying green Koopa, but Mario cannot otherwise make the gap even with the help of an aerial shell jump.
Forest Fortress
Surviving stompers, spin jumping off saws, and wall jumps! Mario can somehow enter the door 4 frames faster if he has p-run, and since surviving the stompers kills p-run, the final stomper had to be avoided to keep p-run for the door. In the second room, jumping into the pit with the saws required 5 frames of turnaround. When killing the second Reznor, Mario makes it under a platform that is supposed to be touching the ground, so after hitting it he is immediately warped outside of it to the left, which saves some time. After hitting this second one, the fastest route is to hit the very top one next, but small Mario is not quite tall enough to make this jump, so the Reznor to the right has to be hit instead. The Reznors were beat faster than the programmers intended, which causes the glitch of the dead Reznor to appear floating in the middle of the screen. Once movement stops, the platform continues to push Mario up until he eventually falls off.
Star World 4a
Running on the forward moving platforms with 6/5 is faster than doing 49 hop through the beginning of the level. Hop glitch is started after the last forward moving platform. Normally grabbing a shell from a Koopa requires 7 frames of turnaround, but when the Koopa is on a 1 or 2 block wide platform, the shell can sometimes be grabbed with 0-3 frames of turnaround depending on the position of the Koopa. Here, it was possible to grab the shell without slowing down at all.
Star World 3a
The only thing that can really be done here entertainment-wise is spin jumping off the blue block.
Star World 2a
Corner boost at the beginning, 37 speed hop for the part at the end. Again, this level is faster small because Mario exits the beginning pipe sooner than big Mario can.
Vanilla Secret 1a
Unlike in Vanilla Secret 1b, the first walking Koopa is not out of the way, so time is saved by grabbing his shell instead of the one below the vine. The shell is necessary to kill the flying Koopas above Mario when he jumps on the spring. Passing up the shell and waiting to squeeze through the gap in these Koopas was 10 frames slower. When on the long springs, we do some running while they are compressing to get up to 37 speed sooner. Since we don’t need the shell below the three yellow blocks this time, there is no need to get the vine.
Vanilla Secret 2
It may look like some Koopas were passed up at the beginning, but we jumped on as many as possible without dying.
Vanilla Secret 3
Waiting for the dolphins at the end is much slower. 37 speed hop glitch is used when jumping out of the water here.
Vanilla Fortress
11 corner boosts were possible. Taking the lower route with the pipe is only possible small because only small Mario can fit under the spikes, but this route is slower than the normal one. Same deal as Forest Fortress for the Reznors, except this time we had to avoid fireballs. Fortunately, doing do didn’t cost any time. The screen freezes with Mario is the air because the platform that he hit the very edge of moved out from under him. When the next platform comes around, it runs into Mario and thus warps/pushes him to the left.
Butter Bridge 1
All the running and jumping back and forth is so p-run can be kept. Jumping off the flying Koopas and then again jumping off their falling bodies is not possible without having p-run. In both areas with the long processions of Koopas, we get the most possible 1-ups. In the block duplicating part, duplicating the coin block upwards 3 times produced 3 more coin blocks, and we got some coins from them with the shell. The vine at the end is not supposed to be there, but when duplicating the 1-up block to the right, a vine block appears. This block duplication glitch is capable of producing other interesting blocks that shouldn’t normally appear. The shell gets caught in between the vine block and the 1-up block because when the shell is thrown to produce the 1-up block it gets caught inside the vine block.
Butter Bridge 2
We got the most possible 1-ups at the beginning. A lot more could’ve been possible at the end if there was one flying Koopa to link us to the group of 5.
Forest of Illusion 1b
Normally doing any kind of midair shell jump requires the manipulation of oscillating speed (and thus 6/5 must before hand) so Mario can catch up to the shell in the air. The shell jump used here to get to the key is unique in that it was done entirely with 49 hop. This was possible because the shell is banked off the upper wooden platform, which slows it down enough for Mario to catch up without stopping 49 hop. The key block is hit as soon as possible, but the key can’t be grabbed until it stops bouncing, so Mario must wait for a bit before jumping up to get it.
Forest Ghost House b
Pretty much the same as the first time through, except we get 4 more lives.
Forest of Illusion 4a
This time around, it was beneficial to get into the cloud and use left+right to get up to 52 speed, since there is a longer distance for 52 speed to make up for the time is costs to get into the cloud. The cloud is always behind Mario, but we get into it at the optimal time when it is closest to Mario and requires the least turnaround.
