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Super Mario 64, the classic platformer from 1996, stars that Italian red plumber dude, named Mario. So he gets an invitation to have a one night stand eat a cake that Princess Peach has baked for him. So, like any fat Italian man would, he jumps in a green tube and heads to the castle - and so the journey begins. Once Mario arrives, he realizes that there is no cake and there will be no cake. The princess wants him to lose some weight, and she has hired Bowser to be a fitness trainer for Mario. The plan is to motivate him with cake and make him to run around the castle for "power stars", but Mario, just as any fat Italian would, skips all of that, loses no weight and demands cake.

Game Objectives

  • Emulator used: Mupen64 0.5 Re-Recording v8
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses game-breaking glitches

Comments

This TAS began when Kyman found a 1 frame improvement in the spiral stairs room. After that was found, Nahoc managed to save 2 frames on the final Bowser battle. We then started to work on the run and Kyman found a completely new BLJless route for Bowser in the Fire Sea, which ended up saving 7 frames (and also removed 2 BLJs from the run). While redoing the spiral/endless stairs section, Kyman found a way to get 20~ more speed while still being able to C^ off of the wall. sonicpacker applied this and in the end saved another 3 frames. Instead of simply hex editing parts of our old run, we redid them for entertainment purposes. After submitting, snark found a 1 frame improvement in the DDD skip, and Nothing/Mickey found 3 frames of improvement in BitFS. Kyman had an idea for the DDD skip which saved 1 frame. Jesus found a new strategy for the beginning of BitFS which ended up another frame. Then Kyman redid the pillar wallkicks which saved the final frame.

Tricks Used in this Run

0-Input BLJ
When you have no input on the analog in between the "A" button presses for a BLJ, your speed will not decrease, thus exponentially increasing the speed at the end result of the BLJs.
Pause BLJ
Normally, you can only press the "A" button fifteen times per second because the game runs at thirty frames per second. If you had thirty continuous "A" frames, you'd just be holding "A" down, not tapping it. However, if you pause while pressing the "A" button, you are given an opportunity on the next frame to release the "A" button. You can follow that by repressing it when it's not paused (therefore letting you BLJ the equivalent of thirty times "per second"). This is useful when you need more speed to travel a long distance. It isn't as helpful as it seems as it takes three extra frames to do a Pause BLJ. In order to save time you need the extra speed to save at least 3 frames.
Forward Jump Kick Trick
While Mario is recovering after a forward movement (dive, long jump, etc.), you can hold the "A" button prior to landing, and on the frame you land, press the "B" button with the analog stick at ^54 or less (on the TAS Input Plugin), you will do a jump kick. The trick is that it maintains all of the same speed from before the landing. You can also apply this when moving backwards (such as after a BLJ), by holding "A" before you are in the running animation, and then pressing "B." This causes Mario to do a jump kick and retain the same speed. This is useful for crossing long gaps and covering large distances.
Slide Kicking
This has been found to be the best method of forward movement over a long distance, because unlike the jump kick, you can do it repeatedly without losing speed.
Punch Trick
Instead of running for one frame when accelerating from a stop, you press the "B" button with no analog input, which gives you a starting speed of 10 instead of roughly 8.
Forward Speed Conversion
After triggering text, Mario is in a frozen state with his speed stuck at what it was while activating the text. When the text is read, you have the ability to do many things. One trick we can do with this is to press "C^" (upper C button) and "Z" at the same frame and hold a specific direction to get forward speed (as opposed to backwards speed which we originally used to activate the text). This is useful because forward speed can be used for things like getting to high places, such as the endless stair case. If you don‘t use Z with C^, your options are limited, because you only move forwards or backwards in a state that will not let Mario jump.
Instant Jump Kick Trick
This trick allows you to jump kick on the very first frame that Mario has input. This also is enables you to choose an angle for Mario to travel. You do this by holding A for at least one frame before Mario can move, then push B and the direction you want to go on the first frame of input.
Hyper-Speed Wall Kicking (HSWK)
Mario's speed increases infinitely while airborne with the analog held forward. If he wallkicks on the first possible frame, he doesn't lose any speed.

