I know this is an old thread, but I just saw the TAS video and thought I would give my input.
I don't know if everyone here has heard of the Zelda3 hack called quest for calatia, but anyway. I have been coming up with puzzles for that hack for around 3 years (went by the name erockbrox) and I know about several glitches/secrets in Zelda 3 as a result from this. So here they are as they might be useful to shorten even further the time of Tompa's TAS video.
1. You can hookshot though and pass over certain objects. The solid gray spike blocks and the blue bumper on the interiors and the cactus on the over-world are examples where this can happen. Of course you need something solid on the other side for this to work.
2. If you pull not push on a statue while using the cape your magic meter never depletes. This would only be showing off though as it doesn't reduce your time, but anyway its there.
3. Okay, this one is pretty tricky and I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who knows about it. Normally if you have a high wall or a solid block you really can't shoot anything over it like arrows, boomerang ect. BUT there is one special case where this can happen. If you want to shoot something over a high wall grab your red cane out and lay a brick. Now pick up the brick and throw it in the air. If you destroy the brick at its highest point in the air the fire ball going north will cross over a high wall. It also works if you kick it in the air and destroy the brick in mid air. Please note, the only time this can happen is if the fireball is going northward. If you try to do it from any other direction it will not pass over. You could possibly use this to hit a pegswitch prematurely.
4. You can also squeeze inbetween two spike blocks while using the cape where the gap is only 8 pixels wide vertically. (although I don't believe this ever happens in the game its possible)
5. There is another secret, but I dare not say since it involves a puzzle I created and I guarantee you that its the craziest puzzle you ever saw in a Zelda 3 game and I know that no one knows about it. You will have to play quest for calatia to find out if Zack ever finishes it. Grrrrr.
Here is an example of what I mean by shooting over a high wall. I was thinking that this place in the image you would be able to use this, but Tompa's original may still be faster. The big quest really is to look at the video again and see where this trick could be used to save time.
