Monday, November 14, 2016

SNES Super Mario World - List of Pit Hacks and Records

In this post I shall list the main pit hacks and their best times.
The best times that matter the most are the ones in their chronological order, but I might put a few records that weren't the best at its time in small font.
The difficulty level is my opinion on how hard it's to complete the hack with tools, without considering the best strats and optimization.
This list is probably incomplete, you can suggest edits in the comments. A pit hack must be harder than Molotov's Pit Hacks series.

1 Square Puzzle
Download   Difficulty: ★★★
4:19.61 by Amaraticando

Colon Three
Download   Difficulty: ★★★★
100%
6:45.92 by xHF01x
Demo by HoorayForJay and shadowdragon121TASer

The level%
16:45 by TheLilGecko
19:25 by gusapno

Glitch Abuse
Download   Difficulty: ★★
2:38.92 by Amaraticando
9:47.50 by shadowdragon121TASer
9:50.12 by HoorayForJay
10:24.72 by TheFinalBoss726
12:26      by Bullethead2202 [deleted channel]

Glitch Abuse 2
Download   Difficulty: ★★
PS: must display the castle destruction to count as finished. The Pokey stun glitch is not valid.
10:24.20 by  shadowdragon121TASer
11:47.62 by Amaraticando (smv)
13:30 by HoorayForJay and shadowdragon121TASer
WIP  sub 2 mins by BrunoVisnadi

Glitch Abuse 3
Download  (notice that there's a beta version)   Difficulty: ★★★
6:43.96 by shadowdragon121TASer

Item Abuse
Download   Difficulty: ★
2:39.34 by Amaraticando (lsmv)
5:44.28 by Amaraticando [original glitched video with description] *
7:06.10 by Dawn[Regnum0nline] (smv) *
7:12      by PangaeaPanga [YouTube strike] *
7:15      by TheFinalBoss726 and Dawn[Regnum0nline] (smv) *
7:35      by PangaeaPanga [YouTube strike] *
7:41      by TheFinalBoss726 *
8:05      by xKingBulletBillx *
8:14      by ISM *
8:46      by xKingBulletBillx
10:34    by dainegai *
*: timing ends when the credits scene appears.

Item Abuse 2
Download (alt)   Difficulty: ★★
6:51.66 by Dawn[Regnum0nline] (smv)
6:57.?? by Gbreeze
7:02.10 by Dawn[Regnum0nline] and PangaeaPanga
7:37.83 by Lucas S.
8:02.90 by Kaizoman666
8:08 by sotel11
9:02.93 by TheFinalBoss726

Item Abuse 3
Download   Difficulty: ★★★★
7:05.47 by shadowdragon121TASer
7:57 by PangaeaPanga (smv) [demo, original video received a copyright strike]

La MansiĆ³n
Download   Difficulty: ★★
1:45.97 by shadowdragon121TASer
Demo by rappervsmario

Living on the Edge
Download   Difficulty: ★★★
2:19.87 by Amaraticando
2:32.92 by shadowdragon121TASer
2:37.55 by HoorayForJay
2:47      by TheFinalBoss726 [demo]

Pit of Death
Download (alt)   Difficulty: ★
PS: Snes9x 1.43  is not preferred due to it inaccurate timing
2:00.07 by HoorayForJay [probably wrong time, todo: fix later]
2:01.?? by TheFinalBoss726
2:02.?? by MRO314 [Snes9x 1.51?]
2:02.?? by Sung-Hyeon Kim
2:03.?? by xKingBulletBillx
2:03.?? by dainegai
2:04.?? by Kainiet
Demo by MoltovMarioWorld
AFAIK, there's a deleted TAS by Panga.
WIP  exactly 2 mins by BrunoVisnadi

Pit of Despair
Download   Difficulty: ★
1:16.07 by Lucas S.
1:16.93 by HoorayForJay
1:44.?? by Olivebates
1:59.?? by dainegai
2:10.9? by MoltovMarioWorld

Pit of Insaneness
Download   Difficulty: ★★★
6:25.33 by Lucas S.
7:03.10 by Lucas S.
7:56.28 by MRO314 (smv)
?:??.?? by NBKevin98 [deleted]

Pit of Insaneness 2
Download   Difficulty: ★★★★
6:36 by NBKevin98

Pit of Keys
Download (v1.1)  Difficulty: ★
2:20.60 by shadowdragon121TASer
2:26.87 by Sung-Hyeon Kim
2:38.43 by sotel11
3:05.?? by TheFinalBoss726

Pit of Trials
Download   Difficulty: ★★
6:51.53 by shadowdragon121TASer
8:02.08 by HoorayForJay

Pitiless
Download/Thread   Difficulty: ???
to be done

Shell Abuse
Download   Difficulty: ★
1:09.27 by shadowdragon121TASer
1:12.37 by shadowdragon121TASer
1:13.55 by DarkGui21
1:14:25 by Sung-Hyeon Kim
1:14:?? by Shameimaru Aya
Demo by shadowdragon121TASer

So I Herd You Liek Corner Clip
Download   Difficulty: ★★
1:30.23 by ylTAP (smv)
1:36.45 by shadowdragon121TASer
Demo by TheFinalBoss726

The Pit Level 2
Download   Difficulty: ★★
6:35.47 by Mr. Kaizo
8:36.67 by yITAP
9:37.42 by IgorSantos777

Wall-Jump Abuse
Download   Difficulty: ★★★
6:31.37 by shadowdragon121TASer
6:57.65 by shadowdragon121TASer
7:11.75 by HoorayForJay
9:39.67 by Lucas S.