Forest of Illusion 2b
This level (except for the end) is a hexed copy of Forest of Illusion 2a, so we again get the benefits of the mysterious disappearing Urchin and can again say we are faster than the caped run. When going to the left for the key, a lot of turnaround is needed to wait for the Urchin to get out of the way and avoid the approaching fish.
Forest of Illusion 3b
49 hop is used to the spring because grabbing the spring kills all your speed anyways. Whenever Mario drops a shell, it takes 20 frames for it to become “grab-able” again. It may look like there we jumped unnecessarily high when getting the spring and shell, but this extra height was necessary to ensure that we allowed 20 frames to go by after the shell was dropped so we were able to grab it. To get the height necessary for 20 frames to pass, we had to go right and then back to the left on the lower block to get enough speed to make the needed height.
At the end, the only other way to enter the pipe is to jump onto the block with the Goomba on it as done in FoI3a. To do this, you must throw or drop the shell to kill the Goomba, but this couldn’t be done when holding the spring because the shell and spring separate when dropped and regrabbing the spring would kill off all of Mario’s speed. The next best option was thus using the 2 blocks closest to the pipe and doing a bit of turnaround.
The final room was thought to be impossible small because small Mario can’t break the blocks with a spinjump. If this had been the case, we wouldn’t have been able to access any of Chocolate Island or Valley of Bowser, but luckily jimsfriend proved that it was possible. A spring is able to push Mario into the way because Mario warps to the position of the compressed spring. Pushing Mario all the way into the wall with this method caused death, but Mario is able to go a fraction of the way into the wall without dying, which is far enough to allow him to hit the yellow block with a shell. jimsfriend demonstrated that it is possible to get to the key without a shell, but this required a different set-up which was about 100 frames slower.
Castle #5
There’s no way to get past the spike room without the block snake, so we have lots of fun wall jumping and spin jumping off flames until it gets over there.
Chocolate Island 1
Shooting out of the pipe boosts Mario’s speed to 64, the fastest attainable speed in the game. This speed is too fast to be maintained with the hop glitch, but it is kept for a brief period on the ground by pressing A and B alternately every frame, which allows Mario to zip across the ground. When the ground ends, it is necessary to allow the speed to decrease to 63 so Mario can jump. 63 hop is used for the rest of the level.
Choco-Ghost House
The spin jump with turnaround in the second room is a necessary slowdown because Mario needs to wait until the Boos are low enough to jump over.
Chocolate Island 2b
In the first room, the 2 square-long slope above the spring is too steep to allow p-meter to charge and actually depletes it, so this slope is jumped over in favor or the slightly less steep slope to the right, which allows p-meter to charge.
The pipe leading out of the first room is entered 29 frames faster than the previous SMW all-levels run because Mario squeezes through the gap in the mountains and is thus lower down, giving him less distance to fall to the pipe.
Chocolate Secret
Jumping on the spring block kills Mario’s speed, but is much faster than jumping off the spring since a spring takes forever to compress. When entering the pipe, the spring is thrown a frame before movement stops, which somehow gets it frozen in the pipe.
In the second room, it was possible to use the spring to push Mario into the slopes and allow him to fall straight down, but this was much slower because of the set-up time involved. The beetle that appears to die for no reason is killed because down is pressed for one frame, making Mario briefly slide so he can kill the beetle and get up to p-run.
Chocolate Island 2a
There are many different rooms that are possible to go in, depending on the in-game timer and number of coins collected in the level. Here are the rules that determine where Mario goes:
First Pipe (affected by coins):
21 or more coins collected: Cape Room
20 - 9 coins collected: Rex room
9 or fewer are collected: Koopa room
Second Pipe (affected by in-game timer):
Time is 250 or greater: Key Room (as seen in CI2b)
Time is 230-249: Dino-Rhino Room
Time is 229 or less: Mushroom Bubble Room
Third Pipe (affected by coins):
Few coins: Spring Room
Many coins: P-Switch Room
Rooms do not discriminate based on which rooms have been entered previously, only the time and coin requirements.
Since we have to wait for the timer to get down to 249 when exiting the Koopa Room, there is plenty of time to mess around. In the first room, the spring glitch is used to push Mario through the coin block. In the Koopa Room, Mario is able to face backwards but still have the forward-facing animation because back is pressed for one frame, bringing Mario’s speed down to 44, which it stays at because of the hop glitch. This is one of the only places in the run this trick can be used since it is slower than regular 49 speed hop glitch and speed doesn’t matter here.
