Stage 4 - Stage 4 - Super Mario Bros. Stage 4 - Continue to be studied now What is the unknown history of the fastest capture?

"Super mario bros"Is a family computer (overseasNES) It is an action game released as a special software in 1985. And compete for game clear time "Speed ​​runEven in the genre genre is still a game that is repeatedly studied. Especially "Super Mario Bros."4-2Is upgrading the game of Speedrun capture movie in the history of 4-2 strategy research which has been superimposed for many years in a stage which becomes particularly important in "Speed ​​run" in order to be able to warp to the final face in a stretchSummoning SaltHas compiled the following movies.

4-2: The History of Super Mario Bros. 'Most Infamous Level - YouTube


There are several warp zones that allow the stage to fly at a stretch in the Super Mario Brothers which is composed of all eight sides, and 4-2 can jump to the 8th face of the final world in a stretch, so it is important in the speed run It is a stage. When you start in the basement, go first straight across the foothold ... ...


I will step forward while stepping on Kuribo.


If you use a Hatena block as a foothold and get on the moving floor ......


I will knock the leftmost block at the high place. The ivy that leads to the warp zone will then extend from the block.


Furthermore, let the hidden block under the rightmost block emerge and head to the ivy as a scaffold.


When you climb ivy, you reach the exit to the ground. You can warp when entering a clay pipe appearing at the end of the ground stage. This is the order to go to the warp zone where 4-2 is put.


In April 2004 Scott Kessler's 5 minutes 10 seconds and Trevor Seguin cleared the Super Mario Brothers with the time 5 minutes and 7 seconds, so the history of the Super Mario Brothers' Speed ​​Running Capture begins. At that time, the player was caught as "only climbing ivy on the way and aiming for a warp to the 8th face", and at the most it had only recognition to the extent that he tried his best and made progress as soon as possible.


However, when Scott saw a movie cleared in 5 minutes and 10 seconds, a slight time loss occurred due to a program bug in the part of "Climbing when hidden block is used as a foothold and reaching ivy".


So when Mr. Trevor checked the movie cleared in 5 minutes and 7 seconds, it was able to clear smoothly until I headed to the ivy. The time count in the game is decreasing from 400, but Trevor reached the ivy when the time count is 376.


Furthermore, in the movie Trevor uploaded again with repeated improvements, it turned out that the time count was 377 at the time of reaching ivy, and the time was slightly shortened. Here at last the fastest procedure and guidelines of 4-2 are established, and those who challenge the speed run also notice the importance of 4-2 capture.


And the result of the research is "The Wrong Warp (Wrong Warp)" method. In this method, we use the soil pipe leading to the stage of the coin bonus which is located a little before the ivy block.


Actually, "Super Mario Bros." can only load up to one warp destination at a time. When reaching the ivy block, the "exit" is loaded, so if you put the coin bonus stage in the clay pipe so that it will not be loaded, you will reach the "exit" directly after cutting the ivy's stretching animation, further reducing the time You can expect.


In order to reproduce this, I realized that it is necessary to trick Mario from the default position to the right until it enters the pipe after "exit" is loaded. If you bring Mario to a position like the image below you can avoid the road, you can head to the "exit" directly.


For that reason, research has begun on how players can shift Mario to the right. The method studied in the first phase was using emulators and toolsTAS (Tool-Assisted Speedrun / Superplay)It was with. Capture at TAS often performs programmed operations using emulators, and in most cases it was impossible to reproduce even if a human played using real game machines.


In 2004, TAS play discovered the way that Mario goes to the right by 20 pixels, making use of sinking into the block. However, it was not attracted much attention whether manipulations are impossible for human beings.


A technique using a bug of the program that warps from the left end to the right end in the TAS play movie Michael F posted in 2004 was released. It was a 2-second shorter time than before, and it was also reproducible by humans, but shortening of time using clear bugs was considered a violation of the rules, so it was not seen.


But,andrewgIn April 2007 he invented a method called "The Backward Bump Method".


He constantly remodeled the game rom in order to be able to grasp the position of Mario and repeated research. As a result, I learned that Mario 's position shifted to the right by 7 to 10 pixels when jumping over to jerk as if it felt as though it faced backwards. If it is this, it can be reproduced by human operation even with an actual machine.


As a result of further research, I found that it would be better to shift Mario to the right more than 20 pixels. In other words, you have to do a jump that collides with a step three times. Eventually the direction of 4-2 strategic research shifts to "when it is more efficient to shift the mario at which timing until you arrive at the clay after starting".


In addition, it comes out "Law of 21 frames" that comes out here. Actually, "Super Mario Bros." has the specification that the screen will not get dark unless the number of frames since game start is not a multiple of 21 due to the program's convenience.


Since one frame is 1 / 60th of a second, 21 frames is approximately 0.35 seconds. Regardless of how fast you play, the screen will change only at a fixed timing, so if speed runs compete for time in units of thousandths of a second it is not possible to increase the time, Players who give up continue.


Although the world record has been gradually renewed every few years, it seemed that 4 - 2 strategic research no longer advanced any further. However, some players including andrewg did not give up and continued 4 - 2 strategy research.


So the way that Andrewg noticed, in 2011WeirwindleWas a way to slip through the Hatena block, which I showed off in the TAS play movie.


However, this action required impossible operation with real machine such as pressing right and left button at the same time, Weirwindle himself thought impossible for human beings.


Mr. Andrewg repeatedly researches and finds that the way to slip through the Hatena block can be reproduced theoretically, but because it is too difficult, I abandon it.


In 2017 years old andrewg remembered it was "a trick to go through the block right after the start" that was discovered in TAS play more than 10 years ago. The way to go through the Hatena block is also reproducible, so I tried trying it on a bad guy, and it will be a wonderful success. Andrewg also continues playing saying "I can not believe it" because I could reproduce it many times.


The operation which was once thought impossible for human beings became possible as a result of improvement of the technology by repeated research. Other players will also update the clear time record so that you can get on with this breakthrough.


It is fleeting that the 4-2 capture has also been completed in this way, a new 4 - 2 strategy is discovered by the player called xx_420 _ brazit_xx. In the way of andrewg's way it was common to go through the lowest block, but when we made the block going through the third row from the bottom, we found that we could clear 4-2 faster.


This was also a difficult method, but there was a report that it was reproduced by players who studied 4-2 in the same way.


"At first glance the ordinary stage of the game 4-2 made more than 30 years ago has been studied by many players over the age of over 14 years, but the research never ends The movie will end with Summoning Salt's saying "It will be." In addition, record the clearing time of the gameSpeedrun.comAccording to the creation of the article, the clear-time world record of "Super Mario Bros."darbianSan 's 4: 56: 528. You can see darbian's world fastest clear play in the following movie.

(4: 56.528) Super Mario Bros. any% speedrun * World Record * - YouTube