Submission Text Full Submission Page
New Super Mario Bros. Is a DS game published by Nintendo in 2006. This game reuses the basic controls, powerups and objects found in the original Super Mario Bros. for NES. However, it adds a few powerups, such as:
The Blue Koopa Shell, a shell that Mario can use to hide in and become invincible,
The Mini Mushroom, a mushroom that makes Mario tiny, allows him to jump very high and to run on water,
And the Mega Mushroom, that makes mario huge for a limited period of time.
This TAS aims to complete the game without using any cannons. However, I use secret paths to:
- Skip levels (But not worlds),
- Unlock World 7 instead of 6. This is because world 6 has many levels that I can't skip, while World 7 has less levels and more skips.
Emulator used: DeSMuME x64 0.9.8
Goals:
  • Complete the game as fast as possible (obviously)
  • Don't use warps (Cannons)
  • Use every new powerup (Blue Koopa Shell, Mini Mushroom and Mega mushroom) at least once

Comments

While watching the existing TAS on this game, which beats the game in 21:01 minutes, I noticed how the maker used the cannons to skip a big part of the game. So, I decided to TAS the game myself, and see if I could get a good time. However, I want people to see more of the game, so I decided not to use cannons in this run. I was surprised to see I could finish the run in under an hour, spending an average of 10 min. per world.
I could probably improve my run by a few minutes, but since it was my first time TASing with DeSMuME, I wasn't used to all the tools.

Noxxa: Judging.
Noxxa: Hello WinEpic, and welcome to TASVideos. Unfortunately, I'll have to reject your movie. The movie has many mistakes throughout the run, which is especially noticable when comparing times with the same stages played in the any% run. In some stages, in World 8 in particular, you lose upwards of 30 seconds in some stages, which is far too much to be considered acceptable. From just watching the play, it looks generally not optimized, as many mistakes are plainly visible and some strange choices are made (such as getting a Mega Mushroom right before the final stage, which takes a minute to get, but does not actually save any time; compare the final boss battle to the any% run). Because of all these flaws, I'll have to reject this run.
Better luck next time!


