Introduction

After having spedrun this game in real time for some time previously, I inevitably decided to put all that valuable experience to work in some frame optimisation and the result; a 74 frame improvement over its predecessor. Most of the comments of the other run apply here so I'll attempt to exercise my skills in brevity.

Various details

Emulator - Visual Boy Advance 1.7.2 re-recording v19.2
 
Objectives-
  • Aims for the fastest time
  • Aims for highest score
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Abuses programming errors in the game
  • Manipulates luck

Other comments

After having stumbled upon a way to decrease the transition time between different worlds via some sort of frame rule, it became apparent that there were indeed improvements to be had over the run that had once seemed so close to perfection. By the end of the run, 23 frames were saved by manipulating the length of the transitions while the rest were saved through specific tricks in the levels themselves. Additionally, I found an extra 2200 acquirable points at the expense of another 2200 points in choosing some faster level routes; the end result, as if by some cosmic coincidence, is that this run finishes with the same score as the other. Most points gained were done so through the use of abnorally high enemy jumping; a sporadically occurring, situation specific ability that is activated by holding down A before landing on an enemy. Now to break it down (level by level)...
1-1: 100 points were gained here by slowing down a frame on the tall stack of coins. Wasting a frame here proves inconsequential as a total of 4 frames must by wasted across 1-1 and 1-2 to optimise the transition luck. Another 100 points were saved by jumping off a goomba into a coin block.
1-2: 300 points were gained here, all by enemy hopping where there was none before.
1-3: There isn't much to do here so this level is mostly the same as TheAxeMan's. The person known as mmbossman found another 100 points by optimising the jumps prior to eliminating the first of our fireball spitting adversaries.
2-1: 6 frames were saved in this level by finding a better way to negotiate the seahorse though some momentary slowdown was still required. This new path unfortunately avoided 1800 points in aquatic assassinations. The land going goombas again prove their use by looting the box at the 9564th frame.
2-2: Another coin was taken in the tall stack yield a further 100 points.
2-3: The first auto scroller provides the chance to show off some sharp shooting. I took some inspiration from the screensaver on my DVD player with which my simple mind could be entertained for longer than would be strictly sane to be so. In particular, I await the golden moment that the logo's haphazard wall bouncing causes it to wander into a corner but alas, it was not to be this time. As for the first set of block destructions, no good TAS is complete without first encoding some subliminal satanic messages therein. The second set gives me a chance to shamelessly "borrow" an idea from the former run; an idea too awesome to pass up. Unfortunately, the lack of time moments before reaching the boss cuts short any further puerile antics.
3-1: 200 points were gained here by jumping off a koopa-like creature and picking up a coin in the process. Another coin could be slyly stolen before jumping off the first boulder but time did not permit the gain of any more. There was also an opportunity here to briefly show off the crouch slide and the about face freeze by auto firing the down key.
3-2: Acquiring the mushroom later in this level, gave me a nice opportunity to go coining. Apparently, the second mushroom locale saves a frame over the first else I mysteriously saved a frame elsewhere in this level.
3-3: There isn't anything interest to say for this level, unless the lack of interest qualifies as interesting.
4-1: 700 points could be had here by giving the jumping critter their just deserts. Two frames were saved here by reducing the influence of the indomitable lag demon while committing some hasty herbicide.
4-2: I gain two frames here; one I believe from lag reduction and the other from auto firing down while riding the final elevator; yes, I have no idea why that works either. The elevator here also gave a chance to display some nice mid air hovering, albeit momentarily.
4-3: 40 frames were saved here on the bosses by using ABABABA... to shoot rather than A-A-A-A-...; an oversight, it seems.

A special thanks to-

TheAxeMan, whose run not only served as a guide to many opportunites in timesaving, pointscoring and other assorted other tricks, but also remains one of my favourite TASes and was one of the reasons I entered this whole business in the first place.

Conclusion

Thus ends my lacklustre discussion; your forgiveness for my idle ramblings I implore. The level times were all the same save the last which was 208 over the 207 previously.

mmbossman: Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.


TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #2328: xenos's GB Super Mario Land in 12:13.68
Sir_VG
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Mario! Oh Daisy! YES vote! DAISY!!
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How many frames were saved total? 40 on the boss due to correcting a mistake, and 23 via level transitions. Anything else?
Sir_VG
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xenos' movie is 44021 frames. TheAxeMan's is 44095, thus 74 frames were saved.
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mklip2001
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I liked watching this run knowing that high score was one of the goals. It kept things feeling fresh. I'm a little curious why you didn't use the fireball on more enemies in 3-1 and 4-1; was it too laggy? Also, jumping through piranha plants never gets old, considering how much trouble I had with this game as a kid. Yes vote.
Used to be a frequent submissions commenter. My new computer has had some issues running emulators, so I've been here more sporadically. Still haven't gotten around to actually TASing yet... I was going to improve Kid Dracula for GB. It seems I was beaten to it, though, with a recent awesome run by Hetfield90 and StarvinStruthers. (http://tasvideos.org/2928M.html.) Thanks to goofydylan8 for running Gargoyle's Quest 2 because I mentioned the game! (http://tasvideos.org/2001M.html) Thanks to feos and MESHUGGAH for taking up runs of Duck Tales 2 because of my old signature! Thanks also to Samsara for finishing a Treasure Master run. From the submission comments:
Shoutouts and thanks to mklip2001 for arguably being the nicest and most supportive person on the forums.
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Awesome! I think you've cleared up all known issues with this game and found a few bonus frames as well. That ABAB trick was a surprise. Plus I think you've kept the entertainment value intact. Only major loss is not getting four fish in a row on 2-1 and that was necessary for the speedup. mklip2001, the reason why you have to hold your fire is because fireballs slow you down. You have to hold the B button to run, but it's also the button to shoot a fireball. So in order to fire you have to release it for a frame and that slows you down by one frame. If you could kill an enemy and cut two frames of lag then this would help, but there's not that much lag. The fireball also adds lag when there are too many enemies which is why it's often fired right before reaching the enemy.
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By the way, it sounds like the frame reduction summary goes like this: 2-1 - 6 frames by handling the seahorse better 3-2 - 1 frame from getting the second mushroom instead 4-1 - 2 frames from less lag 4-2 - 2 frames: 1 from lag, one from movement on the last falling platform 4-3 - 40 frames by using ABAB to fire faster on the bosses That's 51 total which means the remaining 23 come from transition timing. In order to reduce the overall time, 1-1 and possibly other levels had some frames added. Luck manipulation for the bonus rounds also changed, so it's hard to figure out exactly where the remaining frames come from. But mostly on 2-3 and 3-3.
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TheAxeMan wrote:
That ABAB trick was a surprise.
O_o I believe you did this to the level 2 boss in your run. Like I posted in the SML thread, I believe that the autoscrollers could have been done with a little more variety and interesting activity, but overall it's a very impressive run, particularly after trying to work through the randomness that the second level bonus gave me. It seems that 6 frames you saved on the seahorse helped you out more than you know! I'll throw a yes into the mix. Now I have to find another GBx game to run
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I'll throw in another yes vote.
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Yes.
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Swordless Link wrote:
Yes.
It was entertaining enough, nice improvement
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Eu Votei Sim. English Translation Of My Comment Originally In Brazilian Portuguese For Everyone To Understand What I'm Saying, Without The Need To Use The Google Translator, Like I Did Now To Know What The Others Are Saying: I Voted Yes.
I am old enough to know better, but not enough to do it.
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I am disappointed at the lack of Tetris, but otherwise a yes vote from me
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Nice discovery xenos. I've seen your unassisted run of this game as well. Could someone do an encode of this movie?
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I think your encoder barfed all over the file, Alden. Is it supposed to look like this? (playback in VLC)
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His encode is perfectly fine, your version of VLC is outdated. Try watching the published encode of Dr. Mario, you'll find it equally screwed up for you.
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alden wrote:
Large lazy encode: http://www.mediafire.com/?mmdqnowhdzz
wow, it is, but it works. thanks.
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Hunh, okay, it was my problem. Sorry to impugn your encoding skills, Alden. :) Run looked good once I downloaded a new version of VLC. Nice work.
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is it me or daisy have a mustache Oo ?
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That was a fun little watch. I struggled with this game a lot as a kid. Good job, yes vote.
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Post subject: Movie published
TASVideoAgent
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [1328] GB Super Mario Land by xenos in 12:13.68
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NesVideoAgent wrote:
The submission message follows:Additionally, I found an extra 2200 acquirable points at the expense of another 2200 points in choosing some faster level routes; the end result, as if by some cosmic coincidence, is that this run finishes with the same score as the other.
Yet the Movie description here says...
The Site wrote:
However, despite being shorter, this movie still racks up more points than the original.
[/url]
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Oops, my bad. Fixed.
I make a comic with no image files and you should read it. While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. -Eugene Debs