Chocolate Island 3a
Taking the upward blue pipe takes Mario to the pipe before the Fuzzies about 20 frames sooner, but since Mario loses speed this gain is compromised. Landing on forward rotating platforms, even if for only a frame, can save time because Mario is teleported forward a pixel, but in this level all the platforms are rotating to the left, which means no time can be gained in this way. Usually when grabbing a shell, it takes 7 frames of turnaround, but when the Koopa is on a block, only 1-3 frames of turnaround are needed depending on the placement of the Koopa because Mario can hit the Koopa and grab the shell at what would normally be below ground level. Also, it is not important to grab the first available shell since we must continue to do 6/5 for the shell jump at the end. Taking the vine at the end is 117 frames slower than doing the shell jump. This type of vertical shell jump, which focuses on height over distance by throwing the shell above Mario, is only used 3 times in the run: DP1b, here, and CI3b.
Chocolate Island 3b
This level was originally thought to be impossible small, and a quick look at
this map gives a sense of just how big the gap is that needs to be cleared. 6/5 need not be used in the level because the shell setup at the end kills Mario’s speed anyways. Since 49 hop is used, it is important for Mario to get the first shell so he can start hop glitch right away. For the ending shell jump, throwing the first shell up behind the gate will cause it to disappear when Mario goes offscreen to take the vine, so the shell had to be placed on the rotating platform block. Hitting the vine before throwing this shell would seem to be a priority, but is actually slower due to backtracking. Mario cannot do fast climbing while holding an item, so this second shell had to be juggled when climbing the vine. For some reason, if Mario is high enough over the gate, the game doesn’t count it as him having gotten to it. When setting up the shells, the one to the right has to be a certain distance away from the ledge for the shell jumps to make it. This shell is placed as far to the left as possible. The reason this shell isn’t all the way to the right, which would make the shell jumps much easier, is because if there is too much distance between the two shells, the right one will disappear when Mario goes offscreen to get the one by the gate. Placing the one by the gate as far to the right as possible would be the easy solution, but this procedure costs more time, so it is important to get the left shell as far to the left as possible, allowing more leeway for the one by the gate to be dropped sooner. The reason getting the shell by the gate further right costs more time is because Mario needs more height to make this happen and must thus stay on the vine longer. In the setup used, Mario could’ve jumped off the vine sooner and still made it onto the block, but then the shell by the gate wouldn’t be far enough right to maintain the required minimum distance between shells. With the right setup, a vertical shell jump is combined with an aerial shell jump to clear the gap.
Chocolate Island 4
There are two places in this level that cannot be passed with 49 hop: the second tar pit and the area just before the first Mega Mole. We could get to 49 earlier in the beginning much sooner by sliding, but that would mean 49 hop would have to be used for the rest of the level, which isn’t possible. It was possible to pass these obstacles with some slowdown and then regain 49 speed by sliding, but this was slower than just doing 6/5 and a bit of turnaround past the obstacles. The second tar pit required a frame of turnaround and the first Mega Mole required two frames, after which 49 hop was used. Note that we needlessly spin jump through a slope and then back out. We travel all the way up to the ? block, but can’t hit it because doing so makes Mario land in a tar pit.
Chocolate Island 5
In the first area p-run is gained as fast as possible. In the second area, 37 hop is used until the longer block platforms because there isn’t enough running room on the pipes for Mario to start gaining p-meter. We had full p-meter on the second platform, but jumping off here causes Mario to fall into a gap regardless of how long or short the jump is and doing turnaround to make the jump short enough to land on the shorter pipe wasn’t worth it, so we had to drop down onto the third platform before jumping.
Castle #6
Wall jumping at the beginning is much faster than taking the spring. 49 is used after the wall jump because although p-run does have to be regained when waiting for the spikes to rise, there is enough time to fully recharge the p-meter from 0 while waiting, so there is no need for 6/5 to keep the p-meter charged. After this spike rises, however, 6/5 must be used to keep p-meter charged during the short bit of turnaround needed to pass the spikes that rise and fall quickly. In the second room, 6/5 is used for the beginning because 3 frames of turnaround are needed to not run into the high wall toward the end. The boss fight again ends with Mario catching the wall.