Ambassador, Experienced player (708)
Joined: 7/17/2004
Posts: 985
Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
I think "no cannons" is a good category but "uses all powerups" should not be tied in. An "All big coins" run would go through all powerups at some point I think. At any rate I have to vote no because it is clearly not optimized in many places. You've put some thought into this but there is much more to be done.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
The SHA1 checksum passes, the emulator version is correct and the indicated setting is enabled.
Player (137)
Joined: 9/18/2007
Posts: 389
That was a really good real-time run! ... Oh, this site is about tool-assisted speedruns. Let's look more into detail then. Sometimes, Mario turns around although it doesn't seem to be necessary. Mario doesn't have full speed when the spikes are high enough to run below them. There is a big backtracking part very close to the end. The beginning part seemed quite good, in the middle part there were many visible small flaws. Nice WIP. I hope to see the finished TAS soon.
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Reviewer, Experienced player (862)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 517
Location: Hell...
This run is poorly optimized... most of the parts in numerous levels could have been handled much better than shown in this run. There are numerous timesavers that were ignored without good reason nor for entertainment. Also there were quite a few levels where fastest times were not tied or beaten. One example of that would be in World 2-1. You slowed down at the end without any reason when you could've made it with plenty of time. Another instance of poor optimization would be in World 8-Bowser. My vote is No.
Current projects: failing at life
Editor, Expert player (2071)
Joined: 6/15/2005
Posts: 3282
OK, after watching a bit, I agree with a lot of people here. This run is nowhere near optimized and is very uninspiring to watch. For example, at around 2:50, there are two very obvious parts where the author could and should have easily rerecorded over, but he couldn't be bothered to do so. Not that those are the only parts; the whole run is full of parts like that. I will not go into detail unless WinEpic actively requests me to do so. Concluding comments about the submission: 1616 rerecords is simply not enough for this type of game and goal, and I do not want to see "I could probably improve my run by a few minutes, but since it was my first time TASing with DeSMuME, I wasn't used to all the tools" in a submission ever again. As for the encode, sorry to put you guys through SendSpace, but I didn't realize how obnoxious the download page was. I won't upload there anymore.
henke37 wrote:
The SHA1 checksum passes, the emulator version is correct and the indicated setting is enabled.
It may be possible that differing firmware causes it to desync. To make sure, set your firmware according to the movie file as follows:
firmNickname: yopyop
firmMessage: DeSmuME makes you happy!
firmFavColour: Turquoise
firmBirthMonth: July
firmBirthDay: 15
firmLanguage: English
(This is default firmware setting. Older versions of DeSMuME do not set firmware to movie file specification when playing back so it must be done manually. I don't know if 0.9.8 changed this.)
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
That did it, I thought the movie would have set all settings correctly.
Joined: 5/1/2007
Posts: 294
Location: MD
FractalFusion wrote:
As for the encode, sorry to put you guys through SendSpace, but I didn't realize how obnoxious the download page was. I won't upload there anymore.
I fell victim to my homepage being overwritten and so I decided to use a New Tab Homepage Addon to circumvent it. You can download my mirror here. Note the last time WinEpic was online as of this post.
I like Doraemon
Joined: 6/20/2008
Posts: 150
I was only half paying attention through this, and the big errors only started to become undeniable at W7-1. This is seriously like a very rough WIP. Got potential, but you certainly don't show it the whole way through. Keep at it!
TASVideosGrue
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om, nom, nom... *burp*!
Former player
Joined: 7/31/2012
Posts: 3
I am going to redo my run, I would just like to have a small list of what I should improve, if you don't mind.
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1112)
Joined: 5/1/2010
Posts: 1217
WinEpic wrote:
I am going to redo my run, I would just like to have a small list of what I should improve, if you don't mind.
At least: * Doing levels a lot faster (some levels can be improved tens of seconds). * Not going back to fetch stuff (only if absolutely needed or if it saves massive time) * Not waiting unnecessarily Hint: If you think you need some tool for a level, test how much time it actually saves. Based on that one can think if it is worth it. Hint: Watch the existing runs. Even if those only cover fraction of levels you go through, those show the level of speed needed. Hint: Changing the amount of double/triple jumps you do on levels (which actually is a lot less trivial than it sounds) changes "random" events on the map (e.g. so that you get the blue shell on 1-2). Oh, and post WIPs. There's microstorage (http://dehacked.2y.net/microstorage.php) and the new stuff on the site (http://tasvideos.org/userfiles/). This way others can give feedback on partial progress.
Editor
Joined: 3/10/2010
Posts: 899
Location: Sweden
Btw, this game apparently seeds the random number generator with the firmware settings (which caused my desync), so you can get different initial behavior just by changing those.
Former player
Joined: 7/31/2012
Posts: 3
GoddessMaria15 wrote:
One example of that would be in World 2-1. You slowed down at the end without any reason when you could've made it with plenty of time.
It would have activated the fireworks.
Sir_VG
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Joined: 10/9/2004
Posts: 1913
Location: Floating Tower
WinEpic wrote:
GoddessMaria15 wrote:
One example of that would be in World 2-1. You slowed down at the end without any reason when you could've made it with plenty of time.
It would have activated the fireworks.
Aren't fireworks activated via a combo of time + coins in this? So don't slow down - collect a different number of coins.
Taking over the world, one game at a time. Currently TASing: Nothing
GoddessMaria
She/Her
Reviewer, Experienced player (862)
Joined: 5/29/2009
Posts: 517
Location: Hell...
WinEpic wrote:
GoddessMaria15 wrote:
One example of that would be in World 2-1. You slowed down at the end without any reason when you could've made it with plenty of time.
It would have activated the fireworks.
I saw a few instances where you slowed down. Proof that World 2-1 is slower: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7toMRptCWes I'm also positive that character difference doesn't matter as I done it with Mario too.
Sir VG wrote:
Aren't fireworks activated via a combo of time + coins in this? So don't slow down - collect a different number of coins.
I'm pretty sure that coins do not determine when the fireworks are activated. It's time based. Basically, if the last 2 digits are the same (e.g.: 244, 266, 177), the fireworks will activate.
Current projects: failing at life
Former player
Joined: 7/31/2012
Posts: 3
GoddessMaria15 wrote:
WinEpic wrote:
GoddessMaria15 wrote:
One example of that would be in World 2-1. You slowed down at the end without any reason when you could've made it with plenty of time.
It would have activated the fireworks.
I saw a few instances where you slowed down. Proof that World 2-1 is slower: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7toMRptCWes
I know I'm slower , just wanted to point out that instance of being slower. (If you can understand this :P)