After working with Lord Tom and Tompa on the NES Super Mario Bros. 3 TAS, I wanted a change of pace, so I decided to create a TAS of SMAS:SMB3. In this game, you can use left+right to quickly accelerate from a standing position, and it allows Mario to run at a speed of 64 (even though it shows 66 in memory). This is faster than the regular speed of 56 when Mario has P-Speed. After quite a bit of work, I was able to beat the time of the NES TAS. This leads me to think that this version may be faster for warpless and 100% categories too, but I'm probably not going to worry about these.
This TAS beats all known records. The strategies used are similar compared to the currently published NES TAS, but I will run through the levels stage-by-stage so people have a better understanding of what is going on.
This video contains subtitles. Feel free to enable subtitles while you watch the video to have a greater understanding of what is going on.
Useful memory addresses
- 00008B - speed
- 00074E - x-subpixel
- 000760 - y-subpixel
- 001CFA - Bowser HP
I use the Japanese version due to having fewer delays with text boxes and at the title screen. I did not use the SMA4 version because it has, in my opinion, more annoying sound effects, and it is impossible to get 99+ lives from the autoscrollers (because they are shortened). This TAS, however, gets 99+ lives magnificently! Since I have heard that some people are working on SMA4 TASes, I think this run demonstrates tricks that could be incorporated into their runs.
Level finishes are timed to get the shortest HB movements. However, there is something unique to this game called the 2-frame framerule. When you complete each level or enter pipes to reach different rooms, you return to the world map in a two frame window. To clarify, if you find an improvement of one frame, you may or may not need to save another frame to reach the next two frame window. There is a point in which this two frame framerule can be manipulated, which is described in my level-by-level comments.
1-1
Some previous efforts at TASing these games have grabbed the mushroom from the block next to the red koopa. It is faster to grab the mushroom from the block near the green koopa. It is important to build up enough speed before grabbing the mushroom so that Mario can clear the pit after the power-up animation. Had I finished only one frame window slower, I would've had to waste several frames in 1-2 to get the proper HB movements.
1-2
Fairly self-explanatory. Since we have speed 64, we don't have to abuse sliding speed.
1-3
Finding the best way to grab the leaf was somewhat challenging. I tried a few different ideas, such as clipping straight into the block, getting ejected up, and jumping for the leaf. I also tried using the type of leaf grab that was seen on the latest NES SMB3 TAS. Neither of these were fastest, however. While it looks like I get pushed left and don't grab the leaf to the farthest right of the powerup at possible, this leaf grab builds up acceleration faster, ultimately saving a couple of frames over those other options.
1-F
This level is also fairly self-explanatory. This is where we grab the second warp whistle to head into World 8.
8-T1
In this level, I gather lives through extended aerial sequences. In retrospect, I could've possibly finished the level with 95 or 96 lives, but I am satisfied nonetheless. In this level, I delay entry by one frame so I can manipulate the two frame window to give me the optimal Boomerang Bro pattern earlier. By doing this, I did not have to waste any time elsewhere to manipulate the Boomerang Bro pattern. If I had not delayed the level entry by one frame, I would've ultimately had to lose 8 frames to manipulate the Boomerang Bro. Unlike the NES version, the optimal Boomerang Bro pattern that you want is when it moves forward and delays throwing the boomerang. With this pattern, Mario can tail-swipe the Boomerang Bro before the boomerang is thrown, thus spawning the treasure chest earlier.
8-Navy
This is another autoscroller, so I decided to throw in some tricks for entertainment, most notably the airwalk glitch. With this glitch, the game still thinks Mario is standing on the rocky wrench. It is used to obtain P-Speed for entertainment in two areas. With left+right, I was able to gather some lives near the end to put me at 99 lives by the end of the autoscroller.
Hands
I had to lose a couple of frames to manipulate the hands.
8-Airship
It does not look to be possible to push ahead of the screen the way it is done in the NES TAS, but I was able to push ahead slightly. I had some fun clipping into cannon blocks in this stage. In the NES version, you need a horizontal speed of 0 to 14. However, this didn't seem to work here. What I could do was push ahead slightly just as the pipe began to appear on the screen.
8-1
This level is fairly self-explanatory. Mario travels slower than his fireballs, which requires slowing down to kill the piranha plant at the start. In SMA4 TASes, it is possible to not have to slow down like this by abusing the camera features, but this can't be done on this version. I utilized a corner boost by the bullet bill cannon near the line of coin blocks.
8-2
We have to slow down to kill the piranha plants here as well. Optimizing this was somewhat challenging, however. Again, this level is fairly self-explanatory.
8-F
Unfortunately, the star route didn't turn out to be the fastest option. However, it is actually possible to kill Boom-Boom with the star on this version. That makes two fortresses where it's possible on this game. Unfortunately, this turns out to be slower. In this route, we clip through the entire blue room. After we hit the P-Switch, however, we don't enter the door. If we enter the door, we have to wait longer for the P-Switch to run out, which wastes some time.
8-T2
This is another autoscroller. Here, I show off the bob-omb glitch, which is a shortcut to getting easy 1-ups.
8-BC
Left+right is quite powerful. In the NES TAS, you enter the thwomp room and have to perform a walljump. With left+right, however, you merely need to jump after entering the thwomp room. This eliminates the need to perform a walljump, saving lots of time. A few frames are lost to manipulate the Bowser routine to perform the drop glitch. Bowser can take three to six hops before making his first big jump, and to perform the drop glitch, Bowser needs to have a six hop pattern. Since the Bowser pattern depends on what frame the fight begins on, we have to lose a few frames. By killing Bowser just as he makes his sixth hop, Bowser jumps much lower upon being defeated, saving several frames.
Known improvements
Better knowledge of mechanics that cause extra, random lag frames could possibly lead to some lag reduction strategies. For example, when working on this TAS, I noticed that I got an extra lag frame when entering 1-T, but I could not quite decipher the reason. It may be some cyclical phenomenon that may or may not be related to the score display. RNG does not change during lag frames, so any lag frames that are saved will count towards an improvement.
The next six hop Bowser pattern would require starting the Bowser fight more than 20 frames faster compared to this movie. The Bowser pattern serves as a major limiting factor to the speed of these TASes.
feos: Great run and great feedback. Accepting to Moons. Note that the GBA version was considered to have enough TAS differences, so we can have TASes for the NES, SNES, and GBA versions co-existing.
What happened in those rooms? I discarded all the loading screens where possible btw.