A tale as old as time...

Old Times is a Super Mario Bros. hack created by ATA (the same creator of Extra Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. - ルイージの謎 (The Mystery of Luigi)), which features your typical plumber in old-fashioned, vanilla SMB1 action. What's special about this hack is that it features vertical-scrolling sections in a few places; one level where you need to make progress going down, and two more where you need to climb your way to the top instead.
My run beats Sullyrox's five-year-old run by 10.56 seconds (that's 635 frames) due to precise optimization in most levels and strategy changes in World 2-3, World 2-4, and World 3-2. Every level has been improved except for World 1-4 and World 3-1.

This is a vertical-scrolling SMB1 hack, contrary to most of the hacks you'd normally see, which unfortunately doesn't work on modern, more accurate emulators like FCEUX and BizHawk; however, thanks to the good people at SMBArena, this hack was fixed not long ago to work perfectly for those emulators. Download the working IPS patch here.
You can also download the original patch here.

I figured this would be an interesting SMB1 hack to put up for the aforementioned reasons. I had to hold off on continuing to make progress with the TAS after finishing World 2-2 on 9/30/2024, due to personal reasons (mostly because I was busy with life and all). I'd continue to pick back up on the project mid-January 2025 and finish two days later.

Pretty good start. I originally figured the optimal spot for obtaining the Super Mushroom in this level would be at the second ? Block near the start, though that left me to be one frame away from saving the next framerule. I noticed that Sully's run aimed for the double brick row halfway through the level (3-block row at top, last block), which I initially figured was slower until I tried it myself.
Turns out it was possible to save that framerule by aiming for that block instead; just two precise jumps, the last one especially to regain running speed the fastest. At most, I was five frames ahead of my older strat, which was enough to break past the framerule.

The fourth ? Block in the middle of this level fits here as the spot for me to get the Fire Flower before the next. I wanted to make it so that Mario jumps a bit through the block immediately after bumping the Koopa (like in the "fastest crash" TAS), but no matter what I tried, it didn't work out for me. The best alternative I could come up with was collect the Fire Flower from the edge of the block, then duck under. Certainly, it would've saved me more time, but that's what I could get out of this situation.
Meanwhile, I did some entertainment, including when I bump a Koopa with a coin block, then another Koopa falls through. Not something you see every day.
(I wanted to double-kill (stomp and run over with a Koopa shell) a Goomba, but that made me lose the framerule unfortunately.)

This ends up being two framerules faster than Sully's efforts.
I later tested to see if collecting both powerups in World 1-1 would be any faster; no good, only 20 frames slower once I got to World 1-3.

Our first vertical level! And a pretty trivial one in my eyes; this is the only one where you make progress going down.
It's faster here to do a standing jump (not a running jump), and faster to catch the walljump pixel for the sideways pipe over the Goomba (not kill the Goomba with a fireball). More entertaining as well for the standing jump to be facing right, although that means I have no frames to spare afterward to avoid losing the framerule.

Another framerule saved over Sullyrox.

Nothing really ground-breaking here, just Fire Mario burning the snot out of most of the enemies.
There's one point where I kill two Koopas with one fireball, then another where a Podoboo weaves between the two fireballs thrown at it (that moment I found to be unexpected).

No time difference between me and Sullyrox.

Some more funky entertainment going around. I slowed down for a couple frames to kill two Koopas with one fireball and kick another Koopa shell.
Midway through the overworld area, there is a surfing platform that I run on for a moment to get ahead; also some frame-perfect jumps here and there to prevent getting pulled back by the next two platforms.
The next area is underwater, and a short one because it has the flagpole; perfect for a FFPG (full flagpole glitch), which I did without slowing down. Not much else to say.

Another framerule saved over Sullyrox because I better managed the platforms.

The only underwater level in the game...
Just entertaining as I go, as usual. Definitely not all enemies were killed (I let two Cheep Cheeps in the second area go), but midway through the level, I made my way up (and without duck-swimming) instead of stay low just to sneak another kill in.
Not many frames to spare afterward, and there wasn't much else I can do to save a framerule here anyway. This is otherwise another framerule saved over Sullyrox, mostly because I was able to avoid walking before entering the first reverse L pipe.

