This is a completely new type of a Super Mario World run. It beats the game by getting the THE END [dead link removed] screen in the 2nd level (Yoshi's Island 3).
After the discovery of a new glitch by あんた (anta), our Skype TASing community was trying to understand what happened in the .smv. Since he only uploaded the .smv and a japanese documentation, we had to find it out by ourselves.

Game objectives

  • Emulator used: Snes9x 1.43 v17
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Uses game-breaking glitches
  • Heavy luck manipulation
  • Achieves credits early

The "credits glitch"

"spit sprite position = yoshi X position + offset to spit object(index by Y which is the direction) normally, this would store to the sprites X position, however, because the sprite index is #$FF It writes to #$E4 + #$FF which is #$01E3. This is the stack address that is corrupted. If yoshi is facing left he must be at the position #$86, and if he is facing right it should be #$66."
p4plus2's documentation of the "credits glitch" [dead link removed]

Addresses which have to be manipulated

RAM Addressneeded ValueDescription
$7E:148C#$7CRNG 1 | See explanation below
$7E:148D#$92RNG 2
$7E:148E#$F7RNG 3
$7E:00E8#$86X position of sprite #04 (it's Yoshi in this case) (freezes when the sprite disappears, though you shouldn't have him disappear)
OAM Addressneeded ValueDescription
$01:02D4#$26X position of some score numbers onscreen (freezes when it disappears)
$01:02FC#$A3X position of the "smoke" effect (like when a fireball goes into a wall) (freezes when it disappears)
$01:02FD#$F0Y position of the "smoke" effect (same as above) (sets to #$F0 when it disappears)
$01:0304#$81X position of a Mario tile that appears when Mario is on Yoshi and he is in the turning animation (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0305#$39Y position of the same Mario tile as above (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0308#$B0X position of a cape tile (freezes when it disappears)
$01:0309#$F0Y position of a cape tile (sets to #$F0 when it disappears)
$01:030C#$60X position of a cape tile that appears when mario is flying (freezes when it disappears)
Those addresses starting with "01" are just OAM Addresses. OAM is a chunk of memory that stores the data about the sprite tiles to draw onto screen.
RNG:
The Random Number Generators (RNGs) change with certain events. We have to change the RNG 1197 times for it to work in our favor. When a koopa spawns, it's called once (when the RNG is "called", it changes). Before going into the pipe in YI3, three koopas appear; this leaves the RNG to be called a remaining 1194 times. This is where the fish come in. When a flopping fish bounces on the floor, it calls the RNG three times. So, that means the fish need to bounce 396 times (to call the RNG 1188 more times). After the fish manipulation, there are exactly six koopas that spawn. After they spawn, the RNGs are set perfectly in order for me to activate the credits.
There are also some OAM addresses that have more than one possible values, they have to have the same bytes of opcode and they also have to not affect the A register.
OAM AddressBytes of OpcodeDescription
$01:02FA2Will be the right value when you shoot a fireball with X
$01:02FE2Will be the right value when you shoot a fireball with Y
$01:03004X position of a koopa shell tile
$01:03023Will be the right value when you pick up a shell
$01:03062Nearly always right
$01:030A2Nearly always right
(actually you can change the bytes of the opcode, only the number of bytes between two required values is important)

Stage by stage comments

Yoshi's Island 2

We can't manipulate the addresses here since they would reset in the overworld.

Yoshi's Island 3

If you jump on a p-switch and then get the "pressed" p-switch in Yoshi's mouth on the right time, you will spawn a fish if you spit out the p-switch fast enough. Also, there can only be eight fishes in the room. After this room, I went back to the Yoshi block. I spawned two Yoshi's by hitting the block with Mario and the p-switch at the same time. I jumped on one Yoshi, got the p-switch in his mouth and let him die, so the second - invisible - Yoshi becomes visible and have a null sprite in his mouth. Then I go right to perform a PI (Powerup Incrementation) so i get a cape, to manipulate some values.

Other comments

Potential Improvements

Maybe the part with the fishes can be improved, since its heavy luck manipulation. Also, maybe there is a faster strategy to get all the right values.

