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Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins in 25:38 by Soulrivers.

  • Recorded on VBA 1.72 v19.3
  • Takes damage to save time
  • Aims for fastest time
  • Abuses programming errors
  • (!!!) Is in black and white (!!!)
  • Features kickass music
  • Uses japanese version
So, this is the first (real) submission of this game. This run does not use the pipe glitch which the red team used in the TAS competition a while back (causing VBA v20 to be created). I'm surprised no one has attempted it before, actually. As you'll probably notice when watching, the game lags A LOT. Not to the extent of e.g. Kirby's Dream Land, but you get the picture. There are some places where lag was unavoidable, such as in the last level of the water stage, when I take the flower.
The reason why I picked the (J) ROM is simple. When a boss dies, it flies up, and then down, quite slowly. In the (J) ROM, if the boss is sent outside the screen on its way up, the battle will end there, saving ~2 seconds each fight it's applicable (Moon boss and the three pigs). There is close to no text in this game anyway, so no entertainment value is cut off.
One possible improvement would be in the castle, when going up to the first floor. The jumps here are badly timed as I discovered later. However when I optimized that part, the next room was out of rythm. You see, Mario moves at 1 pixel, 2 pixels, 1 pixel, 2 pixels. This rythm wasn't the same after I corrected the earlier room, and so the next one was messed up too. 15 frames could potentially be saved if this was somehow done better.
Anyway, I'm tired of writing long submission texts. This'll have to do. Ask if you need more info.

Thanks to

Swordless Link - For support and (somewhat) reviewing my WIPs.
Tompa - Also support and reviewing my WIPs, and for having me redo countless of times when you found some faster route that saved 1 frame.
NesVideoAgent: Hi! I am a robot. I took a few screenshots of this movie and placed them here. Oh! I also corrected the ROM name.
  • You indicated Super Mario Land 2 - 6tsu no Kinka (J) (V1.0).vbm
  • I updated it to Super Mario Land 2 - 6tsu no Kinka (J) (V1.0).gb
adelikat: Viewers like this one. Accepting for publication.

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Posted: 5/11/2008 5:36 PM
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TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #1975: Soulrivers's GB Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins in 25:38.72
Posted: 5/11/2008 5:37 PM
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SwordlessLink
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Great run, very smooth and optimised, clear yes vote. (he sent me the VBM while writing the submission text) Also, I recommend this screenshot: :-D
Posted: 5/11/2008 6:41 PM
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Paused
Joined: 5/9/2005
Posts: 752
Have not watched yet, will later, but just thinking out-loud about the practicality of an all levels run. IIRC there are only a small hand full of bonus levels, a number so small that a 100% run would be far to similar too an any% run. Is that the case? If so what are the thoughts of someday doing an bonus .vbm showing the extras? Would be a shame never to see those levels TAS'ed, in my mind at least.
Posted: 5/11/2008 6:44 PM
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dartht33bagger
Joined: 12/10/2007
Posts: 260
Location: Oregon
That was a good run, much better than the current run. I voted yes.
Posted: 5/11/2008 6:56 PM
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Mechuyael
Joined: 2/1/2007
Posts: 245
Location: Israel
How does finishing the turtle level before the mecha-Mario level end up faster than doing it the other way? Also, did anyone else notice that when the 'W' in the castle turns into the 'M', it looks really bad, as if it was supposed to be a 'W' from the start? I think it's evidence that the castle was actually originally Wario's, and Mario stole it from him.
Posted: 5/11/2008 6:58 PM
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Tompa
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The reason why the Water world is taken first is because of the Bunny Hood which makes the first level in the water level very fast.
Posted: 5/11/2008 7:20 PM
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Soulrivers
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Paused wrote:
Have not watched yet, will later, but just thinking out-loud about the practicality of an all levels run. IIRC there are only a small hand full of bonus levels, a number so small that a 100% run would be far to similar too an any% run. Is that the case? If so what are the thoughts of someday doing an bonus .vbm showing the extras? Would be a shame never to see those levels TAS'ed, in my mind at least.
IMO a 100% run would be justified in that case. If I'm not mistaken there are 2 bonus levels for each world, that's 12 extra levels. And yes, Tompa has got that right. Pumpkin Zone is the only world I end with the bunny hood, which considerabely speeds the first water level up.
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
Posted: 5/11/2008 7:29 PM
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Mechuyael
Joined: 2/1/2007
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Location: Israel
Ah, guess that explains it. I'll add another yes vote then.
