Super Mario Bros. RTA world record set, what is the 'wall of 4 minutes 55 seconds' made impossible for humankind?



Released for Family Computers in 1985, ' Super Mario Bros. ' is very popular as a title

for RTA that competes for how fast it can be cleared. With such a Super Mario Bros. RTA, the wall of '4 minutes 55 seconds', which was considered impossible for humans, was brilliantly overcome, and finally the unprecedented record of '4 minutes 54 seconds 948' was achieved.

News --The 4:55 barrier broken in Super Mario Bros. --speedrun.com
https://www.speedrun.com/news/667-2021-4-8-the-4-55-barrier-broken-in-super-mario-bros

Perfect Super Mario Bros. speedrun beat after two years --Polygon
https://www.polygon.com/22372715/super-mario-bros-speedrun-record-4-54-55-niftski

You can see the video of RTA player Niftski clearing Super Mario Bros. the fastest in the world below.

Super Mario Bros. Any% Speedrun in 4: 54.948 * WR * --YouTube


This time, Mr. Niftski challenged the department called 'Any%' who hurried to clear 8-4 of the last stage without considering the clearing rate of the stage. It has long been debated whether this Super Mario Bros. Any% record would break the '4:55 wall'. Niftski's time of 4: 54.948 is the first time to overcome this 4 minutes 55 seconds barrier.

Bismuth, who is familiar with the RTA of the game, explains the 4 minutes 55 seconds wall on YouTube.

Is 4:55 the perfect speedrun? Super Mario Bros. World Record Explained --YouTube


First of all, there are five main points in RTA at Any% of Super Mario Bros., 'Frame Rule', 'Wall clips', 'Wrong warps', 'Wall jump', and 'Fast acceleration'.



'Frame rules' are frame units that must be considered when competing for game time. Super Mario Bros. operates at 60 frames per second and processes in 21 frame increments. In other words, it can be said that the time shifts every 21 frames = about 0.35 seconds.



'Wall clips' is a technique in which Mario tries to shortcut the terrain by passing through the wall.



This Wall clips is especially important to reach the warp zone at the back of 1-2.



For a successful Wall clips to the Warp Zone, you need to dash through 1-2 without stopping at all from the start.



However, if you release the B button just before the last clay pipe and press A for a moment to jump, you will reach the warp zone by slipping through the clay pipe and the wall.



There is a time difference as shown in the image below when using Wall clips (Mario on the left) and when crossing over a general ceiling (Mario on the right). This is a technique that can save a lot of time, but many RTA players couldn't achieve this and gave up on setting the world record and scattered.



And 'Wrong warps' aims at a shortcut by adjusting the reading of the clay pipe that becomes the warp portal.



Wrong warps has been discussed in the stage 4-2 strategy, and you can find out more about it by reading the following article.

What is the unknown history of Stage 4-2 fastest capture of 'Super Mario Bros.' which is still being researched? --GIGAZINE



'Wall jump' is a technique that uses Mario's toes to hit the wall by 1/32 pixel (1 subpixel), jumping like kicking the wall and overcoming obstacles.



'Fast acceleration' is a technique that uses the specification that 'Mario is faster to jump backwards than to move normally'.



Another study to overcome the 4 minute 55 second barrier was to use

Flagpole glitch. Originally, in Super Mario Bros., if you touch the flag or flagpole, the flag will drop and the stage will be cleared. However, if you meet certain conditions and get caught by the flag, the animation of the flag falling will be cut, which will shorten the clearing time.



In September 2018, RTA player Kosmic achieved the world's first clear in the 4 minutes 55 seconds range, which seemed impossible. Bismuth points out that Kosmic's feat was the result of a study of flag glitches and jump timing in 8-2.

Super Mario Bros. Speedrun in 4: 55.913 (Former World Record) --YouTube


However, no matter how much these techniques were used, it was difficult to reduce the clear time to less than 4 minutes 55 seconds. The cause is the 'frame rule'.



Actually, depending on the timing of the goal, the time to move to the next screen will be different. When you reach the goal at the perfect timing and when you reach the goal one frame (1 / 60th of a second) later than the perfect timing, there will be a blackout of about 0.35 seconds. No matter how fast you go to 8-4, you can't get rid of the 0.35 second blackout until 8-4 starts, so to shorten the time any more, either 'Clear 8-4 faster' or ' There is no choice but to clear up to 8-3 in 21 frames or more.



Of course, it is almost impossible for humans to consciously control 1 / 60th of a second. In order to verify 'if you capture at the perfect frame timing', verification was done

with TAS that clears the game by input by the program.



The fastest TAS is a record of 4: 54.032 by Happy Lee. It's unclear if this 4: 54.032 is the theoretical clear record for Super Mario Bros., but it hasn't been updated for 11 years since it was achieved in 2010. In addition, this Happy Lee's TAS play is a play that can not be reproduced by humans because it enables the operation of 'pressing left and right at the same time' by the program.



After that, in TAS, which adhered to the RTA rule, that is, 'operate using the actual machine', 4 minutes 54 seconds 265 was the fastest clear time.

(TWR) TAS Super Mario Bros. No Left + Right in 4: 54.265 by zdoroviy_antony --YouTube


In other words, it was proved that it is theoretically possible to clear in the 4 minutes 54 seconds range, which exceeds the '4 minutes 55 seconds wall', even with RTA. According to Bismuth's calculation, the theoretical fastest score for RTA is '4:54:798'.



After that, many players set a clear time in the 4 minutes 55 seconds range, but never reached the 4 minutes 54 seconds range ...



Until Niftski updated, Super Mario Bros.'s fastest clear time was 4: 55.230, which was achieved in February 2021.

[Former World Record] Super Mario Bros. Any% Speedrun in 4: 55.230 --YouTube


According to Speedrun, the time of 4 minutes 54 seconds this time was realized by shortening the time to clear 8-3 by succeeding in the flag glitch at 8-1, which is extremely difficult. That is. How to make a successful flag glitch in 8-1 is explained in the following movie.

How to Save the 8-1 Framerule in Super Mario Bros. --PL8-1 Tutorial --YouTube


In addition, Mr. Kosmic who cleared in the 4 minutes 55 seconds range for the first time in human beings said on Twitter in 2019, `` 4 minutes 53 seconds range is absolutely impossible. If it is 4 minutes 54 seconds 9, it may be possible for human beings as well. , Maybe. '

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in Video,   Game, Posted by log1i_yk