Suggested Screenshots

[dead links removed]

Thanks to

  • Our Skype TASing community, for being able to help each other.
  • あんた (anta), for the discovery of this awesome glitch.
  • p4plus2 and smallhacker, for their awesome work exploring the glitch.
  • DarkMoon and Kaizoman666, for helping me writing this submission text.
  • bahamete, for creating some helpful lua scripts.
  • Mister, for helping me with YI2 :P.

adelikat: Judging

Accepting this movie as a new 'ram corruption' category. See this post for details.

Dacicus: Publication underway


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ALAKTORN
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Mothrayas wrote:
I vote no. First off, props for the major glitching. Very nice technical achievement. But when you look at the run (not knowing exactly what's going behind the scenes at the time), you see Mario summoning fish, jumping around and doing some other things seemingly randomly as if it's a freerun, until suddenly a "THE END" screen appears. The music doesn't even change to accomodate the fact. Yes, that is strictly by definition an ending and therefore finishing the game. But I don't see doing seemingly random things until a "the end" screen appears as an acceptable or presentable way to get to the ending. At least take those 3 frames and get to the credits, that would already make it much more watchable. I currently don't see it as an acceptable way to finish the game/end the movie. Now, I'm not going to argue this further. If you don't like my vote, ignore it. I see it already has 40 yes votes (and no mehs/nos) so the single no vote won't matter much anyway.
I kind of feel the same. this ending doesn’t feel like an ending, it just makes me go “what?” after having watched mostly boring movements, if it was possible to do this without wasting any movement then maybe I’d find it entertaining, but like this it just feels like a cheap way to summon a screen that’s supposed to make you think you beat the game I haven’t seen the ending with those 3 frames added in, but if I had maybe I’d support that version abstaining from voting
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ALAKTORN wrote:
Mothrayas wrote:
things
I kind of feel the same. this ending doesn’t feel like an ending, it just makes me go “what?” after having watched mostly boring movements, if it was possible to do this without wasting any movement then maybe I’d find it entertaining, but like this it just feels like a cheap way to summon a screen that’s supposed to make you think you beat the game.
IMO it's entertaining enough (and the game is popular enough) for this to be published as a new branch, but I think it'd really be a tragedy if it replaced the existing run.
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ALAKTORN wrote:
a cheap way to summon a screen that’s supposed to make you think you beat the game
The game mode is set to that of when the "THE END" screen comes up in the original credits sequence. It is the actual end.
Current projects: Yoshi's Island Disassembly Yoshi's Island any% TAS with Carl Sagan
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DarkMoon wrote:
SmashManiac wrote:
Sacrificing those frames would only cause the viewer to witness the same old Super Mario World ending everybody has seen countless times already.
It wouldn't be. The "Thank You" scene is where it jumps to, and it takes place in the bonus room for whatever reason.
Ah I didn't get that, thanks for the clarification! My opinion does not change however: a glitched ending sequence is not worth 3 frames.
ALAKTORN
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DarkMoon wrote:
ALAKTORN wrote:
a cheap way to summon a screen that’s supposed to make you think you beat the game
The game mode is set to that of when the "THE END" screen comes up in the original credits sequence. It is the actual end.
I don’t even know what that means, which is why I abstained from voting I’ll ask a question: if the game were normally saved once beaten, would this run have a “game completed” save file? if so I guess I could vote yes or at least meh
Joined: 12/22/2009
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ALAKTORN wrote:
DarkMoon wrote:
ALAKTORN wrote:
a cheap way to summon a screen that’s supposed to make you think you beat the game
The game mode is set to that of when the "THE END" screen comes up in the original credits sequence. It is the actual end.
I don’t even know what that means, which is why I abstained from voting
To put it simply, it means that it's the same as going through the credits, but you just skip the staff and enemy roll.
ALAKTORN wrote:
I’ll ask a question: if the game were normally saved once beaten, would this run have a “game completed” save file? if so I guess I could vote yes or at least meh
It would. However, the game does not save when you beat Bowser even in the 11-exit run, so there's no real way to judge it like that.
Current projects: Yoshi's Island Disassembly Yoshi's Island any% TAS with Carl Sagan
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ALAKTORN wrote:
this ending doesn’t feel like an ending, it just makes me go “what?” after having watched mostly boring movements
Man, I can't even BEGIN to understand how you guys found this boring. The big "what" is part of what makes this so funny. Stop being a pedantic robot about what a "true ending" is and just enjoy the hilarious insanity.