Posted: 5/11/2008 8:26 PM
(Edited: 5/12/2008 10:45 AM)
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MUGG
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Very nice, Soulrivers. Gonna watch it later and edit in comments here. ;) E: I'm very happy to see a submission of this game. However, I didn't quite like the stylistic choices in this run (for example the hippo level or the way you grabbed coins in the star level - You just grabbed all the coins... I would have found it more interesting if you had grabbed them in an interesting way like in the Japanese run or if you had just missed some... - Overall, I found the Japanese run more interesting to watch. The player added some funny scenes in the autoscroller level in Macro Zone, his witch fight was more interesting since he played with the lids. ... And so on. This run is no way close to what could have been achieved to make it a really interesting run.) I know, some stunts and actions would have caused the game to lag... I personally think, this game needs a run with some entertainment/speed trade-offs... Also, I found some places which I felt could maybe be improvable. At frame 10300, you didn't gain running speed when jumping over the pit, grabbing the mushroom. This level is definitely improvable as I got a better time on it myself (1 ingame second better). At frame 47500, you didn't gain horizontal speed in the water. These are my opinions so far. I look forward to your response.
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Posted: 5/11/2008 9:01 PM
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Tompa
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As for the bonus stages... 1 Tree Zone 1 Space Zone 1 Macro Zone 2 Pumpking Zone 0 Mario Zone 1 Turtle zone A total of 6, and not 12 soulrivers ;).
Posted: 5/11/2008 9:51 PM
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YtterbiJum
Active player (333)
Joined: 11/25/2004
Posts: 75
Good run. I enjoyed seeing this game beaten so easily after giving me and my brother so much trouble when we were younger and actually had a Game Boy. Here's a question though: Why was this done in black-and-white instead of SGB or GBC color mode?
Currently working on: SNES Star Fox, Level 3 (100%, published) SNES Star Fox, Level 2 (33%, after Sector X) SNES Star Fox 2, Expert mode (100%, published)
Posted: 5/11/2008 10:25 PM
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Wockes
Joined: 5/17/2007
Posts: 393
Location: Sweden
yes, entertained me
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Posted: 5/11/2008 10:37 PM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
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YtterbiJum wrote:
Here's a question though: Why was this done in black-and-white instead of SGB or GBC color mode?
What do those modes do for the game?
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 5/11/2008 10:45 PM
(Edited: 5/25/2008 10:08 PM)
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gocha
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Mister have already posted the URL on IRC channel, anyway. ISM's Super Mario Land 2 in 25:38.25 http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQnYmaVUBZ8
gocha wrote:
IIRC, ISM said it can be improved a little.
...seems to be true -> http://ism140.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/55/ ---- I haven't watched the submission yet.
I am usually available on Discord server or Twitter.
Posted: 5/12/2008 2:04 AM
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YtterbiJum
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Bag of Magic Food wrote:
YtterbiJum wrote:
Here's a question though: Why was this done in black-and-white instead of SGB or GBC color mode?
What do those modes do for the game?
Whoops, I thought I had remembered this game having special colors for SGB. I guess not.
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Posted: 5/12/2008 6:29 AM
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Tompa
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gocha wrote:
Mister have already posted the URL on IRC channel, anyway. ISM's Super Mario Land 2 in 25:38.25 http://youtube.com/watch?v=LQnYmaVUBZ8 IIRC, ISM said it can be improved a little. ---- I haven't watched the submission yet.
Soulrivers have been trying to compare with that run a lot and soulrivers is actually faster at most parts. For example, lag reducing. The Japan guy is often doing the spinjump to get coins from blocks, this is increasing the lag amount with a lot. Soulrivers also used more corner boosts. It isn't easy to compare because there isn't a vbm to be found, as far as I know. But we couldn't find another explanation than that he used a different timing... Could be wrong though, but a vbm is needed. Edit: Hmm, am checking around on his site... Even though I can't understand a single word, the pictures show some neat tricks that weren't used in neither his or this run. Translating the site to English would be good =P.
Posted: 5/12/2008 6:50 AM
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Soulrivers
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To be honest, there is no way he got a better time than me. I used way more corner boosts, I reduced lag much more and sometimes just faster execution. While there were one or two places where I simply couldn't match his time for unexplainable reasons, I doubt he came out faster than me. But as long as a .vbm doesn't exist, I cannot take that time for a fact.
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
Posted: 5/12/2008 7:08 AM
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KDR_11k
Joined: 1/23/2006
Posts: 352
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I haven't checked (and don't remember the levels anymore) but is it really faster to use the Macro Zone autoscroller?