Improvement Table

SectionFrames SavedFrames Saved Overall
Lakitu Skip00
BLJ to BitDW00
BitDW00
B100
BLJ to Basement00
DDD Skip22
BitFS1214
B2014
To 2nd Key Door014
Spiral Stairs to BitS418
BitS018
B3220

Special Thanks

We would like to thank snark, Mickey, Nothing and Jesus for their improvements and work to make this run ever more perfect than before. :)

Suggested Screenshot

Enjoy the run! Thanks! :)

sgrunt: Replaced the submission file with this five-frame improvement.
Baxter: Mario 64 completed even faster, with (generally considered) better camera angles. Accepting as an improvement to the published movie.
Nahoc: Processing!
Baxter: Delayed, awaiting improved version.
Baxter: Submission file replaced with a faster version. Setting the submission back to 'accepted' again.
Aktan: Processing in place of Nahoc.


Banned User
Joined: 3/10/2004
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It's not necessary to be that explanatory. Something simpler like "uses heavy glitches such as the Backwards Long Jump (a glitch that allows traveling at enormous speeds and glitch through walls)", and a link to the SM64 tricks page.
Joined: 6/12/2008
Posts: 84
lol the japanese were still the ones to make the last improvements
Kaylee
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BrainStormer wrote:
lol the japanese were still the ones to make the last improvements
lol you still faked a blj
Active player (315)
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It's not exactly a contest, but if was, we've saved way more frames than the Japanese TASers.
Active player (426)
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Posts: 1047
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Brian, the difference between you and them, is that they actually work with us to help the common goal that we all have - to push the game to its limits. Instead of implying that we should learn from them, maybe you should take a reality check and realize that it's you that has some learning to do.
Post subject: another frame claimed
Kaylee
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Gsus has claimed that he has saved another frame in BitFS...we eagerly await his .m64, until this is sorted out, I suggest avoiding encoding/publishing this.
Post subject: Re: another frame claimed
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 757
Kyman wrote:
Gsus has claimed that he has saved another frame in BitFS...we eagerly await his .m64, until this is sorted out, I suggest avoiding encoding/publishing this.
I entirely reiterate my point of there being a 2 week period before submitting a Mario 64 run upon completion, due to this very reason. :) Mr. Kelly R. Flewin
Mr. Kelly R. Flewin Just another random gamer ---- <OmnipotentEntity> How do you people get bored in the span of 10 seconds? Worst ADD ever.
Editor, Experienced player (860)
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It turns out that Gsus has saved a frame in BitFS beginning. Thus, we need to entirely re-do the part after the pole. Time should now be 05:03.83 unless some other frames are saved while re-doing the ending.
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Nahoc wrote:
It turns out that Gsus has saved a frame in BitFS beginning. Thus, we need to entirely re-do the part after the pole. Time should now be 05:03.83 unless some other frames are saved while re-doing the ending.
This is the publication that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friends...
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
Joined: 6/7/2008
Posts: 124
Location: Portugal
The bit in BitFS was sexy, but I wasn't honestly expecting it to be proven useful. Anyway, I know I could offend the skilled SM64 TASers by pointing this out, but I must do it regardless. If you guys already thought about it, you could feel offended that I'm calling you dumb or something. But that's not my intent. On the spiral stairs, right after the clip, couldn't it be faster to BLJ up the stairs, instead of against the wall? If the BLJ was made towards the stairs, Mario would be less time airborne after the first long jump. I suppose that BLJ can only be done because it's a side-BLJ or something, but I don't know, I just went ahead and gave an idea. Other than that, tiny typo in the description.
and make him to run
I'm Espyo from the SRB2 Forums. Current project: A Pikmin fan engine, Pikifen
Kaylee
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DarkKobold wrote:
Nahoc wrote:
It turns out that Gsus has saved a frame in BitFS beginning. Thus, we need to entirely re-do the part after the pole. Time should now be 05:03.83 unless some other frames are saved while re-doing the ending.
This is the publication that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friends...
Hey, this isn't as bad as last time. <_<
Joined: 6/26/2011
Posts: 167