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Heisanevilgenius wrote:
Man, I can't even BEGIN to understand how you guys found this boring. The big "what" is part of what makes this so funny. Stop being a pedantic robot about what a "true ending" is and just enjoy the hilarious insanity.
Let me just second that post. The current version of this glitched run is a simple stroke of a genius. Nothing shall be added.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
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ALAKTORN wrote:
I don’t even know what that means, which is why I abstained from voting
In SMW the current game mode is RAM addres $0100. #$14 for example is the "in level" game mode. In this glitch the game mode is changed prematurely to #$26 which tell the game that the player has one and to display "THE END"*. *Actually #$26 is a fade out, #$27 is load "THE END" graphics, #$28 is the fade in, and lastly #$29 is simply an RTS meaning the game basically enters an infinite loop. At the end of each of these game mode the game mode is incremented, just as it is in a regular SMW run. The final game mode in a normal run is #$29 as is here.
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Heisanevilgenius wrote:
The big "what" is part of what makes this so funny.
I didn't find it funny. I found it a stupid way to end the game/movie.
http://www.youtube.com/Noxxa <dwangoAC> This is a TAS (...). Not suitable for all audiences. May cause undesirable side-effects. May contain emulator abuse. Emulator may be abusive. This product contains glitches known to the state of California to cause egg defects. <Masterjun> I'm just a guy arranging bits in a sequence which could potentially amuse other people looking at these bits <adelikat> In Oregon Trail, I sacrificed my own family to save time. In Star trek, I killed helpless comrades in escape pods to save time. Here, I kill my allies to save time. I think I need help.
ALAKTORN
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Mothrayas wrote:
Heisanevilgenius wrote:
The big "what" is part of what makes this so funny.
I didn't find it funny. I found it a stupid way to end the game/movie.
I don’t think as bad as you, but still alike I like the concept, but it didn’t entertain me much if it was a proper ending like say, Pokémon Yellow, I would’ve liked it more
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god win
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ALAKTORN wrote:
if it was a proper ending like say, Pokémon Yellow, I would’ve liked it more
There is no way to get a "proper" ending, as there is no loading value included with $0100 to load the true credits (with all the developer names) of the game. The closest you can get is the Yoshi's House scene, which wouldn't be a "proper" ending anyway since it doesn't have the "proper" music. In other words, there'd be no major difference between this run and a run going to the Yoshi's House scene that would justify changing it. Also, as for my personal opinion, I prefer THE END, since it's more like the game just gives up trying.
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I loved this. As many has stated earlier it's just like the game gives up. "No, stop doing that weird shit. No more fishes pleases! No more weird Yoshi duplication tricks and certainly no more random spit sounds while at the same time nothing is spit out!!! I give up, just go to The End already."
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You know what this reminds me of? This movie: http://tasvideos.org/1365M.html That movie had a bunch of weird incomprehensible stuff happen, and then returned to the title screen, with no ending sequence. But just because the world number was greater than 7, beating the castle counted as "winning" and thus the game was counted as beaten just because an invisible flag was set unbeknownst to the player. I love both this movie and that one for the sheer WTF value, but you have to admit this one has a clearer ending, because it at least has a "THE END" screen. Just an observation.
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TheFinalBoss726 wrote:
god win
I don't think Hitler has been mentioned in this thread.
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kaizoman666 wrote:
ALAKTORN wrote:
if it was a proper ending like say, Also, as for my personal opinion, I prefer THE END, since it's more like the game just gives up trying.
Yeah, I just love how it springs up completely out of nowhere. It's so anti-climactic. It took me completely by surprise and had me laughing like crazy. Why would anyone prefer an extra 5 minutes of credits that we've all seen 100 times? In fact, I'd say it's even more impressive that this manages to completely skip all the credits and go straight for THE END. No other TAS has been able to do that before. That just seems technically superior to me.
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I change my opinion: I prefer this one better than the messed up credits. Yes vote.
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CtrlAltDestroy wrote:
You know what this reminds me of? This movie: http://tasvideos.org/1365M.html That movie had a bunch of weird incomprehensible stuff happen, and then returned to the title screen, with no ending sequence. But just because the world number was greater than 7, beating the castle counted as "winning" and thus the game was counted as beaten just because an invisible flag was set unbeknownst to the player. I love both this movie and that one for the sheer WTF value, but you have to admit this one has a clearer ending, because it at least has a "THE END" screen. Just an observation.