Sunken Ghost Ship
Two corner boosts off the two pipes, and another two off corners of the level. During the falling part, the only thing that matters is not to press B so the falling is as quick as possible. The most possible lives are gotten as well as the most possible coins. Moving diagonally gets a bit more coins than moving straight down. This room had the potential to be about 4 seconds slower due to lag, so this lag was carefully minimized.
Valley of Bowser 1
Taking the lower route was only 6 frames slower. Since Mega Moles move to the left, it was important to jump off them the first possible frame so they did not slow Mario down. In the section with the yellow blocks near the end, the Chargin Chuck’s jump would always block Mario’s path. There was no way to get him to not jump, so we had to slow down a bit before being able to pass by him. The blue blocks at the end always kill Mario’s speed, but doing 6/5 here was still beneficial because it allowed Mario to reach p-run much sooner on the stretch before the pipe.
Valley of Bowser 2a
The first two shells seen in the level cannot be grabbed without lots of slowdown, so the third shell must be grabbed. The second room combines two newly discovered tricks to save almost 32 seconds (1,900 frames) from the traditional route of running through the maze (small Mario cannot push himself into walls in this level as seen in the caped run.) The first trick is block duplication. One feature of this glitch is that duplicating certain blocks to the right or left creates entirely new blocks with entirely new items. The order of items produced is shell-key-Yoshi wings-pballoon-shell, meaning that when duplicating a Yoshi wings block such as the one in this level, you can produce a key from the left side and p-balloon from the right side. When duplicating the Yoshi wings block, it may seem sloppy because Mario slows down a lot, but to make the duplication work it is necessary to come to almost a complete stop. We get a p-balloon from the right to use the second trick, left+right in a cloud/p-balloon, in order to go through walls and boost Mario’s speed. Once in the p-balloon, pressing left+right lets Mario’s speed oscillate from speed values of 52 down to 36 and back up to 52 again, which is much faster then just pressing right. Left+right also allows Mario to go through walls. Going through walls doesn’t affect Mario’s oscillating speed, but does actually slow him down a bit because Mario is not pushed through right away. For this reason, it is important to avoid all of the brown chunks of ground, as a differentiation in ground type (yellow vs. brown) is treated as a wall. This is done by pushing Mario into the very bottom part of the ground so he will not be constantly be slowed down by running into the numerous brown chunks of ground (Mario can move smoothly when in one medium of ground, it is when he goes between different ground types that slows him down). Mario is pushed into the bottom part of the ground quickly because when he approaches a wall, it is resistant to let him enter, so if he is near the top or bottom of this wall it will quickly push him to this point. This occurs in the rectangular chunk of brown ground at the beginning and when entering the brown ground, as Mario appears to warp downwards. Luckily, Mario can enter the pipe in inflated form, so there is no waiting time needed for the p-balloon to wear off. In the third room, 37 hop is used until Mario reaches a platform long enough for him to max out the p-meter and get up to 49 speed.
Valley Ghost House b
37 hop is used to jump over the first staircase because walking up a slope depletes p-meter and slows Mario down. In the second room, the method of hitting the p-switch used is much faster than jumping up and hitting it while on the block. Mario starts moving to the left as early as possible without getting too far away to hit the p-switch. The traditional route here is to run to the 5th door on the right, which takes you to the leftmost part of the third room, where there is a p-switch. Hitting the ? block in the third room creates a chain of coins that can be controlled and hitting the p-switch then turns these coins into blocks, giving Mario a staircase to the key (
see map). Our route of taking the left door to directly under the key and spin jumping off the Boos is much faster because Mario doesn’t have to take the time to run to the faraway 5th door, get the p-switch, or make the staircase. Taking the 2nd door on the right also takes Mario to directly under the key, but is still slower than going to the left.
Castle #7
In the first room 63 seconds are saved over the traditional route of waiting for the block snake. The jumping back to the left was necessary to kill enough time so that the Ball ’n’ Chain rotated far down enough to be jumped off of. In the second room we must wait for the Magikoopa to break the blocks the first time but for the second time the shell is used to get through without slowdown. The boss fight looks a bit different from the Castle #1 boss fight because the flames get in the way when doing the usual strategy. The method used is as fast as possible while still avoiding the flames.
Valley Ghost House a
Sliding to kill the bubble doesn’t cost any time. Same optimal hitting of the p-switch as in Valley Ghost House b.