World of Dickish Moves
Download/thread   Difficulty: ★★★★
16:42 by TheFinalBoss726 [demo]

Yoshi Puzzle Pit
Download   Difficulty: ★★
4:08.03 by shadowdragon121TASer
5:12.02 by shadowdragon121TASer
8:51.10 by rappervsmario (smv)

Sunday, November 13, 2016

SNES Super Mario World - How to duplicate blocks to the sides

The Game Resources > SMW wiki has an explanation on how to duplicate blocks from some distance, but it's not satisfactory. Let me provide a better one.

First off, you must throw the projectile upward with null horizontal speed. Remember that Mario doesn't need to have zero speed for this and it's useful to try pressing left+up or right+up.

Every sprite has 4 points of interaction, like draw in the pictures. You must observe the head and the lateral point that touches the block. Drawing the block boundary is also useful.

The solid blocks only push sprites outside every other frame. That means that in odd frames they will push to the right (or left) and in even frames they will push to the opposite side. By the time the projectile gets inside the block, the direction must push the projectile outside and remove the head from its boundary. The lateral push is always 4 pixels wide.

Let's see each step of a duplication away:

click to increase the pictures

The sprite starts with vertical speed -112 and it increases +3 each frame.
Observe that the head is just below the boundary, but not touching it. In this case, the vertical position is 334.0 and the speed is -97. Using the SMW arithmetic, we can calculate the next would-be position:
334.0 - 97 = 334.0 - (6*16 + 1) = 334.0 - 6.0 - 0.1 = 328.0 - 0.1 = 327.F

The projectile goes outside and the duplication occurs:


Let's see what happens in the middle of the frame.
The sprite goes up and the lateral points touch the boundary:
As the right lateral point is inside and the block is pushin to the left, then the sprite goes to the left 4 pixels. If the green area below were to the right, the block wouldn't change its horizontal position. If the head were much to the right, the shift to the left wouldn't be enough to escape the boundary. In this case, the duplication doesn't occur, but the block isn't activated!
Duplication to the right is very similar and the presence of another block in the vicinity doesn't matter.

Remarks:
1) The setup consists in positioning the projectile in a good horizontal position, good vertical position and good vertical subpixel. The closer to the block, the wider is the number of possible initial positions. You should be able to predict the oscillation of the block too and always check if the sprite is not moving to the left/right.

2) the majority of handheld sprites have the same offsets and dimensions. However, it might be the case that the vertical distance between head and laterals is not 7 pixels. In this case, the minimal speed required is not -97.

3) the emulator used was lsnes. The Lua script used to display the helpful info is my smw-tas.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

SNES Super Mario World - Clearing Levels Without Pressing A or B

The title of this post is exactly the name of an interesting playlist on YouTube.

The idea is: the player must complete the maximum amount of the 96 exits in the game without pressing A or B. Making a Tool-Assisted Speedrun is allowed and pretty much required in most levels (unless you're some god). Of course it's impossible to clear all of them, but the correct number of exits is still unknown.

Rules:
1) The buttons A and B are prohibited. You cannot press any of them, not even for a frame. You cannot either start the level with those buttons pressed.
2) You cannot start the level in a glitched state. For instance, you cannot start the level with an orb in the item reserve. However, you can start with Yoshi, with a cape and with a normal item in the inventory, even if you need to press A/B in previous levels.

Not discussed yet: the use of arbitrary code execution without pressing A or B on any joypad.

Table in progress: to add the difficulty and date.

TOTAL: 55 out of 96 exits, as of 2020/01/10.
                3 possible (as in we cannot state impossibility)
                1 hot        3 infeasible                   38 impossible


infeasible




impossible
ATUDE allows only one jump. There's no item to manipulate and nothing to be done.


2018/03/20
impossible
No Yoshi


2016/09/20
secret exit

2016/09/20


 secret exit




impossible
No Yoshi

secret exit
impossible
No Yoshi

impossible
You can't make it to the 2nd rotating platform. It's not possible to surpass the 1st rotating platforms without ATUDE.





 secret exit




impossible
No Yoshi, can't advance in the 2nd room.

secret exit
impossible
No Yoshi, can't advance in the 2nd room.

impossible
No Yoshi




secret exit




 secret exit

2018/10/07


impossible
No Yoshi

impossible
You can't pass beyond the first vertical pipe. There's no way to use the stun glitch to help.



impossible
No Yoshi


2018/10/11
secret exit

2018/10/11





impossible
todo...

impossible
You can't make ATUDE due ot the autoscroll. There're no interesting sprites early in the level.


2018/03/12


secret exit
impossible
You can't unmount Yoshi or grab the ropes.





impossible
No Yoshi




secret exit




secret exit






secret exit


impossible


secret exit
impossible




secret exit




impossible







impossible




secret exit




impossible


secret exit
impossible


impossible


impossible




impossible



impossible*




impossible


secret exit
impossible


impossible


impossible


secret exit
impossible






secret exit
hot!


impossible


does not count as an exit



impossible


secret exit
impossible




secret exit


Everyone and SomeGuy712x

November 1990
secret exit


impossible


secret exit
impossible


impossible


secret exit
impossible




2018/04/22
infeasible


impossible



2018/10/03



2020/01/07





* SDS is almost possible, if only Yoshi could leave the floor at the beginning of the second room.