At this point in time, I'm almost convinced that this run will be ground down into frame perfection. And then someone will devise a new route that does something crazy and unbelievable that noone would have predicted to shave off even more time.
First a movie gets submitted, and ends up accepted despite breaking rules other runs have been rejected for. And when I vote less than spectacularly on this movie, I become the victim of harassment and threats. Yay, favoritism.
Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose
DarkKobold wrote:
Nahoc wrote:
It turns out that Gsus has saved a frame in BitFS beginning. Thus, we need to entirely re-do the part after the pole. Time should now be 05:03.83 unless some other frames are saved while re-doing the ending.
This is the publication that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friends...
You're doing it wrong!
<agill> banana banana banana terracotta pie! <Shinryuu> ho-la terracotta barba-ra anal-o~
Banned User
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DarkKobold wrote:
This is the publication that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friends...
Personally I'd prefer one publication where each possible frame has been shaved off, than three publications with one frame improvement each... (In other words, this constant submission updating doesn't bother me at all.)
Joined: 9/2/2011
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Are you aware that Miyamoto is crying right now ? I was just joking. I'm still impressed by your run, good job !
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Warp wrote:
DarkKobold wrote:
This is the publication that never ends... yes it goes on and on my friends...
Personally I'd prefer one publication where each possible frame has been shaved off, than three publications with one frame improvement each... (In other words, this constant submission updating doesn't bother me at all.)
Oh, it doesn't bother me. I'm just making a joke of it.
Sage advice from a friend of Jim: So put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, open your eyes to the truth, and realize that the government is in fact causing austismal cancer with it's 9/11 fluoride vaccinations of your water supply.
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nesrocks
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Very interesting. It reminds me of the interface I envisioned for the tas tool a long time ago, except for the analog stick representation (I imagined the tool for genesis). That tool would also show a stream of button presses moving in real time. I guess an idea really isn't worth anything, you gotta do it :) The idea was that it would also allow editing, not only visualization.
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Thanks for those links, MUGG. The new run looks really similar to the original one to me (actually, it looks about the same) but I'm glad it's been improved even more. The input moving with the video is nice, except it gets behind the video a little starting in the middle of BitFS.
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What happened to this submission? Any updates?
Publisher
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Posts: 1283
Here are some HQ encodes: 320x240: http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers.mp4 http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers.mkv 320x240 Stream: http://aktan.site90.com/?vid=KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_512kb 640x480: http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_480.mp4 http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_480.mkv 640x480 Stream: http://aktan.site90.com/?vid=KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_480_512kb 1920x1440: http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_1440.mp4 http://www.archive.org/download/KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_1440.mkv 1920x1440 Stream: http://aktan.site90.com/?vid=KymanSonicpackerNahocMoltovSilentslayerssN64SuperMario64In/sm64-tas-kymansonicpackernahocmoltovsilentslayers_1440_512kb Other encodes and publishing coming soon. Edit: Added 320x240 stream, 640x480 encodes, 640x480 stream. Edit 2: Added 1920x1440 encodes, 1920x1440 stream.
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. ---- [1893] N64 Super Mario 64 "0 stars" by Kaylee, sonicpacker, Nahoc, MoltovM & SilentSlayers in 05:03.80
ALAKTORN
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marvelous run, congratulations again :)
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Yes, it's finally published! Why doesn't the publication include the branch "0 star"? Isn't that what makes it distinguishable from 1, 16, and 120 star runs?
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It's neat that SMB1 and SM64 have around the same minimum play time.