I can manipulate the Cheep Cheeps at the end to perform a FFPG (four framerules faster than performing a FPG); at least that's what I did when going through the level normally (avoiding all enemies, no entertainment). When I went to do the entertainment, though, THAT'S when things got tricky for me. Not only did I not quite know how to play this out (YES I'M GONNA ADMIT THIS RIGHT NOW don't hurt me plz :c), but I did have to watch what enemies I was allowed to kill for the Cheep Cheep manipulations to be in my favor (at least near the end), and maybe a bit of when I had to kill them too. All in all, I left two Cheep Cheeps alive, but amazingly, I was able to get an even faster FFPG. Five framerules faster than with a FPG (flagpole glitch), which actually required that I slow down to avoid fireworks!
So how it worked... I basically hit and/or killed every single enemy except for Cheep Cheeps #12 and #15, all without slowing down. I delayed killing Cheep Cheep 16. Cheep Cheep #17 spawned on Frame 16220, and before that, I had to slow down for it to spawn away from the flag. Then I could finish the rest of the entertainment waiting for that Cheep Cheep to come down so I could make that FPG.

Second vertical level! This time you need to go up to make progress; very interesting challenge for a Super Mario Bros. TASer. Just need to navigate around the blocks to find the fastest way up. I also needed to move around horizontally while scaling the level a few times; just mostly walljumps (made even more helpful with Left + Right). Initially 231 frames (11 framerules) saved over Sully's run due to that and me defeating Bowser faster.
I later found a 5-frame improvement the next day near the end of the vertical portion; the penultimate jump to the ledge with the warp pipe is now a running jump, which is barely enough to save another framerule.
Later still, I decided to walljump to the right at the halfway point (with the coins to the right of the platforms), which is about half a second faster than going left on the platforms, then right. That was yet another framerule saved! But I wasn't done from there... This is now a staggering 294 frames faster (14 framerules; 4.9 seconds), as on the fourth jump, I pressed Left + Right to advance faster toward the second Koopa, which allowed for initiating the walljumps faster!! At this point, though, I needed to be careful as Mario was extremely close to top of the screen. I appropriated the length of the walljumps for the camera to scroll as far as it can up with every walljump. Nonetheless, this leaves me with four frames to spare at most; I used one of them near the end.

I did the ice skating glitch for entertainment since I'd still have a handful of frames to spare at my fastest. Hopefully spot-on entertainment afterward as usual, but I felt like it could be better in a few parts. I think there might be some spots you'll like though (in Suggested Screenshots).
I again killed nearly every enemy imaginable here, some at the last second.

No time difference between me and Sullyrox.

I doubt there's anything interesting here... Maybe the double-kill on the two Koopas.

Vertical room. I need to slow down to make it up the first few 2x2 blocks and avoid the Buzzy Beetle. Then I need to deal with the platform above the ? Block (I had to wait for it to move out of the way) and make it up the next few platforms to enter the sideways pipe. I first tried glitching through the last structure, but that became nefariously slower when I tried it "up-and-over" instead (I used the last row of ? Blocks to put a stop to the X speed just before entering the pipe). Nothing else afterward worked. That's fair, so now I need to go ahead and optimize it.

This is what made for a majority of the improvement for the overall level.

The usual startup acceleration is applicable here, not sure why Sully chose to avoid doing so; maybe because of the Piranha Plants? I can't see how that could be a problematic thing, as I went through those pretty easily. I then slowed down slightly to collect five of the six coins available (which fortunately didn't affect when I'd hit the axe), but definitely not against Bowser (I did have to fireball-kill him anyway because I can't get past otherwise). All this made for a minor improvement to be tallied up.

110 frames saved overall.

I'm still not sure about that one in World 1-2. I honestly think that something like this would be possible, but I'm not sure if it even is. I'm not sure what it is that I'm doing wrong; maybe there are others out there that are willing to try.

I don't think there's anything I missed in the upward vertical sections, especially not World 2-4. While I really crushed it with the optimizations, this is a new experience for me, so I at least tried my hardest to make sure both were the fastest they could be.

And if you're wondering, it's faster to avoid the down-warp pipes in a couple of (World 1-2 and World 3-1). You can enter the top sideways pipe in World 1-3 (walljump on it while facing right), but it's negligible as it'll only send you back to the start. No other warps are available nonetheless.

lol swiftie moment

Okay okay, sorry. Just... there's probably more advanced hacks out there that introduce interesting new mechanisms that others don't have (especially the recently submitted Toad's Treasure Quest), so hopefully when I get the time, I can jump in to do those as well (maybe even the ones with rejected runs of).
Hopefully this one seems up your alley too (even if I'm gonna plague this site with SMB1 hacks ;~; ).

Right. I assume you're now asking for the

I gotchu on that.

Frame 1008, World 1-1

Frame 3458, World 1-2

Frame 4001, World 1-2

Frame 6001, World 1-3

Frame 7892, World 1-4

Frame 9553, World 2-1

Frame 13057, World 2-2

Frame 16391, World 2-3

Frame 17433, World 2-4

Frame 19233, World 3-1

Frame 22597, World 3-2 (second room)

Frame 22695, World 3-2 (second room)