Posted: 5/12/2008 7:43 AM
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Bag_of_Magic_Food
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I think there's a random element to the second Wario battle, but you may have gotten around that anyway so I don't know.
put yourself in my rocketpack if that poochie is one outrageous dude
Posted: 5/12/2008 10:50 AM
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MUGG
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While there were one or two places where I simply couldn't match his time for unexplainable reasons
Which places? I edited my other post in this thread btw.
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Posted: 5/12/2008 2:21 PM
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Soulrivers
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Joined: 12/27/2006
Posts: 532
Location: Göteborg, Sweden
MUGG wrote:
Very nice, Soulrivers. Gonna watch it later and edit in comments here. ;) E: I'm very happy to see a submission of this game. However, I didn't quite like the stylistic choices in this run (for example the hippo level or the way you grabbed coins in the star level - You just grabbed all the coins... I would have found it more interesting if you had grabbed them in an interesting way like in the Japanese run or if you had just missed some... - Overall, I found the Japanese run more interesting to watch. The player added some funny scenes in the autoscroller level in Macro Zone, his witch fight was more interesting since he played with the lids. ... And so on. This run is no way close to what could have been achieved to make it a really interesting run.) I know, some stunts and actions would have caused the game to lag... I personally think, this game needs a run with some entertainment/speed trade-offs...
As for the entertainment issue, I can only apologise that you didn't like my way of doing it. Non-tradeoff entertainment is a very subjective part of a run, and so it is impossible to satisfy every viewer. I tried my best to make the game look as interesting as possible.
Also, I found some places which I felt could maybe be improvable. At frame 10300, you didn't gain running speed when jumping over the pit, grabbing the mushroom. This level is definitely improvable as I got a better time on it myself (1 ingame second better).
For grabbing the mushroom, I actually didn't notice this until you told me about it. It is a very unfortunate miss I must say, and also very hard to correct, as the game is not hex-edit friendly. Let's just put this on the list of possible improvements.
At frame 47500, you didn't gain horizontal speed in the water.
Why would I want to?
MUGG wrote:
While there were one or two places where I simply couldn't match his time for unexplainable reasons
Which places? I edited my other post in this thread btw.
Specifically the first micro zone world, I get one time unit slower than him even though I used more corner boosts and such. Also in the second water level, between the wall glitch (after it has been performed) and setting foot on land I lose ~30 frames for unexplainable reasons. I tried everything like reducing lag, stroking at different rates and so on, but nothing helped. Thanks for your comments.
My published movies [03:45:05] <Naohiro19> Soulrivers: ... [03:45:19] <Soulrivers> ? [03:46:35] <Naohiro19> <Soulrivers> No! <Naohiro19> So? <Soulrivers> Yes! [03:46:48] <Naohiro19> joke
Posted: 5/12/2008 2:32 PM
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ShinyDoofy
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Although it desynced for me after you picked up the mushroom in the third level of tree zone, I liked it so far. Yes vote.
Posted: 5/12/2008 4:45 PM
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tymime
Joined: 5/27/2006
Posts: 82
I don't know about you guys, but seeing a game completed fast as possible is usually entertainment enough for me. Yes vote
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Posted: 5/12/2008 7:43 PM
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MUGG
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As for the entertainment issue, I can only apologise that you didn't like my way of doing it. Non-tradeoff entertainment is a very subjective part of a run, and so it is impossible to satisfy every viewer. I tried my best to make the game look as interesting as possible.
Yeah, it isn't like you didn't. In fact, there are some spots in the run which surprised me (like the glitch in the middle of the hippo level). I'm still sure it can all be done in a more interesting way, though.
Why would I want to?
Ah, didn't see you had to wait for the fish to get out of your way.
Specifically the first micro zone world, I get one time unit slower than him even though I used more corner boosts and such.
You didn't go through the spot with the platforms where you have to duck as fast as possible. There was another platform you have to wait for in this level - But it has to spawn first. So maybe you thought, it didn't matter how fast you manage the first platform spot? (not sure about this anymore) Anyhow, I'm making a movie file right now for comparision later.
Also in the second water level, between the wall glitch (after it has been performed) and setting foot on land I lose ~30 frames for unexplainable reasons. I tried everything like reducing lag, stroking at different rates and so on, but nothing helped.
Will check this out later.
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Posted: 5/13/2008 1:40 AM
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nesrocks
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tymime wrote:
I don't know about you guys, but seeing a game completed fast as possible is usually entertainment enough for me. Yes vote
Except that this isn't even close to as fast as possible ;) But the run must be good (haven't watched it yet)
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