Valley of Bowser 3
Running on the moving platforms with 6/5 in the air is 47 frames faster than just doing 49 hop through the whole level. We run on as many platforms as possible, but some of them have to be skipped. In one instance near the end of the level, Mario falls off a platform instead of jumping off which briefly causes him to lose p-run, but this sacrifice was worth it since it allows running on a platform that would otherwise be missed. 49 hop is used after the last moving platform until the end. 99 gate points for the end!
Valley of Bowser 4
Although the wall jump kills all of Mario’s speed anyways, it was not possible to do 49 hop before it because doing so didn’t allow the screen to scroll up, even if Mario spent more than one frame on the yellow block. Moving back and forth while falling down the narrow passageway does save a few frames because it gets Mario’s speed going instead of him just being still. 6/5 needs to be used until the end of the level because 3 frames of turnaround are needed to not fall in the lava at time 269 and the ending bounce off the rock requires some turnaround as well. This bounce was faster than jumping on the spring on the spring block and grabbing the spring (which kills speed). It is not possible to make the gap without either killing speed on the spring on using the rock to bounce off of. The secret exit is not possible here, because the walls around the key always kill Mario if he tries to enter them using the spring glitch.
Valley of Bowser 2a
The first two rooms are just hexed copies of Valley of Bowser 2b. When grabbing the key, Mario hits the right corner of the block to kill his speed and allow him to quickly change direction.
Valley Fortress
6/5 is used in the beginning because of the necessary waiting for the spikes. Once this set of spikes is cleared, 49 hop can be used because Mario has time to fully regain his empty p-meter when waiting for the next set of spikes. Mario again uses 49 to pass these spikes until he reaches the fast-moving ones. These ones require lots of waiting, so 37 hop is used here since p-meter must be lost and there is no place to regain it. Same old strategy for Reznors. The fact that they spit a fireball doesn’t mean that they’re done any faster or slower than the other Reznors, its just random.
Bowser
49 hop through the dark room. In the opening of the Bowser fight, there’s not much to do so Mario dances along with the music. When Mario runs into the clown-copter, it pushes him out at 64 speed, so we can do the zipping along the ground trick (as seen in Chocolate Island 1) by pressing A and B alternately every frame to maintain this speed while zipping along the ground. If we continue to hold forward when running into the clown-copter, Mario can pass through it and even fall through the otherwise deadly propeller because the game treats hitting it from above as hitting it from a safe direction. Whenever Bowser throws Mechakoopas, they are hit and thrown at the earliest possible time. Alexis Neuhaus, the author of a long since obsoleted SMW 11 run, also did the Bowser fight small so we can use his times to compare. The first phase is done 49 frames faster, the second 51 frames faster, and the third 22 frames faster, for a total of 122 frames gained. The AVI length is shortened by having Mario right under Princess Peach after the last hit on Bowser so he doesn’t have to spend time walking over to her.
Fun Facts
- Wall jumps: 53
- Shell jumps (must be in the air): 29
- P-switch jumps (must be in the air): 6
- Duplicated blocks: 28
The new record-holder for longest submission text!
Critical_Five: not anymore!
Thanks
We would first of all like to thank (in no order)
Fabian,
JXQ,
jimsfriend, and
DK64_MASTER. These four people contributed greatly to the run by contributing support, encouragement, ideas for routes, strategies, tricks, and glitches, and general Super Mario World TAS improvements. Also a special thanks to JXQ and Fabian for carefully watching our progress and pointing out all our little mistakes (and some big ones). And another thanks to JXQ for all the hexing work he did and his BotXQ wall jumping skills. Thanks a bunch guys, this run would not have been possible without you!
And finally a big thanks to everyone who is a Super Mario World fan and offered support on either IRC or the forums. We hope you enjoy watching this run as much as we enjoyed making it! We spent over 9 months on the run so I guess you could call it our baby.
Bisqwit: You are right about the "record-holder for longest submission text" part. In fact, this submission text is so long, that after converting to HTML, it hit the 65535 byte limit of MySQL's TEXT type fields, used in the phpBB posts table. I had to upgrade it to LONGTEXT in order to get the whole message to be seen -- which is why I had to also touch this submission and add this message.
Bisqwit: Also, changed your
[http://tasvideos.org/SuperMarioWorldTricks|Super Mario World Tricks] markup into
much simpler markup:
[Super Mario World Tricks] -- besides being simpler, it also now colors the link properly as a local link instead of an external one, and it allows the page referral tracking (for
WikiOrphans & co) to work properly.