I would add unto that and state that this is most likely the reason why there is such wildly opposite opinions on this matter: there is no consensus on which criteria to use as the definition of "beating the game". For some people like me, "beating the game" means getting the hardware to a state that was designed to be reached only after completing the game's primary objective. For some other people. "beating the game" means reaching an ending sequence and feel some sort of closure. For some more other people, "beating the game" means completing the game's primary objective itself as originally designed. All of these definitions are similar and usually interchangeable, but not in this case. Unfortunately, in the context of a friendly competition, there needs to be a clear goal that everyone can agree upon. So then, when do you beat the game? When the machine thinks that you've won, when you feel that you've won, or when the original game design says that you've won? For somebody like me that has studied game theory, the only reasonable answer is when the machine thinks that you've won, because it is easily definable and observable, while the other choices are open to interpretation and subjectivity. As far as entertainment is concerned, I think it's quite clear that publishing one version over the other (or neither of them) will cause many disappointed people, and I believe that our personal definition of "beating the game" is a reflection of how we each enjoy our games.
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SmashManiac wrote:
Unfortunately, in the context of a friendly competition, there needs to be a clear goal that everyone can agree upon. So then, when do you beat the game? When the machine thinks that you've won, when you feel that you've won, or when the original game design says that you've won? For somebody like me that has studied game theory, the only reasonable answer is when the machine thinks that you've won, because it is easily definable and observable, while the other choices are open to interpretation and subjectivity.
How do you define the "machine thinking you won"? As far as the SNES cares it just executes opcodes, there is no real hardware "win state". That said, there are software level win states, and I believe that once a software level "winning" routine has been triggered, that would qualify as winning.♦
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I think the two TASes will be published, like in SNES Zelda runs. It's obvious and the decision is correct IMO.
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p4plus2 wrote:
How do you define the "machine thinking you won"? As far as the SNES cares it just executes opcodes, there is no real hardware "win state". That said, there are software level win states, and I believe that once a software level "winning" routine has been triggered, that would qualify as winning.♦
So, if I found a "write to save memory" glitch and set the win bit, then you'd accept that the game was completed, even if I was in the middle of a level at the time?
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TASVideoAgent wrote:
Suggested Screenshots 6666
I agree with this.
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Derakon wrote:
p4plus2 wrote:
How do you define the "machine thinking you won"? As far as the SNES cares it just executes opcodes, there is no real hardware "win state". That said, there are software level win states, and I believe that once a software level "winning" routine has been triggered, that would qualify as winning.♦
So, if I found a "write to save memory" glitch and set the win bit, then you'd accept that the game was completed, even if I was in the middle of a level at the time?
How does the game react to that flag being set? Would the level suddenly quit and show some sort of ending message, like this exact run? Or would the game wait until you finish the level to react for the flag? In either cases, the game will throw some sort of confirmation that it was finished and qualifies. If the game simply ignores the flag, then we can argue "is that flag really what the game checks for? If it is, why is it ignoring the flag?" and move the discussion from "what is beating the game" to "how to make the game consider that game is beaten".
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Derakon wrote:
p4plus2 wrote:
How do you define the "machine thinking you won"? As far as the SNES cares it just executes opcodes, there is no real hardware "win state". That said, there are software level win states, and I believe that once a software level "winning" routine has been triggered, that would qualify as winning.♦
So, if I found a "write to save memory" glitch and set the win bit, then you'd accept that the game was completed, even if I was in the middle of a level at the time?
This is why I prefer the credits version - it doesn't just display a splash screen, it plays the level victory fanfare, and actually executes an ending. With this one, the splash screen just appears, and the music keeps going. I'd like to know if you can still actually move Mario during this (watching x/y values).
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